Adventure · 2023 · Stairway Games · online
Coral Island
A farming game on a tropical island that also has you rebuilding a coral reef.
What it is about
You inherit a neglected farm on a tropical island and start getting it going again. You plant, harvest, fish and dig as in the models of the genre, only with more options and more residents.
The difference lies underwater. Off the island there is a reef that is dying, and a good part of the game consists of cleaning and reviving it piece by piece. That takes months of in-game time and is the actual through-line.
For two you play over the net on the host's island, and four works too. Farm, town development and reef are shared; rooms, skills and the relationships with the people in town each of you keeps for yourself.
Our verdict for couples
If you know Stardew Valley you will recognise nearly everything here, just a size larger: more residents, more crops, more chores taken off your hands. Diving comes on top, and with it a second place alongside the farm, namely the reef beneath the island, which gets cleaned up over months. For two people everything runs over the net. You share the farm, the town's development and the reef, but each of you has your own room and your own relationships with the people in town, and the save file belongs to whoever opens the session. It is just that multiplayer is the shakiest part of the whole thing, and that is written by people who like the game too.
Pros
- Noticeably more scope than the models it follows
- Each of you has your own relationships and your own room
- Losing is not a thing here, and there is no deadline either
Cons
- No local co-op
- Shared play crashes repeatedly, and the in-game day is then lost
- The save file depends on the host
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Serene
- Cosiness
- Very cosy
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
The comparison with Stardew Valley appears in nearly every second review, and it comes out favourably: more residents, more skills, more convenience. A striking number of people write explicitly that they play as a pair. But that is also where the objection lies, and it comes from people who like the game. Shared play crashes, often before the in-game day is over, and because there is no saving in between in multiplayer, the day is gone with it. Playing alone, you notice none of this.
- “That's sort of the theme of this game, its everything Stardew but expanded on.”
- “Overall I really enjoy playing coral island with my partner in multiplayer.”
- “However, the multiplayer consistently still crashes before the day is over at random points.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
If you like this one
Runs on the same devices as this game.
Fourteen professions on an island you build up, plus a trip to a past age you build up as well.
Valheim
Make a Viking world habitable as a pair: fell trees, raise a hall, put out to sea.
Terraria
Dig out a two-dimensional world, build it up, and clear its bosses one at a time.
Build a farm together. Losing is not provided for; neither is stopping.