If you’ve heard of or played games such as Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, then you have a pretty good idea of the kind of gameplay you’ll find in the new life/farming sim called Coral Island. This low-pressure, casual game focuses on farming, fishing, digging, building, mining, bartering, and making lots of new friends on a pretty little island.
Things begin when your character—which you construct from a variety of body shapes, sizes and skin tones—makes his or her way to a lovely tropical island to start a new life. And it just so happens that this lush place is in need of someone just like you.
The community has suffered from some natural and corporate disasters as of late. There are odd tentacled growths and dark corruptions here and there. And on top of that, a grasping oil corporation is attempting to turn Coral Island’s Starlet Town into an oil-drilling base—already causing an oil spill that devastated the local vacation-focused economy.
It’s your job to initially revitalize a dilapidated little farm. It’s littered with rocks, old trees and trash. The farm requires a lot of elbow grease and time to set it right. And while you start that digging and farming process, you’ll also begin reinforcing the local economy, start cleaning up the island, and revitalizing the tourist trade.
Of course, you’ll need to do more than just grow vegetables and sell them at the market. You also collect minerals and fight monsters in multi-level mines. You’ll clean the island and the surrounding waters of plastic and trash; go deep sea diving and exploring; build and upgrade your house; collect resources for crafting; and deal with the island’s mysterious (and not-so-mysterious) environmental corruptions. Along the way, you can also choose to make friends, or even romance, many of the very attractive island residents.
Coral Island can be played in single player mode, with the option to play in one of two multiplayer modes: online multiplayer and local split-screen co-op. The game can support up to four players.
The island and character graphics are very pretty and appealing. And the game, while often grinding, is easy to slip into and enjoy as you build your farm, better your community and clean up the environment around you.
The optional relationship building side of the game isn’t necessarily deep or complicated, but the characters you meet all have their own backstories. And if given time, they can not only blossom into friendships, but into romance, marriage and raising a family.
Those potential romantic relationships can be male and female or same sex. We see the characters kissing. Since this is an island community, many of the male and female NPCs show up in swimsuits and bikinis that display their toned forms. There are muscular mermen and mermaids in the mix as well.
And as those mentioned mer-people would imply, the game also crosses over into mystical and fantastic realms.
Part of the island’s corruption stems from a foul spiritual influence in the land. To set things aright, players must locate sacred trees and mystic tablets and make offerings of crops and other items to a goddess at a local temple. This nature-focused goddess unlocks our “third eye” so that we can read the strange old language on those stone tablets and other signs.
Players also discover and interact with mystical giants, monsters and other mythical figures. Down in mines and caverns, players encounter and battle monsters that range from blobs and flying skulls to large green ogres. (There’s nothing overly violent or bloody.)
The local tavern offers adult beverages to its patrons, and they (and we) can take part in a new drink taste test (though there are no apparent inebriating effects). There also is what appears to be a chicken fight set up during a local animal festival. (We don’t see the chickens battle.)
Coral Island is a laidback, fun and lightly grinding diversion for those who enjoy immersing themselves in a tropical farming sim community. But parents of younger fans should note that it’s not all kids’ play.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
