Visual Novel / The Pirate's Fate

Left to right: Darious, Tam-Tam, Leeko, Morgana, and Mila's default forms

Become what you seek.

The Pirate's Fate is a Visual Novel written by author T.F. Wright and artist Volkenfox, successful creators of furry transformation literature, and it lies in the same genre in a more ambitious scope.

Mila, an anthropomorphic cat and humble spice merchant, awakens on board a ship with no memory of how she got there. She's soon greeted by the captain of the vessel and his small crew, whom she recognizes immediately: The notorious Dread Pirates, who prey on merchant ships! Well, actually, as the courteous but authoritative Captain Darious explains, they're really treasure hunters who happened upon her after her merchant ship sank and rescued her. As it so happens, she has in her possession a piece of the particular treasure they're seeking at this moment, a coin from a particular set with the curious inscription, "Become what you seek". So, will she join the crew? The others certainly won't make it easy on her, with the well-intentioned but cynical Leeko and the suspicious, hostile Morgana, plus a few friends picked up along the way, tracking down treasures, falling in love, and maybe righting a few wrongs. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Oh, and there's the fact that the magic of the coins warps your body and mind to match your inmost thoughts and desires. That's bound to complicate matters.

It is available on Steam, released on March 27, 2018. View the trailer here! An expansion, titled Prisoner of Destiny, was released on January 4th, 2019 and was updated with more content five days later.

A science-fiction Spiritual Successor called State Of Flux is currently in development by Volkenfox, who has taken on the role of both writer and artist. Meanwhile, T.F. Wright worked on and released Wicked Willow, which lacks the Furry aspects but also has themes of well-intentioned choices having far-reaching consequences.

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The game provides examples of:

• Alternate Timeline: Every path that can be taken is a timeline that exists, as proven by a magic mirror which serves as a bridge between them. The player might come across an ending where a character leaves through their version of the mirror and see them come back out of it in another playthrough, or vice-versa.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Downplayed. Princess Morgana, having become a very different person due to a totally different upbringing (and species), is shocked, embarrassed and somewhat horrified to find out how disagreeable they were in their previous life, but is still very interested in finding out more about their alternate past existence.
• Anachronism Stew: According to Word of God, the setting is in approximately a Victorian analogue, but there are occasional touches from earlier or later, particularly in the outfits, such as the Queen and Anora (whose costumes draw from the 16th and 20th centuries, respectively). Guns are capable of firing more than once, but resemble earlier single-shot models. Still, most of the era's aesthetic holds together, and there are no electric devices. Outside of Steamchaser's ship, that is.
• Animate Inanimate Object: There's a debate about whether or not the coins are actually intelligent, responding to the bearer's wishes out of a volition and trying to be reunited, or simply inert items that are enchanted to do so and designed as a test. Amusingly, Darious refers to them as male in the hypothetical scenario that they are, and Mila as female.
• And the Adventure Continues: In one epilogue, Morgana makes herself a princess using the coins. We then cut to Mila in this new reality, still a spice merchant, running into the rest of the crew in new positions around the royal court. However, Morgana is a Rebellious Princess, and plays a prank on her sister until the exasperated Queen Nakhta shoos her off to go on an adventure with her new friends...
• Anyone Can Die: Nearly anyone can die at least once in the game, including many important NPC's like Queen Nakhta and Indigo. Even Mila, who normally averts this trope, is implied to die in one secret ending.
• Another Side, Another Story: The expansion focuses on Mila's experiences with Rourkie's crew rather than the Dread Pirates.
• Appeal to Force: If Morgana get arrested by the Shark People, one way to get her off scotfree is to take Tam Tam's advice and threaten them, claiming that executing Morgana would be declaring war on all pirates everywhere.
• Artifact of Doom: A quite convincing case is made in-universe that the coins are in fact this: they're not intended to be a blessing, but a curse, the Wizard who created them having grown bitter and knowing that people would destroy themselves and/or the world using them.
• Art-Style Dissonance: The bright and colorful characters and set designs are sometimes at odds with the dark events of the story, an intentional effect in many cases.
