[Thoughts] Dark Chronicle's Fishing Remains Unmatched!

While there are many great fishing mini games, Dark chronicle's still stands tall

The main reason the fishing in Dark Chronicle stands out to me is that it transcends being a simple mini game with little purpose. There are many reasons to fish in this game actually. On top of this, the fishing itself is really fun and there are plenty of cool fish you can get in the game. So, with that said, let's go into more detail regarding this games fishing as a whole. 

The fishing itself, is very simple and easy to get a grasp of. You start by casting your line into the water, which can pretty much be any body of water in the game. Then when something bites, which is indicated with a exclamation point, you start to reel. 

From here your objective is to draw in the fish and ensure that your reel amount doesn't hit the top of the bar. While it is slow, you can pretty much avoid the danger zone completely by periodically tapping the reel button. To reel in a fish faster, you can tap it in and out the danger zone. The longer you have a fish on the line, the higher the lower bound gets making it easier for you to get into the danger zone, and thus touch the top of the bar, so don't take too long. Stronger fish also increase the lower bounds outright and it's gain as well. Upon a successful catch you will gain some fishing points. These are used to upgrade your rod to make it easier for you to catch fish. 

So you now have your fish, what can you do with it? Well, the most obvious thing you can do is sell it for gold. The price of the fish can vary depending on the type and it's stats. If you are low on healing supplies then you can roast the fish, healing you for a set amount of hp. You need the grill item to be able to do this, which is available from the start. Spectrumising a fish is also possible, this will make it into a sphere for you to use on a weapon, fittingly, giving you more scale damage. 

However, the coolest thing you can do with a fish is raise them in an aquarium. When fish are put in this aquarium they can be named and fed bait, which increases their stats. These stats are used in fish races, which is something you can do with your pet fish. As well as this there is also the breeding tank, which allows you to breed a fish from two other ones, giving you a middle ground between the previous two fish. A battle tank also exists, allowing you to test the strength of your fish against another of your fish. If you have a fish you have trained well and want to share with a friend that is also something you can do. Each fish has a password and the other player can simply put in the fish password to use your fish in a fish race.  

As you now know, you can do a lot with fish in this game. The only negative about the fishing in this game is that there isn't a place to view the fish types and common locations of each fish. This wouldn't be an issue if there weren't many fish in the game but there is a fair few types. Thankfully, you can just look at locations and such online if you need to.

Dark Chronicle has so many cool things about it and I still think the game holds up well today. The actual game is about building towns and exploring procedurally generated dungeons. This is accompanied with an epic tale that covers the past, present and future. So if that sounds like fun, then make sure to give it a try, it is available on PS4 and PS5. 

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