History VideoGame / CoralIsland

** The secret shop in the empty cabin is run by a monkey named Concerned Monkey, an obvious reference to Concerned Ape, creator of ''VideoGame/StardewValley''.

** One of the hats available for purchase from the "Concerned Monkey" is called the "Blue Cat Hat" and shaped after {{Franchise/Doraemon}}, even including a propeller on top and a red nose and whiskers.
** The "Curator Outfit" obtained after completing the museum is based on Blathers from Franchise/AnimalCrossing.
** The "Seafarer Outfit" is based on WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarepants. Down to the square body shape.
** The "C.I. Jo" artifact is a triple whammy. While the name and the fact that it's a soldier figurine is a clear reference to Franchise/GIJoe, reading the museum description, the farmer will wonder if [[Franchise/ToyStory it comes alive]] when [[Film/SmallSoldiers nobody's looking]].

** With so many NPC, it's next to impossible to remember everyone's schedule, thankfully the map will show you exactly where each NPC is. And to avoid a PixelHunt situation, you can open your relationships tab in the menu and at the press of a button they will be centered on the map so you can quickly find them.

** The relationship tab also keeps track of all the items you've gifted that NPC and if they liked or disliked the gift for future reference.

** Your house comes with a wardrobe you can use to store clothes you don't need without having to take up valuable chest or inventory space.

** It's mentioned early on in conversation, but almost all of the game NPC like flowers and other forageable items, so if someone's birthday is coming up and you don't have one of their "Loved" items, a wildflower will usually do in a pinch.
** If you arrive at a shop during its normal business hours, even if no one is actually standing at the desk, you can still interact with it and the shop's menu will appear and let you perform any actions relative to that shop even if no one is there, the only difference is that no portrait will be shown on the side of the screen. So if Jack suddenly had an irresistible craving for tacos you can still get feed for your cows, [[Videogame/StardewValley unlike some other infamous NPC that is never at her shop when needed]].
** A small one, but the map will also show each shop's business hours and if they're currently open or not. By pressing a button you can get a full schedule of all the shops and which days they're closed or have odd hours (such as Sam's, who opens late on Sunday or the Lab which closes early on Friday), with this you don't have to run halfway across town just to find the shop you wanted is closed.

** Another setting allows you to change monsters behavior into non-aggressive: they won't attack you until you attack then first. While it doesn't negate the need for combat (some materials can only be obtained by defeating monsters) it makes exploring the caverns to farm resources much less stressful and combat much easier since most enemies can be stun-locked even with the starter weapon.
** While holding an item in your hands there are different buttons for talking to people and gifting an item (or delivering an item needed for a quest), this is to avoid accidentally gifting items by talking to an NPC while holding an item.
** Purchasing the Sturdy Computer upgrade from the Lab will allow for online shopping, so you can purchase seeds and other farming supplies, food, clothes or decorations, no matter the day or hour, or if the appropriate stores are even open (making it a non-issue that Sam's closes his shop on Wednesdays), delivery is almost instantaneous and no convenience or shipping fees are charged.

