Windrose
Windrose screenshot 1Windrose screenshot 2
ActionAdventureRPGPiratesOnline Co-OpOpen World Survival CraftSurvivalCrafting

996 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 2,803

Peak in the last 7 days: 3,514

Windrose Early Access Steam store

Game description

Embark on a PvE survival adventure in the Age of Piracy. Fight on land and sea, solo or with friends. Build, craft and explore vast open world filled with dark secrets. Master soulslite combat and take on challenging bosses, command your ship and plunder unspoken treasures!

Basic info

DeveloperKraken Express
PublisherKraken Express, Pocketpair Publishing (Japan)
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckPlayable
Release dateApr 14, 2026
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows® 10 (64-bit)
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i7-8700K / AMD® Ryzen™ 7 2700X
Memory16 GB
GraphicsNVIDIA® GTX™ 1080 Ti / AMD® Radeon™ RX 6800
Storage30 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 425 reviews from the past 1 year

80.3/ 100
Bottom 50%

Steam rating: Very Positive (87%)

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 20, 2026)

Pirate survival with ships, islands and co-op crews, Windrose scores 80.3, and players enjoy it despite rough edges.

👍 Strengths

127 reviews call it fun, and some find building and sailing addictive. 52 praise the visuals, from character art to well crafted environments, and Visuals & Sound ranks 394th of 1249. 39 enjoy it together with friends, describing ship boarding and shared crew roles, while a few say it also works solo. Multiplayer ranks 245th of 642, and Tech & Support ranks 96th of 1399.

👎 Where it falls short

71 find land combat hard in a frustrating way, citing enemy groups, high damage and stunlocks. 42 call the sea and resource gathering repetitive, with an ocean that lacks wildlife and variety. 27 raise performance issues, and some report the game writing large amounts of save data to SSDs, along with stutters when leaving menus. Gameplay ranks 752nd of 1396, and Pricing & Fairness ranks 876th of 1399.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“loved the gameplay despite technical issues” · 127 reviews
“Well made pirate game with survival elements” · 52 reviews
“enjoyable solo pirate game with good combat and controls” · 39 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 73% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +2.50 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Negative “lacks settlement NPCs and base defense mechanics to give building purpose” · 8 reviews

Progression 38% · Difficulty 41% · Onboarding 14% · Strategy 25% · Controls & feel 28%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 40% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

World +2.66 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “immersive world with well-presented wind, waves, music and boating” · 28 reviews
Negative “ocean feels empty, lacks wildlife and atmosphere” · 3 reviews

Story 10% · Characters 1%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 42% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Variety -1.75 · Fresh content and situations versus repetition
Negative “water world repetitive, sailing between islands monotonous” · 42 reviews
Positive “great content variety with many synergies to discover” · 4 reviews

Volume 29% · Replayability 2%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 39% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +3.53 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “Well made pirate game with survival elements” · 52 reviews
Negative “stiff enemy animations and weak hit feedback on heavy weapons” · 1 review

Audio 18%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 37% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Playing together +2.34 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals
Positive “enjoyable solo pirate game with good combat and controls” · 39 reviews
Negative “base and ship mobs lack adequate AI compared to other survival games” · 12 reviews

Community 1% · Servers & Connection 3%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 22% of reviews · Bottom 40% of the games we've analyzed

Balance -0.39 · Whether classes, weapons, and builds are evenly matched
Negative “ship classes fundamentally unbalanced, one always better” · 19 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Pricing 6% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 36% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Performance +0.18 · Frame rate, optimization, and loading times
Positive “very well optimized with excellent quality of life features” · 3 reviews
Negative “generates 50-60GB save writes per hour, severely wears down SSD” · 27 reviews

Stability 12% · Developer support 13%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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