woeful dagger
Go down to the pier, talk with Hikari, get told to pick up the Old Fishing Rod.
AT THIS POINT, when the player picks up The Old Fishing Rod, the fishing tutorial SHOULD start. But (of course) nothing happens, you just pick up The Old Fishing Rod.
Thinking I'm ready, I select The Old Fishing Rod, and the little bait pop-up pops up (with the "Q" button right next to it) but I can't figure out how to bait the hook. Pay close attention to this: I haven't done anything MORE than pick up the rod, nor have I any clue what to do next.
It would appear that the fishing game mechanic isn't fully functional until the Fishing Tutorial is completed. This is beyond frustrating.
I cannot bait the hook by any manipulations of the user interface. I can't. You try it: Talk to Hikari, go get The Old Fishing Rod, then try immediately to fish. It won't work, and you know it. But your average player who's experienced EVERY OTHER GAME in the world won't. This causes frustration, which (I believe) is counter to your game's design.
Frustrated after wasting a good hour (in game time, that timer doesn't seem to stop EVER) I turn to leave, and a message pops up over my head saying I need to return The Rod to Hikari. Seeing that it was absolutely NO USE to me, I go over to return it to her. AND THEN THE FISHING TUTORIAL BEGINS!
The Fishing Tutorial needs to start WHEN THE PLAYER GRABS THE FISHING ROD FOR THE FIRST TIME. It just makes sense.
Well, to make matters worse, I had the rod, Hikari had told me all the details, and so I stepped to the side, selected a nice juicy worm, the menu disappeared and I clicked (I tend to use the mouse for everything: controllers are better still, but that's still a new concept in some places) the mouse button to cast off. And it casted. Then I waited for the tell-tale bob-drop from the bobber. And waited. And waited. And waited. I know that it's procedural, but I had planned to open the bar later that day, and we were just burnin' daylight. So I decided to pack it in and leave. I click the mouse again, the rod un-deploys (I reel in the line) instantly and I'm standing there, ready to leave.
I clicked on Hikari (to make sure I'm spelling her name right,) and she suddenly tells me that I've got one, and continues the fishing tutorial. The rod is "in my pocket", no longer deployed, and somehow I've got one, and this is how to land it. [???]
Um, what? Well, I guess that's nice to know and all, but I don't "got one" and I'm heading off to go open the bar, later than usual.
ScreenCap crashed the game again. But that's jsut life, I guess.
But wouldn't it have been nice (and just think of the time I wouldn't have wasted) had the tutorial awakened WHEN I FIRST GRABBED THE FISHING ROD, and waited for me to actually get a "hit" before trying to tell me how to finish landing it?
north fiber
