If you know me, you're probably surprised to see this here. I have long evangelized about Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure, an odd ball obscure fishing RPG/Visual Novel for the last generation of consoles. Or last generation as of 2026. This is a game I am very passionate about, in... god was it 2020? 2021? It's been so long. Anyways, a friend of mine, at the time just a streamer I watched, was playing at least one fishing game a month and we had stumbled into Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure. And I want to be clear, at first we were clowning on it. We didn't even like this weird game when we were done, by the final stream of it, we were just like "god, can we be done with this".
But as the year went on and we played a lot of uninteresting fishing games, our minds kept going back to RTA. It's a weird story about a trio of friends who do not like each other trying to complete a class project while it's implied their friendship is breaking apart. And there's a really weird supernatural element to it too. It's an odd duck of a fishing game, but one we fell in love with. Playing it was a tradition for a while, we probably played through it a few times and have created kind of a small community around it. I've made a lot of friends through Road Trip Adventure. But I've never played it myself. It's been sitting on my shelf for a very long time and thankfully La-Mulana was a wash for me so I had a need for a replacement and a window of opportunity. This is:
Explaining What Happens in Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure As I Play It For Myself For the First Time
Disclaimer: Some of the things in the following blog post may not actually be official. My friends and I have done a lot of reading between the lines over the years of this game and technically speaking not everything in this is in the text. This is probably the closest you're going to get to me writing a fanfiction. But it's more fun this way, isn't it? As such this will probably also be more loosey goosey than my normal writing. Little bit of a riff.
Chapter 1: Prologue
Listen, I'm well aware that's not what a prologue is. So to begin, I think I should give you an idea of what the structure of this game is. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure is a fishing simulation game with RPG elements and visual novel sequences. You are handed quests by a wizened old fisherman and, upon completion of those quests, you get a little story sequence. So what I'm going to be listing are the interstitials between fishing segments. I'm effectively not going to talk about the gameplay at all, the gameplay is not good for the record, but that's not why I'm writing this. I'm writing this because I need people to know the bizarre character interactions in this fishing game.
To start we need to understand the characters at the center of our story. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure only has four characters in it, the main three and the shop owner. So here are our main characters:
- Sean - Sean is the character we spend the game playing as. Sean is your classic shonen protagonist. He's dumb,, loud, loves eating, and is hyperfixated on one singular thing which defines his personality. In this case, fishing. Sean loves to fish, he eats, sleeps, and breathes fishing. If given the opportunity, he will make every conversation about fishing, much to the annoyance of his friends. But Sean has a good heart. He cares a lot about the environment and while he often takes actions that annoy his friends, they trust him a great deal, allowing him to be the de factor leader of the trio. Also someone would be mad if I didn't mention this, but Sean's clavicle game is insane. Bro has it fully on display at all times it's crazy. They had to nerf it in the sequel, even, that's how crazy it is.
- Neil - For every Goku, there must be a Krillin. Neil is Sean's best friend, they've known each other since they were very young and both have a shared love of fishing. As is standard with these stories, Neil is an equal and opposite force of Sean. He's shy and quiet, takes life slowly, cares more about being studious. He takes two steps forward while Sean takes two steps back. They come together because opposites attract. Neil loves fishing but moreover, he loves recycling. Neil's primary job in the group is to craft new rods, reels, and lures out of trash he finds on the group's fishing adventures. Neil is, however, pretty dumb, despite being the "bookworm", and often takes Sean's side in arguments because
he's in love with himhe wants to keep the peace. - Alice - Alice is my girl. The fashionista herself, Alice has not known Sean and Neil nearly as long as they've known each other. Alice joined up with the group within the last couple years as a result of them going to the same college and loving fishing. Despite their shared interest, however, Alice doesn't always get along with the other two, usually butting heads with Sean. Alice is a real girls girl, she loves cooking and fashion and is against the more masculine ideals Sean always presents. She's also deeply insecure, something that comes from her history of being overweight before college, which leads to her often being defensive in the face of Sean's teasing. This weight loss plays into her special skill, however, with Alice having spent high school learning how to cook delicious but healthy meals. She uses her food to provide the group with buffs and healing items during the games' fishing sequences.
- Shopman - Mr. Shopman is an enigma. A mysterious old man, Mr. Shopman owns a grocery store and tackle shop up in the mountains of Japan. He has invited the trio out to his home to accomplish their primary goal: completing a class assignment with a very broad goal of "do a report on anything". Shopman assists them on this goal by allowing them to buy produce for their meals as well as purchasing off of them any pictures of fish that they take. Not any fish they take, any pictures of fish they take. It's crazy to me too. Shopman is also their quest giver, asking the trio to find specific fishes of specific sizes to prove to him that the area's waters are getting clean. But something is off with him. He always seems to know just a touch too much at any given time.
