Viva la Dirt League’s New Venture
Every minute, several hundred hours of content gets uploaded to YouTube. This includes videos on every topic you can possibly think of, which of course includes comedy and gaming videos.
And one channel that has found success across multiple social platforms with their content is Viva la Dirt League out of New Zealand. They’ve made content that parodies MMORPGs, PUBG, D&D, and so much more, and I personally have always enjoyed seeing their content pop up on my feed.
One of their recurring bits was a lone fisherman in their fictional world of Azerim that was the setting for many of their sketches. That bit evolved into an idea for an actual game using that character’s most iconic line, “Nice Day for Fishing. Ain’t it?”.
But social media channels have gone on to fund and develop their own games in the past, and those typically don’t pan out as well as audiences would hope. So the question is, can Nice Day for Fishing break that mold?
Baelin’s Unexpected Journey
The game, as mentioned, takes place in the world of Azerim, which is an online game populated with adventurers that complete quests, fight monsters, and fend off muggers. When those adventurers are magically forced out of the world, suddenly the local fisherman, Baelin, gains the powers of an adventurer. Meaning he can now accept quests, gain levels, and complete tasks that seemed beyond the means of a lowly fisherman.
Thus, Baelin sets out to catch fish to uncover the mystery of the forces behind the expulsion of the adventurers, rescue his fellow citizens, and, of course, in order to partake in a bit of fishing for fishing’s sake. And as would be expected, fishing constitutes the bulk of the gameplay.
The Combat of the Catch
Fishing is done a bit differently compared to fishing in other games. When hooked, a fish will show a level and a health bar. While the fish is facing towards the boat, it will be susceptible to attacks. By holding down the A button, the fish will repeatedly take damage as it’s reeled in. When the fish turns away from the boat though, reeling in will damage the fishing rod and the fish itself will fight back, also doing damage. It’s possible to block and eventually parry these attacks to reduce the damage done, but Baelin always takes a little damage either way.
When catching certain fish, if they are the same level or higher than Baelin, it is impossible to mitigate all the damage it will do. And this can lead to the catch sequence dragging on, just for the attempt to fail. Any resources, besides the bait, are refunded during the catch attempt, so there isn’t much harm, but higher level fish are tedious to catch, which pushes the player to grind for new levels.
There are skills which can be used to deal more damage or repair the fishing rod, but these are also only gained by grinding to catch other fish.
Quest Structure and Pacing
The casting is actually more stringent than traditionally seen in fishing games. Where the line is cast is where the hook is set and the line can only be reeled vertically at first, and it takes several hours before any mechanics are introduced that afford the player more control when casting their line. This means the first hours of Nice Day for Fishing involves several recasts while attempting to line up the hook properly with an unseen off-screen fish or item that needs to be caught.
And normally in a fishing game, collecting a ton of fish and selling them would be a great way to collect money and complete side objectives while taking a break from the main story. But Nice Day for Fishing is aggressively linear. There are dozens upon dozens of quests, but each one is as simple as ‘catch these fish’ and ‘here are where they spawn’. Or you may have to ‘walk across the map again to talk to this NPC, then talk to that NPC again to start a new quest’, something which may just involve walking back across the map before catching another specific couple of fish.
These quests are directly tied to unlocking new abilities and items, which are needed to catch different and more unique fish. So there is no deviation from the strict story structure that’s laid out.
Repetitive Humor and Tedious Grinding
The story itself does feature much of the comedy, and plenty of references to Viva la Dirt League’s content, which is sure to resonate with fans of their channel. After all, the characters are pulled directly from many of their funny and entertaining sketches. These nods to recurring bits and long time characters will resonate with fans, but they aren’t going to hit the same notes with people that aren’t familiar with their content.
Unfortunately, many of the bits that are played for laughs in Nice Day for Fishing are those which work best in their original short-form video content. Repeating a joke a few times throughout five minutes is a much different experience than seeing that joke drawn out across a dozen plus hours of gameplay. And while I would wholeheartedly recommend Viva la Dirt League’s content to anyone, this game’s repetitive delivery of the same jokes can become old after the first hours.
The overall length of the game is actually much longer than I would’ve thought going into it, with players easily spending over a dozen hours to see it to completion. There are side objectives to complete, but these don’t start to become available until several hours into the game and even then, the linear nature of the game hurts the appeal of actually pursuing these optional objectives.
A Charming Concept Sunk by Repetition
The mechanics of fishing, with the combat framing and the various unlockable abilities, are actually a bit more varied than in other games that feature fishing, such as Stardew Valley and DREDGE. But the only risk faced when not catching a fish is the loss of a single piece of bait. There are even boss fights, but losing them does nothing except cause the screen to fade to black before the picture returns and the encounter is repeated.
Overall, it leads to much of the gameplay in Nice Day for Fishing feeling repetitive and tedious. The story drags on longer than it needs to, and a more open format where quests didn’t feel like they were pulling you by the hand to each next objective would’ve been hugely beneficial. The mechanics that make the fishing feel less clunky are all unlocked much further into the game than I would’ve liked, but thankfully the components of a really fun game are present, the world is well-designed and aesthetically it is beautifully done.
But many of the roadblocks in Nice Day for Fishing feel like a way to pad out the time. It’s not a bad game, but I would’ve preferred to see some of the repetition removed and have the world open itself up a bit more.
Important Links
Epic NPC Man is Finally the Hero And Nice Day for Fishing is OUT NOW on Xbox! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/epic-npc-man-is-finally-the-hero-and-nice-day-for-fishing-is-out-now-on-xbox/
Nice Day for Fishing is Casting a Line onto Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/nice-day-for-fishing-is-casting-a-line-onto-xbox/
Buy Nice Day for Fishing on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/nice-day-for-fishing/9PGCQNQVM8JV/0010
There’s an Epic Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/nice-day-for-fishing-epic-edition/9PLS657R3CJX/0010
