While I am sure that the full game will expand quite a bit on what's available here, I do think a prologue chapter/demo is a great way to introduce people to the game's style, how it controls, and what to expect. That way you can get a feel for whether you'd enjoy the game without the commitment to having to finish achievements or going through a refund if you don't like your experience. That alone makes it worth recommending because you lose little more than an hour or two of your time to find out for yourself if Stranded Sails is a game you wanna buy (or, as in my case, you have bought it already but you wonder if it's a good pick from your backlog).
Interactions and goals in this chapter might be limited, but consider my curiosity piqued. The idea of your main character being stranded somewhere and building up a life from more or less scratch with some farming involved is not novel per se, but, at least as the title implies, there will be some focus on sailing, with treasures, and potentially pirates. And maybe the true booty will be the friends we make along the way...
While I'm still getting used to the way quickslots for tools etc are handled, I've had a good first impression. Of course I can't know how the main game experience will vary, but overall the controls, movement, progressions, friendship perks, gathering etc seem well thought out. I didn't struggle too much with anything and there was no punishment to staying up late. Your health and stamina both seem to be one bar, so while there is an infinite supply to replenish them at your base here, it doesn't hurt keeping some food on ya in case of enemies or over-use of tools. It is nice only having to keep track of one bar though. I also really love the idea of discovering unknown recipes in form of a game of mastermind.
What I don't quite like is the crafting/cooking process itself though. Maybe I overlooked something, but it seemed like I could only create one item at a time, even if I had enough materials to make more. It doesn't take long to do so, but if you wanna craft like 8 planks for furniture, it suddenly does seem to make you a wee bit impatient, wanting a "craft * X" or "craft max possible" option. I do hope it has a better flow in the main game.
I also wish that during combat there was some kind of dodge or block option. So far the foes had obvious tells, but it feels a bit strange to me to outright run away and then run back to strike instead of sidestepping or parrying or something. I would imagine that fighting foes would play an important role in this game so I hope it is better optimized.
Also, I can't necessarily fault the game for this but I absolutely have the urge to jump and no way to do so. Many games in the farm sim genre don't have a jump option (or auto jump in particular situations and places), so it's not completely absurd that this game doesn't have one. It's just very hard getting used to not jumping when you've recently played games where you could, haha.
