Edit 12/2 - It's been a while since I first wrote this, so adding an update section at the bottom.

--Original Review--
Sea of Thieves is the distilled essence of adventure. You start the game up, grab some supplies with your friends, load up your ship, and set sail to see what fate awaits you.

I offer this game an easy recommend under a couple of conditions. The first is that you like the chaos of unknown adventure, and the second is that you don't mind when it all goes pear shaped.

Sea of Thieves has you being a pirate on the ocean with other players, sailing from island to island, fighting skeletons, ghost ships, digging up treasure, solving riddles, delivering cargo, and fighting sea monsters. And you never quite know what's going to happen next on your adventure. There's plenty of things to chase, and you'll never be without a task for long if you care to pick one up from one of the vendors.

One important design choice that you should be aware of before jumping into this game is that every session is a fresh start. You spawn in with your ship and bare bone supplies, there's no progression between sessions aside from cosmetics you unlock. (Which is also the only thing you unlock, more on that below). While this can be a bit of a bummer, it's actually quite freeing. Every time you launch the game you're given a new ship, new supplies, and an ocean full of treasure to explore. Truly, you have nothing to lose. Until you find treasure, that is. Then you have something to lose. The game is simply fantastic at giving you a unique adventure every time you sail, solo or with friends. And it's shockingly easy to play solo if you desire, the smallest ship, the Sloop, is very solo player friendly if you wish to be an asocial pirate.

The only progression in this game is cosmetics. Anything else you get exists solely to get you, you guessed it, more cosmetics. This makes the cash shop a little weird. But hey, the upside is that nobody is going to beat you because they have a better sword, ship, or guns.

The game recently started a battle pass system with season one. The pass for season one is frankly a little underwhelming. I'm willing to give it a pass since the game is quite enjoyable without, but you're not missing out on anything exciting by not getting the pass.

--Update--
Since it's been a fair while and four full seasons since I first wrote this review, I felt it was time for an update. Overall, I still stand by the original review, with the same disclaimer that you have to be able to accept the wins and losses both in this game. It certainly can be frustrating at times but much like the ship, you have to let it roll off you like water. If you let the bad moments cling to you like barnacles, then you'll be just as scuttled as your ships.

Season Five just launched, and after a middling Season 2, Content Packed Seasons 3 and 4, Season 5 could be called the quality of life season. There's a decent chunk of new content (though nothing like the previous seasons, which is a reasonably high bar; 5 story missions in season 3, and roughly 8 or so new explorable lootable areas for season 4?)

The biggest quality of life change in S5 is being able to quickly and easily transfer resources from barrels and storage crates without having to open the interface. This along probably would have given me another 100 hours in the game, but they also decided to add a buried treasure system! Indeed, you can bury your treasure to create a treasure map. Then, you can put that map up on the quest board at any outpost! Other pirates can take this, and if they successfully sell your treasue...boom! You get rewarded too. How fantastic is that?

It's even better than that though. You can take up to five treasure pers per in game day from the board (this amount is pretty reasonable I feel, the days go quickly in the sea of thieves), and these other player maps will contain buried treasure of their own. Of course. Quality of treasure may vary, as it could be anything. Though there are commendations to encourage big, fruitful treasure maps. Really, it's a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

The best part of the whole treasure map system though? They're saved on your quests table as an item called a Map Bundle. What's that mean? It means if you sink, you lose your maps and need to recover the bundle. Or that other people could steal your maps. Or you could steal their maps, I guess, if you're a jerk. While the idea that you can lose your treasure maps may feel a bit unfortunate, it's lovely design because it means they're transferable, you could gift the map bundle, or simply leave it at an outpost when you're done for someone else to find. It adds excitement in that the treasure you buried could be yoinked by a boarder and carried away. Or that you could recover your stolen bundle to regain your rightful treasure. It adds another layer of things for pirates to bicker and barter over, and it means that should things go bad for all involves, the treasue may be lost to all.

The game has been at it's best when it balances the thrill of gain with the risk of lose (even though the sting of loss can be quite painful, it's something we must learn to accept). Remember, the whole ocean is open to you, so long as you go in with the attitude that what happens, happens.

The quickest review you'll ever read.

Is this worth $80 on its own? No
Is this worth $80 when you add in four years of plugin creation by various authors on the internet? Yes, completely.
--Quickest Section Ends Here--

Let me explain the cycle of how it works.
1. Want to do a thing
2. Search google for "rpg maker mv how to do thing'
3. Learn that MV can't do the thing
4. Find plugin that does exact the thing you want
5. Add plugin
6. Return to 1

By itself RPG Make MV allows you some freedom but is generally lackluster. It is however, extremely easy to use most plugins to add what you want.

Quick Disclaimer: You still have to put in effort to learn how to use the program. If you're unwilling to dedicate the time to learn it, then save yourself the money because there isn't actually a tool out there that is usable well without learning how to use it.