A few days later, they're all packed up and have taken a train out to the countryside, and are awaiting the arrival of a bus to take them all the way out to where Shopman lives. Sean has been stuck with luggage duty, carrying Alice's numerous bags with him, leading to the first of many arguments between them. As they wait, they go on a little adventure, following the train tracks until they reach their conclusion, stopping right before a sealed off tunnel through the mountain. Make note of this, it'll be important much later. The trio is confused by this, but once they arrive at their destination they discover that originally the plan was for the town Shopman lives in and the town on the other side of the mountain to merge into one town, with a train through to both sides.
Arriving at the location Shopman gave them, he reveals that he has actually been the artist of the painting the whole time. Shopman sought to bring them up here because it has been his life's goal to once again see the Elusive Fish. See, the Elusive Fish used to appear in a secret fishing location with crystalline water. But after the failed construction of the mountain tunnel, the waters around here have gotten filled with pollutants. Shopman wants to clean up the local water sources, in the hops of bringing back all the native fauna, but he is an old man at this point. So he invited these three young adults, all of whom have a passion for fishing, to aid him in his efforts. To assist them, he will allow them use of his RV to travel around, as well as providing them with cash and supplies. But they will need to prove their commitment to the cult cause by regularly showing him photos of fish they've caught, proving the fish in question have returned to the area.
The trio starts out being pleasant enough to each other as they accomplish their quest, but you can tell there's some tension surrounding them. Their playful banter having an uneasy undercurrent. Sean is poking Alice a bit too much, Neil isn't sticking up for his friends enough in his attempts to keep the peace. It comes to a head when Neil notes that Sean has a new phone background. It's a fish, of course, they always are. Sean likes to show off his trophies after all. But when Neil asks about it, both he and Alice regret that decision as Sean launches into a story about catching this fish. The duo is familiar with Sean's stories but this time seems different, like they're only listening to humor him and aren't actually interested in what he has to say. They laugh off his behavior as just "being Sean", but the patience seems to be running thin.
How little the group knows about Alice is also becoming incredibly apparent. Alice went to another school from Sean and Neil and so the trio didn't meet until college, but they don't seem to know, like, basic stuff about her. They seem utterly flabbergasted that Alice could be an excellent cook, a skill she picked up in high school as part of her weight loss journey. In fact, they are worried that she cannot cook up until the moment they taste her food, which is a bizarre assumption to make about someone who insists they can cook without having tasted their food. This is even more bizarre as it's later on revealed that this is what Alice is in school for. Her dream is to become a professional chef. So the group knows so little about each other outside of the context of fishing that they don't even know each other's majors. Insane. I know there's a sequel to this game but man, these three need new friends.
Chapter 2: Ocean Fishing
So, keep in mind that this is a fishing club and that Sean and Neil have been fishing together since they were very young. So you'd expect them to be like really into fishing, to be more than just a casual hobbyist. It turns out, that's not true! Sean, Neil, and Alice have never done anything greater than your standard "going to streams and ponds and catching bluegill and trout" fishing. The fourth quest of the game is to go out to the coast and fish for Seabream, and these three are astonished at the prospect of going ocean fishing. Like this is not a thing they've done before. Fishing tourists, I swear, people I know who do fishing super casually have gone ocean fishing but these three have never done it. What's more, we find out that Neil is scared of the ocean anyways! When he and Sean were in the fifth grade, they went to a summer camp on the ocean and Sean found a cute girl from another school he wanted to impress who is definitely not Alice and so he made a big show of flexing and in doing so pushed Neil off the rocks they were standing on! And Neil almost drowned! Sean is a horrible friend, I swear, these people need to get away from him.
After the intensive fishing we've been doing (we haven't caught anything that weighs more than a few ounces), Sean's shirt has gotten threadbare. Fortunately, Neil is a whiz at sewing, which matches all of his other crafting related talents. Neil's one of those guys who is like "oh, I'm not actually talented, if you took the time to learn you'd be as good as I am at this". You know, one of those people where you can never tell if it's genuine humility, an actual belief in other people's skills, or just having astronomically low self-esteem to where you think nothing you do is special. This is a subtweet to myself. Anyways, the other two are discussing how maybe they too could pick up sewing and Alice is like "maybe Neil's right, maybe all I need to do is commit more time to it and I'll be able to do it" and then Sean responds "well maybe you can Alice, but me? No way." And it's difficult to not feel like this is a microaggression considering Alice is a woman and Sean is a shonen protagonist. Sean is needling them, Sean is always needling them. Noodling them? That's a better fish joke, pretend I said that first. Anyways, Sean ultimately doesn't think he can pick up sewing because he is, at his core, intellectually incurious and does not want to pick up new skills that aren't related to fishing. Boy likes to fish and hates the idea he should do anything else. Alice eventually agrees with him that maybe he shouldn't pick up sewing and Neil is like "Alice, I don't care how right it is, don't discourage him!"
