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estiroseI'm partially through a playthrough of Coral Island's latest version. I haven't 'finished' the game yet (as finished as a cozy game gets) but I'm getting the hang of it.
Putting a lot under a cut because while I'm going to endeavor to keep the spoilers to a minimum, they're still going to be there.
So this game is definitely descended from Stardew Valley and therefore has some familiar elements. You'll be mining (with some combat), farming, ranching, fishing... the usual Stardew Valley stuff. The main plot is that you, yes you the random person learning to farm for the first time is responsible for restoring Starlet Town to its former glory (that is, Town Rank A/S).
And then there's the changed/new stuff.
Town Rank: You will love Town Rank. You will hate Town Rank. Town Rank basically controls what you have access to. It is essentially a form of the Stardew Valley Perfection mechanism, except that you don't have to Cook All The Dishes or Make All The Things. You will start at Town Rank F and must work on things from there.
Town rank is determined by progress in three areas: Museum Collection, Ocean Restoration, and Heritage. Museum Collection is mostly donating insects/critters/fish/fossils/gems/artifacts to the museum, though you do get some points for a quest and for completing one of the collections. Ocean Restoration is basically clearing trash from the ocean floor and healing it from oil stains, though you get some points from related events. And heritage is mostly completing the Community Center equivalent (no Joja route here!), with some points earned for completing a certain number of bundles and completing an entire section.
Once you go up a town rank, you will get access to more things. For example, getting to Town Rank E grants you access to more crops, the ability to adopt a pet (optional), more access to farm animals, and the local clothing store opens.
Skills: Coral Island has 8 to Stardew's 5. The Stardew Valley farming skill splits into two: Farming and Ranching. Fishing, Mining, Combat, and Foraging are pretty much the same. There are also two new skills, Catching (bug/critter catching) and Diving (cleaning up the ocean floor). Each skill goes up to 10 and every 2 levels you get a point that you can spend on a perk. You also get increased stamina/health every time you gain a level in any skill - not much, 3 each, but still - and the ability to craft more items.
Mining: There are 4 "shafts", corresponding to the four elements. The first mine is earth and you can get bronze ore from it, the 2nd is water and you can get silver ore, 3rd is air and you get gold ore, and 4th is fire and you get osmium ore. You'll also help some supernatural creatures (the giants, which are related in plot to the Community Center-type quest).
Upgrading tools: Mostly the same as Stardew, except you'll need 20 wood/hardwood for some reason on each upgrade. Most of the standard farming tools you'll upgrade at the blacksmith with metal ingots, but fishing rods and catching nets are upgraded elsewhere and require kelp essence instead.
Fishing: You can upgrade your rod regardless of your fishing level, assuming you have the money/kelp essence. Instead of the "keep the fish in the green bar" of Stardew, the fishing mechanic here is pulling the fish closer to you while not letting you line go too tense - closer to My Time at Portia's fishing mechanic (with a touch of Fantasy Life's). Also, time passes while you're pulling fish in.
Ranching: Close to Stardew's (animals will eat grass when outside), with some differences. Doors auto-close each evening and must be opened each morning. Auto-feeder is independent of enlarging your barn/coop. There's a wider variety of animals - not just Stardew's animals, but peafowls and llamas. Later animals will only produce every couple of days, so you will not be able to get rich buying lots of pigs (they will only produce a truffle every 3 days, and only if they can go outside). The heater equivalent is essential to not having sick farm animals.
Diving: Diving is a new mechanic where you clean up trash in an area, trigger a machine to clean up the oil, rinse and repeat. As you clean up areas, you can get deeper and deeper in the ocean (admittedly, not deep deep - 80m or so) and harvest rarer and rarer kelps.
Festivals: Two per season. Almost of them have mini games you can win/place in for prizes/points.
Spring: Cherry Blossom Potluck and Tree Planting Festival. The Cherry Blossom Potluck is essentially the game's Luau, with a sack race minigame and the Tree Planting festival is basically planting trees (you get to keep the stuff you clean up) for the first 3 years - presumably after year 3 it's just socializing with your friends and neighbors.
Summer: Animal Festival and Beach Cleanup Day. The Animal Festival is kind of meh the first year as most of the events require you to have animals (one for cows, one for chickens, one for pets), but there is a mechanical bull minigame that I think is quite fun. I did enjoy the animal-based ones once I had animals in year 2, but my pet and I hadn't really bonded for the pet race. Beach Cleanup is not like the Tree Planting, it's mostly minigames with a cutscene showing people cleaning up the beach.
