Collector's Cove

Fun game, but it's possible to lock yourself out of 100% completion by upgrading your fishing pole too soon. If you get the Sakura(third) pole before you finish the Giant Snakehead Fabled catch, it's impossible complete and you can't get 100%.

The ship is fun and there's a lot of variety for costumes and items, but the islands are all the same. It's literally just another paint coat, nothing really new and you rinse and repeat for hours and hours. You're just forever grinding materials. It doesn't matter what zone you're in, in the end it's all the same. I know it's a small indie dev, but maybe the game should've been smaller so it doesn't get repetitive after maybe 3 islands. If you like mindless griding for hours, you might like it. Otherwise, can't say I recommend it.

Welp, this is kinda sad. It started off strong but quickly went from a cozy game to a chore. Don't get me wroing, I like collecting stuff. But what I do not like is when you have to meet certain criteria to be able to gain special versions of items whilst having a way too small inventory. Also, the islands themselves were always very bland and not much fun to explore.

This one is hard to score, as the first zone is fun and chill...but then problems start to show once you unlock the next two areas. This game is also absolutely NOT worth its asking price. I got it on sale for $15, and I still feel like that was too expensive for what the game is offering. While I understand very well how much work it is to make a game, what is offered and structure needs to be taken into account as this game is pretty much the same game loop throughout the entire thing. That, however, is not the big issues which causes me to not recommend the game. Let's start with the Pros: -Good character customization; plenty of outfits and hair/eye colors to choose from. Male hair styles are severely lacking, but you can wear a hat if you don't like the options. You can -Excellent partner customization; from colors to patterns, and later on unlocking eyewear and hats for your buddy -You can change your look, or your partner's look, at any time -You can name both your character and your partner, and change either at any time -Chill music -Easy gameplay loop to get used to -You can trade resources for ones you need more of (though you do need them in your inventory) -Seeds aren't too expensive to buy -Crafting items takes from your storage, so you don't need the items in your inventory -Splitting stacks of items, or grabbing one or two, is easy -Gain more perks towards Farming and Fishing (making things easier/better) as you level them -Although resources do not grow back on islands you visit, you can start a New Expedition to reset the map -Player is given agency of where to go next (between two zones) after unlocking them -Decorate your boat -You can craft fish tanks to put fish in (even fabled ones can go in them) -Dissembling your builds gives you all the resources you used on them back -The fabled items are cute/quirky/funny -Works fine on Steam Deck (though graphics settings need to be turned down a bit so as not to drain the battery too much) -- Now for the Cons. There is a major pacing problem, which led to me giving this game a "not recommended": -Progression is terribly imbalanced 1: The NPC who sells you the fabled conditions, Eugene, has to be found again whenever you start a New Expedition...and it all depends on RNG This is ludicrous and just poor game design. I wasn't too bothered when I got the warning when I went to do another lap around the Tropical zone (I just wanted to have some extra resources before moving on, and pick up some of the decorations) because the tutorial has you find him on the second island, so I figured it would be the same. Nope; I never was able to get those decorations, because in the five islands I visited before I decided I had enough resources (and wasted enough time), I never found Eugene. When I then went to start a New Expedition and selected one of the two new zones I had access to, I didn't find him until the VERY LAST ISLAND. An entire gameplay loop of having nothing to slowly work towards; just gathering resources, growing crops, and fishing. When I finally found the bugger on that final island, I was able to purchase all but one of the fabled conditions (I already had one for a fish which I'd found in a treasure chest, which left 11: 5 fabled for the remaining fish and 6 for the crops. I was able to get 10/11 of the recipes from him that I needed...being one crop short of getting the final one). So now I've got 11 fabled conditions revealed (as I couldn't do the one I actually found...I'll come back to that) ALL AT ONCE. Instead of a nice, relaxing and gradual process of working towards a goal, I was overwhelmed with now having a chaotic zerg rush of fabled conditions unlocked all at once. Plus, it'd mean another lap since resources don't respawn...including the fish on the islands. This also meant that I couldn't increase the fabled bond of my partner along the way, so I had no new bond perks or tool unlocks to be working towards...and suddenly had almost a literal dozen to do at once. 2: Two zones unlock at once, and require resources from the other While this isn't too much of an issue at first glance (since you can trade for the wood or ore you're missing), it takes a lot of resources to trade for a single log, and both logs are required for building things...like better storage chests. However, one of the fabled conditions for something in one zone requires a crop from the other zone. That's something you can't trade for, nor can you find naturally. The only way to get that would be to start a New Expedition to go to the other zone, grow the crop you need, and then GO BACK to the first zone in order to use it (since fish and crops change depending on the zone, and crops from one zone don't grow in the other). It would have been better if the zones unlocked incrementally instead of having two unlocked at once. While player agency/choice is nice, it just doesn't work in this sort of game. 3: Tool unlocking Because the next set of your tools can only be unlocked by increasing your fabled bond, if a player winds up in a situation like I did (unable to find Eugene until the last island), then they can't unlock the next set of tools to work towards on the journey. It was finding Eugene on the last island which caused me to put the game down permanently, though #2 and #3 definitely contributed to my frustration. Other issues: -Bag/storage space is severely limited; I have 3 storage chests on my boat to hold everything -Some of the fabled conditions (mostly the one requiring flowers around a crop) repeat -One crop in a zone requires 2000 coins to be earned while it's growing -Many of the totem "puzzles" to unlock the chests on a Treasure Island requires you to fork over resources (such as stone/ore) -Island layouts are exactly the same between zones, with the only difference being how they're decorated to meet the theme. This adds to the tedious feeling, as well as disappointment each time you can't find Eugene -Crops don't seem to need to be watered unless required; they'll still grow at the same exact rate -There's no way to predict the weather; many times, I watered my crops just to have it start raining moments later -Boat is small; there are a lot of neat decorations, but there's no room to put them unless you want to force yourself to walk across your crops to get anywhere -Trees don't need to be replanted upon harvesting, but they only give you one fruit per harvest; should be at least two -The boat upgrade is expensive considering how fast you run out of room on your boat even without using any decorations (particularly when you go to one of the two unlocked zones and get trees, which require larger planters) -Small islands are always a disappointment to land on since, not counting fishing, you can be done with it in only a couple minutes. If they at least had treasure chests with new outfits or just useful items (like zone-specific wood/ore), it would feel more worthwhile Bugs: -If you have your seeds selected while on the boat, and manage to get some more seeds (whether you buy them or get them from harvesting crops), your quick inventory selector at the bottom doesn't show the proper number -You can add fertilizer to a crop even when it's ready for harvest and still get the higher quality version (not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but it feels like cheesing) -Sometimes, trees will spawn too far into the ground to be able to chop down (this tends to happen on the types of islands where the trees will grow around the rocks on the beach) This would be a fun and chill game if progression and pacing was done properly, and if that one NPC which determines your progress didn't have to be tracked down (via RNG) again, but sadly that's not the state of things. As this is not an "Early Access" game, I also do not expect those things to change. Thus, I cannot recommend the game.

