Best Ghost Pirates in Games

Few sights strike fear into the hearts of intrepid seamen quite like a hostile vessel careening towards them. This sight becomes even more frightening if said vessel happens to be a ghostly galleon. For most gamers, this is not something they usually have to consider while going about their adventures.

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Not all games are so merciful, though, throwing players up against the most dreaded Venn diagram of villainy: ghost pirates. For those looking to encounter (or perhaps avoid) these ghostly entities, here are some of the best ghost pirates in video games.

9

HMS Prince (Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag)

A Ghostly Vessel Enshrouded In Fog

The HMS Prince comes in high. It lacks any recognizable pirates, but the ghostly vessel is still a striking sight to behold on the waters. One of the legendary ships encountered in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, the HMS Prince is adorned with tattered black sails and an eerie fog.

It provides a significant challenge with impressive speed, persistent mortar rounds, and the shrouded fog that it carries with it, obscuring the player’s vision.

8

Ghostly Crew (Call Of Duty: Ghosts)

Non-Corporeal Companions

Taking the name literally, the developers of Call of Duty: Ghosts added a phantasmal element to Mutiny, one of the DLC multiplayer maps. The map is essentially a haunted dock and comes complete with a couple of special field orders, one of which is the Ghostly Crew.

When activated, the player summons two pirate ghost squadmates that flank them in support. This is a valuable asset when it comes to increasing the kill count, but it’s a frightening sight for those caught on the other end of the ghostly rampage.

7

The Ghost Pirate (Scooby-Doo! Horror Of The High Seas)

A Ghoulish Treasure Hunter

• Platforms: Adobe Flash
• Released: 2004
• Developer: Warner Bros.

No prizes for the name here, but this was aimed primarily at kids, so The Ghost Pirate serves as a fitting antagonist for this nautical adventure. Scooby-Doo! Horror of the High Seas was a Warner Bros. developed flash game that consisted mainly of exploration with basic stealth and puzzle solving.

Shaggy and Scooby are no strangers to ghost pirates, and when they get separated from the gang in this adventure, they are forced to match wits with another ghoulish captain. Like most Scooby-Doo properties, however, the Ghost Pirate turns out to be little more than a charlatan in search of treasure.

6

The Ferryman (Sea Of Thieves)

A Shepherd Of Lost Souls

Systems

Sea of Thieves is technically full of pirate ghosts, most of whom are slain players who are waiting to return to the world of the living. One spectral sailor who stands out among them, though, is the Ferryman, captain of the Ferry of the Damned.

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Players can encounter the Ferryman at the helm of the vessel whilst they await their allotted time to respawn. Tasked with guiding souls out of the Sea of the Damned, the Ferryman is easily one of the most noble ghost pirates in the realm of gaming.

5

Captain Fishhook (Luigi’s Mansion 3)

The Spectral Shark

Systems

Released

October 31, 2019

Infinitely cooler than any of the others by proxy of being both a shark and a ghost pirate, Captain Fishook serves as one of the bosses of Luigi’s Mansion 3. Found on 12F, as a late-game boss, Captain Fishook packs quite a punch.

He’ll swoop in for attacks and can possess the very ship the fight takes place on. Players will have to be swift on their feet and a dead-eye with their barrels if they wish to foil this ghastly predator.

4

Jane Starling (Ghost Pirates Of Vooju Island)

A Pirate With A Heart Of Gold

Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island

Systems

Released

January 27, 2015

Developer(s)

Autumn Moon Entertainment

Cornering the market for search engine optimization for video game ghost pirates is the aptly named Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island. It is a point-and-click adventure that perhaps pays homage to a more popular series of supernatural pirate misadventures.

There are several phantoms in the game, but it’s the playable protagonist, Jane Starling, who takes the honor of being the best ghost pirate of the bunch. After being cursed in pursuit of the villainous Greenbeard, the three protagonists are left torn between the physical and the spirit world, interchanging between the two as the adventure unfolds.

3

The Pirate Master (Shantae And The Pirate’s Curse)

All Powerful Pirate Lord

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is considered to be the hardest game in the series, and as the principal antagonist, the Pirate Master is a formidable foe. A powerful pirate ruler, the Pirate Master is initially defeated by the combined might of the genies of Sequin Land.

During the events of Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, however, he is successfully reanimated as an even more powerful ghostly apparition. He becomes a screen-filling behemoth, whose skeletal frame provides a series of platforms that the protagonist can climb in order to fight him.

2

Afia Manicato (Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew)

A Time-Warping Poltergeist

• Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, GeForce Now, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC
• Released: 2023
• Developer: Mimimi Games

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a stealth tactics game built around assembling a crew of damned pirates and completing real-time missions to thwart the Inquisition. As one might expect of a game of this calibre, the myriad of crew options comes with a variety of buffs and abilities to allow players to forge their ideal team.

Out of all the playable characters in Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Afia Manicato is arguably the best ghost pirate. Her time-bending powers include the ability to teleport and freeze enemies, two invaluable assets that help her to remain undetected.

1

LeChuck (Monkey Island Series)

A Long-Standing Antagonist

Who else is more deserving of the “best ghost pirate” title than the legendary LeChuck, the recurring antagonist of the Monkey Island games? Scourge of Guybrush Threepwood for over three decades, the voodoo-obsessed captain was a ruthless and bloodthirsty pirate in life and only became more powerful in death.

For those not old enough to remember, The Secret of Monkey Island was a very influential point-and-click adventure from LucasArts, the video game branch of George Lucas’ production company. The game spawned five sequels, with LeChuck serving as the primary antagonist.

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