This tropical island farming sim has a remarkable array of NPCs
Coral Island released into Early Access with the most actually-town-sized town I've ever seen in one of these.
There are plenty of farming and life sim games out there these days, but the one that's most recently caught my eye released this past week. Coral Island is pretty standard genre fare where you farm, explore, catch fish, improve a town, and customize your house.
The big exception, though? Coral Island boasts a whopping 70+ NPCs living in its town. Which... is actually about the size of many small hamlets these games are supposedly based on, isn't it? 25 of them are singles you can date and marry, in case you forgot what genre this was.
Beyond that, Coral Island has a focus on rebuilding and improving the town to return it to the resort and destination it once was. It has a museum, as well as community projects to improve town infrastructure or rehabilitate cultural heritage sites across the island.
In addition to the normal stuff, Coral Island also has exploration and combat. You can go dungeon-delving against monsters in sea caverns, dive on the coral reef offshore, and mine for precious gemstones.
Coral Island seems pretty well-received by those who've tried its Early Access release, with a score at writing time of 88% positive reviews out of 1,158. Reviews at this time do seem critical of the combat—so if that's your bag, or if you just prefer a finished game, maybe wishlist it and wait.
You can find Coral Island on Steam, where it's in Early Access for $25.