$14 in a used game shop to talk to a fish?? This sounds too good to be true...
The first time i played through the entire game, i did half of it legit: talking, feeding, and maintaining the tank once per day. Then i clued in to the fact that you can just change the date and time on the memory card to suit your needs. This eliminates the 'feed him every day' dependency. As well, you don't have to limit yourself to 1 visit per day either. i found these to be the only drawbacks to this game. So needless to say, i was thrilled when i found a way to bypass them!
So, with the development speed increased, it was a great way to spend a long boring day alone. The AI on this game was amazing when it was released. I was in Japan when the game was just released over there, and it was on tv all over the place, and sold out of toy stores everywhere i went. The hype was huge, so when i found it 6 years later, in English, for $14 in a used game store, it was an opportunity i couldn't resist. And as far as i am concerned, it was worth the wait.
The fact that you can play through this game and give him several different lives and everything he says is quite unique, blew me away. My wife played it through, as well as my dad, and they both agreed that it was a neat game. They didn't have the same amount of free time on their hands as I did, so knowing that they could manipulate the time helped them to actually see the game through to the end.
I recommend this game to anyone who has an old Dreamcast sitting in the basement. You can find this game all over the place in used game shops, and it's worth the small price tag just to experience it once... or twice, if you have the time!