Reel Fishing: Days of Summer is a new entry in the long running Reel Fishing series and a direct sequel to Reel Fishing: Roadtrip Adventure. While I haven't played the eariler entries, I had some fun with Roadtrip Adventure. It was an interesting but shallow mix of visual novel, fishing game and RPG mechanics.

Reel Fishing: Days of Summer continues in a very similar vein as its predecessor. You fish, you craft better gear, you cook food that gives you buffs, you witness some clumsy dialog and shoddy storytelling, rinse and repeat. All mechanics are serviceable but nothing spectacular. However, as was with the predecessor, Days of Summer has a nice, clear gameplay loop that plays to its favor. Even with the tacky, slow gameplay, I got hooked playing (pun heavily intended). At later parts of the game, however, the grind and monotony start settling in. Catching required fish becomes harder and more time consuming and parts and materials cost more so technically you need to fish more. Luckily, the game is less than 20 hours long so it doesn't overstay its welcome too bad but some shaking up would have been preferable.

As this is a sequel, what has changed compared to Roadtrip Adventure? Well, not much. The change is that now you have three playable characters, Sean, Neil and Alice. Each character has their own upgrades you can unlock by spending skillpoints that you get from levelling. Sean has best upgrades to fishing skills, Neil has crafting upgrades and Alice has cooking ones. A nice idea for sure but many of the skills do not make that big of a difference. In addition, well before the end of the game, I had already unlocked every skill for every character, so some more time in the oven would have made the addition more substantial. Also, optional side missions have been added as well as a shop where you can buy and sell crafting materials. Another thing that is different this time around is the UI. Roadtrip Adventure had a very simple Persona-esque UI where Days of Summer has a bit more involved one that lacks some of the zazz. It's still pretty slick, though.

When looking at Days of Summer, it's pretty clear it was made on a tight budget. The game reuses tons of assets from Roadtrip Adventure and, as a result, looks as PS2-esque as that game. I think the 3D models of the fish are almost all reused and they look as kooky and weird here as they did previously. To balance the outdated 3D look of the fishing sections, the visual novel parts at least look really nice thanks to really well-made colourful character portraits. Although, even the portraits could have done with some more work: the characters are always in the same pose with only facial expression changing.

The music in Reel Fishing: Days of Summer is pretty interesting. Initially I was really put off the first song in the game started playing. The track tried to go for some Persona-inspired light funk but the song sounded like a hot mess. There was something discordant or rhytmically weird that just sounded wrong. Thankfully, that was by far the worst song in the game. The composer clearly was not a hack since there are some really creative moments on the soundtrack. One of the laid-back tunes that plays during visual novel scenes has some really impressive, melodic bass playing. Another highlight for me was this driving post-punk song that plays when you catch a fish during one of the optional challenge missions. I didn't expect to hear a song in that style in the game, let alone a total banger.

Overall, there is something charming about the game that makes it hard for me to dislike. It's far from a masterpiece and a mediocre game by many counts, but I don't regret my time with the game. Maybe it's the PS2 era budget release feel, maybe the feel-good vibe of the story and visuals, maybe the pick-up-and-play simplicity. Or maybe it's the fact that this game feels like a kind of an underdog. There's very little media coverage, no reviews, little discussion... It's a weird little title that flies under the radar. It's fun to root for those, right?

I hope the game finds its audience and the developers can muster some more budget for the sequel, though.

P.S. I find it wild that this of all things also got a release on Xbox! For the interested, it's also on Switch, PS4/5 and Steam.

P.P.S. I really need to practice writing shorter reviews...