Again opting for a slower paced game after Sifu, this is a simple fishing game that I’ve heard good things about. The twist is that it’s also a horror game with distinctly Lovecraftian vibes. There’s no combat so the gameplay really is just about fishing or carrying things around in your boat but nasty things start happening if you stay out too long in the water after dark and you can die. It’s a short game and that’s usually a plus with me these days as that means it doesn’t force you to grind meaninglessly to reach its ending. I like it.

While sailing to the town of Greater Marrow, you are caught in a storm and tossed overboard. When you come to, you are met by the Mayor of the town who announces that your boat has been destroyed. Fortunately he offers you a replacement boat on credit and lets you work off your debt as a fisherman by selling your catch to the local Fishmonger. The job seems simple enough and the waters around the temperate Marrows are safe and unexciting. But if you linger on the water after dark, a mysterious fog will roll in and you’ll start hearing and seeing strange things. Sooner rather than later while fishing, instead of a normal fish, you’ll catch a horribly mutated aberration. Furthermore you’ll find messages in bottles that recount the tragic story of a newlywed wife and her husband. A mysterious Collector who lives on his own island asks you to retrieve a series of objects that seem to be linked to these messages and this quest will take you to each of the regions of the archipelago.

It’s not hard to see where the story is going with this. It is a Lovecraftian game, so there’s only ever one way things could end. In the meantime, you have a lot of fishing and sailing to do. The controls are simple and the fishing minigame isn’t any more involved even with small variations for each species of fish. Crabbing is just a matter of dropping the pots and coming to check for it later. To trawl, you just activate the piece of equipment and it passively catches fish while you sail around. Probably the hardest minigame is dredging because you need to restart from the beginning every time you fail and some of the rotating dials move very fast. If you’re attacked, all you can do is try to escape or use the power that you get later to temporarily banish enemies. That’s pretty much it in terms of gameplay mechanics.

Despite the horror overtones, staying out at sea never feels that dangerous. There’s no food or fuel meter so there’s no survival pressure. Ports to shelter for the night are plentiful and you don’t even need to pay money to rest. The biggest annoyance is that your boat is very fragile and even the lightest bump will cause damage. All too often, a single collision might put your engine out of commission, forcing you to slowly limp your way back to a port with a shipyard. I usually just end up reloading the last save if this happens. With no time limit and no maintenance costs, there’s nothing stopping the player from playing cautiously to inevitably complete the game.

You do get the usual upgrade cycle as you work to improve your dinky little boat to, well, a somewhat bigger boat. Each region has a different biome with different species of fish to catch, different threats and even different topology, which might be surprising given that this all takes place on the water. The Stellar Basin region for example consists of a circular set of islands around a central basin in the middle of which resides a giant monster. Each biome requires different fishing equipment, giving you a reason to upgrade your gear, and of course there are quests as well which serve to relate the local stories.

All in all, this is not unlike the typical RPG experience, except that it’s fishing and there’s no combat. The cartoonish graphics work well to represent this mini-world and though the mechanics are nothing like real fishing, it’s cute to fill entries in your fish encyclopedia. Completionists will want to catch every species but I was content to just finish the main quest. It’s a short game that achieves exactly what it sets out to do, has a nice, relaxing pace despite the horror vibes and there just aren’t that many games with boats yet. That makes it a winner to me.