Castaway Paradise (Nintendo Switch) Review

From the outset the look of the character is green thanks to all the seaweed covering them. As quests are completed and resources are gained, the variety of character design widens, although due to the blocky style of the game the range of faces (including beards) may not appeal to everyone, making sticking with the original seaweed covered face actually an attractive option. Thankfully, the range of clothes ensure there is something for everyone even with the cube like style. Swapping clothes is easy to do and leveling-up throughout this unlocks further options. Buying clothes can be performed directly in the main menu, which seems to negate the purpose of the clothes store which has a more limited selection.

Making money is really easy. Almost anything can be sold, items gathered from the beach which appear daily can be valuable. Daily log in is a nod to the original's origins and results in various items being rewarded. Fishing, when mastered, can net quite a lot of creatures, but it is not the most user-friendly feature compared to other life sims. Catching bugs, once the relevant quest for the net is completed, requires patience in stalking some of the insects. By far the simplest and most reliable way to get money is from fruit and vegetables.

Both crops and trees must be watered at least once to grow fresh produce: on the character leveling-up all trees automatically reproduce fruit which is rather handy. Crops invariably need watering several times before reaching full growth, the time varies and works on real world time not in game time which can be frustrating having to wait for many minutes or even hours to pass, but the rewards are worth it. Once picked fruit and veg can be stored in the nearby silo, which has quantity limits that can be upgraded. Alternatively, food can be stored at home. Sometimes quests require specific food, but generally it is best to sell whatever is grown. Items can also be bought from the various shops on the island, whose inventory usually changes daily. The range of products ensures that quest items can be acquired through growing or buying them, although it might not be until the next day that the quest seeds can be available.

Quests are a key part of progressing. These lead to puzzle pieces being given as rewards, which can also be bought with enough money. Obtaining a specific number of them is needed to unlock new areas on the island that include a museum and more space to farm, as well as unlocking new shops run by characters. Quest actions range from delivering items to residents (sometimes repeatedly until before the correct item needed is found), or growing and locating specific materials, and are almost always one hundred percent humorous in the way they are asked, depending on who does the asking. Humour is a key part of Castaway Paradise, with a wide variety of responses and thought-provoking quotes from the island residents. No matter how long a play session lasts there will always be smile evoking dialogue, making it a welcome break from life. In addition to quests, when talking with characters there is the option for chitchat which can result in quests being added so should be explored from time to time.

There are several buildings in the community that are not shops. There is the bank where money can be saved for specific period of real-world time to increase earnings from the savings: there is always a shorter saving option and a longer one. There is also the option to invest in stocks which is riskier as there is no knowing if the return will increase the amount put in. None of the investments are mandatory. In addition to the farming areas there is the main house which can be decorated with many items. Sometimes if an object is placed on a wall, unfortunately another item cannot then be placed in the same square, even though logically that space should be free since a painting is on a wall and not on the floor underneath. Lack of logic aside much time can be spent creating the perfect home, although it can be used to dump items until they are needed for quests or sell for some money. The house size - at least the amount played for review - seems predetermined, with extra rooms blocked off with charming rope and metal stands until the next house upgrade is unlocked.

The way tools are equipped could do with refining, having to go to a specific menu to put a tool in an inventory, then press a button to equip the tool and use it feels a bit more long winded than having a button press change the equipment which happens in other similar titles. Given a few hours it soon becomes second nature on how to switch tools, although it can feel prolonged when soil needs to be raked before it can be watered. Having to water crops individually regardless of tool upgrades is a bit frustrating. The watering can only ever water one crop at a time. Each crop sometimes needs more than one water unit, and that capability is the one that is upgraded with better quality watering can: for example at the start a crop can only be watered one unit at a time, so a three unit crop has to be watered a total of three times. Future upgrades allow those three units to be performed in one action.