(No spoilers, just gonna rant.) It's an "OK" game. I'm gonna sound a little harsh, so if this is your favorite game I'm sorry. However, I do not fear the cozy mob after I say that a lot of games are just trying to be Stardew Valley 2. "But SV took inspiration from Harvest Moon!" Blah, blah, blah. They are not the same, if you played or even watched playthroughs of SV and HM, they're not the same game based on mechanics and pacing alone. Play 10 hours of Stardew Valley then play Coral Island. You will see a lot of the same mechanics except Coral Island feels... not cozy? Not real? Artificial? Plastic?
I think a lot of cozy games that are 3D end up feeling artificial and hollow because they're:
1) Carbon copies of other established games
2) They don't have other elements that feel cozy or nostalgic.
Aside from its story, Stardew Valley's pixel art is part of why that game feels like an escape from reality; it's pixelated and allows our mind to feel like we're 40 years back in the past. I was born in 2002 so I wasn't alive 40 years ago. However, my first gaming console was the Gameboy and I mainly played the old supermario and barbie games that were either low-poly or severely pixelated.
I'd say, if you're trying to copy Stardew Valley just own up to what you're doing and make the game pixelated too. If this isn't true, why does Moonlight Valley, Palia, and Coral Island look the same? They're all the same games...
If you're a person who just wants to farm for the sake of farming in a farm sim, then we're the same person cause I'm most likely still going to continue playing Coral Island. Would I say I'm enjoying it like I'm experiencing a creative rendition to the cozy genre? No, it's cozy slop. We like slop and we know it's not stimulating, it's just buzzing and buzzing and buzzing to keep boredom from fully taking over and it's uninspired. Nom nom nom consume media we never learn when to stop
Anyway cute animals in Coral Island. sorry if they're pixelated, they're REALLY zoomed in. The cat shitting in the litterbox is so funny too. It looks EXACTLY LIKE MY CAT trying to not let her poop touch her feet