Port Town

Dock your worries and indulge in the seaside atmosphere.

"Hey, where am I?"

"You wanna know where you are? Hahaha! In Port Royal!"

— Intro to "Port Royal" by Running Wild

Usually coupled with an island and much larger than the First Town, this is usually just where the characters are going to Get on the Boat to the next continent. Otherwise expect docks, a fishing village, and a beach, usually with accordions in the soundtrack, perhaps with a floating fish monster that's preventing ships from sailing. If the boat doesn't leave fast enough to get wrecked at sea, the Port Town suffers this fate instead.

Often the Port Town will only let you Get on the Boat after doing a quest, usually as a way to assure the game you're ready to move ahead to an area where you might not be able to backtrack to. If, as is often the case, the Port Town is host to an unsavory or criminal subdistrict filled with smugglers, Black Market goods, privateers and pirates, thieves and prostitutes, this is the Not-So-Safe Harbor.

Truth in Television, of course, as in Real Life ports do attract The Syndicate's illegal activities, but so ubiquitous that trying to list all non-video game examples would be futile.

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Video Game Examples:

• The eponymous Port Town from F-Zero, servicing as a port for space travel on Earth.
• Talewok in Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage.
• Beloveno from Albion is the largest settlement in the entire game. The large port takes up 25% of the map. The rest is a maze of buildings. If you didn't use the map for instant travel in the first town, you will use it here.
• ANNO: Mutationem: Harbor Town is a large port at sea located far from the city. It's home to the arena tournament, an Item Crafting shop, a Fishing Minigame, and a large Ship Level.
• Many coastal towns in Avernum 3. Unfortunately, the quarantine on the continent of Valorim has shut most of them down, and only a few actually allow transport anywhere.
• Banjo-Kazooie:
  • Banjo-Tooie: The "above water" section of Jolly Roger's Lagoon is a small port town surrounded by gray plateaus. It houses a touristic hotel run by Jolly Roger, as well as a recreational swimming area where Tiptup (from the first game) and his yet-to-be-born 20th child is.
  • Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: Spiller's Harbor used to be a healthy, popular harbor city until Gruntilda and her minions turned it into a Polluted Wasteland. There are many areas in the water tainted with oil, as well as a lighthouse, an ice cream truck, and pipelines colored red and yellow.
• Rhappala in Breath of Fire III. You don't get a boat on your first visit, though.
• Bug Fables: The Bugaria Pier serves as the docking area for ships sailing to and from the Ant Kingdom through Metal Lake.
• Chrono Trigger: A ferry operates between Truce and Porre. Once history is changed and relations with Medina thaw over, it's revealed that Medina is in the process of adding a ferry as well.
• Talos Island, Independence Port, and Striga Island in City of Heroes. Port Oakes in City of Villains.
• Kingsport in Cthulhu Saves the World is where Cthulhu can hitch a boat to Alhazred, after curing the illness that plagues the town.
• Deponia has The Floating Black Market and Porta Fisco.
• Lut Gholein in Diablo II. The character can only Get on the Boat after the city is safe and the Sultan allows the ship to depart.
• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: Lake Orangatanga, the first world, is a temperate biome next to a pine forest and surrounded by wooden piers and rural mills, in which the levels take place (though one is located within the snowy border leading to the mountains, thus being Slippy-Slidey Ice World). The boss is Belcha, a large living barrel that has to be defeated in Ring-Out Boss form.
• Kirkwall in Dragon Age II is one of these, though it's also the Adventure Town since the entire plot of the game is focused on the city and the area around it.
• In the Dragon Quest series:
  • Lianport in Dragon Quest II.
  • Portoga in Dragon Quest III.
  • Havre Léon and Porthtrunnel in Dragon Quest IV.
  • Littlehaven (admittedly, not much of a "town", but the first place you take a boat to a new continent) and Lodestar Harbour in Dragon Quest V.
  • Port Haven in Dragon Quest VI.
  • Fishbel (which is also the First Town) in Dragon Quest VII.
  • Port Prospect in Dragon Quest VIII.
  • Port Llaffan and Bloomingdale in Dragon Quest IX.
  • Gondolia in Dragon Quest XI.
