One of the things that originally made Sea of Thieves special was how strong and cohesive its pirate fantasy felt. The world, the ships, and especially the cosmetics, all worked together to sell the idea that you as the player were living in an amazing mythical pirate age. But for the past several years now, it feels like that identity so many of us align with is slipping.
A growing number of cosmetics just don’t feel “piratey” anymore. Sets like the Lodestar, Lightbearer, Reaper’s Heart, and many others don’t even look like they belong anywhere near a pirate world. They are so over-stylized and lean heavily into an almost sci-fi aesthetic rather than pirate culture. It’s not just the Emporium either, we see this in the outpost shops too. If you go back and look at what the devs added in the first couple of years, it’s night and day, and it was better back then. These newer cosmetics we see now often break that pirate immersion and make the game feel less like a pirate sandbox and more like a Fortnite-like crossover game.
Since the Emporium launched, it feels like almost anything can be justified as a cosmetic, regardless of whether it fits the theme. I understand that Rare partners with external studios, but that should not come at the cost of the game’s core identity.
I’d really like to see a shift back toward a much more stereotypical pirate aesthetic. cosmetics that look like something a pirate from our world would have worn, or from various pirate media over the last hundred years. This game shines brightest when it fully embraces that pirate fantasy. I hope Rare considers this for future cosmetics, because it’s one of the reasons so many of us fell in love with the game in the first place.
