Ship of Fools

Developed by: Fika Productions
Published by: Team17

Nov 22, 2022$9.99

Ship of Fools is a seafaring cooperative roguelite. Set sail, man the cannons and battle sea monsters through the tempestuous seas of the Archipelago. Are you fool enough to stop the Aquapocalypse?

Consensus

C69.9/100

Steam players82% positiveVery Positive6,287 reviews

Metacritic ↗77/100Users: 7/10

VG Insights estimate ↗≈189K copies · ≈$2.1M gross

What creators say

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Ship of Fools is an action roguelike where you defend a boat by manning cannons, refilling ammo and using a paddle to reflect projectiles, with a destroyed island as the hub. It is clearly designed around co-op, and he played both co-op with his brother and solo, finding co-op more fun. He loves the visuals, music, animation and early-game discovery, but finds the moment-to-moment gameplay thin and the item system too narrow and build-dependent. Post-clear rewards are weak, so overall he lands on B tier, admitting co-op may have lifted his opinion.

Liked

Art style, environments, animation and music are top-notch and were what first drew him in
Hub island exploration, NPC discovery and world immersion make the first few hours very enjoyable
Trinkets/amulets give cool, fun benefits and were his favorite roguelike element
Each boss ends with a different reward (recycle an item, duplicate an item, big sell shop)
Areas look distinct and enemies feel varied; bosses look fantastic
Co-op is more fun than solo
Paddle reflect mechanic feels good when it lands

Disliked

Gameplay on the boat is shallow and repetitive: refill cannon, shoot, occasionally paddle
Paddle charges slowly and is visually hard to read
Only about four ship slots, filled before the first world boss, so most new items are ignored
Items are highly build-dependent (harpoon, paddle, egg, dynamite), so off-build picks feel useless
Higher difficulties cost currency to unlock and give minimal rewards, so post-clear motivation is low
Bosses repeat with too little variation; auto-turret seems too strong not to use

What players say

A two-player (or solo) cooperative seafaring roguelite by Fika Productions (published by Team17) where you run a ship together, juggling cannons, repairs and steering against sea monsters to stop the Aquapocalypse.

Ship of Fools is well liked, especially as a couch or online co-op game for exactly two people: Steam sits at Very Positive (about 82% of roughly 6,300 reviews) and Metacritic critics give it a 77 (PS5, 10 reviews) while Metacritic users are lukewarm at 7.0 from only 30 ratings. Critics and players praise the chaotic multitasking ship loop, charming art and strong soundtrack, but criticise thin content (only four bosses in fixed locations, a repetitive brightness-level grind), lack of build depth, and weak solo balance. Technical issues recur in reviews: second-controller detection failing in local co-op, co-op progression not syncing between players, save wipes, and Steam Deck breakage after an engine update. The game launched Nov 2022 on PC and consoles; Steam news shows patches through 1.5.3 (early 2026) and a console update in April 2026, but some recent reviewers feel it is abandoned and complain the developer now promotes its next game (Don't Kill Them All) in the menus.

Players love

Frantic, Overcooked-style co-op on a shared ship (steering, loading and firing cannons, patching leaks) that generates funny teamwork and arguments
Charming, cohesive art direction with distinct characters, enemies and bosses, plus a well-regarded soundtrack
Good couples/friend pairing game: challenging but not overwhelming, and partners can cover each other's weaknesses
Lots of item and talisman combinations, including memorably game-breaking synergies, without any single item being mandatory
Replayability through unlockable ships, characters, brightness (difficulty) levels and achievements; players report 30-130 hours
Excellent controller support and local couch co-op feel; also runs well on Linux for some
Low entry price ($9.99 on Steam) and frequent sales make it an easy buy for two players

Common complaints

Hard 2-player cap: the single most upvoted review theme; players want 3-4 player support and say the game is a poor fit for groups of friends
Local co-op bug where the second controller is not recognised, reported since 2023 and still cited in recent reviews
Thin post-launch feel: several top reviews describe the game as abandoned and the developer advertising its other game and Discord inside the menu
Multiplayer progression is per-player and does not sync: one partner can reach 100% while the other is stuck, with developer support reportedly unable to fix it
Save/progress loss reported by several players, including Steam Cloud not recovering it and runs randomly kicking to the main menu
Post-update instability on Steam Deck (audio loss, lag) after the Unity engine update, and small/blurry text on TV for couch play
Little in-game information: no bestiary or codex, stats of guns and talismans not shown clearly, so players look things up externally
Thin content: only four bosses always in the same places, limited enemy variety, characters differ mostly by one passive
Network reliability in online co-op: trouble joining, staying on the ship or resuming runs even on good connections
Missing options: only resolution is adjustable in graphics, gamepad controls cannot be remapped, hardcoded menu binds

Can feel tedious

Unlocking each brightness level means replaying the same few levels repeatedly; restarting runs can feel like a chore
Once you beat the four bosses, unlock-chasing and achievement grinding are what remains
Reloading guns and shuffling them around the ship becomes repetitive, with hectic moments that some find more stressful than fun
Sudden difficulty spikes (final boss, high brightness levels) and later-game balance that some call unfun, especially solo
Ads for the developer's other game and Discord in the menu
Short runs of content: several reviewers say they run out of new things to do after about 5 hours and are left grinding to 100%

What's unique

Co-op roguelite built around physically running around a ship and moving gear (guns, ammo, repair tools) rather than controlling one character
Tower-defense-meets-roguelite structure: you defend a moving ship in naval battles, compared by critics to a deck-defence game with Overcooked energy
Paddle-based ship steering with friendly fire, which blends party-game chaos with hardcore roguelite difficulty
Difficulty driven by unlocking successive brightness levels rather than purely random runs; Binding of Isaac-style item collecting but less punishing
Deliberately couch-first design for two players, with solo mode as a secondary option

Players want

Support for more than two players (a commonly requested feature since the game is hard-capped at 2)
More bosses per area and more levels/enemy types so runs feel less identical
A bestiary/codex and clearer UI showing stats for guns, talismans and upgrades
Fix multiplayer progression syncing and multiple save slots; better solo mode and difficulty balance
Fuller settings: graphics options, gamepad rebinding, per-action binds, correct PS5 glyphs, readable text for TV play
Fix the local second-controller bug and engine-update regressions (Steam Deck, optimization)

Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.