** Minor one, but another common complaint of Videogame/StardewValley is that once you fully upgrade your barn or coop there's no way to take out feed from the silo, since the auto-feeder replaces the feed hop, and all hay you obtain with your scythe gets added automatically to the silo, so if the silo is already full the hay is lost. Coral Island makes the autofeed a craftable item, so you can decide when to add it or not add it at all, and the feed hop does not get replaced, you can still take hay out of the hop if you want to, and hay you find while cutting grass will be added to your inventory, not to the silo until you manually add it yourself.
* ArtificialLimbs: Randy's left arm is mechanical, although the story behind that's presently unknown.
* ArtisticLicense: while cleaning the underwater areas one of the most easily identifiable pieces of trash you'll find are 5 gallon water jugs (the type you'll see in water coolers at offices and waiting rooms), while it is true that single use plastics are a serious pollution problem, these types of water jugs are one of the few that are specifically ''not'' for single use but meant to be traded in for a full one, or some companies have refill stations where you only pay for the refill. Once they're past their usable lifespan, they'll usually be recycled and remolded into new ones. So, unless there's a water company near Coral Island actively throwing these into the water, there's no reason for the hundreds of water jugs you'll find underwater to end up there to begin with.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Of the five tiers of tool materials, the lowest one is steel, followed by bronze, silver, gold and osmium. Bronze, silver and gold are all far softer and weaker than steel, making them eminently unsuited for use in tools. Osmium is very hard and tough, but also very rare and quite brittle, plus it's the densest naturally occurring element on Earth (twice as dense as lead), which makes it just as questionable for these applications. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It also isn't purple.]] But hey, this is a game with magic, giants and mermaids, so [[TropesAreTools no one cares]].
** Furthermore, Bronze is a human-made alloy created by mixing copper and tin, it's not a naturally occurring material found in the wild. The development of bronze as a new element in metallurgy is what kick-started and gave its name to the bronze age.

** The miniature portraits on the map are simplified versions of the face of each character, however since they're all head-on and very simplified, they can be somewhat odd, specially for characters that have a distinctive profile. For example Rafael looks so different from his miniature portrait that [[OffModel he's almost unrecognizable]] if not for his trademark orange shirt and apron.
* BasementDweller: Thoroughly averted. Despite the fact that most of the bachelors still live with their families, this is never portrayed in a negative light.
** Kenny still lives with his parents, in spite of the fact that there's an unused bedroom at the ranch (his dad's former bachelor pad) that's also much closer to his workplace and that his dad is looking to rent out for "dirt cheap" according to him.
** Same with Luke, and notably he runs 2 profitable businesses.

** Pablo and Rafael technically still live at their parents home, it's their parents who moved out when they retired to travel the world.
** Scott rents a room at Charles' home, but he mentions that when the town decided to sell off their museum collection he moved back with his parents for a while until he cooled-off.

* BehindEveryGreatMan: Connor might have the title of Mayor, but it is Millie who runs the city government and all related city departments like the museum; Scott (the museum curator) reports directly to her and she writes the annual reviews of other city employees.
* BiggerOnTheInside: Applies to all buildings on the island to various degrees, with some having at least five times more floor space inside than what could feasibly be expected from the outside. The internal layout usually does match the general external appearance of the building however.

** The same thing happens when you upgrade your house, barn or coop. The house even gains an additional floor at level 3, but on the outside it's still the same cozy bungalow it started out as.
* BirthdayHater: Jack and Kira both refuse to celebrate their birthdays and they won't even appear on the calendar. Kenny their son however doesn't mind and will happily accept birthday gifts.

* TheCaretaker: Noah's main topic of conversation will be his mom or being concerned about her well-being. He cares deeply about her and wants to make sure she's ok at her old age. A stark contrast with Frank and Aaliyah, Noah's 2 other siblings still living in the island who are not as involved in their mother's day to day activities.
* CharacterCustomization: Players are free to customize the Farmer's name, appearance and honorific.

* ChestMonster: In the mines there's a monster that looks like the stone treasure chests you find lying around, until you get close.
* TheChosenOne: The player character is the one selected by the Goddess of Flowers to heal the island's ecosystem. It never really elaborated why the player character was chosen, however. Other than because they're the hero of the game.

* CoolButInefficient: The Bath House. Staying inside the water continuously restores your stamina, so if you still have time left in your day, this should (in theory) help you squeeze more out of your day. However, to unlock it you must complete 2 altar offerings; so at the beginning of the game when you'll be the most in need of extra stamina (since your tools won't be upgraded yet) you can't access it, and by the time you complete 2 altar offerings you'll most likely have better sources of extra energy that don't require you to use up your time.
* CookingMechanics: A expansive and complex cooking system exists, and multiple cooking implements can be purchased, as well as freestyle cooking without a recipe. But while prepared meals are useful for regenerating stamina quickly, the buffs provided by the meals are barely noticeable (generally +10% to some skill gain for a few in-game hours) so eating raw ingredients or scavenged items is usually an easier alternative. To add insult to injury, the meals themselves usually sell for less than the ingredients used to make them, to the point that sometimes a single ingredient is worth more on its own, so it's not even worth it to cook meals to sell.

** Bree, Walter and their son Luke all have darker skin tones, but they don't appear to have the facial features of any particular racial background. Having moved to town from Pokyo (which is mentioned to be a large metropolis) it's possible they're all of mixed race.
** Nina, Dippa and Millie also have darker coloring, but no easily identifiable race.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler: Ling. [[AmbiguouslyRelated Keen-eyed players can find a photo in Princess Miranjani's room of a mermaid that looks eerily similar to Ling holding the infant princess in her arms.]] [[AmbiguousSituation Whether she and Miranjani's missing aunt are the same person is anyone's guess]] but there are several heavy implications Ling (or perhaps, "Aunt Liang") is more than she lets on. One of her lines of dialogue at the Tree Planting Festival further hints at this possible connection.]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The game is specifically tackling common complaints from other farming games it took inspiration from. A few of note:

The game released in Early Access for PC on October 11th, 2022, and the 1.0 release arrived on November 14th, 2023 bringing the game to Platform/PlayStation5 and Platform/XboxSeriesXandS as well as coming out of Early Access for PC. A release on Platform/NintendoSwitch is planned for 2024. The {{Platform/Steam}} version of the game can be found [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158160/Coral_Island/ here]].

* BrokenAesop:
** Trash and scrap are excellent crafting resources... we should produce more of it so we can turn it into pretty lawn decorations and storage solutions!
** The exploitation of natural resources by corporations for profit is bad and should be stopped. The exploitation of mineral resources for an individual's economical gain is a completely acceptable and commendable activity.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: You don't have to worry about running out of air while diving, even if you stay down there practically all day (though your character will automatically surface when it gets too late in the evening).

* AbsentmindedProfessor: Scott is often late to things he set up himself, showing up late to his own museum opening. Quickly panics when he realizes people will expect him to take action (such as when he realizes he has enough pieces now to organize the museum crowdfunding campaign). He often mistakes terrible news for jokes, and while he will explore the cavern to find artifacts, he also freely admits that he's too weak to go past the first level (the only level with no monsters).
* AbsurdlyElderlyMother: Sunny and Eleanor appear to be middle aged or even older, yet they have a son of the same age as Valentina, Archie and Zoe. You'd be forgiven for thinking Oliver was their grandson. [[note]]For contrast: Bree and Kira both appear to be younger than Eleanor, and yet they have fully grown sons (Luke and Kenny respectively), old enough for Oliver to be the son of either one.[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicense: while cleaning the underwater areas one of the most easily identifiable pieces of trash you'll find are 5 gallon water jugs (the type you'll see in water coolers at offices and waiting rooms), while it is true that single use plastics are a serious pollution problem, these types of water jugs are one of the few that are specifically ''not'' for single use but meant to be traded in for a full one, or some companies have refill stations where you only pay for the refill. Once they're past their usable lifespan, they'll usually be recycled and remolded into new ones. So, unless there's a water company near Coral Island actively throwing these into the water, there's no reason for the hundreds of water jugs you'll clear out to end up in the ocean.

* TheFaceless: All five of the Giants you meet wear full masks without even a face drawn on them, just eye holes and multicolored swirls for decorarions. Furthering this, there are no eyes behind the eyeholes either, just the same slate grey color as their bodies, so it's currently unknown [[EyelessFace if they even have eyes]].

** Kenny still lives with his parents, in spite of the fact that there's an unused bedroom at the ranch (his dad's former bachelor pad) that's also much closer to his workplace.
** Same with Luke, and notably he runs 2 businesses, so he should be able to afford moving out.

