Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

In Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion, the Land of Ooo has been mysteriously flooded, turning the familiar landscape into a vast pirate-themed seascape. Players join Finn, Jake, and other beloved characters as they build a ship and embark on a nautical adventure to solve the mystery of the great flood. The game combines real-time exploration with turn-based, Japanese-style RPG combat as the heroes sail across the submerged kingdoms, encounter strange new foes, and interact with a story full of the series’ signature comedy and fantasy elements.

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion: Review

As a professional game journalist and historian, I have traversed the vast landscapes of digital entertainment, chronicling the triumphs and tribulations of interactive storytelling. Few licenses have captured the absurdist heart of modern animation like Pendleton Ward’s Adventure Time, a series whose depth and whimsy have often eluded its video game adaptations. Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion, developed by Climax Studios and published by Outright Games, represents a bold, if flawed, attempt to translate the soul of Ooo into a cohesive RPG experience. It is a title that stands as a testament to both the potential and the pitfalls of licensed media—a charming, heartfelt endeavor shackled by technical mediocrity and design timidity.

Development History & Context

Climax Studios, a UK-based developer with a history spanning arcade classics like Simpsons Arcade and more recent licensed titles such as Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard, embarked on this project in 2017. The game was announced on December 14th of that year, with a trailer following on April 26th, 2018, before its release on July 17th in the US and July 20th globally for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC, with later ports to Amazon Luna (2021) and Google Stadia (2022).

The gaming landscape of 2018 was dominated by open-world epics and narrative-driven experiences. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had redefined exploration, while South Park: The Fractured But Whole demonstrated how to perfectly marry a beloved IP with engaging, genre-specific mechanics. Climax’s vision was to create an “open-world” Adventure Time RPG, leveraging the Unity engine to craft a cel-shaded, interactive episode. Their ambition was clear: to deliver a faithful extension of the show’s final season, featuring an original story that fit within the series’ canon.

However, the studio operated under significant constraints. As a mid-tier developer working on a licensed property, the project likely faced budgetary and temporal limitations common to such adaptations. The decision to use Unity, while accessible, may have contributed to the technical issues that plagued the final product, particularly on the Nintendo Switch. The game’s development cycle, from announcement to release, was a brisk seven months, suggesting a tight schedule that left little room for polishing its more ambitious elements.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Pirates of the Enchiridion is set during the show’s tenth and final season. Finn and Jake awaken to find the Land of Ooo submerged by a mysterious flood, a cataclysm stemming from the melting of the Ice Kingdom. The narrative unfolds as a classic detective story: our heroes must sail their boat, christened “Jeff” by fan vote, across the watery wastes to uncover the cause and restore balance.

The plot is a quintessential Adventure Time caper, replete with the series’ signature blend of absurdist humor and emotional sincerity. The writing is the game’s strongest asset, capturing the idiosyncratic voices of its characters with remarkable fidelity. Finn’s earnest heroism, Jake’s laid-back cynicism, Marceline’s sardonic cool, and BMO’s innocent enthusiasm are all present and accounted for, thanks to the participation of the original voice cast. Dialogue sparkles with the show’s unique comedic timing, such as Jake’s meta-commentary: “We usually solve our problems in eleven minutes or so.”

Thematically, the game explores ideas of responsibility, environmental disaster, and familial conflict. The flood serves as a metaphor for ecological imbalance, with the melting Ice Kingdom and the drowning Fire Kingdom’s dying core illustrating the interconnectedness of Ooo’s ecosystems. The central antagonists—Uncle Gumbald, Aunt Lolly, and Cousin Chicle—embody the show’s recurring theme of fractured family dynamics, their scheme to frame Princess Bubblegum driven by a desire for power and recognition.

Yet, the narrative suffers from brevity and lack of depth. The main story can be completed in roughly 5-7 hours, and the resolution feels rushed. The reveal of Gumbald’s plot—to discredit Bubblegum and seize control of the Candy Kingdom—is underwhelming, lacking the emotional weight of the show’s more nuanced arcs. A post-credits scene teasing Fern’s return and the villains’ escape hints at unresolved threads, but these feel less like sequel bait and more like narrative negligence.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

At its core, Pirates of the Enchiridion is a turn-based JRPG with light exploration elements. The gameplay loop consists of sailing the open waters of flooded Ooo, disembarking at key locations like the Candy Kingdom or Fire Kingdom, solving environmental puzzles, engaging in combat, and progressing the story.

