A beautiful and quaint little fishing adventure where you sail around a group of islands, fish up fish, and get to know a bunch of quirky (and maybe a little stir-crazy) islanders. In theory it should've been a slam dunk for my tastes, but I think I would've jived with it a lot more if it committed harder on the type of game it wanted to be.
Starting out, you have your boat, map, and encyclopedia of fish that you can catch. Characters will give you some light quests and point you in general directions to explore, but really you can go wherever you like. Time moves when you do, and you very quickly will understand the value of better engines and rods as things get dangerous (and a bit spooky) at night.
To catch fish, you play a handful of different mini-games depending on a catch, which then goes into your RE4-like cargo hold to try and fit all the weird and different shaped creatures/objects in. Hitting a rock (or being hit by other things) can take out a square of inventory and cause you to drop your fish, or knock out a critical component. You can repair that square back at the dock, but lose too many at once and... well I'm not really sure, I never got close; it always ended up as more of an annoyance than anything else. As you progress, you can make upgrades to your vessel to have more cargo space, carry bigger engines, etc. as well as research new parts. Pretty much all the research points I found went into rods and engines because those had the most value, but there are also crab pots and nets you can invest in if those are more your speed.
Ultimately, why the game fell so short for me was that I think I would've preferred a lot more if it was played as a straight, casual, roam around and fish and different things come out at day and night. Instead, it forces the player to retreat at night or risk going crazy/being attacked, all in service of a pretty middling over-arching narrative. I appreciate the game for what it is, and I would still recommend it to people looking for this sort of game, I just really wish there was more here to love.
Starting out, you have your boat, map, and encyclopedia of fish that you can catch. Characters will give you some light quests and point you in general directions to explore, but really you can go wherever you like. Time moves when you do, and you very quickly will understand the value of better engines and rods as things get dangerous (and a bit spooky) at night.
To catch fish, you play a handful of different mini-games depending on a catch, which then goes into your RE4-like cargo hold to try and fit all the weird and different shaped creatures/objects in. Hitting a rock (or being hit by other things) can take out a square of inventory and cause you to drop your fish, or knock out a critical component. You can repair that square back at the dock, but lose too many at once and... well I'm not really sure, I never got close; it always ended up as more of an annoyance than anything else. As you progress, you can make upgrades to your vessel to have more cargo space, carry bigger engines, etc. as well as research new parts. Pretty much all the research points I found went into rods and engines because those had the most value, but there are also crab pots and nets you can invest in if those are more your speed.
Ultimately, why the game fell so short for me was that I think I would've preferred a lot more if it was played as a straight, casual, roam around and fish and different things come out at day and night. Instead, it forces the player to retreat at night or risk going crazy/being attacked, all in service of a pretty middling over-arching narrative. I appreciate the game for what it is, and I would still recommend it to people looking for this sort of game, I just really wish there was more here to love.