• Author Appeal: While the game has a great variety in character bodies, there is definite favoritism towards women with large breasts, greatly musclebound characters of both sexes, and especially rotund women. If a girl in the game isn't fat, you can almost assuredly make them so somehow. The game isn't a slouch making the males fat either. Heck, in one of the epilogues you can make a world where fat becomes the new standard of beauty!
• A Wizard Did It: Quite literally. It's established early on that a powerful and benevolent wizard created the coins, among other gifts that are misused by the world at large. Interestingly enough, many people disagree on both the species and gender of the wizard. Darious' version was that he was a male hound, Duana thinks she was a zebra, and Tam-Tam thinks she was a lizard.
• Bad Guy Bar: Not a conventional example, as it's a fairly normal bar, but the one visited by the protagonists does seem to attract a crowd of people who aren't totally pleasant—someone has taken it over and has it up and running again within at most a few days of its owner being violently murdered, and people love to come and relax there after watching a good public hanging.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: As expected in a game with animal people, many of them don't bother to wear shoes at all. Some compromise with shoes that have openings for their clawed toes.
• Big Beautiful Man: Darius can be transformed into a fat bear by Circe and the already chubby Leeko can become a tall, overweight werewolf or a fat baker depending on your choices.
• Big Beautiful Woman:
  • The "Fat Mila" story path has the coins make Mila overweight due to caring and peaceful actions. She admits that her new size causes her some problems but she still loves herself and her body. Demon Mila can also become overweight in one of the epilogues.
  • Tam Tam and Morgana can be both transformed into overweight women. Tam Tam has some issues with her appearance but maintains her haughty and confident attitude while Morgana believes that her weight makes her ugly and useless and Mila has to convince her otherwise.
  • Side characters like Kate, Circe, Orvia and Sherry also qualify as this trope.
• Bittersweet Ending: Using the coins to alter the world has this effect most of the time. By removing certain evils from the world, circumstances can be made generally better for everyone, but there are consequences that keep it from being an unambiguously happy ending. Even when you unquestionably change the world for the better, at least one close friend is killed along the way.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Subverted. All sharks have black sclera, but none of them appear to be particularly evil or insane.
• Booby Trap: As to be expected in an ancient temple, the statue of Oastarie's necklace being removed causes the door to slam shut. (It's unclear if the coin has been in place to allow this all along, or if it's a more recent replacement for the original ornament which served the same purpose.)
• Breast Expansion: Mila's transformations change her physical appearance in a wide variety of ways, but in the end: the question isn't "Will Mila's transformation increase her bust?" it's "By how much will the transformation increase Mila's Bust?". No matter what path you take, there is a very strong chance Mila's going to have breasts bigger than her own head. Even Demon Mila, her least bustiest form, is quite a few cup-sizes above Mila's initial form.
  • Also happens to the other characters from time to time, one of the most extreme occurs when Tam-Tam steals from the goddess statue.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Morgana has no memory of having attacked Breena's ship seven years ago when serving with Rourkie. As she points out, they did that kind of thing a lot, so she can't be expected to remember all of them.
• But Thou Must!: Mostly averted, but there are certain points where Mila has already decided what to do, and the dialogue choice is only to decide how she presents a justification.
  • There are also a few 'mini-endings' that trigger with certain decisions, these endings are often unsatisfying and outright bizarre. As such, instead of triggering the credits the player is given a single choice: go back to the previous decision and pick a different answer. Some examples include Mila being turned into a monkey by Circe, changing the past so that she never met the Dread Pirates, and transforming into a sphinx to become the new guardian of the Library of Forbidden Knowledge.
• Cain and Abel: Both Nakhta and Bilba claim that this is the case, with the other sister as the evil one. The truth is neither one is purely good, but Nakhta is somewhat more trustworthy because she favors direct orders and values her family's lives, while Bilba is deceptive and willing to murder her sibling. Interestingly, the addition of Morgana prevents them from having come to this juncture, as she can mediate.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Every single character has a totally unique design, the only commonalities between them being common species traits and similar clothing for those who live in the same places. This is, of course, helped by the fact that the majority of them are cameos created by the backers.
