Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2

Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 was released in Japan for the Super Famicom on April 28, 1995. The game was developed by PACK-IN-VIDEO, and is part of a much larger series of games, including Umi no Nushi Tsuri (sea fishing, as opposed to river fishing).

Fishing Adventure RPG
Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 is basically a fishing adventure style game with RPG elements. The menu system is similar to that of Dragon Warrior, which requires you to open up a menu window, go through a list of actions and commands, and select what you want to do. Fortunately, you don't have to open the menu every time you want to talk to someone or when you stop to fish, so all in all it's a pretty good system.

Interestingly enough, this game also has random encounters, and employs a turn-based battle system. Luckily, the meat of the game is spent fishing as opposed to fighting off snakes, centipedes and bears.

The Fishing
The fishing mechanic takes a little while to figure out, because there are no status bars or health bars to indicate how close you are to catching the fish. Basically, you have to let the fish run, and when it stops, you can pull it in a little ways. When the fish begins to slow down, you have to let it run again. Repeat this process, and eventually the fish will be brought to the surface.

What's simply amazing about this game is the variety of gear available to you. You can bait fish, lure fish, and even fly fish. You can select the type of float you want to use, the bait, lures, and even flies. There are a total of 66 different fish you can catch in the game, and an additional 6 river creatures (like frogs) you can catch for experience. It's simply mind boggling how jam packed this game is.

The Graphics
For Super Famicom (SNES), the graphics look quite colorful and stunning. The character of each fish is captured incredibly well, and while the backgrounds could have been improved, it's still amazing that they were able to do so much.


The Music
Uniquely Japanese, is the only way to describe it. Most of the music is either relaxing or upbeat and pleasant, and fits the mood of the game quite well. There is no music while you are fishing, and that could be a bit of a downside, but it does make it rather obvious when you're fishing vs. when you're walking around the map.

6 Areas to Explore
There are a total of 6 different stages to explore and fish in-game. You begin by fishing in the mountain creeks, and move on to lakes, rivers, and finally the mouth of the river. You have to find the cave in any given stage to move on to the next one, and sometimes this is easier said than done. Fortunately, if you've bought a compass, it will tell you where to go.

An Open Ended Adventure
When you set out on your journey, your goal is to catch the river king (Japanese Lates). While there is an "ending" of sorts when you catch the Lates, your adventure doesn't need to stop there. You can continue fishing for all 66 different types of fish (thereby completing your fishing notebook), and even fish for the record size of every fish. This could take awhile.

In Conclusion
I had a lot of fun with this game. I don't think it's everyone's cup of tea, but you can tell that the people at PACK-IN-VIDEO really love fishing. They could have just released another fishing game, but instead we got a game packed to the rafters with incredible content. I don't think they ever released this particular game in North America, but I think it would be worth checking out other games in this series.

Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 Review Part 1

I've decided to split this review into two parts: The first part will be about the influence this game has had on me, and the second part will cover more of the technical details. So, without further ado, here's my review of Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 (part of the River King series).

As you might deduce from the fact that I'm splitting this review into two parts, I really like this game. I think I either borrowed this game from a friend or received it as a gift and played it to death. It's the type of game that you can turn on in your spare time and play for 15 minutes and actually make some progress.

This was the game that really turned me on to fishing. I don't enjoy fishing as much as I once did, but I had a friend in Jr. High that went fishing all the time, and he showed me the ropes. Pretty soon I was introducing my other friends to the art of fishing, and making excursions every opportunity possible. I have fond memories of those times, in spite of all the travel expenses and hours upon hours of walking.

In fact, I also remember walking to the local fishing store (which wasn't exactly 'local'), almost every Sunday after church. I had already walked a solid 2 kilometers to church, so this added an additional 4 to 8 kilometers to my walk. I go to great lengths for my passion. I loved hanging out with my friends and fueling my passion in the process.

My life has been about community. It always has been. I like to get other people excited about what I'm excited about. I love the adventure and excitement of fishing (some of you are nodding in agreement, others are shaking their heads in disbelief), but most of all it was about spending time with good friends.

I remember taking a trip out to a dam on the weekend. My friend told me that there was a good fishing spot he knew about, so I decided to tag along. We must have ridden the train for an hour or more. Then we started walking. We found out we were walking in the wrong direction, so we backtracked a long ways, and continued walking until we found the dam. Unfortunately, we weren't on level ground with the dam, as it was much higher up. There was a little creek to the side of where we were walking, so we decided to stop and fish there awhile. Nothing. My friend decides that we need to climb up this wall of concrete and get up to the dam. Somehow, we made it up safely. Then we couldn't find any good spots to fish because we were surrounded by trees. We started treading through the forest, but we couldn't seem to find a good place to cast out. Eventually we turned back, climbed down, and headed home (ran into a snake on the way down). If that's not adventure, I don't know what is. I look back on those events fondly, even if we didn't really get to fish.

Where was I...? Oh right, the game. What can I say? It's a really awesome game. It's too bad it was never ported to English. If you can figure it out, it might still be worth playing in Japanese. This is where my Japanese comes in handy. :P

Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 Review Part 2