Yoho, friends in the PlayStation community! We’re the development team at Joker Studio.
At today’s State of Play, we announced Sea of Remnants for PS5, and our gameplay trailer offered you a glimpse into a stunning world shaped by over six years of dedication from our team.
While you might find familiar tags to explain the gameplay within such as “ocean adventure RPG / simulation / survival building / turn-based strategy”, we’d rather introduce it with this single line:
“This is an infinite voyage looping between death and rebirth—a journey where we row forward, tirelessly, only to return to where it all began.”
The story: One ship, an uncharted sea, and a crew of Puppetfolk
In Sea of Remnants, you play as an amnesiac sailor who sets off on a voyage alongside a mysterious girl—two travelers with different goals yet bound to the same path across the sea.
The purpose of this journey is to reach the long-rumored, deeply cursed Sea of Remnants—a place said to hold endless riches and renown. But those who fall into its waves… lose the very talents they once held most dear. Memories from long-lost sailors form the very fabric of the Sea of Remnants, creating its glowing magenta currents, islands, sea monster lairs—and the destinies of those who sail through them.
To survive the challenges of this voyage, players must forge deep bonds with a wide cast of companions, forming specialized crews whose individual strengths combined can aid you navigate any challenges that lie out there in the open sea.
And what is a crew without a ship? You’ll steadily upgrade your ship on your travels, collecting cannons and ship parts to outfit your prized vessel so it’s ready to ride out any storm.
The puppetfolk inhabitants of Sea of Remnants
Our design concept for all characters in Sea of Remnants – from minor NPCs, to important companions, even yourself – was to evoke the look and feel of puppetfolk. All brought to life with vivid colors, expressive emotions and puppet-like bodily traits. That design ethos even extends to environmental design and cityscapes, a visual look that helps emphasize the strangeness and surreal nature of this world you’ll explore.
Gameplay: What would a Pirate do?
Upgrade your ship, build your fleet, set sail into the unknown, and return to Orbtopia (more on that later). Yet, we didn’t want heavy-handed quests, rigid main stories, or fixed party builds to limit your experience.
So, we asked ourselves: if you were a pirate, how would you think? How would you act?
And thus our vision for the game came into focus.
Exploration is, of course, the heart of the game. Players can choose to sail solo, where a dynamic weather system ensures no two voyages feel the same—every stretch of ocean hides its own chaos. Or they can go online to raid ships, or team up to defeat vortex-dwelling monsters and colossal beasts that loom in storm-wracked skies…
And you’re not just bound to your ship. Drop anchor and venture deep into islands you discover as you explore: volcanic ridges, lush rainforests, white-sand shores. Go further still, and you’ll uncover eerie ruins and the curious camps of ancient tribes.
Welcome to Orbtopia
For sailors, the real anchor of the heart is returning home—with something to show for it. As the liveliest “pirate city” in the world, Orbtopia welcomes all who fail at sea, swept back by the currents. Find harbor in the city, and you can refit and upgrade your shlp, design outfits for your crew, rope in NPCs to co-run a shop, seek out masters of hidden professions to train your pirate team in new skills, or just enjoy side activities like fishing, cooking, or mahjong.
Yet Orbtopia is no static sandbox map. As you return from each unique adventure, the city will evolve, shaped
by personal choices and power shifts between competing factions.
The high emotion, punk aesthetic of the game’s art style and music
Across character design, narrative dialogue, blade-to-blade combat, cinematic finishers, inner monologues, and nautical lore, our art team lets color run wild: you’ll see the inspiration of sharp-edged American comics, the unique visual pairing of bold graffiti layering and nonsensical glitch art. We paint until it feels right. It’s punk as hell.
In the coming months, we can’t wait to share more about the world of Sea of Remnants.
We hope you’ll help shape a future that defies expectation—for this world and the puppetfolk within it.
Happy sailing.
