So I'm playing U7 for the first time, and using Exult. After taking the portal to Jhelom and doing the quests there I got lost trying to find my way back to the portal, and stumbled across a pirate. But this pirate couldn't be talked to, and clicking on him once did not give me his name. No, he just wandered into the surf and stayed there.

I then looked around his camp and found a lot of garbage, a lot of bananas, an invisibility ring, some gold, and some powder kegs which i accidentally killed myself with. It seemed like a strange place so I looked for it in walkthroughs, and NOWHERE on the internet is there a reference to this place. The listed locations for invisibility rings do not include a barrel in a pirate hideout.

Anyone else come across this?

Just a generic npc. You won't be able to speak with him and normally he would've been hostile on sight.

There are many such places that have no relevance to anything but are fun to come across as you explore Britannia. It's no surprise that a walkthrough wouldn't list them all.

Ouch. Maybe you can use the in-game cheats to level up your party back to their previous stats. And maybe use god mode or teleport around dungeons you already completed and don't want to bother with again.

Most of the game isn't even mandatory to reach the end, so you can probably catch up faster than you think.

Yeah I wasn't very far, just in Cove. Just frustrating as I was really enjoying the game and now I have to start over. But it's always faster the second time around.