Neil reveals that he has been receiving messages from his parents to be more career-oriented. This is a common theme with Neil that even goes into the follow-up to RTA, Reel Fishing: Days of Summer. Neil, being the "perfect student" archetype constantly feels pressured to look towards the future. It's something that eats away at him because he doesn't really know what he wants and thinks that where he wants to be right now is enjoying the student lifestyle. This is also where we start to get notes that, despite Neil's claims to the contrary, Neil clearly isn't very smart. He's flaky and unfocused, he says a lot that he's a model student but it's all kind of words. Anyways, Neil is jealous of Alice, a very career-oriented person who already knows what she wants to be in life, and is somewhat jealous of Sean, a person who has no prospects and no future but is too dumb to realize it. Neil is stuck with the worst of both worlds, unable to make a decision about his future and unable to live with the knowledge that that is okay. As an aside, we find out in this conversation that Sean's professors are so worried about his lack of a future that they are setting up internships for him. It's a thing that makes Neil very upset but Alice, in her constant need to take a dig at Sean, is like "oh it's probably just that they're not worried about you like that, Neil". These three need to hang out with anyone else, I swear.
Alice ran into Neil at a party she went to with friends that Neil and Sean were intending to go to independently. This implies Alice has friends outside of Sean and Neil, which is a baffling prospect because why would you hang out with Sean if you had ANYONE else in your life. Alice also states that this party is recent, which implies they are going home frequently despite having been up on this mountain camping for like 2 weeks straight at this point. Anyways, Sean bailed on Neil to go fishing, big surprise, and Neil and Alice hungout at the party for a little bit. While they were there, Alice spotted a girl chatting up our resident trash goblin and watched him seriously fumble it. They were in deep, she asked Neil like a lot of personal questions and was apparently rather clingy and Neil just did not pick up on it. Which of course makes sense, Neil clearly is deeply in love with Sean and likely does not notice women at all. So Alice and Sean, as if Sean would know how to handle a woman, start teasing him for fumbling this opportunity and Neil is just like "I think she just wanted movie recommendations". Honestly, a relatable scenario, I once failed to realize a girl was clearly into me at a superbowl party and shy was super clingy the entire time, even falling asleep on my shoulder.
The gang does yoga! Alice, it turns out, is a massive yoga fan and does extended yoga sessions on a daily basis. This time around, Sean and Neil decide to join her in her yoga sessions and, despite all three people in this trio having very outdoor lifestyles which include a lot of hiking and fishing, Sean and Neil's cardio is just like. Terrible. And then they both do that thing that insecure men do whenever they lose to a girl, try to undermine the other person's accomplishments by positing that they're somehow a nutjob. Like Alice being more fit and able to maintain exercise and balance for extended periods of time is somehow a negative trait? And all because they can't handle the hit to their egos? Not to say Alice is necessarily doing much better here, she reinforces the traditional gender dynamic of men being inherently stronger than women and tries to imply that Sean and Neil are lacking because their cardio isn't as good as hers. Also, I say that they have active lifestyles but something I want to make clear is that Sean is both lazy and, due to his laziness, an awful fisherman. Despite fishing being his entire life, Sean fails to get up at the crack of the dawn and refuses to go for long hours. He shows up at the fishing spot at 10 AM, everybody who goes fishing is at the lake by like 5 AM, and then he only goes until 3. He's a fake fisherman,
Sean brought fireworks up to the camp, believing that because this is a summer adventure, you gotta have fireworks. I don't know where exactly he got these fireworks from, again, they have spent a considerable amount of time up here at this point. Probably a month now based on how long I had to grind out some of these fish. And also Neil, who is slowing down progress by failing to collect trash efficiently enough to allow me to craft on the reg. Anyways, Sean decides now is the best time to light up these fireworks. He, as you might imagine, cares very little for firework safety, immediately choosing to wave them around freely. Alice points out that there is always one guy who needs to wave his fireworks around, implying that she has been sexually harassed, which checks out, she was a chubby teenage girl, it would be weirder if she weren't sexually harassed. As if this wasn't bad enough, Sean brought like an actual firework with him, not just the kind you give to kids. This is, I imagine, illegal, and Alice and Neil rightfully do not trust him to set it off because it's a proper firework. Thankfully nothing goes wrong, unfortunately, nothing goes wrong, so we still have to hunt for the Elusive Fish, who at this point everyone has taken to calling "the Legend". I kind of want these kids to stop looking for it so they can head back home, realize that they've grown apart, and move on with their lives. Alas.