• Central Theme: One is, "Who you are or were doesn't define who you have to be." The other...
  • "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
• Chekhov's Gun: The bottle of whiskey on Darious's table becomes one in the expansion, having sat there innocuously through most of the other routes. He finally takes a drink from it and dies, due to poison.
• Chubby Chaser: Mila is one whenever her love interest is overweight. The same applies to her love interests when you take the "Fat Mila" paths.
• Controllable Helplessness: Should Mila be possessed by Lazerby, this is represented by dialogue options pleading for assistance being greyed out and unselectable, leaving only his dialogue available. Thankfully this doesn't last terribly long, as it's a quick route to a bad end.
• Creator Cameo: Less obvious than most examples but there are a few. T.F. Wright, the writer and main coder, voices Gender Bent Tam-Tam, the pirate Rourkie is based on the soundtrack composer, and if you look really closely at the tavern, you can see a picture of the game's artist, Volken Fox, on the shelves.
• Cruel Twist Ending: In the path where you sell your soul to Hell in order to complete your mission, you perhaps engage in multiple counts of brutal murder, up to and including regicide...only to be told that you never sold your soul at all, since the "Hell" you visited and the "demon" you spoke to were both illusions! Even if you don't actually kill anyone, Indigo will chew you out for what you did do (there's no pleasing him). Of course, you can then go out of your way to prove him wrong by using the coins to open a pie shop to end world hunger and bring about a golden age.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The religion is never specified precisely, but references are made to Hell, angels, demons, a singular God, and "divine providence", so it's likely quite similar to Christianity. Tam Tam, meanwhile, believes in a religion that seems to be closer to Buddhism or Hinduism. Finally there is the beauty goddess Oastarie, who is highly reminiscent of Stone Age fertility goddesses.
• Dartboard of Hate: A variation: in Morgana's room, if you help her decorate, she has a training dummy impaled with knives, with a picture of Tam Tam's face labeled "The Bitch". She also has a Voodoo Doll. It's safe to say they don't get along.
• Dating Sim: Romance is certainly a major element of the plot, though so are friendship, loyalty, and greed, among other things. So, no, this doesn't really count as one—but there are romance options.
  • Gay Option: Many of them, in fact. There are many different romance options even with same character, and it might even not always be a gay option!
• Dead-Hand Shot: Morgana's is shown, with a surprising amount of blood splatter for a single gunshot, if she dies after the first act.
• Deconstruction: It can be considered one for both the Gotta Catch 'Em All and transformation adventure genres. Here, after you go off on a grand pirate adventure and changing your destiny, but you have to face the realities of such a mission: murderous fellow pirates, death by hanging, the potential need to do horrific things including brutal murder to get what you want in order to change the world while telling yourself it's for the best, the fact that you can't save everyone from dying physically or mentally... Worst of all, since it's a visual novel, it's all your fault. The line played in the trailer, "What if all our sins come back to haunt us?" applies to the player as much as the characters.
• Deal with the Devil: You can, indeed, sell your soul to Orvia the demon so you can get out of Hell and complete your mission. In exchange, she wants you to bring suffering to the people who have wronged you. You can choose to subvert this if you want, though, trying to find a way to neutralize their threat without actually killing them. Of course, see Cruel Twist Ending...
• Divine Right of Kings: Queen Nakhta seems to be religious, but it's unclear if she actually believes in divine right or just the right of tradition; either way, she's quite happy to take advantage of the propaganda value in having it appear that way. After all, having someone magically transform into an angel at a hanging of a criminal they brought to you certainly looks like divine approval.
• Everybody Lives: Yes, it is possible to save every one of the Dread Pirates, but it's also the single most convoluted and difficult result to get. Even then, one of them will have died once before, and two of them will be very different people. Still, one of the two possible endings in that situation is as close to a Golden Ending as the game offers.
