Alexia Unplugged

I don’t think I will ever get tired of farming life sims, and I don’t think game developers will ever get tired of making them. There are countless reiterations of the genre of farming crops and making friends. Stardew Valley emerged in 2016 and quickly took its place as the new industry standard of farming life sims. Many popular new games such as Sun Haven and My Time at Portia feature similar whimsical, lore-rich gameplay that people just can’t get enough of. Coral Island is another of these cozy titles that was released in Early Access in October 2022 by Stairway Games.

However, while Coral Island is heavily inspired by the “classic” farming life sims, it deserves to shine outside of Stardew Valley’s shadow. I’m skeptical of early access games, but I was tempted by Coral Island’s gorgeous, well-designed NPCs and the promise of mermaids in the next big update in the fall. As of now, I have over 30 hours of play time and, even though it has many shortcomings in its early access stage, I’m kind of obsessed. To the average cozy game enthusiast, Coral Island might seem like it’s essentially a bigger, more magical Stardew Valley in a different art style. And yes, it does feature many of the same mechanics and story setup as many games in the same genre, but it’s so much more than just a Stardew clone with fancier graphics.

NPC “Townie” Design

I was immediately impressed by some key differences to Stardew Valley. The game starts pretty stereotypically, with the player leaving their corporate job in the city, Pokyo, for a slower life as a farmer in Starlet Town. The welcome cut scene was familiar, with the mayor and the local carpenters welcoming you to your new home, which has become dilapidated from disuse. The difference, though, was that in this farming sim, the mayor and carpenters were clearly Asian, and not the usual conventionally beautiful design I’m used to seeing in video games. I was even more pleasantly surprised when I found that all the characters have cute swimsuits and depict a variety of body types.

Games that normally follow the “cottagecore” aesthetic and appeal to the desire for a slower life are usually set in white, Western towns, where most (often all) of the characters are thin, mostly conventionally attractive Westerners. The cast in Starlet Town is not only racially diverse, but also shows a lot of diversity in size, facial structure, and style, which I thought was very affirming. Too often, video games tend to create thin and unrealistically beautiful characters. I hope games continue to increase diversity in their characters and push back against having a white majority, especially in games such as Coral Island which appeal to the cottagecore audience. There is a longer, perhaps slightly tangential conversation to be had about cottagecore, homesteading, and race that is a little beyond the scope of a game review. But basically, the variety of NPCs found in Starlet Town is unique in my experience playing cozy games in the cottagecore style. I feel like if I had this game to obsess over in my adolescence like I did Stardew Valley, I would have developed a much healthier attitude towards my identity and self image.

Besides the mild emotional whiplash I got from seeing myself represented in the townies, I noticed that they all have thoroughly thought out backgrounds and personality. And of course, their diversity makes them all even HOTTER?? This cozy game is still in early access, so the heart events and dialogue are incomplete, but I take it as a good sign that I can already empathize and relate to many of the characters.

Okay, but MERMAIDS!

Coral Island seems to be taking a step forward in more than just diversity and character design. In typical farming sim fashion, the story takes an environmentalist stance. In contrast to Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia, however, the crisis in the environment is interwoven into the entire gameplay experience. The premise is that the town has fallen onto hard times after a large oil spill at a neighboring island, which has ruined the town’s once prosperous tourism industry. Since the island is now in physical and economic shambles, a big corporation wants to turn Starlet Town’s beautiful natural landscape into an oil town.

The oil spill and trash-filled ocean opens up exploration of a new realm: under the ocean! I was so excited about this part because it is completely novel to me. The gameplay for the underwater portion is pretty basic, so far mostly clearing trash and collecting ocean loot to restore the coral reefs. However, just the novelty of an entirely new environment is enough for me to get excited! The mermaids are set to be released in the August updates, although there is a small sneak peak of them if you finish the main ocean quest.