Chapter 3: Mr. Shopman's Change
After spending so much time out here, cleaning up the waters and catching fish, Alice begins to notice that Mr. Shopman appears different. It's as if he is getting younger. Not in the sense that he has developed a new lease on life or that he's filled with youthful energy. No like literally, he's Benjamin Buttoning according to her. His gray hair has turned mostly black and his wrinkled skin is smoothing out. Neil and Sean, being who they are, decide to gaslight their friend. "I don't think there's as big of a change as you think there is". "I'm sure he's just feeling more lively after hanging out with us." Just fully convincing Alice that the thing she's noticed isn't happening. And frankly, if you're playing this game, you've probably noticed it too. Shopman's sprites have subtly changed as you've caught more and more fish. Look, all these young adults are awful, but Alice definitely needs better friends, these other two are garbage fires. Truly they are not good for her and her adorable outfits, she needs new friends so bad.
The gang receives an e-mail from their university which has the test scores for their midterms. This is surprising, of course, as they are on a summer holiday writing a report on legendary and elusive fish that used to be native to Japan. When they took a midterm, who can say. But regardless, they have received their results. Neil passed with flying colors, something that both of his friends are upset about him bragging about before he reminds them that the test was open book. Sean then responds that he wouldn't even know where to look in the book regardless, so it doesn't really matter. As Alice swiftly points out, Sean just admitted that he is both astonishingly dumb and also that he has not gone to class enough to have a basic grasp of his textbook. I don't even really know what Sean is doing in college, it feels like Sean is just going to get rich on meme stock and then retire at 22 to spend the rest of his days fishing, frankly. Regardless, Neil sees this as an opportunity. If he can help Sean study, he can be alone with Sean. And as we've established Neil likes Sean in what is probably a romantic way. Sean, being a clueless shonen protagonist, just hates this because he thinks they will actually be studying. Alice got a B, by the way.
I've been excited for this story. This is the internship story. So, as mentioned previously, Sean's professors are so concerned about his seemingly absent possibilities for the future that they have taken the initiative to provide Sean with internship opportunities. Sean has been going to this internship for a while and is seemingly enjoying his time with the company. Thing is, Sean has no idea what the company is doing. See, it turns out, Sean showed up for his first day and not too long after met an older gentleman who always seemed to show up late for work. Sean refers to him as "his old pal", a thing he means literally in that he is his pal and he is old rather than being a friend Sean has had for some time. Both Alice and Neil are surprised Sean has any friends outside of them. I digress. Sean say this older man showing up for work late every day and so encouraged him to take up fishing. Cause you gotta be up super early for fishing, you have to be out there before the crack of dawn. Never mind the fact that we know Sean is lazy and doesn't start fishing each day until 10 AM. So Sean gets this guy turned onto fishing and, since then, every day has been him showing up for his internship, finding this guy, and just talking about fishing nonstop until the day is over. He's had this internship for a long time and is fully unaware of what the company does and, being intellectually incurious, does not want to know. Neil is panicking as he realizes his friend has no future, and will likely be mooching off him for the rest of his life.
The rare Shopman only interstitial. On a particularly clear, beautiful night, Shopman looks up to the sky and notes how beautiful the moon is tonight. He begins musing to himself about the clear sky and recollecting the first date he had with his now deceased wife. They were going to see a fireworks show but it was rained out. Deciding to not let the moment pass, they bought some fireworks so that they could have their own show once the rain cleared. But you know how these things go. It never seems like a good time. Life always gets in the way. Shopman kept putting it off for years until he no longer had any time at all. His wife had passed on and now all he has is a bunch of promises he never kept. But it's okay, he says. Because soon him and his wife will be reunited. Which we can just basically say that Shopman is a ghost who is ready to move on because, if he was just close to death, Benjamin Buttoning out of nowhere is a weird decision if your goal is to be reunited with your dead wife. The last section was about Sean being too dumb to hold a job and now it's getting spooky out of nowhere, I love this game. By the way, this was all on the mission to catch a Japanese Sea Bass, so the entire time I was just thinking of the Animal Crossing puns about Sea Bass.
Chapter 4: Mr. Shopman's Decision
A really short interstitial to lead us into the fourth chapter. Mr. Shopman simply notes how effective our trio has been at cleaning up the local waterways, how almost all of the local fauna has returned. Soon, the Legend will return as well, the kids will accomplish their goal. But in this moment, Shopman is concerned. The Legend reappearing clearly means something is about to happen, something Shopman clearly wants to prevent. He states that he "won't let it happen again". What isn't he telling us? Does the Legend have something to do with the death of his wife? We probably won't find out because none of these interstitials seem to have any real bearing on the plot, these characters are often just yapping.
