Nice Day for Fishing Review
In the land of Azerim is the small town of Honeywood. For many adventures it is the gateway to grand adventures that will take you to undiscovered locations, however, something has gone wrong. Something has gone seriously wrong. Perhaps it was an evil spell, or gods playing with mortals, but all of the players have suddenly disappeared. Only the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) remain. An evil darkness is unleashed and it looks like all is doomed for Azerim, but wait, what is this? The local fisherman Baelin, a man who just wants a “Nice Day for Fishing”, is acting differently, something has happened to him, perhaps there is some outside force that wants to right the wrongs and has put all its trust on Baelin’s shoulders. Well, no matter what, that’s what we’ll go with. You see, you’re going to play this side-scrolling RPG as Baelin. All your skills will be needed as you learn to master his fishing rods. You will be asked by villagers to retrieve certain fish and certain artifacts that have become lost in three different bodies of water. You’ll be granted special skills that will allow you to do battle with the fish and hopefully live long enough to reel them all the way in.
If you’ve ever seen any of Viva La Dirt League’s stuff the name Baelin should sound very familiar, as will all of the inhabitants of Honeywood. You’ll also get many of the iconic lines that you have either grown to love or hate, depending on the character saying them. If you haven’t seen any of Viva La Dirt League’s work, a lot of the humor might not fall as well, but this is still a solid game to play. For those of you who are curious, I put in 13 hours before I saw the credits roll. I could have played longer, I could have tried to be a completionist, but I gave up on such dreams many years ago.
As I stated, this is a pretty solid game, but there are a couple of things that I wish I could improve upon. The first is a better way of reminding the player where and in what body of water certain building supplies can be found. Those supplies can be a real pain to get at, especially those that are deep underwater, and there’s a very good chance you’re going to need multiples of those supplies which can become tedious. I also wish that there was somewhere, other than the ocean god statue, to review what bait you need to use to catch certain fish.
Speaking of catching fish, and yes that’s the main part of the game, I do feel that some of the fish were a much bigger pain to catch than others, but if you’ve actually ever gone fishing you’d know that there are fish that fight more than others, so you just have to grin and bear it. I did appreciate that most fish have a specific bait (onions, nuts, berries, fairies, etc), but there are those fish out there that will definitely give you that middle finger and attack ANY bait. There are also, a little later in the game, mutated fish that you can catch and collect their scales for special items.
At the end of the day this isn’t an overly complicated game. The game has its fair share of upgrades and different items to use to give you the best gaming experience, and yes there are parts that will frustrate you, there will be parts that (as long as you have bait) you might find therapeutic, and there are parts that will give you a sense of accomplishment. If you’re looking for a game full of blood and gore, or super high level strategy, you’re not going to like this game, but if you’re looking for something that I think most would enjoy, you definitely need to take a look at this game.