Nice Day for Fishing combines two very different game genres.  Fishing and…an RPG?  Yeah and you know, it’s not the first time this has happened!  I remember playing a Game Boy game called Legend of the River King that combined those styles, too!  Anyway, in this game, you are a non-playable character (NPC) in a typical RPG, who can only say “Nice Day for Fishing,” and “Mornin’!”  But one day you accidentally open a box that sets an evil monster on your world, kicking out all the regular players and letting you control this fisherman NPC.  Now it’s up to you to use your fishing skills to save the day!  Nice Day for Fishing is available on Switch, PS5, and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

In the game you view the action in 2D fashion.  You can run, jump, pick up items (veggies and worms for bait), and talk with townsfolk.  You can buy items from them to help you along and gather clues and quests, too.  When you are near a body of water or in a boat, you can cast a line to fish.  Press up or down to reel in or lower your line.

When you get near a fish, and have the kind of bait they like, they will bite and you’ll start a fishing RPG battle.  When the fish is looking toward you, press the A button to ‘attack’ and reel them in.  But when they are facing away, they are trying to pull the line so you must press B at the right time to ‘block’ their attacks.  You can use stamina points to cast spells that’ll repair your line or wear out the fish more.  If you do run out of ‘HP’ your line will break and you’ll lose the fish.  But if you can catch it, you’ll gain experience points to help you level up and improve your stats.  You can also fish for treasure and other goodies, too.  And by getting one of each type of fish in a body of water, you can learn new spells as well.

The game has plenty of humor and some good ideas, but ultimately the problems I had with this one made me lose interest.  Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do next and the text is way too small.  And fishing becomes really hard after a while and a bit boring and tedious, too.

Kid Factor:

Nice Day for Fishing is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Blood, and Suggestive Themes.  I didn’t notice any blood, but there are status ailments you and the fish can get called “Bleeding.”  The other things are mostly just in the text only.  Because of the high difficulty and reading skill involved, this one is best for older gamers anyway.

Tags: Game Reviews