I do not hate this game, and it isn't bad, but I'm still leaving a negative review. Why? TL;DR: it's very limited in scope.

You likely came here expecting something akin to Sunless Sea. It isn't. Sunless Sea is hundreds of stories, this is ONE. It's not a bad story, in fact, it's enjoyable. But it's very straightforward Edgar Allan Poe stuff, and it has no ambitions to be anything beyond it, and the two finales are OK, but a little underwhelming.

Now, to gameplay. The core loop relies very heavily on repetitive activities - fishing, dredging etc. The fishing itself is fun at the beginning, but grows old very quickly. I really like how every fish had a different shape, giving it a distinct identifiable profile even before it was discovered. Unfortunately, there's very little depth here. You blitz through the upgrades very quickly, and even in that short time the fishing mini-game gets really really stale.

There are some secondary mechanics, like evading "children" fish of the monster in a volcanic area, which are a 1000x more interesting, but they go very underdeveloped. There's a lot of potential of interesting interactions with the environment, but it largely goes untapped.

Graphics are very clean and nice. They are heavily cell-shaded, which is more of a cost-cutting measure than artistic choice, but they do the job.

Overall, this is a nice concept, but I think calling it a finished game is a bit too optimistic.

I do not hate this game, and it isn't bad, but I'm still leaving a negative review. Why? TL;DR: it's very limited in scope. You likely came here expecting something akin to Sunless Sea. It isn't. Sunless Sea is hundreds of stories, this is ONE. It's not a bad story, in fact, it's enjoyable. But it's very straightforward Edgar Allan Poe stuff, and it has no ambitions to be anything beyond it, and the two finales are OK, but a little underwhelming. Now, to gameplay. The core loop relies very heavily on repetitive activities - fishing, dredging etc. The fishing itself is fun at the beginning, but grows old very quickly. I really like how every fish had a different shape, giving it a distinct identifiable profile even before it was discovered. Unfortunately, there's very little depth here. You blitz through the upgrades very quickly, and even in that short time the fishing mini-game gets really really stale. There are some secondary mechanics, like evading "children" fish of the monster in a volcanic area, which are a 1000x more interesting, but they go very underdeveloped. There's a lot of potential of interesting interactions with the environment, but it largely goes untapped. Graphics are very clean and nice. They are heavily cell-shaded, which is more of a cost-cutting measure than artistic choice, but they do the job. Overall, this is a nice concept, but I think calling it a finished game is a bit too optimistic.