• Toto in EarthBound (1994) is a small fishing village/port town attached to Summers, which is a beachside resort. You can take the boat from there to Scaraba, a town with a less favorable pier-to-town ratio, but still one that clearly relies on incoming water transport.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Morrowind: Vvardenfell being an island turns almost every coastal city into one of these. However, due to the Blight quarantine, only Seyda Neen remains in operation with traffic from the mainland.
  • Oblivion has Anvil as the main seaport, although the Imperial City has a river-based dock as well. You don't really travel anywhere from them in the unmodded version, although a few mods have you start the game by getting off a boat in Anvil.
  • Skyrim has Solitude and Windhelm as well (Dawnstar was one according to previous lore, but by its appearance has been retconned or for unexplained reasons degenerated to a port village).
• Epic Mickey: Pirate Voyage and Tortooga. They are based on the village from Pirates of the Caribbean, after all. Pirate Voyage even has little boats you can ride on.
• Queynos and Freeport in Everquest. They also count as First Town for human characters.
• Bloodstone in Fable II.
• Port Puerto in Fantasy Life.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Pravoka in Final Fantasy. You get the game's ship by defeating the pirates that have taken over the place.
  • South Figaro (pictured), Nikeah, and Albrook in Final Fantasy VI.
  • Port Junon and Costa Del Sol in Final Fantasy VII.
  • A few in Final Fantasy VIII; you can dock the garden at Fisherman's Horizon, and the Ragnarok at the airport in Esthar. Balamb and Dollet are more traditional Port Towns, but you cannot pilot boats to and from there and in the case of Dollet, the town is entirely optional once you finish your mission there. You can rent cars from both locations, however.
  • Lindblum in Final Fantasy IX, and it's also an airship port town.
  • Luca in Final Fantasy X is a massive port that uses some machine permitted by the Church of Yevon. Its seaside areas consist of five enormous docks arranged in a circle around the Blitzball stadium connected to the mainland and sphere theater by a bridge.
  • Selbina and Mhaura in Final Fantasy XI. Selbina only goes to Mhaura, but Mhaura swaps trips between Selbina and Aht Urhgan.
  • Balfonheim in Final Fantasy XII is a semi-independent port that bribes the Archadians to stay away. It's mostly home to self-styled pirates and was quite the Wretched Hive until Reddas took over. Bhujerba takes advantage of its lofty position to be one of these for airships.
  • Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy XIV is a coastal city-state centered on the port of the same name. It has a formidable navy that it uses to defend its trade routes from pirates and the invading Garleans. Its ruler even has the title of Admiral.
• The port of Badon in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword.
• Mactan Base, Cadiz Base, and Planet Toledo from Freelancer are like staging areas within missions.
• Kalay and Tolbi in Golden Sun.
  • Those two are just inland cities that own ports. For REAL port towns, check Lalivero, Alhafra, and Champa.
  • And in Dark Dawn, there's Belinsk, Port Rago, Champa again, (what's left of it, anyway) and Tonfon.
• Cyrum kingdom in Grandia II.
• One in each Guild Wars campaign: Lion's Arch in Prophecies, Kaineng Center in Factions, and Kamadan in Nightfall. If you purchase more than one campaign, you can travel between continents using these cities.
• Sashimi Bay from Hell Pie is an island populated by snail-people who used to base their economy around whaling before they were forced to quit by environmentalists.
• South Cape◊ from Illusion of Gaia. The hometown of the Kid Hero, it's where the game first starts. Ironically, you end up going north and travelling by land when you leave, instead of taking a boat.
• Indivisible: Port Maerifa is an independent port town settled at the edge of the Almutah Desert.
• Port Zala and (to a lesser extent) Kolton from Infinite Undiscovery.
• Several of the cities in the Jak and Daxter games are coastal: Haven City, Spargus City, and Kras City. Unusually, Haven City is completely enclosed in walls (including its port) to keep out the Metal Heads, which raises the question of where its ships actually go.
• Kingdom Hearts: The series represents Pirates of the Caribbean with Port Royal. It's implied in II with pirate ships, but it becomes a full-fledged gameplay mechanic in III with pirate ships and pirate supporting characters.
