Last Dream Fishing Arcade Review

Last Dream Fishing Arcade is a “retro 2D pixel-art fishing RPG” developed by White Giant RPG Studios. I’ve played so many fishing mini-games throughout my life that I’m probably a pro at it, so a game entirely based on fishing seemed like a pretty interesting time, at least for me. So, is it worth keeping or is it better to throw it back into the sea that is Steam’s ever-growing library of games? Well, let’s check it out.

Expect fish.

Now, this is a fishing game first and foremost, but I was actually a little surprised to see that there’s lore in this game, but it’s largely ignorable. It’s in these messages in a bottle at the bottom of the sea that you can catch. You do get tips on locating certain fish or unlocking new areas, but that’s about it. Although, from what I read some of these messages are surprisingly dark. It's actually fairly interesting if you take the time to read them.

I do like the music included in the game, but I’m assuming that the entire soundtrack is royalty-free given the fact that Kevin Macleod is featured in one of the levels. The tracks are enjoyable, fitting the mood for each stage so it's not all bad. The pixel art is also fairly good, or at least does its best given the amount of detail it can provide. A few species are just lines of a few colours, but the larger they are, the more detailed they are. However, I do think the player characters are a little creepy though, but that’s just me.

I have played too many fishing minigames...

But enough about all that. It’s time for fishing and… well, the tutorial was pretty intimidating. It throws at you a lot of terms and things to keep in mind, but it is pretty simple once you get into it. Before you start fishing, you need to pick a character and a location. There are 12 characters to choose from who have their own unique stats and abilities, and 14 locations with different types of fish available, so you have to choose carefully. Once you’ve selected those, you can cast out a line and hook a fish. Once you do, all you have to do is tire it out until you can reel it in without breaking your line by ensuring you don’t max out your Tension meter. The tougher the fish, the easier it is to break your line. If you want to win the daily tournaments, you’ll need to go after these tougher ones, even if your rod isn’t quite up to snuff, but there are several ways to make things easier.

One mechanic is your Overdrive. Overdrive points are generated by staying in the indicated area in the indicated area of your Tension Meter. Once you have enough points, you can spend it on temporary buffs, which can make a fish easier to reel in, get more upgrade points, or just boosting your score for the tournament. 

Turning a lowly hero into a master fisherman.

As you catch fish, you get points for your rank, upgrades, and for a fishing tournament if you’ve chosen to take part in it. The bigger the fish, the more points you get. Upgrade points are used to make your fishing rod better, improving its reeling speed. Casting distance, line endurance, and hooking ability. You can also find and buy accessories and potions to further improve your fishing abilities, although the potions only last for a couple of minutes. You’ll have to use all your tools and equipment if you want to catch all 100 species of fish. From anchovies to actual eldritch monsters, each one will provide a challenge you need to conquer. I actually got pretty into fishing, always eager to earn points so I could buy the upgrades needed to get the bigger fish and complete my collection. Here’s a neat trick. If your cast is too short, you might want to hook on a fish. They can bring your hook forward and then release the fish so you can nab something else.

That’s pretty much the entire game, though. The aforementioned tournaments are decently easy to get first place in. It doesn’t exactly account for you using the various items and buffs you have to top the leaderboard and there wasn’t much of a goal to keep me playing other than getting to catch bigger fish. Just play at your leisure and unlock stuff as you go, which isn’t bad and can be a rather relaxing time.

This is in a fishing game.

That being said, there are some little annoyances. I would’ve liked to be able to look out into the water without needing to cast out my line. It would make finding treasures and bottles easier. At the very least, let me zoom out so I don’t have to wait until my hook sinks to the bottom just to check for stuff. It also takes quite a while to unlock different characters, requiring you to at least collect all the available fish in either saltwater or freshwater.

Last Dream Fishing Arcade is actually pretty good if you’re into fishing. It’s a nice and small game that you could totally lose quite a bit of time to and I didn’t run into any serious problems. The most frustrated I had been with the game was losing a fish I could’ve caught because I wasn't focusing hard enough. If you want to fish without… Well, actually fishing, this is a nice casual alternative.