Alice and Sean are fighting, because you know. It's a day ending in y. This time over Sean presumably tripping as Alice tells him to "be more careful where he's walking". This exchange makes Neil decide to ask a very important question: are Alice and Sean dating? See "some friends of his" in one of his elective classes, a class he alleged he attended recently despite us being out here for like a month at this point, asked about Sean and Alice. After all, they are "always hanging out together", which is odd given that we know Alice has other friends she hangs out with, and people have started talking. Sean and Alice vehemently deny this, stating not only are they not dating, but it doesn't make sense that people would posit that idea given that they're also always hanging out with Neil. Neil responds "oh, well, you know, I guess I just don't leave that much of an impact". Which, to me, makes it pretty clear that there are no friends from his elective class and that he's actually probing the two of them to see if Sean is available. And then, because Sean is Sean, he cannot let things be and decides to take a dig at Alice, saying she's too loud and annoying and nags too much to ever be in a relationship. Alice rebukes this by stating she has had plenty of boyfriends, to which Sean responds "yeah, and where are any of them now". Neil smiles smugly, knowing that so long as he keeps stirring the pot, there's no chance of Alice and Sean getting together.
The gang once again acknowledges that this is summer, making the timeline even more confusing than it already was. They talk like they're still midsemester in some conversations while, in others, acknowledge they've been up in the mountains for quite some time as school has been off. Weird time shenanigans are a shockingly common thread for fishing games. Anyways, Sean suggests that they do a "summer night fight off", a thing I have never heard of but is essentially a dare challenge where you go off by yourself in a spooky area and try not to chicken out. Alice is vehemently against this idea but, discovering Neil and Sean intend to do it anyways, begrudgingly goes along with them to not be left alone overnight. They head a ways away to the train station they used to get up here and Alice decides to wait in the car with the person who is currently not doing the dare. Neil leaves the two alone and when he comes back he prods the other two to make sure they are not dating before Sean takes his turn. Sean, being Sean, uses this opportunity to scare Alice to death. He pretends to be a werewolf who is hunting Alice down and takes great joy in how genuinely scared she is. Sean is the kind of guy who assumes everyone is in on the joke even if they say they aren't. Alice, furious at Sean, locks him out of the car until he apologizes, something that takes him a while to do sincerely and he only chooses to do so when Neil believes he hears an actual wolf in the forest. Alice, for what it's worth, was still not going to let Sean in without apologizing even with the threat of a wolf, meaning Sean could've died this night as a result of being a jerk. Alice needs better friends. Legitimately, when my friend was first playing through this game, this scene was the moment we went from "these people are awful and deserve each other" to "Alice deserves better".
In a follow-up to the last one, the gang arrives at Shopman's store to restock their supplies and regale him with tales of their adventures. Sean, being Sean, immediately tries to throw Alice under the bus by claiming that she was about to let him die at the hands of a wolf. Ignore the fact that Alice indeed was about to let Sean die at the hands of a wolf. Shopman finds this amusing and also a bit odd, according to him there aren't any wolves or even wild dogs in this area at all. Ignoring, of course, that wolves can roam. That's a possibility. The gang is now all spooked as they debate what it could possibly have been that was hiding in the foliage. I would assume it was a boar, myself, we are in Japan, but Shopman offers an alternative theory. See, there are said to be 13 mythological creatures who call this mountain home, forest spirits who are bound to the mountain. Obviously, he would be an expert, he's one of the 13. He then excitedly tells the crew that they should incorporate these local myths into their fishing club report. Alice is very opposed to the idea, partially because it would mean investigating more spooky ghost stories but I imagine it's mostly due to the fact that ghosts have nothing to do with fishing... as far as we know. Neil is in support of this idea, however, finding the prospect of ghosts to be fascinating. It really feels like Neil just isn't involved in most of these cutscenes, to be honest.
Chapter 5: The Legend
The time has finally come. At 9PM, Shopman pulls the trio into his shop and states that, thanks to all their hard work, the Legend has finally returned. He congratulations them on their efforts and the trio briefly begin to give their bittersweet goodbyes to Shopman. But before they can, Shopman warns that the Legend is the toughest fish they've fought yet. They must truly be prepared to face him in the fishing battle of their lives. As such, he has given us a final test before we can face the Legend itself. More importantly, when we are truly ready, we have been given instructions on how to find the fishing spot for the Legend. Shopman draws our attention to a familiar site: the sealed off tunnel from the beginning of the game. He states that, so long as they trust him, he will lead them to the the Legend through that tunnel. Once again, he is a ghost, this is the only explanation for his behavior. The trio is, understandably, confused by the notion that there's a fishing spot beyond a completely sealed up tunnel, but Shopman just says to meet him there at 3 AM. The witching hour. Our trio has definitely been swindled into becoming part of some fish-centric cult by a dead guy!!!