• Jurai from the The Legend of Heroes: Trails. Once a large coastal city, it fell on hard times after a typhoon destroyed most of the place, a situation only made worse thanks to the Salt Pale disaster that devastated North Ambria, Jurai's most prominent trading partner. Eventually the city accepted being annexed into the Erebonian Empire under the promise of economical recovery.
• Saith in Lunar: The Silver Star.
• Marwin and Dagron in Manifest, though you never take a boat out of Dagron, mostly because the Thymetian army is making heavy use of it.
• Metro: Last Light's Venice station is a port town station as it is surrounded by river and fishermen. The preceding level before it has Artyom and Fedor riding on a boat all the way to the flooded station.
• Metro Exodus's second DLC Sam's Story has Vladivostok, which is a definitive port town, as most of it is flooded due to a tsunami that was caused by the nukes. This is starkly contrasting to Moscow as radiation did not spread evenly across Vladivostok, making Vladivostok's surface safer than Moscow itself.
• Monsters, Inc.: Scream Team: One of the urban levels, The Docks, takes place within a harbor that features locations like a climbable lighthouse, a docked ship whose interior has crushers that must be avoided, and some rooftops.
• Highcliff in Neverwinter Nights 2.
• Octopath Traveler has Grandport, the largest port in the land, and Rippletide, a smaller port and hometown of Tressa.
• Pokémon: Vermilion City, Olivine City, Lilycove and Slateport Cities (the latter even has "port" in its name), Gateon Port, and Canalave and Snowpoint Cities from throughout the series. Castelia City is a mix between this and Hub City. And, of course, each island in Alola has a port, since the player can't use Surf to travel between them (except for Mantine Surf). And in the Red/Blue remakes, there's a port on each of the main Sevii Islands for the local ferry service. Coumarine City plays with this — it's a port town with boats in the harbor, but the player character doesn't board any of them.
• Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy: San Grio, one of the main destinations visited in Chapter 4. It's a lively coastal town where many Poponos are sold and (as part of a celebration) exchanged between travelers and citizens alike. This turns out to be a problem for Layton and his friends, because the Poponos are identical in appearance to the Azran Eggs and one of them happens to be a real one, so the overarching challenge lies in figuring out who has it so it can be retrieved. The town also has a luxurious hotel where the characters can spend a night in certain rooms and have dreams that foreshadow events from the first three games (which chronologically happen after this one), though accessing them requires purchasing suite tickets with Play Coins.
• Larapool of Quest 64.
• All towns in Quest for Glory V; seeing as this installment of the series is based in a Fantasy Counterpart to Greece, this is justified as all towns are close to water and have to live off of fishing.
• In Ragnarok Online, there's Izlude, Alberta, and Hugel. Izlude and Hugel have your normal seaports as well as airship ports.
• Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando: Canal City, Planet Notak, so named for the canal in the Promenade district. It also has a wharf, though none of the boats shown ever use it.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 has Saint Denis, a fictional counterpart of New Orleans that has a large and active port. Like its real-life counterpart, it sits where a major river enters the ocean.
• Port Sarim, Rellekka and Catherby in Runescape. Port Phasmatys also, although it's a combination of Port Town and Ghost Town.
• Sentinel: Descendants In Time has Eska, one of the seven realms that Beni can explore Tomb 35.
• Shantae: The Hub Level, Scuttle Town, is one, and it's where ships from all over dock upon arrival.
• Saraband in Shining Force III, the whole town is actually a boat.
• Every town the player visits in Skies of Arcadia is a port town, since the only way to travel through the overworld is via an airship.
• Rogue's Landing in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, combined with Levels Take Flight and Floating Continent.
• The final level of Stunt Race FX is Harbor City, a track by the water, which the player can fall into if they're not careful.
• Super Kiwi 64: The eighth and final level takes place within a coastal city with buildings in the shore and some submarines in the surrounding waters. Located in various parts are color-coded keys that open the doors leading to a grotto hiding a gem.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Delfino Plaza in Super Mario Sunshine is quite a tourist spot given the game's setting.
