When looking for games to review, I try to find games that are interesting to not only me but can have the potential to talk about things, like game design, or even some of my own stories. Koral was one of those games former. Developed by one man, Carlos Coronado, and published by Rain Frog in 2019 for the Nintendo Switch, and PC. This game caught my eye, because it’s setting is underwater, in the massive ocean. Seeing as a lot of gamers hate underwater in games, especially in games where they add gimmicks to it, like drowning, and weird swimming controls. This game is entirely underwater, which reminded me of the Sega Genesis game, Ecco the Dolphin. That's where the comparisons end, for now, so let’s see what this game is about.
Before going into the gameplay, I have to mention the graphics. I played this game on the Nintendo Switch, and I can honestly say that graphically, this is one of the best-looking indie titles on Switch. This game captures the beauty of the ocean perfectly, which to be honest surprised me, I didn’t think I was going to marvel over the ocean, it just seems like a deep dark place, which this game does capture as well. This game is about teaching the player about the ocean and does this by showing both the good parts and the bad parts of the ocean. Early in the game, you go through bright, colorful surroundings with corals, and tons of marine life, then later you go deeper into a dark, dreary lifeless area. The game captures the mood of its surroundings perfectly. However, the graphics can lead to an issue, which I’ll go into it later after talking about gameplay.
I started with the graphics first, because the graphics are really the most outstanding part of this game. Not that the game itself is bad, it’s just not as ambitious as the visuals. You play as a water droplet I believe, but the game never comments on what you’re playing as. You move around the ocean until you're blocked by an obstruction, normally this green material, that looks like fart gas to me. In order to get past, you must collect orange particles (this game never names anything, not my problem). These particles are usually on these little rocks. Once you collect all the particles, you go to the big grey coral, and bring it to life, helping the environment. Other gimmicks come in the form of coral species, such as corals that you boost, green weeds that move when flicked, as well as an orange variant that requires to be boosted through.
Now this game sounds simple, and for most of the game it is simple and easy, but the game gets very hard in the end. There’s one gimmick the game adds near the end, which requires the player to activate this coral, that lights these smaller corals. The player must go over all of these smaller corals before time runs out so that the main coral can give an orange particle to the player. This is like the red coin missions in the secret areas in Super Mario Sunshine if I was to compare it to anything. The problem is that the game gets strict with these. Even doing this perfectly, you will have almost no time remaining. The second to the last level has one of these that is pixel perfect and can be screwed up easily. I spent half an hour on this one area. That’s not fun, that's just tedious, especially in a game that is overall pretty easy. This difficulty spike comes out out of nowhere to me, which is a problem. Another issue with the game can be with the graphics at times These graphics are great,l but at a few times, it can be hard to tell where you are due to aq lot of things to admire on screen, or even the environment being too bright. You can turn down the gamma, so this issue has a fix, but it’s still an issue. One more problem is navigating the menus. They are clunky, and register button holds as multiple button presses. This means you can hold the B button, and go somewhere you didn’t mean to. This isn’t a big deal, but it should be mentioned regardless of how big it is.
Koral has two more notable things I need to mention. The music is good, but not for listening on its own, but for complimenting the environment. The music in this game is for ambiance, and setting the mood for the player, which is always great to see. The other thing is that this game has a collectible in it, but for educational reasons. This game does have a purpose for educating the player about the oceans, and how humans are destroying the environment. The game does this by these blue particles in a circular shape. When the player goes to these shapes, a text box appears telling the player some information about oceans. I can say that this is fine, I don’t think it's that effective in teaching, but the information is interesting to read about. The game keeps track of all of these and does have a menu to see how many you’ve seen in-game. I did beat this game for the review, but I didn’t bother doing this, I don’t see a point, but it’s something to motivate a second playthrough. By the way, Koral took me around three hours to complete, but less if you know what you're doing.
Koral is a very interesting game. I can’t recommend this game for a great gameplay experience, the game is too simple, and not too amazing on its own to be honest. However, Koral provides a great experience for those who love exploring. And moving around in in-game environments. Playing this game reminded me of the Playstation 3 classic, Journey. Like Journey, Koral is a game for those who love admiring, and exploring the beautifulness of the in-game world, not for the gameplay itself. IM do enjoy games that are meant to be more of an in-game world experience, rather than a gameplay one, but that's not everyone’s thing. If what I described to you doesn’t sound like your thing, I would recommend that you stay away from this one.
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