Shin chan Shiro and the Coal Town Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · October 25, 2024

Shin chan Shiro and the Coal Town Review, Hiroshi is suddenly given a job assignment near his hometown in Akita. So the Nohara family make their way to a small village near Hiroshi’s parents’ home and rent out a traditional Japanese farmhouse. Nestled in this tranquil rural landscape, they begin their carefree and quiet life in the countryside.

Shin chan Shiro and the Coal Town Review Pros:

Beautiful hand-drawn graphics.
3.86GB Download size.
Steam achievements.
3 save slots.
Four voice choices – Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Cantonese.
Five controller input icons – Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, generic, and keyboard.
Two keyboard layouts – QWERTY and QWERTZ.
Graphics settings – fullscreen, and resolution.
Game settings – passage of time (speed), new insect, voice setting, and subtitles.
Adventure gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
In-game cutscenes and interactions.
You can click through interactions to speed it up.
Great presentation and opening song sequence.
Save when you want.
It feels like you are playing in a cartoon world.
Memorable characters throughout the game.
Clean easy-to-use menu system.
Main and optional side missions.
Objectives are daily quests that you complete and fill in your notebook, new objectives pop as you progress.
A very happy game from the music to the bright colors and happy residents of the world.
Any bugs you catch will pop up their name and size and if it’s a new find. This is optional and you can turn it off.
A 3D game world with set camera angles.
It’s fun to run around the world and catch all these different bugs.
Bugs will give off a shiny icon to help find them and catching them is a button press and the net swing is very generous.
Find vegetables, fruit, and all sorts in the game world.
The name of your current location will pop up on the screen as you walk around.
Kazuko is the resident bug lady who is making a book about them. You take your findings to her and this acts like a Pokedex on Pokémon where you are looking to complete the book.
Four sections in the book – insects, fish, plants, and minerals.
Eventually, you can plant and grow your own vegetables.
Supply and create food dishes for you and for the shops in town.
Trolly racing, which is a ton of fun but also has its own set of unlocks, you can upgrade your trolley and customize it to your liking.
You can check your book progress at any time on your menu.
Day and night cycle. The passage of time goes down as you explore and you can tweak the speed of it in the settings.
It’s a beautiful world to explore.
Nighttime is generally free time, you can find night-only bugs, etc but you only have access to set places.
Fishing is simple, you can see the fish moving around, they splash and vibrate your controller when they bite and you just press the button to catch them.
Earn pocket money from completing side missions.
Has a full crafting system of sorts as you help a lady create inventions.
An excellent chilled-out experience where you can just relax.

Shin chan Shiro and the Coal Town Review Cons:

The mouse cursor stays on the screen even when using the controller.
No English voice choice.
You cannot skip the opening song sequence.
Bare minimum graphics settings.
No way to have interactions auto-scroll.
Very slow starter as you get huge story dumps at the beginning and pop-ups constantly.
There isn’t a camera button.
Due to the camera angles, it can be hard to see or judge pickups.
Not always clear where you can go or where there is an entrance.
Doesn’t seem to have an auto-save of any kind.
The game says you have free time but then without warning just ends the night.
Not all characters are voiced which is a bit of a bummer.
Fishing is too basic, you cannot set the distance or placement of the line.
Despite being near water in any place, you still have to go all around the area to see which part lets you fish.
You have a limit of 1500 yen that you carry.