** Scott rents a room at Charles' home, but he mentions that when the town decided to sell off their museum collection he moved back with his parents for a while until he cooled down.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Wakuu has a strained relationship with his father since he refused to carry on his legacy as a sailor and instead chose to become an astronomer. Listen to his father gush about other young people who did follow their parents footsteps (such as Alice and Suki who took over the Inn from their parents) is one of the few things that can make the usually soft spoken Wakuu actually upset.

* ScatterbrainedSenior: Takeba, the keeper of the bath house seems to have a less than tight grasp on reality due to his old age. He'll confuse the farmer and later Mark for his son Taro, that he's expecting to come back from [[GreatOffscreenWar "the war"]] very soon. Wakuu will try to help him and calm him down when he gets agitated, but it is heavily implied that [[WarIsHell he's not coming come]].

** The Abandoned Villa. It's neither abandoned (it's Nina's holiday home), not is it a villa. It's not much larger than the other houses in Starlet Town, and is in fact smaller than Bree and Walter's home in the vineyard (which could actually count as a villa).

* ForeignCultureFetish: Charles is Caucasian, but his house, and particularly his bedroom is covered in Japanese decor, down to having a low table and japanese floor chairs and cushions, a shoji screen hiding his ([[MenCantKeepHouse pretty messy]]) wardrobe area and a ManekiNeko by the door. Not to mention that he wears a [[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} Buddhist mala]] as a bracelet (visible in some of his character portraits).
* FreeRangeChildren: The kids are mostly left to their own devices after school and will often walk unaccompanied around town and the surrounding areas. Being part of a small community on an island where everyone knows everybody makes more believable than other examples of the trope.

* TwentyBearAsses: The B.O.S. have a board on their base where you can pick up optional quests that'll give you some merit points and a small cash reward. They all boil down to either this or just killing a set number of enemies in the cavern.

* DropTheHammer: Hammers are the MightyGlacier among the game's weapons, dealing the highest damage per hit at the cost of having the slowest attack rate. Their ChargedAttack is a more powerful overhead GroundPound that can OneHitKill many weaker enemies.

* AnInteriorDecoratorIsYou: The player is able to purchase various decorative items for their house, and arrange them however they like. ​

** Minor one, but another common complaint of Videogame/StardewValley is that once you fully upgrade your barn or coop there's no way to take out feed from the silo, since the auto-feeder replaces the feed hop, and all hay you obtain with your scythe gets added automatically to the silo, so if the silo is already full the hay is lost. Coral Island makes the autofeed a craftable item, so you can decide when to add it or not add it at all, and the feed hop does not get replaced, you can still take hay out of the hop if you want to.

** The miniature portraits on the map are simplified versions of the face of each character, however since they're all head-on and very simplified, they can be somewhat odd, specially for characters that have a distinctive profile. For example Rafael looks so different from his miniature portrait that [[OffModel he's almost unrecognizable]] if not for his trademark orange shirt and overalls.

* BalefulPolymorph: Through a late game quest, the farmer can obtain the ability to transform into a merperson while underwater. Gaining the ability to move much faster and no longer requiring the diving suit.

** The "C.I. Jo" artifact is a triple whammy. While the name and the fact that it's a soldier figurine is a clear reference to Franchise/GIJoe, reading the museum description, the farmer will wonder if [[Franchise/ToyStory it comes alive]] when [[Film/SmallSoldiers nobody's looking]]

* TheTokenWholesome: Zarah, who's covered from head-to-toe at all times of the year, and goes to the beach in a burkini.

* ImmigrantParents: Kenny's parents Kira and Jack moved to Coral Island from overseas. They still have their own quirks and prefer to live as far away from town as possible, Kira will even complain that she gets too many visitors and prefers to be ignored and left alone. Their son Kenny however was born and raised in Coral Island and doesn't seem to mirror the same quirks of his parents, being much more active in town activities and involved with the other island inhabitants.