For a video version of this article, skip down to the bottom.
First off, I have to admit I have been very wrong about the Reel Fishing franchise for the last like 25+ years. I never actually played one before Days of Summer, but I was always under the impression that these games were 1. Generally well received, and 2, Supposed to be realistic fishing simulators. I was totally wrong on both of those things. All of the games have gotten pretty terrible reviews, to the point I seriously don't know how it has lasted this long, and they most definitely are NOT fishing simulators. They're fishing JRPGs where you have to play by the game's very specific rules in order to catch fish, instead of actually, you know, fishing.
When I first started playing Reel Fishing: Days of Summer, I hated it. Instantly. Immediately. It is genuinely one of the worst, if not the worst, fishing games I have ever played. I bought it at launch, played for 15-minutes, and deleted it. $30 down the drain. But I figured, "Oh, I needed to support it on Xbox regardless so hopefully we'll get more games like this in the future so it's OK that I hate it". About six weeks later I decided to give it another shot and try to be more open minded.
I suppose I'm glad I did, because I'm getting my money's worth at least, but it still kinda sucks. As I said, it's a fishing RPG, not a fishing sim. You play as three college kids - two guys and a girl - who are spending their last summer break at a small mountain village fishing at all of the local hot spots. They make friends with the locals and blah blah. It's mostly vanilla, but there IS a weird side story about a local middle school age girl who's in love with one of the college dudes, and the college girl actually encourages her to go for it, which is just so painfully anime (and creepy).
The main storyline of the game is really about how weird this village is. Somehow, there are gently flowing mountain streams, a giant lake, the ocean, a tropical south american river, and an icy north american river all within 10 miles of this quaint Japanese mountain town. It was obviously just an excuse to cram as many fish species as possible into the game, but even though this mystery is supposed to be the main story the characters just roll with it and it's never actually explained. Oh, also, there may be a ghost.
The story is told through visual novel bland nothingness. But the main gameplay is split into two parts. Fishing, and crafting. For whatever reason, you can't just buy new fishing gear at the store like a normal person and instead you have to craft all of your lures and new rods and reels with materials you either find while fishing or buy from a local shop. This means it's incredibly, ridiculously, insanely grindy. Every fish has a unique lure, and you have to have better equipment to catch bigger fish / cast further / etc., so progression in the game consists of doing side missions and challenges - that are all just catching more fish, duh - in order to earn money that you then spend on crafting materials so you can make better stuff. Over and over and over and over and over again.
Now, I have to admit I don't actually mind it that much. I like games that give you a checklist of stuff to do and then get out of your way and let you go do it. The achievements are all tied to crafting all of the stuff and catching all of the fish species and things like that, so grinding away knowing tasty delicious gamerscore was coming my way was motivation enough to keep me playing. After spending like 20 hours playing it, I would say it has been satisfying, but I don't know that I would call it "fun".
The problem is that the actual fishing is just so terrible. Mechanically, it's fine - you cast out, you reel in, you drag in a fish now and then. The controls are kind of unresponsive, though, and the very frequent quick-time-events just eat your button inputs a good half the time, which is frustrating. The bigger issue is that the fishing is so unrealistically stupid that my brain won't stop screaming at me about how dumb it is.
You see, each species of fish only exists in one tiny part of the game world, usually next to one specific rock or tree or patch of grass, and absolutely nowhere else. Each species also has a single specific lure they prefer and will generally only bite that specific lure. So if you don't have the right lure, in the exact right spot, it's impossible to catch fish. That's nonsense. That isn't how fishing works. I mean, it's how stupid people think it works if they've literally never gone fishing before in their life, but the reality of fishing isn't actually that difficult or complicated.
To be fair, the game does tell you exactly where to fish and what lure to use for every species if you talk to the other characters at the fishing spot, so the game isn't hard - though I've seen some people online complain that they played for hours and never caught anything ... morons. But I repeat, it actually isn't difficult, it's just stupidly unrealistic.
The act of catching fish in Reel Fishing: Days of Summer also grinds my gears as well, but it's really the same issues every fishing game has. I hate how every fishing game treats catching a fish like some epic struggle where you have to be super careful or you'll instantly break your line and lose the fish. That isn't how fishing freaking works! A crappie or bluegill or other small fish isn't going to break your line no matter how hard you reel. Bigger fish, sure. Maybe. Probably not, actually. It does happen, of course it does, but when a fish really does break your line I'm talking huge fish that outclass your line weight by a bunch.
Here's a story - in the real world I use the same exact pole, reel, and ten pound test line (with different lures, obviously) to catch everything from crappie weighing a few ounces all the way up to 15-pound catfish and many other species in between and the line has literally never broken because the fish fought too hard. It just isn't a thing that happens, or at least not remotely as often as games make you believe. But in video games managing your line tension is always the primary gameplay mechanic. And that sucks.
Also, fish absolutely do not constantly jump out of the water when you catch them. It does happen once in a while, sure, but about 10,000x less often than video games make it seem. But every fish in Reel Fishing, no matter how big or small, jumps out of the water 15 times while you're reeling it in. It's just so freaking stupid.
It's a game. I get it. They have to do unrealistic video-gamey things to try to make it more fun. But I also can't help it that my real world knowledge is constantly at odds with practically everything this game - and almost every other fishing game - does when it comes to catching fish. Anyway ...
All in all, I'm not kidding when I say Reel Fishing: Days of Summer is an absolutely terrible fishing game. It's just abysmal if you want to approach it as a fishing simulator. If you treat it like a fishing JRPG, however, where grinding enemies to raise your stats and fill out a long checklist collection of stuff is the focus, it's a lot more enjoyable. It's only $30, which really isn't too bad. Check it out if you don't mind grindy-but-easy achievements and want to support Japanese games like this on Xbox.
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