Back at camp, the trio decides to regroup and talk over this bizarre revelation. Sean is very gung-ho about this, believing that he will soon set himself among the ranks of the greatest fisherman of all time. An impressive title for him to obtain, he's not old enough to drink. Alice and Neil are less than sure, however. They have picked up on the weird hour and Shopman's odd behavior and are playing the game we're currently playing: is this a ghost thing or is it a cult thing. Sean, thick-headed as he is, doesn't believe in ghosts OR cults, and argues that Shopman is clearly telling the truth. After all, he's been telling the truth so far. Neil is quick to point out that just because he's not lying, that doesn't mean he's not also dangerous. Alice also explains what the witching hour even is, proving that among Sean's many failings as a human being, one of them is that he did not have a goth phase in high school. Sean thinks Alice is once again being a scaredy cat, having already forgotten the lesson about being nice to her, lest she let him be mauled by a boar and/or a forest troll. But, as Sean says, what does it matter anyways. No one cared about this witching hour thing until they got up the mountain. It's almost as if there's a potential ghost cult we now have to deal with that makes the witching hour more relevant. Regardless, the trio resolves to meet Shopman at 3 AM and catch the Legend. After all, they are the Fishing Club! Not any specific fishing club, just "the".
The group notes how good it is to be sitting around the campfire, citing that they haven't done this in "so long". Again, an absurd statement, they've been up on this mountain for like 6 weeks now and been primarily camping. They've been sitting around a fire every night. Anyways, more than that, they are like "I haven't done this since the summer camp where Neil almost drowned". Said summer camp was in the fifth grade. Anyways, this is finally the moment where Alice asks the other two what the name of that summer camp was and, surprise surprise, it was the same summer camp that she went to! It's been like a month since that story about the summer camp and Alice is only now getting around to telling them. The three of them are super freaked out, noting how odd it is that their lives have intersected multiple times before. As if the universe itself was trying to pull them together. Alice doesn't believe in destiny though so that idea is shot down, which means Alice believes in ghosts but doesn't believe in destiny. Bizarre combo there. And what do they decide to do as soon as they have this life altering revelation about the nature of their friendship? Get drunk. Get super drunk. This is the first time in this game that these characters have felt like college students. Also, Neil picks up that Alice is 100% the girl that Sean was flirting with at that summer camp but neither Alice nor Sean seems to connect those particular dots.
The gang notices Shopman's fireworks when they are at his store restocking on their supplies. As you'll recall, these fireworks have been with him since he was a young adult himself, having been purchased to do a show with his wife. They are excited about the prospect of putting another fireworks show, though given how poor of a grasp they have on time, they probably believe it is the first one, it feels like we're in a time loop at this point. Sean of course doesn't notice anything weird about these fireworks, but Neil is quick to note how old the fireworks seem. When questioned, you ever notice how often the other two question Neil's observations, Neil points out that the fireworks do not just seem to be designed to look old, but that they are themselves likely very old, 40-50 years abouts. Sean does not care. He completely ignores the observation his friend has made, shooting it down by going "well, so long as they fire, who cares how old they are". I'm not an expert on fireworks, but I'm like fairly confident 50 year old fireworks would not, in fact, fire. I feel like the gunpowder is probably bad by this point. But again, what do I know. It's weird that this is one of the final cutscenes of the game, you'd think they'd put the mentioning of the fireworks BEFORE the part where Shopman waxes poetic about the things he never got to do with his wife. But I digress.
To follow up from the last plot point, the gang purchases the fireworks from Shopman's shop, returning the money he has been giving them to him, once again, fish cult. And they invite Shopman out to enjoy the fireworks. Shopman talks about how long he's had these fireworks and how important they are to him and he never mentions to the gang that he lost his wife of course. That would mean explaining anything. He's just like "oh, you know, fireworks are meant to be enjoyed together, that's why I've been holding onto them". And he just awkwardly partakes in the fireworks display, giving off the weirdest vibes. Laughing but like, Shopman's sprites are just a touch off-putting so it again feels like the kind of fake laughter that a cultist would have. You know the type. Halfway through the display he gets suddenly very solemn and goes "I was such a fool" but he won't tell the kids what that means. Just a weird dude, I swear. Then Neil is like "fireworks are fun, I should look into buying them more often when I get home" and Shopman responds "oh I don't think you'll find any like this, sadly". Which is weird, Neil was the one who clocked that Shopman's fireworks were old so I don't know why they're implying he thought that he'd be able to walk into a store and buy fireworks like this. Also, is it legal for a normal person to buy fireworks in Japan? That feels like it wouldn't be legal over there.
