Every time I play a game from Raitailaika Games, I feel like I say the same thing. It’s an interesting game that has potential but misses the mark. Their games are across the board, unquestionably shovelware, but with that hint of almost brilliance that could make them good if only they tried a bit harder. Ok, perhaps more than a bit. Maybe if they tried a bit harder, used focus groups, hired some animators that weren’t in high school, and then playtested their games with actual gamers to find out if they were fun, they could have something. Attack of The Toy Tanks was a great example of a game that was so close to being fun that I could taste it. Believe it or not, I actually want Raitailaika to succeed. But they never do. Legend of the Skyfish is yet another example of this, and one unsurprisingly based on a mobile game to boot.
Legend of The Skyfish puts you in the role of a young girl whose family is torn asunder by an evil from the depths of the ocean, awoken by fishermen who dared to fish too deep. It sounds neat and kind of unique. The intro cinema is kind of cool too, in a low budget sort of way and it almost makes you think that the game could have some style. Even the god-like Moonwhale seems cool at first but quickly loses her luster. Taking your trusty fishing pole, you set out to stop the monstrous Skyfish that’s terrorizing your land and oceans and save your brother.
That’s the exciting part. Then comes the actual game. Basically this is what happens when someone plays a bit of Umihara Kawase and a bit too much Legend of Zelda and can’t come up with anything innovative at work to make a game out of. You use your fishing pole like a grappling hook or *cough* hookshot and pull from area to area. You use the left stick to walk and the right stick to aim your pole, slowing your walking speed. Fire your line out and you can hook enemies, items, and any hook points available, as well as a few other things. Depending on what upgrades you bother to find and utilize, you might be able to do a bit more too. That’s pretty much the entirety of gameplay. Walk around hitting switches, pushing statues, dodging arrows, and fighting enemies. Legend of the Skyfish is so simplistic that all four face buttons simply attack. There’s nothing else to it. Puzzles aren’t particularly challenging and there’s no sense of accomplishment beating them. Combat is a joke, even in the few and far between boss fights. There’s just no depth to gameplay.
In addition to the lackluster game experience, Legend of the Skyfish is an ugly game. The intro was neat and had a vaguely budget Mark of the Kri (which you should definitely play) look to it. After that though, Raitailaika might as well have made the entire game in MS-DOS with Logo. It might have been more interesting. The character models are beyond uninspired, with simplistic animations, pathetic color palettes, and underwhelming sprite designs. It’s kind of like dollar store Moana but not as neat because the dollar store outsourced it. The music is equally terrible and unremarkable and even my wife, who isn’t a gamer at all, took one look at the game and asked me why I was playing something so atrocious (seriously, she really did).
Suffice it to say that there’s not much in the way of positives for Legend of the Skyfish. It’s an underwhelming budget game from a studio that exclusively releases underwhelming budget games. If the puzzles had been clever and the artwork had been a bit nicer, it could have been a really fun game, especially with the potential versatility of the fishing pole mechanic. Sadly, that isn’t what happened and the game isn’t worth the whopping $8 they’re charging for it. Do yourself a favor and skip this one, even if it’s on sale. You won’t miss a thing.
This review is based on a digital copy of Legend of the Skyfish provided by the publisher. It was played on both PS4 and Playstation Vita and was equally disastrous on both. Of special note is that the Vita version of Legend of the Skyfish is slightly more bearable due the smaller screen size, therefore reducing the impact of the terrible graphics but not mitigating the horrendously boring gameplay. Legend of the Skyfish is unfortunately available for PS4, PS Vita, Switch, Xbox One, and even mobile phones because everyone should suffer equally. Why are you still reading this? Go play something good!
