This RPG turns my favorite part of Stardew Valley into an entire game

digitaltrends.com:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good video game must be in want of a fishing minigame. The time-honored side activity has been featured in everything from Final Fantasy XV to Hello Kitty: Island Adventure as a brief reprieve from the main story. The trouble is that whenever a fishing minigame pops up I find myself neglecting everything else, even saving the world, in favor of casting a line. That is, unless the fishing minigame sucks.

Indie RPG Sea Fantasy is here to solve that problem. Developed by METASLA, Sea Fantasy takes the fishing minigame and turns it into the main event. Gone are turn-based battles, random encounters, and multi-colored mages. There is still an appropriately nonsense story about saving the world from it’s imminent destruction, but this time you’ll be doing it through the power of fishing. Don’t ask too many questions as to how that works. While Sea Fantasy’s charming pixel-graphics pay homage to classic RPGs, the mechanical core of the game draws inspiration from an unexpected source: Stardew Valley.

The ever-popular life sim eschews the belief that fishing is a leisurely activity and therefore should be simple, which makes it the perfect pick for METSLA to take guidance from. Rather than the one or two button press affairs found in many RPG minigames, Sea Fantasy requires skill and perseverance. Timing is everything. A marker moves along a horizontal bar in which a target zone of varying size is placed. Stopping the marker when it is in the target zone deals damage to any potential catches. Depending on the creature (called SeaAZ) the target zone may be much smaller and damage won’t make as big a dent in the health bar. There is also a countdown timer that warns that the enemy will bite back with its own damage dealing attack. This leads to long drawn out battles between you and the SeaAZ that feel like they were pulled straight out of The Old Man and the Sea.

Don’t expect to reel in these monsters right