I just finished this game not even an hour ago but I just loved it so much and wanted an excuse to talk about it a lot so... here goes!
Very quickly before I gush about this game, I do want to get some negatives out of the way. The game isn't "bulletproof" when it comes to bugs- The biggest instance I had for this was chopping a tree down, where you basically wave at your cat Daffodil to come over and help you saw it. It's really cute, but it DOES rely on Daffodil actually walking over to you, and when there's a bug in the game where Daffodil just fucking... disappears....... you're basically stuck at that tree (Save & Quit didn't fix it but closing the game and reopening it did!). Without getting spoilery, I had a slight immersion break earlier on when I found a character somewhere where I shouldn't have, and my boat got stuck in a rocking animation once while I got called over by Atul to start the lightning event, only for said lightning to strike exactly once before my boat continued sailing and the rocking stopped. Other than that, I think I had a pretty smooth experience.
With that out of the way... I consider this game an absolute masterpiece.
It's a slower kind of game, and that's okay! I thought the gameplay was at a right amount of simple, I think adding more complexity to it or making it "harder" would've made things get tedious after a while. (if the rest of the game was as hard as fishing up a goddamn tuna fish i would've been crying for a whole different reason). Outside of following specific character quests, you're basically just trying to keep everyone on board happy by hugging and feeding them and that never got annoying to me. Yeah, each character has two or three specific kinds of food they wont eat but like that was a non-issue for me.
The art and music for this game are fantastic. This game might have my favorite video game soundtrack ever, DEFINITELY the coziest one in any I've played. Each area in this game looks gorgeous, even the little unique patches of sea you sail across. Every character has a fun unique design and it's always exciting to have that reveal of what they look like once they step onto your ship.
Speaking of the characters, THAT'S where the game truly shines. Every spirit you come across has their own story that you learn about the more time you spend with them and you really do start to feel for them. Some are definitely more likable than others, some of these guys ARE kinda fucking assholes, but the stories behind them are all just so heartbreaking and sad and sincere that I cant help but at the very least feel bad for them. Hell, some of the stuff the characters go through resonate with me and make the game hit even harder. And the fact that you KNOW that no matter how attached you are to these characters that you HAVE to say goodbye to them eventually... this is the first game, maybe even the first bit of media ever to actually make me cry and it did it a LOT. There is a greater overarching story of course, it's not just the individual stories of each passenger... and I fucking cried at that too.
If you enjoy cozy games and are willing to just take things slowly, and dont really mind playing a game that's characters and story first over the gameplay itself, then I genuinely GENUINELY cannot recommend this game enough. It's just such a beautiful and emotional experience that will absolutely stick with me for a long time, and will probably forever stay on the higher end of my all-time favorites.
Very quickly before I gush about this game, I do want to get some negatives out of the way. The game isn't "bulletproof" when it comes to bugs- The biggest instance I had for this was chopping a tree down, where you basically wave at your cat Daffodil to come over and help you saw it. It's really cute, but it DOES rely on Daffodil actually walking over to you, and when there's a bug in the game where Daffodil just fucking... disappears....... you're basically stuck at that tree (Save & Quit didn't fix it but closing the game and reopening it did!). Without getting spoilery, I had a slight immersion break earlier on when I found a character somewhere where I shouldn't have, and my boat got stuck in a rocking animation once while I got called over by Atul to start the lightning event, only for said lightning to strike exactly once before my boat continued sailing and the rocking stopped. Other than that, I think I had a pretty smooth experience.
With that out of the way... I consider this game an absolute masterpiece.
It's a slower kind of game, and that's okay! I thought the gameplay was at a right amount of simple, I think adding more complexity to it or making it "harder" would've made things get tedious after a while. (if the rest of the game was as hard as fishing up a goddamn tuna fish i would've been crying for a whole different reason). Outside of following specific character quests, you're basically just trying to keep everyone on board happy by hugging and feeding them and that never got annoying to me. Yeah, each character has two or three specific kinds of food they wont eat but like that was a non-issue for me.
The art and music for this game are fantastic. This game might have my favorite video game soundtrack ever, DEFINITELY the coziest one in any I've played. Each area in this game looks gorgeous, even the little unique patches of sea you sail across. Every character has a fun unique design and it's always exciting to have that reveal of what they look like once they step onto your ship.
Speaking of the characters, THAT'S where the game truly shines. Every spirit you come across has their own story that you learn about the more time you spend with them and you really do start to feel for them. Some are definitely more likable than others, some of these guys ARE kinda fucking assholes, but the stories behind them are all just so heartbreaking and sad and sincere that I cant help but at the very least feel bad for them. Hell, some of the stuff the characters go through resonate with me and make the game hit even harder. And the fact that you KNOW that no matter how attached you are to these characters that you HAVE to say goodbye to them eventually... this is the first game, maybe even the first bit of media ever to actually make me cry and it did it a LOT. There is a greater overarching story of course, it's not just the individual stories of each passenger... and I fucking cried at that too.
If you enjoy cozy games and are willing to just take things slowly, and dont really mind playing a game that's characters and story first over the gameplay itself, then I genuinely GENUINELY cannot recommend this game enough. It's just such a beautiful and emotional experience that will absolutely stick with me for a long time, and will probably forever stay on the higher end of my all-time favorites.