izigame.me

Hey Everyone, 03/14/2023
Before I get into things here, I want to state that Coral Island is still a pre-release game so things are likely to change quite a bit as the game continues to be developed. The game itself is beautiful and the story is well written. There's quite a lot to do in it already. I really want to recommend this game to others but it seems that with every update, the Developers change something to make it increasingly more difficult to actually follow the main farming quest line.
I've been playing Coral island since the beginning, and I have a lot of time invested. I want to start off with a couple of examples... In this latest update the price of a the Smoothie and Green Smoothie dropped from $140.00 and 165.00 each down to $15.00 each. Now that might sound fair, however; I can't buy a cup of Coffee at Raja's Coffee Stand for less than $150.00. and yet I can not brew a cup, myself, in less that two days. When I sell a cup of coffee, I receive less than half that amount. I'm sure the argument to all of this would be that, in reality, the middleman always takes his/her cut. To this, my own response would be to open a food stall or maybe allow locals to pay a fee to come and pick their own produce. Those are real things too. By the way, an entire keg of coffee yields one cup of coffee. One Cup. Two Days.
I'm afraid to see what they've nerfed the price of Cactus Jam down to after I spent so long working and saving to be able to pay the $300.00 per seed price to finally produce it. I'm still waiting on that crop to come in before I can even find out. Cactus seeds are no longer available at Sam's, during the fall, but my crop still appears to be growing and my spare seeds are still in my storage.
With each nerf to the player's potential income, the answer seems to be to buy more farm animals and make more machines... Until your farm no longer resembles a farm but some bizarre outdoor specialty grocers.
On a previous update, the cost of Wine was nerfed, by a huge amount. Not only in the actual payout but in the time it takes to produce it. It seems that a number players had figured out that they could become Wine Barons if they just focused on grapes and kegs. That change made sense.
Everything you purchase, on Coral Island, is so ridiculously over priced - Clothes, Seeds, Kitchen Appliances, Furnishings... With every new update it becomes more difficult to figure out how to pay for seeds, equipment, and furnishings. It appears that the only one not allowed to make money, on this island, is you.
The last couple of things I want to comment on are the length
of each day and the inability to save the game yourself.
Now, this isn't my first farming game and yes, I have adjusted the slider for the length of day all the way down to 50%. I have the Barn and Chicken Coop fairly close to my house but running the few feet between my home and these barns is 10 minutes. Putting down 8 pieces of hay, picking up 4 eggs, petting 8 animals and milking 4 cows takes an hour, at a run. Half a day to water several crop plots... This is not accounting for harvesting crops either. I've done these things in real life. I can fill an entire basket full of eggs and put feed out in a matter of minutes... As far as watering goes, I have a huge garden and it doesn't take me half my waking hours to do that. In my opinion, the game play needs to allow for a larger decrease of speed for each day. I don't want to take away the full speed for those who like the challenge but I'm already sprinting all day, everyday.
Lastly, game saves. The ONLY time you get a game save is when you go to bed. At the end of the day. If you crash between the sleeping and waking loading screens, all the previous day's work is wiped away and anything you accomplished the day before is gone. That's right, there are no auto-saves after key events like the Cherry blossom festival or the Mermaid cut-scene so if you crash at anytime before the next bedtime, you just revert back to 6am that morning and have to do it all again. If player saving is not something that's going to be implemented then periodic auto-saving should be a thing.
As I stated at the beginning, this game is visually beautiful and the story is compelling. The NPCs and their stories are unique and getting better all the time. Character creation is as well. I just find this game way to grindy. I don't want to have to sprint everywhere because of time constraints. This doesn't allow me to actually enjoy the beauty of the island or learn it's stories. It also doesn't motivate me to stick around.
The economy needs some reworking for sure. Our Character's story is that they're a 3rd generation farmer (or at least gardener) and we communicate with our family, back on the mainland, via mail.
Were I able to reply back to my family, I would imagine it would look a little something like this...

"Dear Dad,
I hope everyone back home is doing well. I miss you all. If it's not to much trouble, can you send me some seeds. Please see the enclosed list. Sam is really ripping me off on some of these items and I don't think I can afford to continue growing crops here if I have to purchase from him.
All my love,
Saphia
P.S. Also, some sweats and t-shirts would be much appreciated. Thank Grandma for all the goodies!"

As it stand now, I would recommend that anyone who's considering paying for early access, might want to hold off and see if some of these issues get corrected in an upcoming patch or another update before spending any money.
Happy Gaming Everyone,
~Saphia