I have to write this review with a major caveat and confession: I am a Stardew Valley junky. I have spent hundreds of hours across several platforms on the beautiful little farming sim that made farming sims cool again. I have to forwarn you of this because it absolutely influenced my opinion of Coral Island in every way. This is in under no circumstance an unbiased review. If you were not a fan of Stardew Valley then, please feel free to read another review of Coral Island as “taking it with a grain of salt” will do you no justice!
Coral Island is, in every way, a love letter to Stardew Valley and that is not a bad thing, as Stardew Valley was a love letter from its sole developer, Concerned Ape, to Harvest Moon, and Concerned Ape has expressed that he “never had an issue” with Stardew inspired games (as long as they develop their own style).Â
Coral Island starts you off taking over a small plot of land, much akin to every other farming sim, with the curveball being that it is a gorgeous tropical island! The map is huge and full of vibrant colors, beautiful people and an enormous array of plants and wildlife.
The farm itself is very large and totally overrun. You could spend days digging it completely out of the garbage and weeds that have overtaken it, but luckily you will only need to clear a small section to get started. Speaking of garbage, the various forms of trash, scrap and recyclables you will find scattered around the island are actually resources themselves. Not only is cleaning up the island part of the main quest line, but the garbage you find along the way can also be used to build the various tools, machines and decor for your house and farm. How productive!
A little way to the East of your farm is the village of Pokyo where you can buy supplies, sell your wares and date an unsettling amount of ridiculously good-looking people. There are a lot more cosmetic-type stores in Coral Island than most other farming sims, though you can choose to utilize them as little or as much as cosmetics mean to your enjoyment, and there are a number of unlockable buildings and stores to boot.
Venturing away from the farm and village will give you plenty of tropical forest to explore full of humans, animals, bugs, mines and even giants to interact with. Luckily, the map is very well made and fast travel via shrines is unlocked relatively early in the game so I rarely feel like I’m having to rush across the map to get to a store two minutes before close or home before I pass out.
The developers have not reinvented the wheel here when it comes to the skills and systems but they have taken them far deeper than many of their predecessors.  You will find the staple Farming, Ranching, Foraging, Mining, Fishing and Combat trees but also the additions of Bug Catching and Diving, which are both new to me in farming sims. The core skills also come with upgrade trees more reminiscent of an RPG, though they are fairly basic at this point in development.
Diving is an important part of Coral Island and you will need to spend a lot of time underwater harvesting resources and cleaning up oil spills, with various grades of kelp being vital materials for your technology advancements. Bug catching adds a unique element to the game with a wide variety of critters that can be caught above and below the sea and used as gifts, museum donations, ingredients or simply to be sold for profit. There are mystical elements to be dabbled in on both sides of the water as well, but I won’t spoil those for you!
There are over 50 characters in the game to interact with and at least 25 that are dateable. Of course, each has their own likes and dislikes, daily patterns, perks to give you at increasing friendship levels and some very deep and well-crafted cut scenes.Â
There is so much to find and see that I can’t possibly claim to have scratched the surface. It looks like there are 160+ fish, bugs and critters to catch and about twice as many artifacts, gems, fossils and scavegables to find, and the devs are quite active at adding more content quarterly.
One of the best parts of Coral Island is how frequently Stairway Games is dropping major content updates. On the one hand, for an Early Access game, Coral Island is wonderfully polished and completely playable as-is. On the other, there are so many areas with “Coming Soon” signs up in front of them that it should be frustrating, but honestly I actually find them exciting since the game is in such a good state right now that they seem more like icing on the cake or free DLC to come.
It’s been seven years since Stardew Valley dropped and, for the first time since then, I have found myself sinking hours into a tiny farm by a remote village, exploring the colorful settings and backstories with as much fervor and fascination as I did back then.
If you didn’t like Stardew, you are unlikely to find Coral Island much different. If you liked Stardew but found the grind a little much or sometimes wondered what to do next, Coral Island’s systems are more streamlined, it has a massive amount of content, and I have never felt bored or wondered how I could be more productive. If, like me, you loved every inch of Stardew Valley, Coral Island will scratch a very satisfying itch for farming, building, exploration and interaction that few other games have yet to come close to. Happy farming!
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