Topic: Fishing Star World Tour

Bought this on a whim tonight as I felt I needed something with a really comfy vibe (and the fact that it gets me in the mood for Spring certainly helps too, as I've just had it with this Winter...), and it's left a really good impression so far.

Gameplay wise it's firmly on the more arcadey side of things, with a snappy pick up and play style that gets you in on the action pretty quickly. As you catch new fish you'll unlock different Rods (which have different stats, though seems to be mostly a case of newer is generally better), Lures (each one is compatible with certain fish, but not others, so as you unlock more you'll want to go back to previous fishing spots to see if you can catch any fish that weren't attracted to your previous Lures), and Reels (haven't unlocked any outside of the standard one you start with, so I'm not sure what it affects).

There appear to be 8 islands in the game, each with multiple fishing locations (the first island had 5, so if all islands have the same amount, that'll be a minimum of 40 different fishing spots, each one with it's own unique selection of fish). Most fish seem to be real world species, though the final fishing location on the first island had a mythical "Boss" fish mixed into it's selection, so I'm sure the other islands will follow suit. Each fish can be caught in four different sizes (1 star up to 4 stars), and there seems to be advanced achievements (and I'm sure rewards) for catching every type of fish in an area with a 4 star rank (though I doubt this'll need to be done for basic completion). You can view each type of fish you've caught in the "Fish Book", which does track certain stats as well (such as the largest size ranking you've caught of each fish, as well as the total number of times you've caught each fish, though unfortunately it doesn't have a small fact filled blurb of each fish, which I would have appreciated).

Graphically it looks really nice, with a very colorful pallet that really pops on the Switch's screen. The first fishing locations were pretty standard thematically, but still stood out from each other in terms of scenery (such as one that had blooming Sakura in the background complete with petals floating in the water, while another one had cascading waterfalls in the distance), and from what I can tell things are set to get more unique the further you get.

@RR529 I was wondering if you'd played more of it in the meantime. I saw it on the eShop, and I was wondering if it was any good.

@Octane, yeah it was pretty fun, though you'll probably see most everything the game has to offer after a few days. The motion controls are even pretty fun most of the time (you just don't want to use them on the "boss" or other high level fish).

I completed the "World Tour" mode easily enough, and caught most fish, but I gave up catching all the Legendary class fish (there's 8, one in each world) after I got about half of them. I had the strongest rods & reels in the game, but no combination seemed to work on the later ones (I either had enough power to reel them in, but not enough strength to keep my line from snapping, or vice versa). They're like the last 1% of the game though, so not that big of a deal. Other than that, the biggest reason to keep playing is long term goals such as catching a total of 100, 200, 300, etc. fish, which look like they unlock new lures (I hit the 200 mark simply playing, but didn't go out of my way to achieve the others. I think the highest reward is for like 800 total fish).

Heck, even though I don't own one to try it out, it even has a mode for the LABO fishing rod, which as far as I know, makes it the only 3rd party release with LABO support.

The $30 asking price may be a bit much for most people though.

@RR529 Are the motion controls mandatory?

Yeah, €30 is a bit steep. Maybe it'll come down in price soon. I've put it on my wishlist just in case.

@Octane, Nope. It has traditional controls as well (plus, the motion controls have options for right or left handed, if that's of any interest).