Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands

Stranded Sails will make you feel true explorers in an open world combined with puzzles and mechanics that will be a challenge for many fans. Lemonbomb Entertainment debuts on Nintendo Switch with a great game that paves the way for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Once I became comfortable with the controls, cycling through all the different items in my inventory became effortless. I preferred playing this game docked rather than in handheld mode. A peaceful adventure game like this begs to be played while relaxing on the couch and enjoying the vibrant colors on a big screen. While it isn’t the most gripping adventure, fans of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing will probably enjoy it.

Stranded Sails draws inspiration from many titles, but does not upgrade the borrowed formula in any way. Instead, it simplifies the experience, making it accessible and simple, yet rather bland if you are more than just a casual player. On the other hand, if you plan to grab this for a kid - it's a pretty great choice. You can watch him play, and get enough of fun just by the great and warm visuals, that really do stand out.

Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands puts a strong emphasis on aspects that most adventure and exploration RPGs don't touch upon, such as gathering resources, farming and cooking. If this aspect works well and gives the game a particular charm, there are other aspects where Stranded Sails does not stand out in the same way, namely its shallow combat and some repetitive moments.

Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands is an absolute wannabe that only hardcore fans of this genre could possibly enjoy. Tedious exploration full of repetitive tasks.

I’ve tried my hardest to avoid saying that Stranded Sails: Explorer’s of the Cursed Islands is a survival game for kids, but I think it’s probably true. The lack of motivation to stray from the immediate quest objective and the narrow scope of the gameplay is likely to be too simple for anyone reading this review. Yet the colourful, fun graphics, simplified control scheme and guided progression structure seems perfect for players that aren’t quite ready for the quests in Minecraft or the vast, open world of Stardew Valley. Pick this one up for someone that is just getting into games or someone that finds other survival/crafting games to be too overwhelming.

Stranded Sails offers some terrific farming simulation which does the majority of the game's heavy lifting, but it’s held up by middling RPG-esque mechanics. Mixing things up and throwing a selection of genres into a pot to see what comes out is arguably commendable, and there’s an awful lot to like about Stranded Sails, but some frustrating and bizarre choices in regards to recipes and the energy meter system hamstring the game for those hoping for a less taxing castaway experience.

Stranded Sails is an okay exploration game that rewards you for adventuring into the nooks and crannies of its tropical islands. However, it doesn't do much to stand out and has some annoying gameplay aspects that make exploring feel like a chore.

In summation, Stranded Sails feels like a lot of potentially interesting combinations of systems and ideas that, in execution, is just too shallow and tedious to be all that much fun. The game certainly feels like it knew it didn’t have enough substance to stretch for their desired run time and thus slowed down and over-repeated the same loops to last longer. That’s really the only excuse I can think of as to some of the decisions made here. The shame of it is with some additional polish and deeper ideas the concept of a farming/exploration/action RPG can work very well, as we’ve seen with several other recent games. In this case though I can’t really recommend the game to anyone other than potentially younger players looking for a first entry into this style of game or huge fans of the farming/exploration genre who are desperate for something else to play.

Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands proposes to blend farming sim elements with an adventure focused on exploration. Unfortunately, due to its simple mechanics and limiting stamina system, it falls short on both of its main purposes.

Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands is a solid entry into the farming and exploration space, and a perfect entry level title for younger gamers or those new to the genre. Its simplicity helps it stand out in the crowd, but not always for the best reasons.

At its surface, Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands looks like an adorable and endearing addition to this genre, and though I so badly wanted to love it, I’d have difficulty recommending it to almost anyone other than young children. There is certainly a place in the gaming world for peaceful, low-pressure exploration and farming games, but unfortunately, I’m not convinced that Stranded Sails is one that belongs. The minute-to-minute gameplay is just not stimulating enough, the quests and actions are fairly mindless, and overall, there just isn’t enough reason to pick it up time and time again.

Stranded Sails is the perfect game for those who enjoy learning and structured game play. I found every new discovery exciting, cooking food for my crew rewarding and fishing as always put me in my zen zone but unfortunately I did not get the adventuring survival I was hoping for which is a shame really because it is also obvious that a lot of hard work has gone into this title as a studio and I look forward to watching Lemondrop evolve.

Simulation & farming fans will likely want to skip this title, unless they are dying for something new to play until a notable game in the genre is released.

While the experience is not an entirely negative one, it leaves little to enjoy when problems start coming up. The charming atmosphere and stylization lends itself well to being a sort of survival-lite adventure for a younger audience; the quests are straightforward; and, finally, the difficulty is forgiving. Those looking for an exploration game will find frustrations abound in this title, and unfortunately the design choices lead to a rather disappointing experience as a whole.