As we finish the final story mission before the Legend, the final boss of the game, Alice is depressed. Having all the fish return to the ecosystem and having seemingly the only thing remaining for them to do means that this summer vacation is almost over. So now we're at the end of the summer even though, again, they got e-mails about their midterms like two weeks ago. Insane timeline. She's so sad because she's been thinking on what Neil's parents said and the conversations they had about their future. How once this is over, they go back to their real lives, have to do adult things. Figure out their careers. Pay taxes. Get a mortgage. I'm depressed talking about it, to be honest. Sean, being Sean, decides to use this opportunity to be sexist, asking her if she's crying over some cheesy romance novel. Why is Alice sad about leaving these people? Anyways, the three begin to reminisce about this perfect summer and the perspective it's given them, how they now want to look towards their futures. Alice wants to really invest her time into getting into culinary school and becoming a professional chef. Sean wants to fish and join the MMA. I don't know where this came from, but he says he wants to enjoy those one-on-one battles, for the record I realize he is still talking about fishing. And Neil? The guy who had trouble figuring out his career path previously? Neil wants to craft. That's what he wants his job to be, crafting. He's so dumb. The three of them decide to make this summer last forever, enjoy it while they still are here, no matter what happens. Which is a bad thing to decide at the end of the game, when the only thing left to do is fight the Legend.
Chapter 6: Beyond the Tunnel
Here it is, the finale of the game. The trio decides to head out at 2 AM to the place where Shopman stated the path to the hidden fishing spot would be, presumably to await his arrival. However, when they arrive, Shopman is already waiting for them. Alice finds this very odd, because they had not actually communicated with Shopman that they were intending upon coming up here tonight. But, since he is likely both a cult leader and a ghost, he just appeared here anyways. Is this ghost stealing their money? Will they get it back once he moves on? I digress. What's more, the tunnel that was previously sealed is now fully opened. Sean and Neil are too excited about the end of their quest to clock how truly bizarre this is, but Alice is immediately like "guys, this is weird, I'm not sure about this actually". Proving that Alice has not yet been fully taken in by the fish cult.
However, as it is a cult, they start gaslighting her. First by attempting to change the subject, with Shopman definitely totally joking about this tunnel being a path to another plane of existence to distract them, before following it up with "well, yes, the tunnel used to be sealed off, but it's open clearly, maybe you didn't look hard enough the first time". Sean and Neil concur, after all, they saw the tunnel several days ago and only for a second, maybe they just didn't get a good enough look at it and their mind was playing tricks on them. After all, Alice, don't you trust Shopman? The weird fish cult man who is probably a ghost? Alice, being fully convinced she is crazy by her friends and their new fish cult leader decides to go on in. She trusts Sean and Neil, and they trust Shopman. And besides, doesn't she want to catch the Legend?
Arriving on the other side of the tunnel, the group sees a bizarre sight. An impossibly beautiful beach, otherworldly and mystical, is awaiting them, the Legend splashing about in the waters just off the sight. Purple flowers cover the area, and fireflies rise above the waters. Even Sean, as dense as he is, is taken by the beauty, noting how it feels like a fantasy world. Shopman hands Sean the rod he used many years ago, the first time he encountered the Legend, the time he painted it, and says to use it to catch the Elusive Fish. All the while thinking to himself how grateful he is for them, how they have fulfilled a life's goal of his, and how he won't let it happen again. That he will protect these children, that he won't let someone else be taken by the Legend. Guys, I think we're in hell. I think Shopman has brought these children to hell. And has said to them "here, catch the ferryman of the damned for me so I can mourn my lost wife".
Chapter 7: Free At Last
Upon catching the Legend, we discover that it's an Oarfish. Yeah, just an Oarfish, not some sort of mystical creature of the afterlife, just a normal fish. It takes almost an hour to catch it in universe, despite it only taking a handful of minutes in real life, even in game time I don't buy it was 50 minutes. Meaning that the gang only catches it as the witching hour is almost over. Sean is fully drained from the experience and so Alice and Neil begin their study of it, noting all the information on it for their project, which is going to be quite the report you know. I wonder how people will take it that they found an Oarfish on a secret beach through a sealed off tunnel in the mountains. Things are even weirder though. After the put the Oarfish back in the water, it does not leave. The Legend remains on shore, watching the children carefully. As this happens, the fireflies start to increase filling the beach with light. And the tunnel into the secret spot gets further and further away. Shopman orders them to run, assuring them that he'll be right behind them, but stressing the urgency. They are to run and not look back. Ever. Once again, this ghost fish cult leader brought these children to hell and put them in a situation where they had to do a frantic dash to escape at the last minute.
We flashback to 1960, with Shopman reading his wife's diary. His wife had recently passed and this entry is the last thing she ever said to him. She mourns the time they no longer have, the life they couldn't live together. How they never got to do that fireworks show they promised, or catch the Legend together, because of course his wife loves fishing. Who doesn't!? She says that someday they'll be together again, that she'll find a nice fishing spot in the afterlife. That the two of them will meet under the moonlight and tell each other of their adventures together, spending the rest of their afterlife together fishing and being in love. I think Shopman's wife is the fish. I think the Legend in his wife, and that's what all this was about. Shopman is in love with a fish.
