Coral Island Review (y⛧u)
Played for 250 hours and completed pretty much everything in the 1.1 update. I'll go over some topics I think it’s important and worth talking about (and that i don't see many people talking) + Not mentioning the word ''stardew valley'' for an ENTIRE review challenge.
Long Story Short:
This is a very nice game, with innovative and fresh features in the genre, the world feels alive and the nature and tropical atmosphere + charismatic and lovely NPCs really builds up a heartwarming game. You can tell it was made with passion, creativity and by people who actually cared.
However, nothing is perfect and there are quite a few things and problems you need to consider, the worst of it all (at least for me) was the massive grind and boring gameplay loop, and even tho in the short term you feel like you are progressing in everything you do, the game fails in awarding you for all the trouble and massive hours of grind.
Gameplay Loop & Progression:
Activities just like any other farming sim games, but here we have Ocean Diving, where you help to restore and clear trash from the ocean while exploring an underwater world with ocean creatures and some very nicely put mermaid and ocean folklore. It’s very good in the first few hours, but it ends up being quite repetitive at a late point. You get stuck in a ‘mining or diving’ dilemma most of your days in the game, making it very grindy and repetitive as these are essential tasks for the main story progression and takes very, very long to ''complete''.
Progression also feels very slow, completing the bundles, story, and maxing out skills takes a very long time, wouldn’t be a problem if the rewards weren’t so poor, unsatisfying, and even ‘’outdated’’ at the point of the game you’ll finally complete them. Getting gold is a bit hard and at the endgame when you are finally swimming in it, there won’t be much to spend on.
Not to mention the amount of bundles you gotta complete that takes forever and when you finally do, you’ll unlock even more bundles to complete. 😭
The objectives in general feel somewhat very ‘linear’, I truly wished things were more ‘laid back’, unpredictable and chill.
Social & Romance part:
Characters are one high point of this game, a very diverse cast and it makes the game feel truly alive, every single one has a distinct personality and if you are a person who likes to hear what they have to say, you’ll like it a lot!
They might have ‘’simple’’, but quite meaningful dialogues, some storylines are very good and well written, very easy and accessible to relate in many states of life.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276741886
The bad thing is: there are TOO MANY of them and it takes a long time to progress in the friendship. If you decide to speak to everyone around the town, you'll lose more than half of a day doing it for sure. And of course, you won’t be interested in every single NPC, but it takes SO LONG for any kind of progression, it adds a lot of the feeling of ‘’massive’’ into the game.
The romance/dating is also a bit dull, with cute cutscenes and dating events, but they won’t say anything different to you in the everyday life or anything, it’s like it’s not happening at all. Feels incomplete.
Now some stuff I want to mention very quickly:
✿ Character customization is VERY CUTE and there's a huge variety of cosmetics and clothing items.
✿ Farm customization and house decoration can be a little bit clunky in the square grid (the house has a terrible design) but you can turn out to make very nice inspired decor with tons of different sets, needs some minor improvements and polishing tho!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3309220197
✿ Festivals are very unique and original, and it has actual fun minigames and cutscenes, just wished the rewards were a little better.
✿ Huge shoutout to the numerous easter eggs, from a BMO and Sponge Bob inspo decorations, to programs in the in game TV referring real shows and movies like Game of Thrones, Masterchef and even Kpop survival reality shows (Produce 101, we love you!)
✿ The main story was very predictable and a bit disappointing, the game is very original and ambitious and I ended up expecting something new and original for the closing of the story too. Looking forward to new updates, hopefully, it’ll redeem itself in the future.
✿ Few acid humor and double meaning dialogues here, had moments asking myself howtf was it even possible, they really got me. ''Groo got stoned and slept'' but he actually got stoned, became a stone for real lol
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3301368072
Conclusion:
This review sounds a little too negative and harsh, but I just wanted to highlight some points I don’t see people talking about and in my opinion, are somewhat important. I loved playing this game, felt massive most of the time, but ended up appreciating a lot of the little details of it. Truly wished it were more of a 'laid back' chill and cozy game, even tho there shouldn't be pressure to complete or anything, I felt a bit of it.
More updates will arrive in the future, and hopefully, they will fix and improve some quality-of-life aspects needed for a better-polished game in general.