Sailing Era is a nautical simulation game by GY Games and published by Bilibili. It was released in January 2023.
The game is set during the Age of Sail, when all sorts of captains from all over the world took to the sea. In China, the anthropologist Yun Mu seeks out foreign resources in order to further her quest for knowledge. In Japan, the shipbuilder Yoshitaka Shizuma works to reclaim his family's wealth and create the ultimate warship in the process. In Portugal, the navigator Andrew seeks to map all the corners of the rapidly broadening world. In Bahrain, the pearl diver Abdullah wakes after a betrayal and goes on a quest for revenge, in search of the pirates that killed his crew. Their stories unfold through a detailed interface of statistics, dynamic weather, and market fluctuations.
This game includes the following tropes:
- Cool Boat: Yoshitaka's entire story revolves around creating one of these. You can too, if you have a crewmate with a high enough Shipbuilding score and the right blueprint and materials.
- Flashy Protagonists, Bland Extras: Playable characters, recruitable crewmates and even generic but still important characters at ports will invariably have a far more detailed and flashy art style than background characters.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Abdullah quickly goes from a dirt poor pearl diver to a fearsome globetrotting pirate hunter.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: When a player has contributed enough to a port they can get access to the local specialty trade good, do land expeditions if available and even set up a merchant guild that can invest in the city for more benefits.
- Rare Candy: Skill books, which can only be read once for some reason.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The death of Abdullah's pearl diving crew kicks off the beginning of his story.
- A Round of Drinks for the House: At pubs, the player can buy a round of drinks for their crew, which increases morale.
- Tech Tree: A fairly simple one — each port has a Trade, Population and Tech value that can be raised by investing in your Guild. Higher levels give benefits such as better ships, automated trade fleets, higher quality and more abundant goods and more warehouse space.
- True Craftsman: Yoshitake Shizuma, who goes around the entire world in order to learn what he needs to build his magnum opus ship.
- War Is Hell: Discussed in Abdullah's route — the many pirates plaguing the Arab Peninsula are considered a side-effect of the war and profiteering by major powers, which the locals constantly pay the price for.