Fall/Autumn: Harvest Festival and Spooky Day. The Harvest Festival is basically the Stardew Valley Fair. You have one opponent (an egotistical nepotist named Bobby) but he's tough. Save your gold and silver melons in Summer for this one for year one; year 2 you'll probably have better stuff to beat him with, but his stuff also becomes higher quality. Spooky Day is similar to its Stardew Valley counterpart, except the minigames are ring toss and whack-a-mole, and instead of a haunted maze, you'll be doing a scavenger hunt.
Winter: Winter Fair and New Year's Eve Fest. Winter Fair is very similar to the Stardew Valley version, but it's 5 days long and has minigames. My favorite is the Curling game. The New Year's Eve Fest is not anywhere near the Feast of the Winter Star; it has a lucky wheel that you can spin (apparently up to 3x) for some small prizes, one mini-game, and you watch fireworks.
Quality Items/Some machines: Instead of getting better quality produce/crops/tree fruits by going up in skill, Coral Island has you use the lab to research better-quality items. These all require a certain amount of money + kelp essence. You can also research certain farm machines (everything from sprinkler enhancements to machines for your barn/coop to a computer and artisan machine automation tools), requiring various supplies.
There are 4 categories that you can enhance: seeds, saplings, seedlings, and hay. Seeds are the regular seeds that you can grow in the ground; saplings are kind of temporary trees that only take 10 days to grow but die at the end of the last season they can grow in. Seedlings are more permanent trees. Hay affects animal product quality.
Artisan machines and automation: While there is a mid-game chest that essentially automates production of artisan machines (including your furnace!), the artisan machines themselves have a little automation from the start compared to their Stardew equivalents. For example, you can load the materials for up to 5 ingots at a time. Artisan machines all work the same way, including the beehouse (you load flowers and get honey).
Cooking: You really have to buy equipment at the local cooking store to be effective - it's not like Stardew where you get a kitchen at the 2nd level of your house and can cook any recipe you know. On the other hand, you don't have to have a recipe to cook things, so if you need a smoothie and don't have the recipe (it's one fruit or veggie, I believe), you just select the right tool and the right ingredients.
And that's about all for the moment, haha.
Putting a lot under a cut because while I'm going to endeavor to keep the spoilers to a minimum, they're still going to be there.
So this game is definitely descended from Stardew Valley and therefore has some familiar elements. You'll be mining (with some combat), farming, ranching, fishing... the usual Stardew Valley stuff. The main plot is that you, yes you the random person learning to farm for the first time is responsible for restoring Starlet Town to its former glory (that is, Town Rank A/S).
And then there's the changed/new stuff.
Town Rank: You will love Town Rank. You will hate Town Rank. Town Rank basically controls what you have access to. It is essentially a form of the Stardew Valley Perfection mechanism, except that you don't have to Cook All The Dishes or Make All The Things. You will start at Town Rank F and must work on things from there.
Town rank is determined by progress in three areas: Museum Collection, Ocean Restoration, and Heritage. Museum Collection is mostly donating insects/critters/fish/fossils/gems/artifacts to the museum, though you do get some points for a quest and for completing one of the collections. Ocean Restoration is basically clearing trash from the ocean floor and healing it from oil stains, though you get some points from related events. And heritage is mostly completing the Community Center equivalent (no Joja route here!), with some points earned for completing a certain number of bundles and completing an entire section.
Once you go up a town rank, you will get access to more things. For example, getting to Town Rank E grants you access to more crops, the ability to adopt a pet (optional), more access to farm animals, and the local clothing store opens.
Skills: Coral Island has 8 to Stardew's 5. The Stardew Valley farming skill splits into two: Farming and Ranching. Fishing, Mining, Combat, and Foraging are pretty much the same. There are also two new skills, Catching (bug/critter catching) and Diving (cleaning up the ocean floor). Each skill goes up to 10 and every 2 levels you get a point that you can spend on a perk. You also get increased stamina/health every time you gain a level in any skill - not much, 3 each, but still - and the ability to craft more items.
Mining: There are 4 "shafts", corresponding to the four elements. The first mine is earth and you can get bronze ore from it, the 2nd is water and you can get silver ore, 3rd is air and you get gold ore, and 4th is fire and you get osmium ore. You'll also help some supernatural creatures (the giants, which are related in plot to the Community Center-type quest).
