The Spanish Privateer

[h1]”Pure joy from start to finish”[/h1] Yes, it's true that pirate themed entertainment sits firmly amongst my favourite genres, and this alone ensured that [i]The Spanish Privateer[/i] had an advantage over many other games even before I had started to look at it. However, that also meant it had a much greater chance of dashing my significantly raised hopes. There was only one way to discover how this would turn out... [h1]Story[/h1] Taking the role of Carlota (which we will be calling her, for convenience), an 18 year old altar runaway escaping an arranged marriage to a man almost old enough to be her grandfather; we begin the adventure managing to cajole our way aboard a privateer ship as the cost of a passenger transport is way beyond reach. It is immediately apparent that the quartermaster is against having a woman on board, but the captain is much more receptive and so Carlota joins the crew; having to work hard to earn her passage, to survive at sea, and earn the respect of the crew. From this point on, the player gets to influence Carlota's attempts to achieve the above courtesy of a healthy amount of options, which are balanced quite nicely against the overall size of the story. Success in gaining respect and friendship amongst the crew will see our heroine retained aboard ship after each port of call, thereby extending the adventure and opportunity to develop a relationship with any one of three love interests, namely the captain himself, the surly quartermaster, or the witty and charming ship's bard. [h1]Graphics and sound[/h1] Undoubtedly the stars of the visuals are the backdrops, these are frequently gorgeous and usually abundant with detail, matched with a perfect colour palette. Sprites are also very good, with several expressions and at least a couple of poses each. CGs are also present (arguably the simplest of the drawings in game), and at time of writing, three chibis per route have also been added. Audio is also very good. Accompanying tunes throughout just [i]fit[/i], aiding immersion noticeably, and judicious use of appropriate sound effects adds to the enjoyment. [h1]U/I[/h1] During the story itself, the main controls are in the “commands listed horizontally along the bottom of the screen” format. Not my personal favourite, but they are sized and spaced comfortably, so I had no issues with usage. All of the usually expected functions are available, along with an extra “Fast skip” which takes you directly to the next choice – useful when replaying for different endings (although the standard skip is also very fast, I stuck with that and was quite happy). The in-game menu can be accessed from here, and also by pressing escape, which I found quicker. This menu provides the save and load options (there are player manual saves, quick save [i]and[/i] autosaves going on, so you should never be short of a saved point to return to). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2876180199 In addition this menu houses the “extras” screens – allowing you to see achievements to date along with CGs and chibis discovered, and a “crew” screen where you can see your friendship and romance progress with each of the 3 potential love interests, along with Carlota's character attributes (diplomacy/politeness, wit and bravery/boldness). [h1]Player experience[/h1] The number of branches and different endings give the player a lot of reasons to replay the game, several times over, without reducing the reward for doing so. As a heads-up without going into spoiler territory, simply maxing out both friendship and romance meters with your desired LI isn't enough. [i]Someone[/i] not too distant from this review became totally focused on doing exactly that in the search for Flint's good ending and couldn't find it as a result. Having fully completed the game now, I can categorically confess to [b]player error[/b], definitely not a flaw in the writing. This game will require you to think of the bigger picture for Carlota in order to get the endings you are trying for. That said, I did find that some of the alternative ends are quite difficult, as little as one wrong turn could deny you that elusive achievement you are looking for. [h1]Positives[/h1] This can be easily summarised by stating: almost everything. From delicious backdrops to well researched and engagingly told narrative; user-friendly controls (including a full instructions list) to well rounded characters who also interact with each other independently of the MC; exciting battles at sea to budding romances, this game hits the target again and again, never dragging or leaving the player feeling uninvolved. [h1]Negatives[/h1] Ugh. Erm... trying to find something to put here is like attempting to answer that exam question that you don't even understand what it wants from you. If I could pick anything out at all, I'd point to the text-heavy backstory which Lark (the bard) relays in his route. There are half a dozen or so screens of solid text where he spills his life story, and this is the only time in the whole game where my attention started to drift. The extensive monologue also features a number of non-English terms which, whilst appropriate in context, don't aid engagement. A little glossary of these terms wouldn't have gone amiss, even as a page within the DLC. [h1]The DLC[/h1] Ah, yes, the DLC. I admit it – my abject failure to see what I was doing wrong on Flint's route led directly to me purchasing the DLC as it contains a comprehensive guide complete with full explanations, along with all of the CGs as wallpapers [i]and[/i] a digital artbook, which is well worth spending some time browsing through. [h1]Verdict[/h1] If you've stayed with this review to this point, it should come as no surprise to read that I cannot recommend the game highly enough. It has been pure joy from start to finish, the only disappointment being when I had read through everything and knew that I hadn't got any more left to enjoy. It has been quite a long time since I suggested in a review that a game was my favourite, but it's about to happen again. Irrespective of my genre bias, I loved every minute of this. It's a wonderful piece of work, a wonderful piece of entertainment, and doesn't merely deserve your respect. It deserves your custom. At £14.28 for the full package of game and DLC, you have a bargain. If you like visual novels (and what are you doing here if you don't?) and can afford this, don't insult the developer by holding out for a sale. This is worth every penny, and then some. Thank you SinSisters for 31 hours of unadulterated pleasure. [quote] Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

