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Happy Farm'n Friday! The weather was clear last weekend (i.e., wasn't soaking wet), so I put the anti-squirrel plan into action to protect the second round of Chinese Showa radish sprouts. Those dang tree rats destroyed the first batch of seedlings... grr...
The seedlings are now in a felt grow bag that I typically use for growing tomatoes, with an border of plastic leaf gutter guard around the interior edge of the bag to give some height to the next layer of protection. Then topped with deer guard netting clipped to the gutter guard with metal binder clips. The felt bag is deep enough to support the vertical growth of the radish root, as these grow into tall radishes (like daikon) rather than round radishes. There's plenty of space for the leaf growth too. I'd like to see a tree rat get through this crafty setup!
Last week was the release of Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure, a story-based entry to Natsume's long-time Reel Fishing game series. Road Trip is available for Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam for $29.99 USD.
The adventure starts out with three university students (Sean, Neil, and Alice) trying to decide on the topic for their group project. They head to the museum to clear their heads and come across a mysterious Legend fish painting. A man standing nearby overhears the friends discussing the art and tells them he knows a little bit about the artist. He directs the trio to a nearby town for more information, where they learn that the local fishing waters are full of trash that have kept away a lot of fish, including the mysterious Legend. Now it's up to them to clean up the water to entice the Legend to return.
Players mainly control Sean, the group's fishing fanatic. Sean does the casting and reeling, while Neil and Alice stay back at camp. Each "day" in the game starts at 10:00 am and ends at 3:00 pm, when Sean announces that it's time to return to camp; in real-time, a "day" lasts about 5 minutes. Sometimes I'll catch a few fish during the gameplay day, and other times I can snag up to 9 fish. If the time hits 3:00 pm and you're still fishing, the day won't end until you've reeled in your line.
Catching a fish is pretty clear; just toss out the line, wait for a bite, and then reel in the fish. There are two reeling options: a slow reel and a fast reel. The faster Sean reels in the line, the more tension there is. The line can break if there's too much strain on the fishing line, so it's a gentle back-and-forth between reeling, pausing to let the fish swim, reeling, and so on. When the fish is finally reeled in, Sean will take its picture and collect some trash from the river such as plastic bottles, string, lumber, and so on.
After returning to camp for the night, Neil can then use that trash to craft new rods, reels, and lures. New reels and rods make it much easier to catch fish, especially once Neil start getting into A-rank fishing tackle. Neil can also upgrade existing reels and rods, though with the amount of trash that Sean collects it's just easier to craft better equipment than to upgrade the tackle Sean already has. It does use less trash to upgrade equipment than to craft new equipment, but it's just a matter of fishing for a few days to collect enough materials to craft new stuff. The in-game shop also sells trash if you just need a few more pieces to craft the next-level of fishing tackle.
Alice dreams of being a chef, so she handles the dinner meals and snacks for the trio. Ingredients must be purchased from the in-game store (Sean doesn't bring home food, just trash) and are used after picking that night's meal. Alice has to cook every night, and can choose the no-ingredient Box Lunch if necessary. Each meal does add a benefit to Sean's day such as a stamina or EXP bonus for the next day.
After the friends go to bed for the night, their activities are tallied to increase their experience levels. Leveling up earns Ability Points that can be spent to unlock new friend features such as new recipes for Alice or additional lures for Neil. Sean's handiest ability is his Angler's Focus - a mini-game of sorts that triggers when fish jump out of the water while they're trying to escape. If the displayed buttons are press correctly, the fish goes dormant for a short time and allows fast reeling without concern for line tension.
The game's story is divided into chapters. After catching the necessary fish for that chapter, a scene will play back at camp that night. Some of the scenes are goofy, while some scenes are of the friends contemplating how they're going to spend the rest of their post-university lives. All the while the mystery of the Legend begins to reveal itself as the waters become cleaner.
The game itself does have some nice details to it for being a simple fishing game. The foliage at the fishing locations will move in the breeze, there's birds that fly across the screen every so often, and even the trio of friends will wear different clothes each day. Another detail is the game can be played in either English or Japanese; you just switch the language from the game's title screen.
Overall it is a fun little fishing game. If you've ever been interested in trying a fishing game, give this one a try! You can read more about the game on the platform pages:
There's a variety of Nintendo Switch digital games on sale, including a few farming games!
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North America
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Doraemon: Story of Seasons has finally dropped off the Famitsu's Top 30 Sales this week. But that crazy Fishing Spirits is still in the top 10! That must be a super fun fishing game if it beat out both Doraemon and Rune Factory 4 in the top-30 chart.
Until next time! - Cher (Gotta wake the Wind Fish soon!)Feedback: Add| << Previous | Next >> |