Legend of the River King

"I fear hunger not; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy lure, they catch fish for me."

Once more, Natsume has dropped a strange, yet wondrous, little RPG on our lap. Won't be any planting or harvesting this time around. Instead, we get deep, blue waters and a fish hatchery. This outta be good....

Story: 8/10
Your sister has come down with a deadly disease of some kind. Her only hope is to eat the meat of a legendary fish, known only as the Guardian. So, you, being the vagabond man of the house, head out to find and catch this most elusive creature.

Sounds like a rip roarin good time, right? Oh, trust me, it's more fun that you might think.

Game Play: 9/10
As you might imagine, a great deal of the game is spent fishing. This is made up of four parts: Finding a good spot to cast off, picking a rod and lure, casting and then the catching. Catching is where most of the action is at. You'll switch to this very well animated under-water scene, at battle between you and the fish.

Oh, did I forget the mention the RPG elements? Yeah, a fishing game with RPG stuff, go figure. Getting to the perfect fishing spot isn't going to be easy. The road is littered with people, vast bodies of water, side-quests and predators that would like nothing more than to separate you from your flesh. To get anywhere in the game, you'll have to spend a fair amount of time making your little fisherman stronger. A big advantage to this is it makes going from place to place a bit easier. You see, the greater part of each map is made of water. You have a raft. Using the raft uses up HP (fast). Ya dig?

Outside of all the fishing action, you are also given the option of raising your very own pet fish. Oh, this isn't any ordinary fish, no. This fish can go from being a Guppy to an Eel with the right food.

Problems? A few. For one, the main quest of the game (getting the Guardian) really isn't much of a challenge and confrontations with predators are little more than an annoyance. It's kinda like a fishing game that is attempting to hide the fact that it is a fishing game.

Only other complaint I had was with the fish raising feature being a bit unbalanced. It's built like a super-sensitive Tamagotchi. Little changes in things like water toys can change your fishes growth patter drastically and unnaturally.

Graphics: 7/10
As I said, the under-water battles between lure and fish are well animated, and the fish themselves are surprisingly well defined for a Gameboy game. Sadly, this is where the visuals stop. Natsume just wasn't as stickler for detail as they were with Harvest Moon. They left us with bigheaded chibi characters and flat, uninteresting fields.

Although, the baby fish are kinda cute.

Sound: 8/10
A nice little touch, each new map is bigger than the last. With that, each theme is a bit more extravagant than the last. Gotta love balance. Another nice touch is how everything goes dead quite, save the sound of the river, while casting. Overall, the sound isn't that impressive compared to other games of the time (not to mention from the same company), but, they do have a certain charm about them.

Replay Value:
Depends on a few things. If you're into fishing games, or are just a completion freak, then there are well over 40 different types of fish in the game for you to catch. Aside from that, unless you spend a bit of time raising a fish, then...well, not much else to do here.

Final Recommendation:
Like fishing? Like RPGs? Buy. Now. Only like one of the two? Rent first. Now.

Overall score: (not an average) 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/05