  • This always occurs in the Prisoner of Destiny route; all previous deaths are undone by Rourkie putting on the crown and rewriting the past, and nobody who seems to die from that point actually does.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The second meeting with Rourkie. Either Darious dies, Morgana dies, or you give away your ship...and then Leeko dies later when its cannons are used against you. What's more, if you get arrested by Queen Nakhta then either Leeko or Tam Tam will be executed with no way to save or revive them.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Unusually, the setting is focused not on the traditional pirate-based Caribbean, but rather on Europe and the Mediterranean, including among others an unnamed nation standing in for both 19th-century Britain and 16th-century Spain, a Near Eastern style island, and an ancient Egyptian-style temple.
• Fisher King: While The Pirate's Fate is a pristine ship, Rourkie's (unnamed) ship is a decrepit shell that's barely holding together, reflecting their relative attitudes towards their crews and their personalities. A Justified Trope, though, in that Rourkie's ship is apparently older, and it also has a crew of just three without the Fate's advantage of being made by a time traveler.
• Fish People: There is an entire society of Shark People that live on a floating city. They all have Black Eyes of Crazy and wear elaborate robes. One is even the final guardian for those who seek to use the power of the coins!
• Foreshadowing: It abounds, especially in references to other routes with events that only happen in those timelines. But there are a few straight examples for one particular route especially...
  • When Morgana hears Mila suggests that the adventure could be dangerous, she mockingly tells her that it's no picnic and, "Let me bring my lace gloves and hoop skirt!" In the Royal path, she does indeed wind up wearing those.
  • Morgana's training dummy-of-hate for Tam-Tam has a noose around its neck. She winds up dead by hanging in two routes.
• Furry Confusion: Averted for the most part. Humans don't exist in-universe, only intelligent animals. The feral animals encountered on Circe's isle are simply unevolved counterparts. Though it's worth noting that the animals on Circe's isle were intelligent creatures until Circe turned them into normal animals because she thinks free will is a bad thing.
• Gender Bender: Three characters can undergo it, and each has a very different reaction.
  • One has already decided that identity is totally independent of physical sex, or gender for that matter, and more or less continues the way they were, in a new body or not.
  • One is very upset at having their gender identity disrupted, but finds a way to accept it and move on in one of two very different ways.
  • One issues token protests about it, but, in fact, is hinted to not be terribly upset about the change considering their already conflicting self-image.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: In one ending, this happens to the entire world, totally removing their ability to feel sadness.
• Gilligan Cut: A variation. In the Independent route, Mila can argue that Circe's island ought to be destroyed. Leeko immediately replies that Darious would never agree to such a thing. Cut to a black screen and the sound of cannon fire.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: The feuding between Queen Nakhta and her older sister Bilba is threatening to break out into an actual civil war at any minute. Both of them insist the other is evil and power-mad.
• Golden Ending: Officially, there isn't one, and almost all endings are bittersweet at best. However, some are better than others, and the ending in which Morgana intervenes to make herself a princess, ending up with every member of the Dread Pirates alive and in a good place about to start a new adventure could be considered the most upbeat.
• Good is Not Nice: This practically becomes the motto of the Dread Pirates on multiple paths.
  • Pretty much all of Mila's final forms other than Empathetic are this: Angel Mila is a Holier Than Thou templar who shows no mercy towards evil, Demon Mila is a crafty and underhanded trickster who breaks her word and shows a similar fervor for punishing evildoers, and Juggernaut Mila is a violent warrior who racks up an impressive bodycount. However while while none of them are as pleasant as Empathetic Milla, all three forms are still most certainly on the side of good.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: The coins, which many people have very specific plans for.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Priscilla refers to herself as the castle's consigliere. The Queen just calls her an "assistant".
• Great Big Library of Everything: The Library of Forbidden Knowledge, naturally. It's full of magical books, which the art book apparently confirms were written by the wizard who created the coins, as well as a certain Magic Mirror.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: No one in this game completely kind and altruistic.
  • The Dread Pirates could have saved Mila's ship from sinking, but they chose not to in order to "encourage" her to join their quest.
  • Bilba puts on an act to fool the Dread Pirates that she's more kind and charitable than her sister. If she regains the throne, she'll reveal herself to be just as corrupt as Nakhta, if not more so.
