Coral Island is a game that I’ve put so many hours into but I just can’t recommend it in its current state. The game has been out long enough that it should be in a recommendable state but the game is so poorly optimized. I was an original backer for the game and two years later there are still so many unfulfilled promises, and we might get a single update a year so the Kickstarter promises might be fulfilled by 2028 which is unacceptable.

The game is beautiful, I love a lot of the romance characters and I even like the impact of cleaning the ocean but everything just feels like it takes too long to start making money, fishing is unenjoyable until you upgrade your rod to at least Gold quality.

I like the new hangout system once you get to two hearts with a romance character but marriage still seems pointless when the biggest feature of the kickstarter was that the kids grow up and that’s a few updates away meaning it’s a few years away from being implemented.

Island hopping was also a big Kickstarter goal and it’s not even mentioned on the current Roadmap. The lack of communication by the developers is atrocious, the only posts on Twitter is an annoying back and forth between Stairway Games posting gifs of the game and the Coral Island Twitter account replying with emojis.

It’s so unfortunate how much potential this game has and how massive of a success the Kickstarter was and a lot of the goals still aren’t even implemented. The game still feels like it’s in Early Access even though it’s been in 1.0 for nearly Two Years. I’d recommend waiting for more updates, but because the updates are once a year, you’ll be waiting a long time to actually play the complete game that was promised…

Too many bugs and crash

I’ve spent almost 90h in this game and decided it's time to write a review for it. To make it very short: I definitely recommend it!

A few more details:

First and foremost, the game is a lot of fun and the huge amount of content makes it feel endless. The devs put a lot of effort into it, and it shows. I'm a huge fan of the art style and I also love getting to know all the characters.

There are quite some similarities to Stardew Valley, but if you're a fan of farming simulators, this won't bother you. Besides that, the game does manage to find its own identity as you progress through it.

I know some people complained about it, but I didn't encounter a lot of bugs in my 90h of playing. I also really love the message this game is sending.

So, that's that, now back to playing, cause I still have a lot to to on my farm 💪