Early 1600s. (Briefly) Spain, The Azores islands (Portugal), Cuba, Mexico (part of “New Spain”), and various areas of the Atlantic Ocean. Carlota escapes from being forced to marry a man three times her age by joining a Spanish privateer ship. However, she’s completely inexperienced and has to quickly learn the ways of life at sea. [u]Info[/u] • Hetero romance. Female protagonist, 3 romanceable men. • 3 good endings, several bad and alternate endings. • No sex scenes or descriptions. [u]Praises[/u] • Accessibility: OpenDyslexic font. Font size can be increased. Light and dark contrast can be adjusted. • Most CGs and background art are pretty. CG gallery available. • Demonstrates the absolutely nightmarish kind of lives women had to deal with in the time period. • Gives a bit of cultural and historical info on Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and western Europe for that time period. • Flint’s route reveals how disgustingly widespread the African slave trade was throughout Europe and how [i]rarely[/i] slave ships could be intercepted to liberate said slaves. • Lark’s route reminds us of the pure evil involved with colonization, specifically the intentional use of smallpox to murder indigenous people, before enslaving some and slaughtering the rest. • Rico’s route is also informative on the evils of colonization, but specifically talks about the genocide of the Taíno indigenous people that used to populate the Caribbean. (The Taíno were the first indigenous people to be victims of, one of the most evil men in history, Christopher Columbus.) • There is a cat and there is a chibi image of him. [u]Complaints[/u] • General character art is rough. • I wish the font size auto-adjusted to always be as big as possible, but while staying within the dialogue box. • The “killing is always wrong” take is too preachy throughout the game. • Some of the bad/alternate endings logically don’t make sense. • The romance is lacking. It was [i]nice[/i] but what I, and most romance VN fans, like for romance VNs to do is actually elicit romantic feelings when we read this stuff. There was no thrill, no butterflies, no dreamy sighs. • A few typos. Overall, I enjoyed this game for all the cultural and historical info, but as a romance VN, it was lacking. I still recommend it to those who enjoy learning about history and culture.

Exciting, romantic, and gorgeously made. The amount of research put into this game's creation is evident through its thorough descriptions and complex characters. I supported the game through kickstarter and I'm so pleased to see it out and available to all now. Don't hesitate to give it a play!

[i]The Spanish Privateer[/i] is an otome visual novel developed and published by SinSisters Studios. You take on the role of Carlota, an 18-year old young noble lady running away from an arranged marriage. She finds herself on La Aguja, a Spanish privateer ship under the leadership of Captain Rico. After persuading the captain to let her come on board as a new crew member, Carlota learns how to become one of the crew and the challenges that come along with it as well as being a woman on top of it. However, she wants to prove that she can be a valuable member of the crew and works hard to do so while the ship travels to various places away from Spain, ranging from the Azores to the Caribbean. Along the way, Carlota may find herself getting close to particular crew members and falling in love with them. That's the basic gist of the story, and I'll stop my synopsis here to avoid spoilers and all that. In regards to the gameplay, several choices are presented as you play through the story. The initial choices determine whether Carlota ends up on the general bad ending or on one of three romance routes: Flint (the first mate a.k.a. the quartermaster), Lark (the bard), or Rico (the captain). Once you're on a route, choices you make determine whether your friendship or affection meter with your chosen guy increases or decreases. Certain choices determine friendships with the other two guys that aren't on the chosen guy's route. (Believe me - These choices are important if you want to obtain the good ending.) For each route, there is one good ending and a few bad or alternate endings. Also, there are Steam achievements although at the time of this review, they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "profile features limited". Of course, there are plenty of CGs as well as a CG gallery to view the unlocked ones as well as a varied soundtrack. Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. I enjoy a wonderful visual novel with romance and adventure, and [i]The Spanish Privateer[/i] delivers just that and more. Regarding the story, I enjoyed following Carlota as she ventures off to the high seas among a group of privateers, who are pirates working under the Spanish Empire. At first, Carlota might seem like the typical female MC who wants to run away from an arranged marriage (but heck, once I discovered who the groom is and the circumstances behind it, I felt a lot of sympathy for Carlota). Despite being raised as a noble, Carlota doesn't want preferential treatment. She does her best to prove herself as a hard worker. In time, she learns to get along with her fellow crew mates and depending on the route she's on, she gets to learn more about one of the three guys who are obtainable romance options. It is recommended to go on Flint's path first, then on Lark's path, and finally, on Rico's path. I would recommend this order as well since you learn the most about Carlota and the others in this order. (Going out of order might spoil certain insights about characters.) As for the romance options, I enjoyed getting to know each one of them. First, there's Flint, who is initially cold towards Carlota, not wanting her on board. Of course, once I got on his route, I learned why he behaves that way, and I think it's pretty justifiable. I found his backstory to be heartbreaking. (Ok, well, I found all three guys' backstories to be heartbreaking.) Next, there's Lark, who seems to be the most out of place on the ship, as he doesn't behave like the others and can come off being lazy. On his route, Carlota can persuade him to understand and coax him towards a particular direction, not only in how he's regarded by the crew but how he deals with particular family matters. Finally, there's Rico's route, which provides the most spoiler heavy revelations. (I even got to find out about Carlota's backstory finally, which I wasn't expecting.) Initially, Rico appears to be a ladies' man in that he gets along with women easily when he's on land, but as Carlota gets closer to him and [spoiler]refuses to be like those other women, she can get him to understand and perhaps change[/spoiler]. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed all the romance options and never found a dull moment although if I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with Rico. XD As for the story itself, I found that there was never a dull moment. Of course, there are quieter moments in between the adventures and humorous moments, but these former moments are spent on Carlota and her guy getting to know each more and becoming closer. I love how the good endings for each route are, and they feel complete with a short, sweet epilogue. In regards to the writing, it was very well-paced, and I noticed only one or two typos, so that speaks well for the quality. As for the choices, I like how getting the good ending not only depends on how well Carlota gets along with her guy but with others as well. For example, on Lark's route, [spoiler]sometimes Carlota might have to choose to help out Flint rather than hang out with Lark. This is to demonstrate Carlota's work ethic, which could rub off on Lark[/spoiler]. In regards to the art, it is beautiful. Both the sprites and backgrounds are beautifully drawn and the colors are soft, never feeling like they clashed. I enjoyed gazing at the CGs as well although (and this is a very minor nitpick) I noticed that the sprites in the CGs looked a bit different from the usual sprites away from them. I'm guessing that maybe different artists did the CGs versus the usual sprites and such. Regarding the music, the soundtrack is a pleasure to listen to. I loved the variety, and many of the tracks have the adventure, pirate theme going on. Also, there are the quieter, more romantic ones. There is no voice acting although sufficient sound effects. Overall, would I recommend [i]The Spanish Privateer[/i]? If you're looking for a visual novel that has adventure and great romance, this is definitely worth a look. I enjoyed the time that I spent playing, and all the guys captured my heart. There are even a couple of fourth wall breaking moments. I especially couldn't help laughing when [spoiler]Carlota tells Rico that Antonio, one of the pirates, isn't a romance option[/spoiler]. XD Of course, there might be a bit of trouble getting on certain routes, obtaining particular endings, or whatnot. However, the DLC contains a wonderful guide that details all of that and explains it well. It's worth getting, I think. There's beautiful additional art in it as well. Finally, I want to give a major thanks to SinSisters Studios for the curator copy. I enjoyed every minute of playing The Spanish Privateer and can't wait for future works from this developer. Also, please check out Otome Lovers' other awesome review of this visual novel: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198889833430/recommended/1790330/ [quote] Please follow our curator page [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