  • Kate tries to present her boss, Trento, as an unethical jerk who uses the magic of the coins to make his baked goods addictively delicious. However, if Kate takes over the bakery, not only will she continue using the coins in her cooking but she inflate the prices of her goods because she only wants to cater to "high class" customers.
  • Averted with Mila’s Angel and Empathetic forms. Both ARE truly kind and altruistic, though Angel Mila can be Holier Than Thou at times.
• Guide Dang It!: The few endings in the game that aren’t a Bittersweet Ending or a Downer Ending are very hard to find without resorting to a walkthrough. Earn Your Happy Ending indeed!
• Haunted House: Lazerby's estate has acquired this reputation, as it's become rundown and rather creepy while he remains a recluse. The rumors are, in fact, completely true, as he's a ghost now maintaining his life by using a coin.
• Hero Ball: The empathetic version of Mila grabs this for a brief but significant moment. They've just been introduced to Queen Nakhta, who wants them to help her use the coins to stop her sister Bilba from seizing power, while Morgana was secretly stealing them while the queen was distracted. All they have to do is head back to the ship and wait for Morgana to return with them, then leave, but instead, they decide to listen to Bilba who shows up and demands that they help her. While on the ship. Leeko points out it's an incredibly bad idea but Mila insists on at least listening...giving Nakhta time to show up looking for thieves, correctly assume they were discussing overthrowing her with Bilba, and have them all thrown in the dungeons. To her credit, Mila does realize that this was a huge mistake, and it fits with her personality. Other versions of her in the same situation just push Bilba overboard (which she deserves) and leave her to be captured by Nakhta, thus leaving the queen no reason to pursue them.
• Hot God: Oastarie, fittingly, as an ancient goddess of Beauty. Not love, mind you; beauty, and the minute you don't have it, you lose her blessing. At least that's what her present-day cult, which may or may not have more than one member, insists.
• Iconic Outfit: All sharks (aside from one guard) wear elaborate robes with particular patterns on them. Indigo is a partial exception: his clothes have the same patterns but he actually wears pants.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Mary is extremely devoted to Rourkie, though she never explicitly uses the word "love", despite the fact that he makes it clear he doesn't care about her or anyone else except perhaps Morgana and will cheerfully kill her if necessary or fun.
• I Never Told You My Name: If you watch carefully in one route, you'll notice that Circe calls Tam-Tam by name despite the latter never introducing herself, right as the latter immediately knows where she's holding the coin. None of the others catch onto this, as they're a bit distracted at the moment.
  • Indigo also seems to know the names of the crew before he meets them. Somewhat justified, as he has the means to act as a Mysterious Watcher.
• In Spite of a Nail: During the expansion route, all deaths and mishaps caused by Rourkie's actions get removed from the timeline. Despite this, Abbie's husband is still nowhere to be seen.
• It Gets Easier: In one route, Rourkie not only tells this to Mila, he demonstrates it by repeatedly firing a cannon while she's blindfolded to note her less-frightened reactions.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: Some of the endings are really more like elaborate game overs.
• Killed Off for Real: Most characters who die usually stay dead.
• Low Fantasy: Let's go through the checklist!
  • Setting: A slightly-anachronistic nineteenth century. Magic is very spare and of ambiguous origin, enough so that most people consider it to be a myth. There are multiple species, but they have only normal "human" cultural variance.
  • Scope: Though the ultimate decision changes the fate of the world, we're more concerned with the fate of the Dread Pirates themselves, and most of the antagonists only want the coins for their own petty reasons. We see very little of the world outside of that which is relevant to the plot.
  • Shades of Grey: Boy howdy! Almost nobody is pure good or pure evil, and grappling with morality is a central theme of the story.
  • Methods: Most of the time, confrontations are solved through physical violence, though it may or may not be accompanied with reasoning.
  • Heroes: The Pirates are, essentially, just ordinary people following their leader's personal quixotic quest. They are also pawns in a much larger game, the extent of which is not fully made clear even to us.
• The Magic Goes Away: One possible ending. Mila decides that she's sick of people being the playthings of those with supernatural powers, so she uses the coins to rid the world of magic entirely. The effects of previous magical transformations still remain, though.
• Magical Library: Again, the Library of Forbidden Knowledge.
