It's crazy how I am still hooked with this video game since the first time launch. I don't feel bored yet, and the update really does it well in maintaining that. For example, there are two farm that we can have and just the idea of it makes me feel "Oh then I'm gonna spend most of my times for just farming" which is not true due to the automation feature around them. Amazing game. I hope I can stop playing this game by the 4th year though otherwise I have no time to play other games lol.

recommended

So many good things, but it is just so unoptimized, clunky, and a total pain to navigate, both the world and the menus. Everything feels too slow, too much clicking, not enough QOL shortcuts that many other games in the genre have. The controls are also very awkward. This game is super unique, pretty, and the characters are all really cool looking in their portraits. I even know there's undersea portions and diving, which is awesome!

I so badly want to love this game, because I have always wanted a farming game with an ocean focus. However it's just such a pain to play, it doesn't feel good. The town is far too big for its own good, navigating around takes absolutely forever. I also don't quite see a reason we can't buy at shops if the person is not there. It makes trying to farm or do... anything really an issue when I just stand around waiting for the NPC to come back, or run over there at 6am and wait outside for them to open. This was a gripe many of us had in SDV, and I got spoiled with 24/7 shops in Fields of Mistria, so I'm sure there's others who wouldn't mind the planning aspect. It's just tough when actions already feel like they take a million years, and then by the time i'm done the npc isn't even in the store anymore :/

I will keep giving it a try, but I've already not played it since it was new, and it doesn't feel much different on this front sadly, so I can't say I recommend it when it's still so aggravating to actually play the game and make progress.

I adoooooore Coral Island. First off, the island is STUNNING, the whole place feels alive. And the whole environmental theme, chef’s kiss. It’s cool to see a game that not only lets you build a cute little farm life but also makes you feel like you’re making a difference by restoring the island and its coral reefs. The characters too, I love the designs and they’re all so unique and fun to get to know. I actually care about their stories.
But let’s talk about the fashion. Listen, I love dressing up my character, but the clothing options are… lacking. There are a few goth-style outfits, but they’re either a little weird or just not as appealing as I’d like. And here’s the thing—I’ve seen two NPCs rocking amazing goth looks, so I don’t get why the store options aren’t on the same level. Also, some of the clothes fit weirdly on my character, like they change my body shape or don’t sit right. It’s just a small thing, but it bugs me.
Also, tattoos! I saw Rysy, that stunning stingray merfolk lady, and now I’m desperate for some ink. How cool would it be to customize my character with tattoos? It’d add so much personality and style.
Another thing is pets. Don’t get me wrong, I love my little furballs, but the interactions are pretty limited. It’s basically just petting, and that’s it. I’d love to see more ways to bond with them, like feeding them or be able to walk around with them. Make them feel like a real part of the island life :)
Oh, and let me sit on the chairs and benches, PLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. The island is so beautiful, and I just want to chill on a bench to take some screenshots.
Also, it’d be so fun if I could emote to characters and have them react. Imagine waving at someone and they wave back, or doing a little dance and them laughing. It’d make the world feel even more alive.
But overall, yeah, I REALLY enjoy it, the colors, the vibes, the little details—it’s all so immersive. I literally spend hours just wandering around, farming, diving, cleaning up the ocean AND romancing my favourites, heh :)

I was growing bored with farming sims constantly having a vaguely American environment, so seeing the cultural influences of Southeast Asia/Indonesia was a breath of fresh air. The art direction by David Ardinaryas Lojaya is phenomenal and is an undeniable highlight of the game; all the characters’ portraits are gorgeously rendered in 2D illustrations, with each one coming across as charming and alluring. The world is extremely detailed and colourful, with its 3D Pixar/Disney style ensuring that the game will age gracefully.

Coral Island’s gameplay doesn’t invent the wheel — the “can I copy your homework?” memes re: Stardew Valley are correct. But Coral Island introduces enough new systems and perks to avoid being stale. Coral Island’s messages of environmentalism, culture and community is baked into it’s gameplay/the environment, making progressing through the game both satisfying and addictive aside from just farming. While the cast of characters is large and a bit shallow, each one is diverse and impressionable enough to easily identity.

I think Coral Island’s most egregious failing is that it’s obvious it came out of early-access *too early*. While the 1.1 Update was commendable, and I want to praise the developers for giving us such a beefy update that added new content AND revamped stories/systems, there are some areas in the game that are so obviously unfinished that it’s actively irritating to me. ie: NPCs for the Halloween event not having costumes (almost a year after launch), a tattoo shop in the MerKingdom that does nothing, glitching babies that never age beyond the crib (why are babies always glitchy and horrible in farming sims?), the New Year event feels so incredibly lacking, a laundry list of really odd glitches that I experienced on Steam Deck, etc. There are also some aspects of the game that are overwhelmingly convoluted or grind-y — such as the collecting aspects of the game (bugs, fish, fossils) and quite literal gatchya machines.

Overall a charming and cozy game that I do love to play, especially when I’m sick! But there are some glaring issues that stop it from being an evolution of Stardew Valley.

One of my favorite games I've ever played. It is now my favorite farming sim.

I came to Coral Island because of the reviews and the way it's recommended for fans of Stardew Valley. And while it has all the things a Stardew Valley fan might be looking for- you can farm, you can romance one of quite a few options, there are adorable events that take place on the calendar, there's a museum- the reason I can't recommend it is because of what it *doesn't* have.

This game feels too clean, too design-by-committee. Even the little cutscenes that are alluding to the Kickstarter campaign to get the museum up and running feel self-congratulatory. There's an entire undersea world, it's true, but once you unlock it, there's a farm there- and you get a bunch of quests that revolve around tending *that* farm. This game manages, somehow, to feel busy, and stressful, in a game genre which should be anything but.

It's missing that pervasive feeling of peace that Stardew has captured so well. Is it a good game, well built, well crafted? Sure. But it's so busy trying to nail so many aspects that it doesn't stop to relax.

I think if they hadn't tied the system wherein you clean the sea to so many other things- or maybe they hadn't made the sea being clean fully attached to unlocking the sea farm- I wouldn't have this massive complaint. But the game encourages you to progress, progress, progress. It encourages you to get the next 'unlockable' series. And then when you are, and you're doing that, it unlocks more *work,* and that's the thing that crippled it for me. I wasn't having *fun.* I just needed some seaweed, and now I have a whole other farm to tend, and quests tied to it.

I know Stardew has the farm on the island. But getting there doesn't unlock quests for the farm that take you away from your *main* farm. It doesn't try and force you into a grind. That's the main difference. "I have so much I still want to do on my main farm, but to get these quests completed, I need to be here, in the sea." It becomes *work.*

I think a lot of people are going to love it. Obviously I have a vibes-based problem. Not everyone will. I just wanted to add to the very positive reviews one that wasn't.

It's a very cute, heavily Stardew-Valley-Influence South East Asian life-sim and farming game with a lot to do and discover. Our headmate Fuurin likes that it has mermaids, too!

i need to do blasphemous things to raf and mark

If you like hot, dateable, unique characters with lots of cute pets and a side of farming, play this. LMAO I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH