Coral Island Early Access Review – PC

This is an Early Access Review and as such opinions are based solely on the state of the game at the time of review and subject to change as development progresses leading up to final release.

For someone like myself, who has never been big on the likes of Stardew Valley, Coral Island does a great job of bringing players into the game without overwhelming them. In my first few hours with Stairway Game’s farming sim, I cleared out a small patch of land to farm, explored the first five levels of the mines (which feels very familiar), donated to my local museum, played around with some local folklore, flirted with the local singles (I’m split on Suki and Chaem), and cleaned up some trash on the bottom of the ocean. Finding success in each endeavor early, I never felt like I was wasting time. There was something to be gained with each activity. There are still some issues that need a good polish, and messaging about what is and is not currently in game could be clearer, but in its current state, Coral Island feels like a great foundation to build from.

Coral Island opens with you inheriting a farm on the titular island. This farm is huge. I started to hack away at trees and rocks on my property, clearing up some space for a nice little turnip patch. Upon zooming out, I realized the patch I had spent half a day clearing was barely a spec on the overview map of my farm. Opening the world map, you’re met with the large surrounding area, consisting of the town, parks, beaches, and the surrounding woods. The game does a great job of keeping everything from overwhelming players. New activities are introduced through missions that can be tracked in your journal. These missions don’t have to be completed as they are given but do give players a taste of other systems available. Anyone who has played Stardew Valley will feel right at home with a lot of the systems here.

The island setting is the perfect opportunity for a story about conservation. The locals are at odds with the new oil company in town, the cheekily named Pufferfish Organization. An early protest at the front door of Pufferfish’s new building really sets the mood and gives you a feel for this conflict bubbling up between the two sides. Trash and oil remnants from a previous oil spill litter the beaches and surrounding areas. This, along with the island facing a financial downfall (the result of all previous clean-up efforts), have blemished the island’s public image and resulted in an overall F town ranking. Coral Island isn’t the first game to feature a “save the town” gameplay aspect to it, but it is one where the themes and activities feel closely related. You’ll donate items to the local museum, leave resources at shrines for the Gods, and pick up trash at the bottom of the ocean, all in the name of improving the town’s ranking and fighting back Pufferfish. While the first two are derivatives of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, diving the ocean floor, slashing trash, and looking for beacons feels new (even if it shares some similarities with mining.)

When not trying to streamline the perfect carrot farm set-up or fighting pollution in the ocean’s depths, players can look for love with 25 singles on Coral Island. With a roster of over 50 characters currently in the game, I was still running into new people two weeks after moving to the island. Upon writing this review, I still believe I haven’t met everyone who calls the island home. These characters are diverse, with no two feeling similar. I appreciated the level of detail in each character’s development. From Eva appearing to work multiple jobs across the island, to Suki running the local inn with her sister and being a single mom. There is someone here for everyone. The game keeps a pretty good journal of all the characters you meet, with how many hearts you’ve achieved with them, their likes and dislikes, and basic info you’ve learned through your interactions. You can also find where a character is on the world map at any point. As someone who wandered around in early Animal Crossing titles looking for a specific villager, this is a timesaver.

There are some edges to Coral Island that could use some rounding. This is the most evident in the combat. Exploring the mines, there were a handful of encounters where sword swings didn’t land on attacks that felt like they should have. Fighting between obstacles, such as rocks or minerals also got messy, with some hits landing and most having no effect. The special events on the island promise a break from your usual happenings. The Cherry Blossom Festival gives you the opportunity to compete in a sack race and converse with your neighbors, otherwise events like this currently feel bare boned in their current state.

Coral Island is more than a Stardew Valley with a different artstyle. This game looks great. Character models all move differently from one another, from the arm swings to the different activities they can be found doing around the island. All this adding more detail and diversity to the already well fleshed out cast. The environments evoke the four seasons with ease. The game looks its finest on rainy days, with water droplets hitting each service and puddles gathering in my field.

In its early access period, Coral Island proves that it is more than just a good looking Stardew Valley clone. With a large variety of things to do and people to meet, players will lose hours perfecting their farm and making love connections. It has its share of issues, but through updates and recent hotfixes, the dev has started polishing out some bugs and looking toward the future as the game makes its way to 1.0. Coral Island has set itself up to be a chill island stay for sim nuts and newbies alike.

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Author: Nick Coffman
Nick is a Chicago Comedy writer whose first gaming memory is the "drowning imminent" music from Sonic 2. He was able to recover from that traumatic experience and now writes game reviews. He recently built his first PC and now uses it exclusively to play small indie titles.

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