How I learned to stop min-maxing and embrace serenity in Coral Island

I’m an efficiency monster. Min-maxing, goal-setting, and achievements — they’re all part of my milestone-driven playstyle in most games. My quest for powerful builds or ideal stats often adds a layer of challenge that games don’t demand, but I rarely deviate from the strategy. Coral Island makes optimization impossible though, and I think I love it.

Starting out

The only things I really knew about Coral Island were that it involved farming and had extensive romance options. I went in with a few specific goals: romance a certain villager, create a profitable farm, and beat the game. Get in, get out.

Right off the bat, I realized my to-do list wouldn’t be so easy. I needed to speak to the carpenter, but their store was closed for the night. Okay. I tried to visit the general store instead. Nope, it’s also closed for the night and closed on Wednesdays. Who closes their store on a Wednesday? So, I decided to return home and get some farm work done instead.

I opened up my map, looking for a way to fast travel to my farm from the town. Failing to find anything resembling fast travel, I looked online to see if I was just missing it. As it turns out, the feature unlocks by performing specific tasks that activate waypoints. For the time being, I would be hoofing it. I trudged home and went to bed.

The next day, I resolved to meet as many villagers as possible to find the one I was looking for. In Coral Island, villagers you haven’t met yet are marked on your map as question mark icons. I found myself chasing down each question mark icon, periodically opening my map to see where a villager had gone when I failed to find them. There were dozens of them, and they appeared to wander quite a bit. I hadn’t even unlocked any waypoints yet, so there was no easy way to catch up with someone I wanted to meet.

At this point, I turned off the game in frustration. It felt like Coral Island was actively preventing me from making progress, directly in conflict with the part of me eager to set my own frantic pace.

“It’s just farming.”

I turned to one of my friends, who has been playing Coral Island since its alpha stages. He was surprised when I described how frustrated I was, as the exact things that made my experience so unpleasant were the things he enjoyed the most. The stores closed at (mostly) reasonable hours, mimicking realistic business hours. The NPCs moved around and led lives of their own, like actual people. He didn’t mind walking around and exploring the world before unlocking fast travel.

Most importantly, he assured me there was no time limit to any objective in Coral Island. It didn’t matter if it took a few more days to introduce myself to everyone. It didn’t matter if the crops I chose to grow weren’t optimal for profits. “It’s just farming,” he said, “Relax.” 

Relax? I’ve got romance brewing, crops to grow, a village to please — how do I relax?

When I booted up Coral Island again, I forced myself to ignore the main mission objectives. I watered my plants, then walked all the way to town to chat up my neighbors. Moving along to the beach, I gathered up some trash and then started the trek home. I tried to walk to town again, but got distracted by insects and ended my day by picking flowers. I failed to progress my main objectives, and I had yet to find the villager I was looking for.

Yet, strangely, I didn’t feel stressed about it. It turns out that when you embrace the idyllic lifestyle of Coral Island, the game is…actually pretty relaxing. I still wish there was one automatically unlocked waypoint in the town for easy fast travel, but I didn’t mind walking when there was so much to collect along the way. I’m spending more time on my farm, just clearing the junk out of my plot of land. Sometimes, I chat with NPCs just to see what they have to say. And maybe one day, I’ll progress the story and find the love of my life, but that can wait.

Learning to relax

I don’t think Coral Island was created for people like me, who derive satisfaction from efficiency. But I’ve learned to appreciate the peaceful sim for forcing me to take a step back. Maybe things don’t always need to be optimized to be fun. Now that I have no goals, I’m free to do whatever I want in whatever time frame I want. It’ll be hard for me to give up my min-maxing habits anytime soon, but it turns out serenity can be nice, too.