Castaway Paradise Review

"Basically Animal Crossing"

Campaign

Castaway Paradise is basically Animal Crossing for all platforms and it's a great time. The story follows whatever character you make as they crash land on an island. From there you need to help fix this place up by tidying, assisting local folks and rebuilding destroyed land marks. This is achieved by completing quests, farming or a number of other smaller tasks. Everything here is very similar to Animal Cross with a mix of Harvest Moon. You're able to complete a full farming method, plant trees to then shake them or even run around swatting at bugs.

There are silhouettes in the water which potentially could be fish to catch and so many objects to remove in order to clear up the area. There's not really a story here aside from when you're arriving, but that doesn't matter as the gameplay is so addicting. The goal is to generally advance to new areas by unlocking special tokens and then you're able to access new content. Each level you achieve will grant a new set of things to do and refresh all of your crops to their harvesting state. The game moves very fast for quite a few hours and then seems to slow down level wise which was odd.

Gameplay

I thought the visuals were fine, they're nothing too amazing but they definitely capture that iconic look well. The game achieves that style while also doing something different with it. The world is filled with colorful plants and almost too many items to collect. There are tons of trees, flowers, crops and even furniture. You're able to fully customize your own house and appearance.

Head over to the local store or use the direct shopping menu. The UI is very simple and straight forward with lots of complexity being sorted into one easy going area. Aside from direct tasks there's a bank to earn interest, a stock market to play and a museum to donate critters to. I was very impressed with the quantity of items and there's just so much depth present in this.

The Conclusion

Castaway Paradise focuses on Animal Crossing while adding great features from Harvest Moon to make a perfect new entity. I was very impressed with this game and its addicting nature. I would at times say I'm going to wrap up and wouldn't notice the time going by for another hour. It's easy to get into with simple concepts, yet carries lots of depth as you continue to play.

There are so many things to do from fishing, to bug catching and you could even collect sea shells from the beaches. It's a wonderful experience that looks great, while keeping a minimalistic style. I had a great time meeting the characters, completing quests and working to rebuild this lovely island. I do wish there was more a narrative structure however and I also found the level system slows down too much one you get into the higher tiers.

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Castaway Paradise Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Stolen Couch Games

Rating Overall: 8.7