Umigari Spiel

by Rian

I had played Umigari demo, and I liked the fishing and the usual Chilla’s Art special sauce that gave it some tangy flavor. I suppose it is the inherent problem in most fishing sims that fishing in video games often devolve into mini games. There are few games that escaped the usual fishing mini game criteria, and the demo seemed to have shown what is possible via mix of first person shooter with a harpoon. Overall, I’m afraid it overstays its welcome.

Umigari doesn’t offer much else in fishing gameplay aside from harpoon fishing. Mechanically speaking, it’s the repeating cycle of ‘aim-reel-sell’. There is no dread in the very act of doing one’s job, like the ones created in Parasocial or The Closing Shift, both horror titles from Chilla’s Art with job sim mixed in. There are big catches in the water, but those fish are one time events, much like a mini boss. There is no stake in the fishing of Umigari. To make progress you do need an upgraded ship, and for that, it takes money. However, there is no urgency or dread of not being able to make end’s meet in the gameplay.

I suspect the gameplay lacks agency, because the narrative does not support fishing as a job simulator. In previous titles, the developer, though many of them overly simplified, used each jobs to support an overarching narrative of its title — why something invokes fear and why that job made the protagonist more vulnerable. Say, in Parasocial, I may not be a streamer, but I can sympathize with the fear of strangers taking interest in my personal life and fear of turning on my camera accidentally. Those were the fears the protagonist went through. But what is the fear of Umigari? It’s hard to be fearful of anything when you are quite the literal apex predator.

Conclusions: Speaking of Land Politics at Sea

At the risk of giving away spoilers, I will say this: just as many horror games like to be the social critique, Umigari chose a wrong place to host it. It is a social critique of the land and the people as we know it, except they are completely out of the picture. There is a gap between the provider of the horror and the experience that is delivered. I found Umigari to be more a fantasy hunting sim than a horror, especially when the sea lacks certain fear of depth in the water itself.