The only complaint I have is that I want more! I enjoyed this game so much! I loved collecting all the things and figuring out all the special things. I would 100% recommend this game to anyone who loves a good cozy collector game!

A fun little game for the completionists among us. You get a boat pulled by an adorable nessi-like companion, and your job is to discover all crops and fish, including fabled variants that need fertilizer/bait and special conditions to grow/be caught. All character customization options are unlocked from the start. There are only a handful of shirt and pants/skirts options, but all of them in various colors that can be matched to form a dress, should you so wish. Customization options for the companion are unlocked while playing the game. Instead of 4 seasons, you have 4 regions you set sail in, looking suspiciously like spring, summer, fall and winter. You travel from randomly generated area to randomly generated area, picking up crafting materials and seeds, then you plant those seeds on your boat where they will only grow as long as you're in the matching region. There are no NPCs other than your uncle who serves as a merchant for all your seed and building material needs. It's cute. Filling the compendium is fun and satisfying. Just don't go in expecting too much depth or a story, and expecially don't go in expecting a regular farming sim or exploration game. The islands are small, even the bigger ones. Every climate has exactly one very basic type of puzzle, as well as an universal "hit that pickaxe shaped rock with a pickaxe" one. Furniture is adorable but quite limited. Other than seeds and two boat upgrades, there is no use for money, so there is no need to farm endlessly instead of hunting the next fabled variant. The first crops/fish you research go pretty quickly, but the further you prorgess, the longer it takes. At some point, it's probably quicker to farm treasure chests to unlock the conditions than to grow the crop x amount of times or catch x amount of fish. The fabled conditions and the variants they create are wild and funny, and were the best part for me. Harvest this crop while wearing nothing but black, let this crop roast in the sun, catch this fish inside a mirror. It was a joy to play on the steam deck. I did not encounter any too-small text, and I had fun. What more do I want? Be aware that the game only allows one savegame.

