There's always a light in the everlasting darkness.
Seashine is a casual Action-Adventure game developed by Pated. Deep within a massive ocean trench, you play as a young jellyfish recently born from an egg. Unfortunately, your light is constantly fading, and the only way to survive is to go out into the surrounding abyss and absorb light from the various sources it provides.
In musical rhythm every time you move, you must brave the abyss's various dangers, discover its secrets, and, ultimately, survive for as long as you can with such little light you have.
Seashine contains examples of the following tropes:
- Always a Bigger Fish: Quite indeed. For every creature you encounter, there's usually something else that can eat it like nothing. For instance, you can have creatures like a Wakakakao chasing you one moment, only for a Makonui to either scare it off or eat it. Then the Makonui gets eaten by Mutamara you've drawn out of the darkness.
- You even get an achievement for getting at least 5 creatures eaten through this method, specifically by the Mutamara.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: A majority of wildlife in the abyss are usually glowing in some manner, including any one of you jellyfish.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Any organisms that inflict poison will have some form of green glow or markings around them. This helps contrast with the more common white lighting you see on most other organisms.
- Death World: Unfortunately for a young jellyfish like you, the abyss around is this. Besides the numerous amounts of predators hunting you down, there's also innumerable environmental hazards as well, such as hydrothermal vents, gas vents, boulders, and various plants that can harm or hinder you any way they can.
- Delicious Distraction: You can try luring pursuing predators around other prey species to get them off your arms for a little bit. Notably, most creatures will prioritize you if they either saw you beforehand or you get in the way, so this usually isn't a viable option.
- Endless Game: There's no notable endgame to your jellyfish's journey; you just fill the light bar as long as you can before your jellyfish inevitably dies.
- Fiendish Fish: The many predators you encounter in-game are usually fish.
- Glowing Flora: Most "plants" can glow in some fashion. Their encyclopedia entries mention that they do so to attract small prey.
- Life Meter: Or rather, your "light" meter. Your jellyfish has this on top of your screen, and it will always decrease unless you find ways to increase it.
- Light Is Not Good: Zigzagged. On one hand, objects and wildlife with bright lights overlaying them are the source of light you need to survive with. Otherwise, creatures with only limited bioluminescence are to be considered threats most of the time.
- Man-Eating Plant: It's never seen in-game (unless the clams count as flora), but most of the wildlife labeled under "flora" prey on small fish and plankton.
- More Predators Than Prey: A justified example. Since the game takes place in a deep-sea trench, most of the food either comes from detritus from above or other animals, so this bound to occur. This is a common phenomena you see in real-life trench ecosystems as well.
- Painful Pointy Pufferfish: The Ikakina, which is pretty much a deep-sea pufferfish. Averted with the Taeroporo, which lacks spines to begin with. Instead, they use poisonous postules on their skin.
- Poison Mushroom: The Harorekino is this, although they're thankfully rare to encounter. Often times, you'll have to bypass whole forests of them in tight tunnels if you do encounter them.
- Regenerating Health: At least when there's a steady supply of food nearby; your light bar constantly decreases otherwise. This is played much more straight if you're either near your spawn point or in a sanctuary.
- Schmuck Bait: The deep-sea clams have glowing pearls in their shells which can heal you a decent portion of your light bar. Oddly, the clam doesn't actually hurt you, but it can make you vulnerable to nearby predators while you try to escape their grip.
- Status Effects: Comes in two forms: poison from certain organisms, and certain effects you can gain from abilities.
- Threatening Shark: At least three, all of whom are relatives to their real-world counterparts: the Makonui (great white shark), the Makuru (hammerhead shark), and the Tarapoga (six-gilled shark). Unfortunately, the former two can kill you in one bite.
