Aure

It's a bit (a lot) rough but it's strangely addictive. The skill tree system is very interesting too.

I'm still early on, but I wanted to leave some first impressions as there haven't been many reviews. So far, I'm recommending it, with reservations. So, this is a very chill and slow-paced exploration/crafting game with a bit of combat. It's addictive in the way that those kinds of games usually are, as you very slowly gain a foothold in the world, increase your skills, and figure out how to profit and build yourself up. The music is nice and the visual style, though odd, grew on me. The abstract character/creature design and animation is actually pretty smart. It saves a lot of animation work while also giving the game a distinct style. However, each point in its favor comes with some drawbacks. The biggest is typical for open-world games: the world is vast, but not very dense. Settlements and other points of interest are separated by minutes-long walks without much to do other than gathering. Wild animals are somewhat rare, and most will run away if you approach, making hunting for food a sporadic opportunity (forget about bows, they're impossible to hit anything with). There's also no fast or mounted travel that I've seen so far. The day/night cycle is important for a number of reasons, but one day lasts about an hour of real time - which would be fine, but there's also no way to sleep or pass time; the developer probably wanted to prevent scumming resource respawns. You can hire allies or even animals (like sheep that produce wool), which is very cool, but they can't keep up with your movement; they'll eventually pop back nearby, but they can still get into trouble when out of your sight. You get the idea; it's not bad, but it is a bit rough. A bit more tuning and QoL could go a long way, though I'm not sure if the developer intends to return to it. That said, if it looks interesting and you like this sort of thing, just buy it and give it a chance. It's slow to start out, but you'll probably have fun once you get into it a bit.