Combat is a traditional turn-based system where players control a party of four characters: Finn, Jake, Marceline, and BMO. Each has basic attacks, special abilities powered by a shared energy meter, and ultimate “Limit Break”-style moves that charge over time. The system is functional but deeply simplistic. There is no turn order indicator, status effects are rudimentary, and strategy rarely extends beyond spamming the most powerful available attack. Marceline’s self-healing and BMO’s support abilities add minor tactical variety, but the lack of additional playable characters (like Princess Bubblegum or Flame Princess) feels like a missed opportunity for deeper team customization.

Exploration is hampered by a misrepresentation of its “open world.” While players can sail freely between islands, the world is largely empty, with few secrets to discover or meaningful side quests beyond repetitive fetch tasks. The sailing itself, often compared to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, lacks the musical accompaniment and sense of discovery that defined that classic. Instead, it becomes a tedious commute between story beats.

Character progression is via a shallow skill tree, where gold collected from battles can be spent to marginally boost stats or unlock new abilities. The system is so inconsequential that many players may finish the game without engaging with it meaningfully.

Technical performance is the game’s Achilles’ heel. Across all platforms, but particularly on Switch, players reported frequent frame rate drops, interminable loading times, and game-breaking bugs. Soft locks after battles, falling through geometry into endless voids, and outright crashes were common at launch, though some patches attempted to address these issues. The UI is clunky, with a cumbersome menu system that exacerbates the lack of flow.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Where Pirates of the Enchiridion shines is in its aesthetic presentation. The art direction is a loving translation of the show’s minimalist, candy-colored visual style into 3D. Character models are expressive and faithful to their animated counterparts, and the cel-shaded environments—from the dripping confectionery of the Candy Kingdom to the ashen wastes of the Fire Kingdom—capture the whimsical yet slightly eerie atmosphere of Ooo. It feels less like a game based on the show and more like a playable episode.

Sound design is a mixed bag. The voice acting is superb, with John DiMaggio (Jake), Jeremy Shada (Finn), Olivia Olson (Marceline), and Niki Yang (BMO) delivering performances that are indistinguishable from the series. The occasional musical numbers, such as the sea shanties sung while sailing, are delightful. However, the soundtrack is notably sparse. Large stretches of exploration are accompanied only by the sound of waves, a stark contrast to the show’s rich, eclectic score. The reuse of musical motifs from the series, like the victory theme from “Guardians of Sunshine,” provides moments of nostalgia but highlights the overall lack of original composition.

Reception & Legacy

Upon release, Pirates of the Enchiridion received a lukewarm critical reception. Aggregating scores reveal a divided response: the PlayStation 4 version holds a Metacritic score of 62, the Xbox One version a 66, and the Nintendo Switch version a dismal 50. Critics praised its faithfulness to the source material and charming writing but universally panned its technical issues, shallow gameplay, and short length.

IGN called it “a good game for beginners” but noted its lack of challenge would “bore veterans” (5.8/10). Nintendo Life described it as a “return to the old days of licensed video games”—a damning indictment of its derivative design (5/10). Yet, some outlets, like IGN Italia, celebrated it as a “gustosissimo platform con elementi RPG” (8/10), highlighting its appeal to dedicated fans.

Commercially, the game found a niche audience. Its mid-tier pricing ($39.99 at launch) and frequent sales made it accessible to families and fans. It has since become a curio in the Adventure Time franchise—a game remembered more for its ambition than its achievement.

Its legacy is one of missed potential. It demonstrated that a faithful Adventure Time RPG could work, but it failed to execute on that promise. It did not influence the industry in any meaningful way, instead joining the ranks of forgettable licensed games that prioritize brand recognition over innovative design. However, for a certain segment of the fanbase, it remains a cherished, if flawed, interactive postscript to the series they love.

Conclusion

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion is a game of contradictions. It is both a heartfelt love letter to one of the most creative animated series of the 21st century and a frustratingly mediocre RPG. Its writing and art direction capture the spirit of Ooo with affection and precision, but its gameplay is shackled by simplicity and technical incompetence.

For hardcore Adventure Time enthusiasts, there is joy to be found in hearing the original cast bring a new story to life, in exploring a three-dimensional Tree Fort, and in chuckling at Jake’s non sequiturs. But for anyone seeking a robust, engaging role-playing experience, these pleasures are insufficient to offset the repetitive combat, empty world, and pervasive bugs.

In the annals of video game history, Pirates of the Enchiridion will not be remembered as a landmark title. It is, instead, a poignant reminder of the challenges inherent in adapting beloved properties—a game that had all the ingredients for success but lacked the culinary skill to combine them into a satisfying meal. It is a title that is, in the words of Jake himself, “mathematical!” but not quite “algebraic!”