Morning! - A Nice Day For Fishing Review

By Teepu

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

The internet is chock full of memes and skits. Viva La Dirt League’s series Epic NPC Man is one of those, which pokes fun at common MMORPG tropes. Nice Day For Fishing is a fishing RPG that is based on this fictional world, and it's the subject of today's review.

So what does that make Nice Day For Fishing? A game based on a parody and its joke character, which is itself based on common MMORPGs. Wowzers. The story follows Baelin, a generic fishing NPC in the town of Honeywood where all the adventurers have disappeared, causing him to become an adventurer himself. The game does not require an understanding of the parody series, but enjoyment is absolutely enhanced by it. There are many storylines from the series that are converted into this game directly. Personally, I find the series to be hilarious and the game's plot is equally stupid, delightful, and funny. It is not a deep story, and the game makes that clear from the start, but it will keep you interested. The pixel graphics, something I am not usually a fan of, fit the theme and style of the game quite nicely though, as do the charming music and the minimal voice acting from the actual cast of the series.

As you are walking around doing fetch and escort quests, you will soon discover that the core gameplay is quite good and gives you a steady number of upgrades as you play. At the core it is simple enough: get on a boat, cast your line, have a fish bite, and reel it in. You can move the bait up or down to get to the fish you want, and once you have a bite it turns into a simple RPG battle. You mash or hold a button to deal damage when the fish is facing you, and you do timed defense button presses when it is facing away to minimize the damage you take. If you run out of HP, the fish gets away. If it runs out of HP, you catch it.

To make things interesting, the fish will be able to do different things to you such as stun you. On the flipside, you will steadily unlock a variety of abilities and items to help you catch the tougher fish. You see the level of the fish once you initiate combat, to determine whether you're high enough level to tackle it. What was wild to me was that there were even boss battles. They work like fish, with longer fights, slightly more complex patterns, and the inability to catch them. You can also cast your line with a magnet to pull up treasures and materials. Naturally, in a fishing game, you need various baits to catch the fish, and there is a fishing log to track every fish you can get. 

As you complete quests, grind for levels or simply catch fish, you will acquire various materials and gold. This can be used to upgrade your gear, buy equipment, or upgrade the town. This last goal actually increases the things you can do in-game.

Overall, Nice Day For Fishing gives you just the right amount rewards for everything you do to always have you feel like you are improving and moving forward. There is one problem that really bogs the game down though: itself. Being based on parody skits means that most of the quests are designed to be monotonous and irritating. This is countered by its genuinely fun and fulfilling gameplay. The issue arises with the terrible amount of walking you need to do with no way to fast travel. A very large number of quests have you walking halfway across the land and coming back, only to do so again with the next quest. There is so much time spent walking that the meme starts to get frustrating and extremely boring. There are multiple times I just wanted to stop playing because of how much time was wasted walking back and forth. The only thing that kept me going was my incessant need to beat a game when I start it. The game is not terribly long for an RPG, you can finish it in 10 hours, though I spent about 20 as I was trying to 100% it. So even with the walking problem, you will be done sooner than you might expect.

Nice Day For Fishing is mostly a very solid fishing RPG that takes a genre that usually doesn’t work as an RPG, and makes it fun. It is quite unfortunate that the game wastes so much of the player’s time with needless foot travel, because without that problem the game would be top tier. Still, if you’re a fan of the Epic NPC Man series and/or are looking for a relatively deep fishing RPG, you may have the patience to deal with some of the monotony and will enjoy the game like I did, and at $19.99, at least it won’t empty your wallet.

Check Out Nice Day For Fishing on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/nice-day-for-fishing-switch/

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Story: B-
Gameplay: B-
Graphics: B+
Music/Sound: B
Value: A

OVERALL: B

Pros:
+ Gameplay progression is never overwhelming; it is just right to keep you going.
+ Seeing all the hilarious sketches from Epic NPC Man in an actual video game is great.
+ RPG mechanics are quite enjoyable.

Cons:
- Walking. Walking. More walking. So much time wasted walking pointlessly.
- Some of the jokes may be stale or uninteresting if you are not familiar with the source.
- Could have used more voice acting.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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I just wanted to fish!