  • Alongside beach themed tracks, Mario Kart started to make port town tracks since Mario Kart DS. They usually are in Flower Cup, though some exceptions occur:
    • Mario Kart DS has Delfino Square, which takes place in a lively harbor town set in Isle Delfino and features a drawbridge that opens and closes periodically.
    • Mario Kart Wii: Star Cup has Daisy Circuit, which takes place in a coastal town and is raced during sunset; statues of Luigi and Daisy dancing together (both in their adult and infant forms) decorate the plaza as well. On its part, Banana Cup brings back DS Delfino Square, while the battle stage Delfino Pier happens on a docking stage with raising water.
    • Mario Kart 7: Wuhu Loop starts and ends in a small touristic town while the whole battle stage Wuhu Town happens in the said town.
    • Mario Kart 8 has Toad Harbor, which can be considered a small San Francisco, while the Deluxe version brings back Wuhu Town as a battle stage. The Booster Course Pass for Deluxe also features Sydney Sprint from Tour (where a coastal plaza is run across during the second lap), as well as Los Angeles Laps (also from Tour) and Daisy Circuit (from Wii).
    • Mario Kart Tour: One of the variants of Sydney Sprint goes through the eponymous city's coastal plaza. Also, one of the variants of Los Angeles Laps goes through the touristic Santa Monica Pier. Lastly, a later wave added Daisy Circuit of Mario Kart Wii fame.
  • Mario Party 7: The board Grand Canal takes place in a city very reminiscent of Venice, Italy. The players move through wooden bridges, gondolas, and piers, and one of the main attractions is a giant Blooper who runs a find-the-prize game with its tentacles. The goal is to reach a Star and pay 20 coins to get it, like in most boards in the series, but it's also the only board in the game that follows this rule (there's another board that does it to an extent, but it comes along with its own twist).
  • Paper Mario has three examples:
    • Rogueport, which is also the Hub Level of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
    • Surfshine Harbor, a small coastal town in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
    • Port Prisma, the main hub from Paper Mario: Color Splash.
  • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has Wakeport.
• Tales of...
  • Izoold and Palmacosta in Tales of Symphonia.
  • Venezia in Tales of Phantasia is where the protagonists can get a boat to Alvanista, which is also a port town.
  • Tales of Vesperia has Capua Nor and its sister town Capua Torim which lie on the opposite sides of a strait, along with Nordopolica to a lesser extent.
  • Tales of Berseria has Hellawes, Port Zekson, Port Cadnix, Reneed, Yseult, and Taliesin.
• Solde in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.
• Brimloch Roon in Wizards & Warriors.
• About eight different towns in World of Warcraft, including one of the Alliance capital cities (Stormwind). The port area of the island Darnassus is treated as a separate zone, but since it's built around a teleporter that takes you straight into the city the division is somewhat arbitrary.

Non-video game examples:

• A common setting for many a Tabletop Game, the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Forgotten Realms has several including the cultural melting pot city of Waterdeep, with its's extensive Dock Ward is the setting of many works set in the realms - in particular the adventure module Waterdeep: Dragon Heist takes place there.
• The place where the title character works as a barmaid in the song "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by The Looking Glass. ("There's a port/On a western bay/And it serves/A hundred ships a day")
• Noob has Forpitas, which is near an island called Piratas. For bonus points, it also happens to be near an Under the Sea location according to the novels.
• There's no Pirate media without these, naturally.
  • In Cutthroat Island, Morgan Adams must free the erudite scoundrel William Shaw from the prison of Port Royal in Jamaica. A furious chase and a cannonade from an English ship ensue.
  • The Pirates of the Caribbean saga has the orderly and dignified Port Royal, and the scruffy and raucous pirate haven of Tortuga.
• The Popeye film has Sweethaven Village, a set built in Malta that's been used as a tourist attraction since filming ended.

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