I wouldn't say I recommend this game, but more of a maybe. Don't get me wrong, its a good game. It does things differently, enjoyably, and it's very simple and easy to play. But it is tedious, there's nothing much to do most of the time besides wait for things, and despite having decorative items and customisation stuff, you can't really use most if not any of it. I had played the demo, and hoped the full game would be a bit more than the same cycle, but it kinda wasn't. If you liked Raft and want a similar experience but without any of the maintenance or much of the exploration and just want to cruise and fish and farm on the open sea, then maybe this is for you.

[h3][b]🌊 Une aventure chill, douce... malgré une conclusion décevante[/b][/h3] Collector's Cove évoque immédiatement un mélange entre Animal Crossing et Raft à travers ses visuels, son gameplay et ses mécaniques. Une expérience pensée avant tout pour les joueurs qui aiment prendre leur temps, explorer sereinement et apprécier la progression à leur rythme. [h3][b]🎮 Le gameplay[/b][/h3] Le gameplay se montre simple dans son approche, mais particulièrement efficace dans son exécution. Le joueur débute dans un premier biome servant d'introduction aux différentes mécaniques : fonctionnement du compagnon, exploration d'îles, récolte de ressources, pêche, agriculture ou encore amélioration du bateau et de l'équipement. Le cœur de la progression repose principalement sur un codex regroupant l'ensemble des espèces de poissons et de plantations du jeu. Chaque entrée possède également une variante "Légendaire", qu'il est possible de débloquer après avoir suffisamment étudié l'espèce concernée. C'est probablement l'un des aspects les plus réussis du jeu. Après avoir récolté un certain nombre d'exemplaires classiques, un indice est dévoilé afin d'orienter le joueur vers la méthode permettant d'obtenir la version légendaire. Certaines de ces découvertes demandent même de retourner dans d'anciens biomes afin de réunir des conditions particulières ou interagir avec d'autres éléments déjà rencontrés auparavant. Les manipulations demandées restent accessibles et ne reposent jamais sur une difficulté punitive. Chaque découverte procure une véritable satisfaction et renouvelle constamment l'envie d'explorer d'avantage. Le jeu propose quatre biomes distincts. Chacun possède ses propres ressources, poissons et cultures spécifiques, ce qui encourage l'exploration. À chaque transition, la carte est entièrement réinitialisée, ce qui permet de conserver un sentiment de renouvellement tout au long de l'aventure. À cela s'ajoute un système de progression lié au personnage, aux métiers ainsi qu'au compagnon. Les différents niveaux débloquent progressivement des améliorations rendant les déplacements, l'exploration et la collecte de ressources de plus en plus agréables. Enfin, le crafting décoratif occupe une place importante dans l'expérience. De nombreux éléments permettent de personnaliser son bateau et renforcent l'aspect cosy et attachant du jeu. Chaque biome apportant son propre thème. [h3][b]🎨 L'ambiance et La direction artistique[/b][/h3] L'ambiance générale constitue l'une des grandes forces de Collector's Cove. L'ensemble de la direction artistique repose sur des visuels doux, colorés et particulièrement apaisants. Chaque biome possède une identité propre, agréable à parcourir, ce qui renforce le sentiment de détente recherché par le jeu. La bande-son adopte la même philosophie. Les musiques restent discrètes - parfois même un peu trop en retrait à mon goût - mais elles accompagnent parfaitement l'exploration sans jamais devenir envahissantes. Les effets sonores suivent cette même logique et contribuent à créer une atmosphère calme et reposante. [h3][b]✔️ Les points forts[/b][/h3] [list] [*]Gameplay accessible et agréable [*]Exploration satisfaisante et relaxante [*]Excellent système de collection et d'espèces légendaires [*]Progression fluide et motivante [*]Direction artistique chaleureuse et