• Marshmallow Hell: Happens twice when Mila transforms and you have been picking kind and empathetic choices, funnily enough they both involve Morgana. The first is a Cooldown Hug to comfort Morgana after Darious' death. The other time Mila forces a group huge between Breena and Morgan, giving both an accidental face-full of her newly expanded bust.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Quite a few cameos are much nastier in the game as opposed to the actual characters/people they're based on. For example, Kate has her own sets of stories uploaded by her owner on his FurAffinity page. His version of Kate is much smarter and nicer than the vainglorious one we see in the pie shop.
  • Alternate Continuity: Likewise, it also counts as this for many of them, having found ways to work them into the predetermined setting.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Circe's Island brings together foxes, giraffes, horses, Komodo dragons...and the fact that they don't belong together can be noticed by Darious, and is the first sign that something is wrong. You can probably guess what that "something" is.
• Morphic Resonance: Despite all their changes, there's almost always something about a character's transformed appearance that ties into their previous identity, whether it be the design of their clothing, the colors of their fur, etc.
• Musical Spoiler: While Bilba might seem like a decent person at first, the music takes a turn for the ominous upon their arrival, letting the player, if not the characters, know their true nature. The track happens to be titled, "I May Have a Plan"...
• Multiple Endings: Over 25 of them!
• Mythology Gag:
  • The prequel comic takes place in a town and with a cast very similar to one featured in a previous novella by the creators; it's acknowledged that it might, perhaps, take place in the same country.
  • One of the endings is an explicit reference to another such novella; fittingly, it's a hidden one.
• Noodle Incident: Both she herself and the Queen allude to Priscilla having been transformed by the coins, but it makes them both uncomfortable enough that they never reveal any details about what she used to look like.
  • Leeko implies that there was a huge hassle getting the last coin before the game began, but this is explained in the add-on comic.
• No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: Quite a few characters are startled by changes that have happened since they last saw the character, but one standout example is Luprand meeting Darious in some routes after he's had his species completely altered.
• Ocean Punk: An unusually bright and sunny example, visually speaking, but it ticks all the right boxes in its Mediterranean-inspired setting.
• Offscreen Inertia: This is actually a plot point, so to speak, of how the Portal Book system works: if the book doesn't specify that the characters die when they fail the test, they're trapped as they were when it ended, never dying of old age, hunter, thirst, etc. Some of them are worse than others, for those who get trapped inside, including (on different routes) Rourkie, Nakhta and Anora, and Angel Mila.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: At one point, just as you're about to succeed in your mission, Queen Nakhta and Anora show up to get in your way and prevent you from using the coins. Despite the former's usual brusqueness with you, she's clearly in high spirits here, being cheerfully flippant and even cracking a joke while accepting something she opposed before. This is not a good sign. Why is she happy? Because she thinks she's figured out your evil plan to take over the world, and has to come to stop you by doing it herself.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Both Played for Laughs in a Slobs Versus Snobs fashion between two alternate-universe versions of Morgana, and played for major drama with alternate versions of Darious, where one is an evil ghost possessing an alternate version of him, and especially between Angel and Devil Mila. Devil Mila is furious at Angel Mila's Holier Than Thou attitude and refusal to accept blame, while Angel Mila is rightfully shocked at the frankly evil acts Devil Mila has committed, including a horrific murder.
• Painting the Medium: The dialogue boxes change depending on Mila's transformations, usually adding in whatever colors are most notable on her present outfit.
• Playable Epilogue: Currently, four epilogues have been released that expand on the story of certain endings.
• Poor Communication Kills: Overhearing that three pirates, two men and a woman, have been captured and are due to be executed, a freed Mila assumes it's Darious, Leeko, and Morgana and hurries to rescue them. It's actually Rourkie, Brock, and Mary, and they get her into trouble again.
• Portal Book: All the books in the Library of Forbidden Knowledge can trap people inside them, adding them to the story, used as part of a test of character.
