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RECOMMENDED; BUT I'D LIKE TO SEE MORE
I consider myself a connoisseur of the farming simulation genre, to the point where I amaze myself by how snobbish I can be sometimes - never letting my overly critical point of view spoil the fun for me. All that I am going to write in this review comes from a place of love for the genre and immense respect for the creators.
I find no point in giving feedback on matters that will be improved along the way, such as bugs, glitches, and lack of animations, for an early access game. The community is vibrant, and it constantly provides the necessary information for such imperfections to be fixed over time.
However, what bothered me as a person in love with the genre was that the story, mechanics, and gameplay did not shy away from outright copying a prominent giant in the farming sim universe, Stardew Valley. Coral Island fixed many things that I consider flawed when it comes to Stardew Valley, while simultaneously using the exact same formula for other aspects with minimum to no changes.
A big aspect of the farming simulator genre, at least for me, is the community aspect. Building a farm, raising animals, and planting crops doesn't mean much when you have no one to share them with. This is one of the many reasons I consider Rune Factory 4 the best choice when it comes to modern farming sims, simply because the characters feel like breathing, living individuals - members of a community I can help to improve the quality of life. It's a savior's complex at its finest, I know. Coral Island nearly nailed that aspect. The characters are fun to be around, the character portraits are stylish and generally pleasant to the eye, and I actually care about getting to know them - which is a huge improvement from Stardew Valley's NPCs, whom I purposely avoided, as I consider them hollow husks of what could have been lovely people in a small community in the middle of nowhere. However, I will admit that there were so many characters in Coral Island that they were incredibly hard to keep track of, overwhelming me on my first few days when getting to know them.
As much as it pains me to say, there were one too many similarities with Stardew Valley, to the point of throwing me off. Without spoiling anything for the average reader, the storyline, at least in its current state, follows an identical formula to that of Stardew Valley’s. Similarly, there are some gameplay aspects that simply do not add to the overall experience - why are there three types of trees that produce three types of seeds? Why can I tap said three types of trees for their three types of syrups? Some choices feel mindless to me, which certainly is not the case, having seen the passion behind the production of this game.
All of this boils down to the fact that if I wanted to play a 4K version of Stardew Valley, well, I would not play it. Mostly because I do not care about Stardew Valley in comparison to other choices in the farming sim universe. I am a minority, and I am well aware of this fact. But even without being invested in Stardew Valley, it is hard to ignore that it constructed a very concrete formula that works wonders for it, but feels weird and alien when it gets implemented in an entirely different game studio and overall universe.
The island/tropical setting is not something new to the genre; but I would love to see Coral Island implement features that one can find only in said environment, instead of copying aspects from Stardew Valley. Inspiration is important, but it needs to come from multiple sources in order to be constructive and helpful.
I love to see such a wonderful community work on a game like this, and I cannot wait to see what the full version will have to offer!