PlayStation Basement #57 - Bass Rise

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on September 28th, 2019.

Hello again, and welcome back to the PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Now, let’s go!

This week is the first week of autumn in North America. I love fall, so I am very excited. I’m going to a tabletop gaming convention next week, we will watch horror movies next month, and we’ll hopefully go to some ghost events or haunted house attractions. Fall also means cooler weather, beautiful leaves, and my birthday. There are a lot of great things.

Since autumn is slower and calmer, metaphorically, in a lot of media, I figured I would review a game that has these qualities (or at least one that takes place during the autumn season). I actually had a lot of trouble and anxiety about this – un-autumnal qualities for sure. I tried a few games out and had some bad luck. I wanted to review Tomba!, but I put it in a different box than most of the games before the move. I’ll find it eventually, but we’re still unpacking. My luck eventually came through when I came upon Bass Rise, a fishing game perfect for the fall.

Bass Rise was released in both Japan and North America. It was developed by Bec (developer of many licensed games for Japanese properties) and published by Bandai. In Japan, the game was called Fishing Freaks: Bass Rise. There was also a limited edition that came with a fishing rod controller and some kind of upgraded version called Fishing Freaks: Bass Rise Plus. The original version came out on March 25^th, 1999, and the upgrade came out on February 3^rd, 2000. I’m not sure what was upgraded about the later version. North America only got Bass Rise on September 30^th, 1999, almost exactly 20 years ago. I’m not sure if ours was the original or what would become the upgraded version.

All of the games, even Fishing Freaks: Bass Rise Plus, have the same cover art with some difference in text and formatting. There’s a 3D render of a fish about to chomp down on a lure. It’s not exactly amazing cover art. It’s not terrible, but I’ve seen much better. The text is a little extreme in addition to the low polygon image. The colors are murky too. I guess they were going for a true-to-game look.

I think the in-game graphics for Bass Rise actually look better than the cover art. The game has a nice color scheme of fall and spring aesthetics. The world is rainy and murky. It looks very real and gets me in the mood. I can smell the air and feel the moisture on my skin. The characters that inhabit this world are also nicely rendered; they are solid with strong color choices and nice designs. The fish look great, though there are only three types. The water is the most impressive. These pictures might not do it justice, but the water causes refractions for the things underneath, it creates reflections, it’s not entirely transparent, and it has 3D waves! The camera does move a bit strangely at times, going through objects or placing the fish in a weird position when it’s pulled out of the water. Still, the views really make me feel like I’m on a lake somewhere as the leaves fall down.

The sound is immersive too. You hear water splashing, the lure flitting about, the reel turning, and ambient sounds of the lake. Birds and insects can be heard as well. There’s no music here; everything is a simulation in crisp, high-quality audio. The rumble feature works with the sound to really increase the immersion; I can’t say that about too many games, honestly. The one awkward part is hearing the voice actor the few times that he speaks to say “fish on!” He’s a bit high-pitched and doesn’t really sound like the rest of the game. His voice seems to clip a bit. Despite that one issue with the voice, the sound design is very, very impressive.

  

The gameplay isn’t an ace, but Bass Rise does know a thing or two. I was confused when I first started the game. There are almost no instructions either in the game or in the manual. The manual is only nine pages. It only really tells you the controls and some details specific to versus mode. Before I went out on my first trip to the lake, I checked my tackle box and found a ton of different lures. What do these all do? Some look the same too. Some are the same but with a different color. The names aren’t clear either, as these are real products from Megabass.

Once I started fishing, I was still a bit confused, but I got the hang of it. Fishing is pretty basic. You select a lake, pick a spot, pick a lure, pick a line weight, move the cursor about, and finally cast your line. Once the line is in the water, you can move it about in different ways for each lure. Some make sounds too. Certain spots, like near plants or bridges, are better for fishing. When a fish is near, you move the lure about in a natural way and often the fish gives it a bite. Then you reel the fish in while watching that the line doesn’t break. You have three different speeds to reel it in. Pushing the directional button in the direction with the fish’s movement eases tension on the line. If you watch carefully and work hard enough, you’ll reel it in. Then you get the details about the fish like the type and size category.

During a fishing trip, there’s more than just fishing. Other characters approach you with tips and small quests. The dialogue isn’t the greatest; I suspect the localization was somewhat lax. That odd dialogue actually gives the game an air of mystery, though, especially combined with the fog and rain. Successfully deciphering and completing these quests earns you extra lures to be confused by and extra lakes to try out. There is a lure database, so it’s not hopeless actually. This ability to unlock stuff makes Bass Rise really fun and provides a really cool air of mystery too.

I ended up really liking Bass Rise after playing it for a short time. I really wanted to play more, meet new characters, and unlock new features. Bass Rise is a really relaxing game with an unknown atmosphere soaked in a realistic water. It’s like a fishing RPG. It's like anything could happen. Anything could come up from those depths. That’s a slight fish tale, but that unknown quality is really the beauty here.

Bass Rise receives a Good.

Follow EfreetEater on Facebook