Salva takes his boat out on what seems like a routine fishing trip, but just as he’s about to catch a glowing fish, an earthquake strikes. He wakes up with amnesia in an unfamiliar place, with no idea how he got there. As a thank you for saving both him and his boat, Salva decides to catch fish for his rescuers. It soon becomes clear that almost all the ships have disappeared from this world, and the strange fog blocking the surrounding waters may be connected to what happened.
Although the game’s world initially gives the impression of freedom, progression is actually quite structured. You gradually unlock new areas as you follow the story, while the fog blocks off most of the world and prevents you from simply sailing wherever you want. As a result, exploration is more or less linear. You follow objectives while navigating narrow canals and slightly more open stretches of sea that are still restricted on all sides.
Movement is tied to your ship, which has two forward speeds and one reverse speed. In the first region, you also unlock a turbo that lets you sail faster for a few seconds and push through currents flowing in the opposite direction. The downside is that you have to wait a few seconds for it to recharge after each use. There’s also no map, so you have to rely on the general direction indicated by your current objective or use the radar and sonar when looking for optional activities.
The radar has a pulse that temporarily reveals barrels in the surrounding area. When you sail over one and press the button, you’ll usually get a coin or two. If you’re lucky, you might also find a few materials, such as stone or wood. For a more rewarding haul, look for red dots on the radar. These lead to a button mashing sequence where you pull a barrel up to the surface, and they can contain considerably more valuable resources.
Since you’re sailing a fishing boat, the most obvious source of loot is, naturally, fish. Fishing spots are marked by small circles on the water. Once you find one, you cast your line somewhere in front of the fish silhouettes swimming beneath the surface. You don’t need to be particularly precise, as a fish will usually take the bait anyway. Once it does, you simply mash the button to reel it in.
Each fishing spot only lets you catch a limited number of fish before disappearing. Different regions also feature different fish species, and while these are all recorded separately in your bestiary, the distinction doesn’t really matter when it comes to gameplay because every fish ultimately goes into the same general category.
Both resources and fish are used to purchase upgrades. You’ll travel through several regions, each with its own set of upgrades, but thankfully, you don’t have to constantly travel back and forth between them. Once you’ve visited a region, its upgrades become available for purchase from any main pier.
The upgrade system also doesn’t require much grinding. As long as you make a habit of collecting the red barrels you come across, you should have enough resources to purchase everything. Most upgrades are designed to make things faster and more convenient, improving things like fishing and sailing speed. There are also a few more interesting ones, such as new bait that doubles the amount of fish you catch.
Alongside the main objective, you’ll occasionally spot the outline of another ship. Approaching it lets you talk to someone or trigger a side quest. These quests often ask you to bring back a specific item, preferably a relic obtained from red barrels, giving you yet another reason to investigate any red barrels you come across. Your notebook keeps track of these quests, although it suffers from the same issue as the main objectives: a general lack of direction.
Most quests at least tell you which part of the region you need to search, such as the west or southeast. However, some objectives are considerably less helpful. For example, being asked to destroy all the dams essentially means sailing around the entire region until you happen to find them.
There is a compass, but it feels largely pointless because it only shows the basic directions. Since the camera remains fixed, up is always north, down is south, and so on. In practice, the compass adds very little when the game could simply provide clearer objective markers or a proper map.
