Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands

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.