• Prisoner's Dilemma: Should the Dread Pirates wind up in prison and facing a grim fate, the guard informs you that you've been given a chance for clemency—one of you can live, if they're willing to execute the others, and he'll let you decide who lives. If you accept, he reveals he made it all up for kicks, as the Queen would never make such a deal.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Played with big time. A lot of time is spent with the crew trying desperately to justify their less-ethical actions, including violent murder and regicide, to themselves and others, especially when they do get called out for acting unethically.
• Psycho Party Member: Leeko worries that Morgana might be this, particularly if Darious is no longer around to restrain her, and he may or may not be right depending on circumstances and any transformations that befall her.
• The Psycho Rangers: In a sense, Rourkie, Mary, and Brock are dark reflections of Darious, Morgana, and Leeko, respectively. For instance: Morgana is impulsively violent but with a Hidden Heart of Gold who secretly longs to be a princess; Mary is a calculating sadist who gave up being a princess to become a pirate. Amusingly, should Brock join your crew, he admits he completely expected this trope to be in play.
• Purely Aesthetic Era: Although the overall aesthetic is (as mentioned below) roughly Victorian, the events and milieu of the period correspond more or less to the end of the Golden Age of Piracy circa the early 18th century.
• Ret-Gone: As can be expected when toying with the past, this can happen to some characters. Specifically, Darious and Morgana can go from alive to dead (or vice-versa) due to a shift in the timeline, and Queen Nakhta can have their existence completely erased in a certain path.
• Rewatch Bonus: In the expansion, the average player is highly likely to miss or attribute to an error the flash of light as you first enter the Library. Playing it again, it's an extremely subtle clue that everything that follows from that point until the end of the sequence, including the trip into the books, is in fact another book trial.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: One of the special features added due to the success of the Kickstarter is "Change what you were", in which Mila can travel back in time and alter important moments in her companions' lives, hopefully for this reason. Of course, she might accidentally (or purposely) Make Wrong What Once Went Right instead...
• Seven Deadly Sins: At one point, the crew's get listed off carefully, right down the list (and skipping Sloth, since even the one doing so can't find any instances of that). It's essentially one long "The Reason You Suck" Speech, except that Orvia, being a demon, approves of your sinful nature.
• Shapeshifting: The major draw. Expect to see a lot of specific tropes from the index below.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Averted, as it explicitly does change your clothing, and this even becomes a plot point on a couple paths.
• Shark Man: Breena is a Shark Woman that has a grudge against Rourkie's crew (including ex-member Morgana) for an incident they caused. There's also Indigo Jack, the custodian of the Library of Forbidden Knowledge, which is the final destination of every important route.
• Shout-Out:
  • Goat Morgana's outfit is patterned with happy little yellow flowers.
  • The bright blue and red banners in the courtroom set are inspired by Ace Attorney.
  • Indigo lets you know that if you die in the books, you die in real life.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • The objective of the Secret Test of Character set in Hell is to test whether a seeker can learn humility, by reading them a laundry list of their failures. If Angel Mila is present, she rebuts each and every single point and actually gets more arrogant than when she went in. (Several other versions of her also rebut these arguments, but in very different ways.)
  • Indigo will also call you out on what you've done, even if you went out of your way to not be evil (which still had unpleasant results for some people). You can then do this by refusing to play by the "rules" of the game anymore...or alternately veer it into Shut Up, Kirk! if you actually were evil.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Actually commented on a few times, particularly if Leeko is having moral qualms. In this case, it more or less goes from best to worst as: Queen Nakhta, who's a Jerkass but not especially evil particularly to anyone other than a pirate; Circe, who's a hypocritical Well-Intentioned Extremist who plans to eliminate The Evils of Free Will; and a toss-up between personal villain Rourkie and Lazerby, whose Grand Theft Me is treated appropriately as monstrous, is an outright murderer, and whose ultimate goal goes beyond Well-Intentioned Extremist into creating a nightmarish eternal dystopia. Notably, as the lowest level, Nakhta can get exactly what she wants and still have you get a good ending, unlike the others.
• Spot the Imposter: This happens twice, both involving the same character and situation but in radically different contexts. The truth is revealed through very different means each time. Interestingly, in one version the imposter uses a factual detail (he's from an alternate timeline) to explain away the incongruities.
