Luna's Fishing Garden Review (PC Game, 2021)
There’s a whole world of cozy, pleasant, indie adventure games coming out more often than you might think. The success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons at launch really helped bolster this genre into something that doesn’t just sustain itself but actual thrives in a crowded gaming marketplace. I’ve been playing this style of game since Harvest Moon first released on the SNES and I can’t get enough of it. Let me forage for supplies, make some friends, plants some seeds, and fish to pretty graphics and soothing music. That always hits the spot.
Luna’s Fishing Garden is a more narrative-driven adventure game in this style. You play as Cassie. After a big storm, you wind up in another world led by Luna, a giant fox spirit. Luna tasks you with rebuilding the garden that the storm destroyed. To do this, you gather supplies from various small islands using a boat, meeting new friends along the way.
The big mechanic of the game is fishing. One of the first characters you meat is Jellybean. He’s a very hungry seal who teaches you how to fish. He gives you the pole and everything. The fishing mechanic is similar to Stardew Valley. You cast your line and a guide pops up. A fish is already dangling from the line, ready to make a break for it as it swims in its own species-specific pattern. You have to keep the green bar lined up with the fish to fill the meter and catch it. If the meter drops to the bottom, the fish goes free and you have to try again.
From there, you bring the fish to whatever character is looking for it or return it to Luna for currency. You need to earn the leaves to buy seeds, saplings, and helpful birds to successfully restore the garden to its former glory. The trees and aquatic plants continually flower, which can then be harvested and sold to Luna for leaves. Plan wisely, as the boat trips grow longer and longer as you pay the lighthouse to push away the rolling fog and reveal more of the garden.
Luna’s Fishing Garden actually incentivizes you to use every possible item in the game. The fishing pole improves dramatically with each upgrade from Jellybean. Gathering one of every item and sharing it with Nigel, a bird categorizing all flora and fauna in the garden, increases your inventory space. Each character you meet specifically asks for items so they can help you on your journey. The leaf-count grows quickly once you get the first few plants down in the garden, so you won’t have to wait long to achieve these goals.
Developer Coldwind Games does a great job creating a cozy adventure game that never feels punishing. There is no way to regress in this game. Everything you do moves you closer to the end of the story, and anytime you relax maintains the status quo. Luna’s Fishing Garden does have an ending, but you can also choose to spend more time in your garden, fishing, planting, and replanting the islands to your heart’s content.
The game has great accessibility features. There are two control scheme layouts: mouse and keyboard or just mouse. Just mouse is designed to simply operate the game with one hand and it works well. The story is told with written dialogue available in English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Russian, and Chinese. There are sliders for sound effects and music, a checkbox to enable or disable to dialogue sounds (the animals all have their own noise that accompanies their dialogue), a massive UI scale slider, and a V Sync toggle the lets you uncap the FPS or limit it to anywhere from 25 to 144 FPS. There are no sudden noises, no jumps in action, and no flashing lights. Everything is smooth, calm, and gentle.
I had a wonderful time visiting Luna’s Fishing Garden and will surely play it again. The whole game can be completed in about three hours if you just want to focus on the story, but you can spend as much time as you want building and rebuilding the garden or enjoying the endless fishing.
Luna’s Fishing Garden is available on PC, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch.
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