so, i played this game for quite a bit. i earned enough gold to buy the fishing rod, but it seems like rodney still won't sell it to me. there also doesn't seem to be any other progression happening in the dialog anymore--it seems each character only cycles through some set of options that are remaining the same.
and this ultimately is confusing to me, as the very first interaction i had with this game was seeing its main menu, pushing "trigger warnings," as one does, and seeing them refer to 1) sex scenes and 2) some other triggering content, both of which are, from what i can tell, not actually in the game.
now, it's fine if those aren't in the game. jam games are tricky, so much content has to be cut, etc, etc. but as it stands it is a very confusing interaction being told that the game has certain content and then seemingly having no way to make progress in the story. then, the game page itself also seems to indicate that there is more to the game than the dialog trees i reached, e.g. it says "and if you're lucky, you might get some action, too."
so overall, it was just a very confusing time, as i'm not convinced that there is anything in the game past what i've seen, but the game is going out of its way to make it seem like there is. i suppose it's possible that the content is there but i can't get there due to a glitch (?), but it's just overall very very unclear.
and i will note that getting the 250 gold worth of fish takes a not insignificant amount of time on its own--so having it make no overall progress, and then also not work on its own, doesn't feel great either.
now, to be clear: this is all fine. i am fine playing unfinished jam games, this stuff comes with the territory. but i want to communicate exactly how it made me feel as a player, as i think that's helpful information to know. i think that especially for jam games, it is usually good to be very clear what the "end point" of the game should be for the average player, because otherwise it is impossible to know what is unfinished or what is inaccessible due to bugs, and i hope you can see where i'm coming from there.
one other point of critique: i found the story moved a bit fast for me. some of the dialog with rodney made it sound like i knew a character called "lorelai" reasonably well, which i didn't. similarly, i felt the dialog with cassidy when we see her in the woods makes it sound like we've known her for a while (although i might be off the mark here). these things do make a lot of sense for a jam game, though, as it's not really possible to implement a real sense of "time passing" without a whole host of other systems, such as a day/night cycle, more intricate relationship systems, etc.
now. all that said. there is a lot of great stuff here! others have already covered it in detail, but i'll point out a few things i liked:
- the music & overall vibes are pretty nice, despite the prototype-y 3d models in the scene. it really does feel like playing stardew valley or similar.
- i really like the use of platforming in this game. it feels like there is a legitimate ability to explore the island, e.g. jumping over the rocks to get to the skull cave, and this is something i haven't really seen in a farming game before. i think that this kind of low-stakes platforming is just awesome and would be great in a bigger island too.
- i agree with others that it's cool how the hook works in 3d. in general i just think the use of 3d here is very effective.
- i like the characters & narrative that i could understand. i love cassidy's design and i think there's something quite fun about having a secret animal people world on this little fishing island.