The Spanish Privateer gives a story about Carlota, an 18-year-old who decided to run away from her arranged marriage and join a privateer ship in hopes for freedom. I had my eye for this game for a while and while it took me a while to get to play it, I can say it did not fail my expectations. This game provides you a nice, interesting setting that gives us a lot of background on certain aspects of places in the 17th century that was touched by the Spanish conquest, also a varied amount of side characters (especially in Rico's route) that were nice to see. Each route had a nice amount of chemistry between Carlotta and the LIs, and it was nice to see her grow and change in each route, she can be mean, and make mistakes but we can see why the LIs fall for her, it was also interesting seeing the backstories for Rico, Flint, and Lark, the game had different endings and I liked using the guide to unlock them (it's very point-based). Overall I do recommend giving this game a try.

I remember testing the demo of this game a while back, and I was really looking forward to playing the full version. And you know what ? I am not disappointed. The story may seem simple at first glance, but it's not. The characters are endearing in their own way and all have a more or less complex story. For me the only negative point is that I would have liked to have more! So yes, I definitely recommend this game !

This is a fabulous indie gem of an otome game! I absolutely loved this game and had such a fun time going through Lark's route. Carlota and Lark are such an amazing, adorable pair who really have this amazing push-and-pull, friendly-but-sharp dynamic together and I enjoyed every minute of their sharp, witty conversations and heart-felt confessions to one another. I also enjoyed the alternate endings, which were aplenty on the route. Absolutely recommend this game!

The dialogue is way too forward. It's like a first draft with the tones and options of the characters but really needs to be pruned hard to be smoother and more fun to read. Other than that, cute and I'd love to try again once edited.

The game frames itself as a story about an inexperienced young woman earning her place on a pirate ship through competence and determination. In practice, however, much of the hostility Carlota faces is gendered violence that the narrative either excuses or reframes as harmless misunderstanding. Flint shoves Carlota to the deck to order her to clean it. It’s described as her being on her knees in front of him. This is an action that makes little sense as mere roughness, since there is no indication he would treat a new male crewmate the same way. He did it BECAUSE she’s a woman. Lark, meanwhile, gets drunk and decides that collapsing onto her and sleeping on top of her is acceptable behavior. Although Carlota knees him in the crotch, the incident is brushed aside. Like this is just what she’s got to deal with for coming on board a pirate ship, ignoring that I’m actually supposed to like Lark for a romance interest? Why does every bet on the ship have her KISSING the men as the prize? Gross. There is repeated physical boundary-crossing that the narrative refuses to interrogate. Like point blank, screw Flint for being violent and Lark for being rapey. The earlier insistence that Carlota needs weapons training to survive aboard a pirate ship is also quietly abandoned on Larks’ route, and she is effectively reduced to a shipboard cleaning lady with a romance subplot. Any sense that she is becoming a capable privateer is lost. Since the author can’t give nuance to the main characters attempts to be one of the boys, I held zero desire to see how they’d mess up Rico. I played 75 minutes, that was not the full run time, maybe I’m wrong. I wasn’t having fun with violence dressed up as romance- pass. refund.

I stumbled upon this game during a demo festival a long time ago. I quite liked this game at that time and thought it had great potential. However, what a disappointment I had when I finally bought it! Not because it was bad; on the contrary, it's a really excellent game (just as I imagined it would be) with pleasant drawings, a good story, and nuanced characters. Yet, for some reason, the game went unnoticed by the general public (even within its genre), and this truly saddens me. [u]Maybe if this game was translated into other languages, it would be much more appreciated. [/u]