References to the oil spill and to the decline of the environmental stability can be found in every piece of the game, from NPC dialogue to splatters of oil and dark brambles in the water. It’s a nasty stain that has deeply affected the community the player has moved into. I like this portrayal of economic disaster as something that has lasting impact on individuals; too often, crises enter and exit the news cycle and people assume that the problem has been fixed. But Coral Island shows how, in reality, these kinds of disasters can take ages to truly fix, and even then, things don’t ever really go back to the way they were. The scars of these crises will always linger, and sometimes things get much, much worse before they can get better. Stairway Games has even partnered with Coral Guardian, an NGO active in Indonesia, France, and Spain, which aims to conserve, research, and restore coral reefs. In fact, they recently released a DLC for Coral Island for which 100% of the proceeds go towards Coral Guardian, so that players can help restore coral reefs in the game and in real life (cute!).

Shortcomings of Early Access

I tend to play games for their characters and world-building, how the game makes me feel, and for the occasional funny moment. Fortunately, I consider the residents of Starlet Town to be the beginnings of compelling characters, and the game is fun and easy to lose myself in. There are some cute, funny cut scenes and dialogues too, although they are definitely incomplete. But for me, clicking on Senja and seeing, “TBD,” instead of actual dialogue gives me a little chuckle and makes me more excited for her eventual dialogue.

There are some other pitfalls with playing Coral Island in early access. Recently I’ve seen an unskippable cut scene playing twice for no reason, which was concerning but corrected itself. Also slightly disappointing is unfinished mini-games or events and some small visual bugs, but nothing I wouldn’t expect from a game that’s not fully released yet. The least annoying early access feature, to me, is seeing the occasional placeholder asset or missing dialogue. However, I do think that as of the June update, it is a totally playable and enjoyable game. Another issue is that the romance mechanic is not finished yet. I have been slacking on giving gifts to the townies, but I’ve heard that the dating mechanic hasn’t been completed yet. For me, this isn’t a huge issue, as the cutscenes I have stumbled upon have been satisfying enough in terms of story flesh and character development.

Playing a game in early access requires some patience and lowered expectations; you’re obviously not going to get a perfectly polished product. But I think that Coral Island is worth it if you are willing to play through a couple minor bugs, especially if you can get it on sale. I haven’t encountered anything game breaking, but it is definitely still early access. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed all of my playtime. There is just so much to do: dozens of fish and critters to catch, coral reefs to restore, and so many NPCs to get to know!

Coral Island’s Roadmap

I also have a lot of faith in Stairway Games’ ability to deliver a complete game because they have released a roadmap that explains an approximate timeline for many of their goals. At full release, I think Coral Island will become my favorite game, because it’s a fantastic, adorable farming sim that I will be able to play with my friends! It might be a while, but I think it’s worth waiting for.

Where Cozy Gaming is Heading

I am so excited for Coral Island to be finished because it represents to me a more modern version of farming sims and even cozy gaming as a genre. I have high hopes for this game. Without even realizing it, I think I subconsciously longed for diverse characters and a story that states plainly what it’s here to say. Coral Island recognizes the need for diversity in the cozy game genre and presents its themes around conservation in a realistic way.

I enjoy when games, as an art form, use important themes to create an enjoyable gaming experience. While other cozy games do use dark or political themes in their stories, it can be read as an afterthought or sidebar and easily overlooked. Sometimes, I think that the environmentalist narratives in farming sims are especially taken for granted since they are often the foundation of the story, which lends to them being tossed aside as self-evident. I do think those subtler stories are important and have a place in cozy gaming, but I appreciated that Coral Island makes it impossible to ignore its anti-corporatist environmentalist stance.

On a more practical level, I think that the new (to me) gameplay mechanisms they have released are very cozy and give more color to the old tried and true farming sim framework. I love the underwater diving segment, the introduction of teleportation early in the game, and the Animal Crossing-esque creature collection and museum feature. I even enjoy the fishing minigame, even though fishing is typically my least favorite part of almost every game I’ve played. Some fun innovations in Coral Island include being able to see a bird’s-eye view of your farm without needing to download mods, an option to change the length of the day, and NPC location tags on the map so you don’t have to run around trying to find that one townie!

While Coral Island has many of the common early access pitfalls, I think that it’s definitely heading in the right direction in terms of storytelling in the cozy games space. There are several other games that may be pushing towards a similar direction of diversity in cozy communities, like Loftia, Palia, and maybe even Puffpals: Island Skies, so I’m excited to see the future of cozy gaming and farming life sims. Have you tried Coral Island? Or do you have another favorite farming sim?