Back in the real world, the trio makes it out of the tunnel only to see it has sealed behind them. They panic, thinking Shopman is now trapped, but note that he promised them that he would come back to them. So they wait. Hours pass as they wait to see Shopman's return, but with no avail. He seems to be gone. As the night turns to day, they decide that maybe they simply missed him. Maybe he went the long way around the mountain and went home, thinking he would just see them in the morning. When they arrive at his shop, though, he's not there. What is there instead, however, are a pair of books he has left for them. One is a collection of every fish they've caught on their journey, all the photos they've taken during this summer, and comprehensive information on each specimen. The other, though, is far more intriguing. An old book, damaged and water logged. Shopman's own personal journal. One that depicts a fisherman far greater than the trio could've imagined, a man who caught impossibly large fish, had some of the greatest catches they could conceive of. The last entry is dated not too long after his wife's death, in which he says he is heading out to try his hand at the Legend. A fish we know he would never catch on his own, only capturing a glimpse of it. The crew is stunned, but also, taken aback. This log is dated from the 1960s, which is just shy of 60 years in the past. They find it difficult to parse, Shopman was old but not pushing 100 old. They have not put together that he was a ghost, of course, so they assume it must be a different guy. We never learn Shopman's actual name.
A few days later, the trio have returned to their university, still without hearing from Shopman. They are a little worried about him at this point and, seeing no other option, decide to return to the museum, thinking maybe he worked there originally and that they'd find him there. When they arrive and ask around, they discover that not only is Shopman not there, not only does he not work there, but that they've never had paintings of fish, which I find to be an insane statement, it's like the game is gaslighting me now. I know for a fact that the thing that started this plot was the trio finding out their museum was hosting an exhibit on paintings of fish. Anyways, Neil decides to split off from the group, saying they'll meet at the museum cafe in an hour with his findings.
At the museum cafe an hour later, Sean and Alice are in the middle of getting drunk, they definitely just had a bar asset from another VN that they reused here, and as they are talking about how much they miss Shopman, Neil arrives. He said that he had gone to the library... at the museum? Museums have libraries. Anyways, he had gone to the library and looked at a bunch of reference books about local folklore in the prefecture they were in. He discovered that there are lots of legends around a mysterious fish who appears to those seeking the afterlife to guide them there. Alice quickly realizes that this means they were very close to being imprisoned in hell and that Shopman had been using them for his own goals, goals they are totally unaware of because he never mentioned his wife to them. Sean, however, brushes the whole thing off, just going "hey, Shopman said he'd see us again so clearly he didn't pass on, we'll see him again soon". The other two make fun of his complete lack of understanding of what happened and try to play it off as if they were complimenting him for being dense. Sean, for once, is not as dumb as everyone thinks he is and calls them out for making fun of him. The three give some kind words to the memory of Shopman, and the game ends.
Review
I want to make it clear that I adore this game. Like truly love it. This stupid fishing game has brought me so much joy over the years. I can't recommend it enough for its bonkers plot and all the drama in it. That being said this game is terrible. Truly awful. The benefit that most fishing games have is rumble. The controller rumbles, so you can properly feel the fishing action and adjust your play accordingly. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure does such a poor job of being a fishing simulator that you can barely feel the fishing to know what exactly it is you're meant to do. I think the biggest example of this is the line breaking. Line breaking is a common mechanic in these games, a thing you have to consider and adjust your fishing around, but RTA gives you very little feedback to tell you how close your line is to breaking. Sometimes it feels like it just snaps randomly.
Combine that with the fact that fishing is such an empty experience. There's no music, as is common for fishing games, but the environmental sounds are bad and often just constitute a stock sound effect of flowing water. As well, the game just looks cheap and rushed. The fish models are fine, a little gross looking, but fine, but everything else is so bad. There's a certain charm to how undercooked everything is, it feels very budget Wii game. And while I dislike the modeling, the sprite work is rather charming, especially all of Alice's cute outfits. But for much of the gameplay it's not a looker.
As well there is just far too much grinding. This is a fishing RPG and you have to get all the characters to pretty high levels during a normal playthrough to be able to finish the game. Unfortunately, the material gathering and crafting mechanics are really poorly implemented, so Neil, the craftsman, slows progress to a crawl in the late game. He both gathers too few crafting materials, randomly gather 3-5 bunches during a day's progress which can sometimes be as low as 3 materials, and because he gathers too few materials he can't craft anything. So he ends up getting stuck. Meanwhile, Alice, the cooking queen, levels up super quickly and if you know what you're doing will reach max level before the others reach level 25. It's a very poorly balanced game. If I am being honest with you, removing all my biases from how much I adore this game, this is a 6/10. Maybe even a 5/10. For me though it's a 9/10, I can't help myself from rating it highly.
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