apaisante [*]Personnalisation du personnage, du compagnon et du bateau diverse et variée [/list] [h3][b]❌ Les points faibles[/b][/h3] [list] [*]Lorsque le joueur casse une barrière avec sa hache sur une île, un bug peut survenir et bloquer complètement le personnages après des actions effectuées trop rapidement à la suite, obligeant à recharger la partie [*]La caméra libre est trop éloignée et entre régulièrement en collision avec les éléments du décor, notamment la cabine du bateau [*]Les déplacements manquent de fluidité lorsque le personnage rencontre des obstacles. Il s'arrête net [*]Certaines limites invisibles sur les îles empêchent d'atteindre correctement les zones de pêches car trop avancées [*]L'absence d'une option permettant de vendre une pile entière d'objets nuit légèrement au confort de jeu [*]Le volume sonore de la cinématique finale semble ignorer les paramètres audio définis par le joueur [/list] [h3][b]⚠️ La petite déception concernant la fin du jeu[/b][/h3] La conclusion représente malheureusement ma principale déception. Tout au long de l'aventure, le jeu évoque un lieu mystérieux et exceptionnel réservé aux plus grands Collecteurs ayant complété intégralement leur codex. Cette promesse est constamment entretenue, alimentant progressivement la curiosité et les attentes du joueur. Personnellement, cette perspective est rapidement devenue une véritable motivation durant mon aventure. Je voulais découvrir cet endroit, comprendre ce qui se cachait derrière cette récompense finale longuement teasée. Une fois la dernière entrée du codex complétée, le moment tant attendu arrive enfin. Le jeu nous invite à rejoindre ce lieu mystérieux... puis enchaîne sur un écran noir suivi d'une très courte cinématique composée de magnifiques illustrations fixes. Et les crédits apparaissent. Le problème n'est pas la simplicité de la scène finale, mais plutôt le sentiment que le jeu construit une attente considérable sans réellement offrir une conclusion à la hauteur de celle-ci. Cette dernière séquence a malheureusement laissé un léger goût amer après tant d'heures et l'excellente expérience vécue jusque-là. [h3][b]⏳ La durée de vie[/b][/h3] Il m'a fallu environ 36 heures pour atteindre le 100% du jeu, incluant la fin ainsi que l'ensemble des succès Steam, tout en prenant le temps de profiter pleinement de l'expérience. [h3][b]⭐ La conclusion[/b][/h3] Collector's Cove est une aventure contemplative particulièrement agréable, portée par une boucle de gameplay simple mais efficace, une direction artistique chaleureuse et un vrai plaisir lié à l'exploration, l'évolution et la collection. Malgré une certaine répétitivité sur la durée et une conclusion frustrante à mon goût, le jeu parvient pleinement à offrir ce qu'il promet : une expérience cozy, relaxante et satisfaisante à parcourir à son propre rythme. Si vous appréciez les jeux calmes, la progression tranquille et le plaisir de collectionner chaque élément d'un univers, il y a de grandes chances qu'il vous séduise.

Un excellent moment passé dessus avec ma communauté (+ platine du jeu) <3 Je ne peux que le recommander, il manque un peu de personnalisation de personnages et notre perso a un peu une tête idiote, mais c'est pour dire de lui trouver un défaut xD Un jeu vraiment paisible avec un côté sérieux et un côté humoristique sur les plantes et les poissons, plus 4 styles d'îles totalement différents liés aux saisons. Et un très bon rapport qualité-prix ! Maintenant, à vous de vous lancer dans l'aventure !! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ma notation : 18,5/20 Me retrouver en live sur Twitch -> https://www.twitch.tv/lemondedeshaki

Tried the demo on a whim and got absolutely hooked! Love it, it's a blast. Once you get the hang of it, there's plenty to do and discover. Perfect for those who like progression and working towards something. I'm really enjoying it! Concept is great, and it has fresh ideas I've never seen before. It's fantastic for cozy lovers, get this!!