Upgrading tools: Mostly the same as Stardew, except you'll need 20 wood/hardwood for some reason on each upgrade. Most of the standard farming tools you'll upgrade at the blacksmith with metal ingots, but fishing rods and catching nets are upgraded elsewhere and require kelp essence instead.
Fishing: You can upgrade your rod regardless of your fishing level, assuming you have the money/kelp essence. Instead of the "keep the fish in the green bar" of Stardew, the fishing mechanic here is pulling the fish closer to you while not letting you line go too tense - closer to My Time at Portia's fishing mechanic (with a touch of Fantasy Life's). Also, time passes while you're pulling fish in.
Ranching: Close to Stardew's (animals will eat grass when outside), with some differences. Doors auto-close each evening and must be opened each morning. Auto-feeder is independent of enlarging your barn/coop. There's a wider variety of animals - not just Stardew's animals, but peafowls and llamas. Later animals will only produce every couple of days, so you will not be able to get rich buying lots of pigs (they will only produce a truffle every 3 days, and only if they can go outside). The heater equivalent is essential to not having sick farm animals.
Diving: Diving is a new mechanic where you clean up trash in an area, trigger a machine to clean up the oil, rinse and repeat. As you clean up areas, you can get deeper and deeper in the ocean (admittedly, not deep deep - 80m or so) and harvest rarer and rarer kelps.
Festivals: Two per season. Almost of them have mini games you can win/place in for prizes/points.
Spring: Cherry Blossom Potluck and Tree Planting Festival. The Cherry Blossom Potluck is essentially the game's Luau, with a sack race minigame and the Tree Planting festival is basically planting trees (you get to keep the stuff you clean up) for the first 3 years - presumably after year 3 it's just socializing with your friends and neighbors.
Summer: Animal Festival and Beach Cleanup Day. The Animal Festival is kind of meh the first year as most of the events require you to have animals (one for cows, one for chickens, one for pets), but there is a mechanical bull minigame that I think is quite fun. I did enjoy the animal-based ones once I had animals in year 2, but my pet and I hadn't really bonded for the pet race. Beach Cleanup is not like the Tree Planting, it's mostly minigames with a cutscene showing people cleaning up the beach.
Fall/Autumn: Harvest Festival and Spooky Day. The Harvest Festival is basically the Stardew Valley Fair. You have one opponent (an egotistical nepotist named Bobby) but he's tough. Save your gold and silver melons in Summer for this one for year one; year 2 you'll probably have better stuff to beat him with, but his stuff also becomes higher quality. Spooky Day is similar to its Stardew Valley counterpart, except the minigames are ring toss and whack-a-mole, and instead of a haunted maze, you'll be doing a scavenger hunt.
Winter: Winter Fair and New Year's Eve Fest. Winter Fair is very similar to the Stardew Valley version, but it's 5 days long and has minigames. My favorite is the Curling game. The New Year's Eve Fest is not anywhere near the Feast of the Winter Star; it has a lucky wheel that you can spin (apparently up to 3x) for some small prizes, one mini-game, and you watch fireworks.
Quality Items/Some machines: Instead of getting better quality produce/crops/tree fruits by going up in skill, Coral Island has you use the lab to research better-quality items. These all require a certain amount of money + kelp essence. You can also research certain farm machines (everything from sprinkler enhancements to machines for your barn/coop to a computer and artisan machine automation tools), requiring various supplies.
There are 4 categories that you can enhance: seeds, saplings, seedlings, and hay. Seeds are the regular seeds that you can grow in the ground; saplings are kind of temporary trees that only take 10 days to grow but die at the end of the last season they can grow in. Seedlings are more permanent trees. Hay affects animal product quality.
Artisan machines and automation: While there is a mid-game chest that essentially automates production of artisan machines (including your furnace!), the artisan machines themselves have a little automation from the start compared to their Stardew equivalents. For example, you can load the materials for up to 5 ingots at a time. Artisan machines all work the same way, including the beehouse (you load flowers and get honey).
Cooking: You really have to buy equipment at the local cooking store to be effective - it's not like Stardew where you get a kitchen at the 2nd level of your house and can cook any recipe you know. On the other hand, you don't have to have a recipe to cook things, so if you need a smoothie and don't have the recipe (it's one fruit or veggie, I believe), you just select the right tool and the right ingredients.
And that's about all for the moment, haha.