  • Spotting the Thread: Leeko becomes suspicious at Darious's sudden jocularity despite recent events, and more piratical nature after visiting Luprand's manor, so she decides to try flirting with him; the fact that it succeeds is a Cover Identity Anomaly, given that Leeko was until recently male and Darious would still think of her as such. Then, it's promptly given away by the fact that he calls the group "pirates" when Darious's Insistent Terminology was "treasure hunters", he uses third person, and finally furiously reveals that it's Lazerby possessing Darious.
• Story Branching: It's promised that every single decision, and any subsequent transformation, impacts every other one across all three acts of the story, so very seldom will two playthroughs feel exactly the same.
• Title Drop: "The Pirate's Fate" is the name of Darious' ship.
• Tragic Keepsake: An interesting variation, in that it's never actually brought up, and has to be implied. In certain routes, Morgana's knife becomes this for her. It was given to her by Darious; in the route where you pluck him from time before he met Morgana, the young version of him still has it, and present-day Morgana doesn't. So, by using it, she's remembering him in any route where he dies. It explains why she's so fond of it...
  • Morgana's choker could also be considered a variation of this, as she can reveal that she stole it from a rich girl back when she worked with Rourkie's crew, as a reminder of an aspiration she knew she could never actually achieve.
• Transformation Trinket: The coins.
  • Also, Nakhta's magic crown, powered by a "Shape What You Were" coin. The matchmakers use a "Become What You Seek" in order to induced slightly controlled transformations on their clients.
• Treasure Map: Surprisingly, only two actually appear in the game, one given by Abby and one marking the location of the Library of Forbidden Knowledge which appears spontaneously. Leeko points out that if he had more of them, well, he'd be given more respect as the cartographer! It's also present in menus and teasers.
• Trial of the Mystical Jury: The Fish People of Atlantia capture the crew at one point, thanks to a bit of Mistaken Identity, and specifically put Morgana on trial for her acts of piracy against their subjects years ago. It's an odd example of the Kangaroo Court, too, with a prosecutor who only needs to swear that he has reliable evidence, but also a judge open to listening to reasonable pleas. Even if they do find her guilty, however, the actual execution doesn't work out for them: she lives, but transformed and angry.
• True Companions: The Dread Pirates can be this. That doesn't prevent them from squabbling among themselves at times.
• The Unreveal:
  • Throughout points in the game, Mila will survive near death experience and be knocked out. As she comes to, she'll hear the game's opening lines: one character will ask if she's dead while another wants to toss her overboard. When she fully regains consciousness, the crew mates that she's currently with will deny having said anything. The significance of these scenes are never explained.
  • The true history of the coins or the wizard who made them is never explained. The histories of Steamchaser and Indigo are not detailed either.
• Weight Woe:
  • Tam Tam is always confident in her appearance, even if she's gains weight, but she is openly hurt when a rude shopkeeper refuses to sell to her due to her size.
  • Morgana will be the most sensitive about any change in her weight and often vents her frustration about the hindrances her size causes her. If Morgana is fat during the ending when Fox Morgana arrives in the timeline, she'll fully open to Mila about how her insecurities over her size and her fears that the skinnier, more refined Fox Morgana is better than her.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: Several characters find the constant, abrasive cheerfulness resulting from Goat Morgana's transformation to be both unsettling and more obnoxious than the character's original personality.
  • The same thing happens to Mary in the expansion. Likewise, she herself desperately wants to get back the original Rourkie, a murderous narcissist who intended to leave her to die, after he becomes Princess Rourkie.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Mila hears this a lot, especially from Leeko and Tam-Tam (Morgana objects, too, but often for different reasons), and it's usually very well-deserved.
• Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The setting is at the very tail end of this era, Word of God placing it in roughly an 1850s equivalent. That said, the themes are there, and there are plenty of anachronisms anyway to lend it a more timeless feel.
• World of Funny Animals: With the appropriate explanation that the theory of evolution is already well-known and accepted in this universe. Mind you, one can assume non-anthropomorphic animals evolved from a common ancestor with their anthro counterparts, but it's a common semantic error.

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