Blue Oak Bridge

Should still be early access. Too many bugs, glitches and complications for it to be even slighty fun. Sorry, it looks supercute and amazing but the whole experience was just frustration and annoyance from start to end. Keybindings were a mess and took a while to sort out. Your character isn't visible on the map, no use in having a map if you dont know where on the map you are, I feel. Also Settings/game menu should be able to open with ESC like any other game but there isnt even an option in keybindings to open Settings faster (having to scroll though 6 different menus every time to get to Settings is a drag).

[i]Blue Oak Bridge[/i] is a delightful action RPG and farming sim game that is heavily reminiscent of the old Rune Factory games due to its similar story setup (protagonist having lost their memories) and game design that blends the classic farming mechanics, building up social relations and dungeon crawling into a single product. The story is certainly not the focus point of the game - if I dare say, it’s rather weak and to some extent quite invisible. You wake up on the shores of the island Eloria, without any memory about how you ended up there. A kind-hearted pirate finds you lying in the sand and offers you a place to live - an abandoned piece of land full of trees, stones, weeds - but at least it has a modest cabin that will serve as a roof over your head from now on. As you begin clearing up the region and meet the townsfolk, you’ll gather enough materials to help them with their errands, but also establish the infrastructure for developing your own business in town: a furnace that can smelt mined minerals into ore bars (later used to craft items and upgrade your tools), an oven that you’ll use to cook various recipes using the plants you grow on your farm, a coop and barn to shelter livestock, a beehive that can provide a daily jar of honey etc. From there on you can slowly start building your own production chain and ultimately sell your produce in town. Additionally, by filling the town’s library compendium with all the items you find or pick up in your journeys, new areas will be opened for exploration. [i]Blue Oak Bridge[/i] has a slow-based progression, yet an engaging loop of harvesting - crafting - building up relationships with the townsfolk / completing quests. On a daily basis, there are a lot of activities to choose from, and you are completely free to experience the game at your own pace. Besides that, [i]Blue Oak Bridge[/i] is one of the most balanced farming sims I’ve had the chance to experience in regards to how much effort the player has to invest towards a certain objective. It never feels like strenuous labor, and even if your days will be very busy, they will always be relaxing. [h1]Pros[/h1] - great aesthetics: beautiful and unique hand-drawn art style, charming animations - areas rich in resources (resources are very easy to come by and there’s usually a very decent amount of grinding required to reach a certain goal) - lots to explore, including a 100 level dungeon with floors randomly generated each day, with the ability to resume your exploration from the last milestone reached (levels 5,10, 15… etc.) - harvestable items are clearly distinguishable from the background items, but at the same time fit well with the environment - amazing water reflection of the main character - easy and enjoyable fishing minigame; the fish react fast when you cast your rod and have a wide range; a new batch of fish respawns automatically when the current one is depleted, allowing you to fish without interruptions or without having to move to a new spot - good character build-up; the NPCs have distinctive (and interesting) personalities, making them fun to interact with - a hotbar that is separated from the actual bag inventory and which is visible all the time on the screen - plenty of crafting recipes unlocked from the start - crafting doesn’t require a specific location (you can craft wherever you are, as long as you have the necessary materials) - ability to sell / buy items in bulk (incrementing / decrementing the quantity not by 1 only, but also by 10) - the watering can has unlimited charges - yay, no need to go back to the river / pond every few tiles [h1]Neutral[/h1] - the default controls scheme is pretty unintuitive, but the buttons can be remapped - dialogues with the NPCs have voice-overs, but in an unintelligible language; what’s astonishing though is that different characters sound very different, as if they even speak this fictional language with an accent. - fast-flowing time (1 second = 1 minute in game); some might like it, others not so much [h1]Cons - some of these are already in the works[/h1] - no tutorial or rather little guidance - no teleport between areas - the health points, as well as the energy points are limited during one full game day - area transitions not clearly marked (entrances and exists quite unclear at first, although you get to learn them with time) - overall quite some clunky controls, especially when using the mouse and keyboard; playing the game with a controller is a much better experience - the map doesn’t show your character’s location; the portraits of the townsfolk (also visible on the map) are not very clearly distinguishable and they don’t reflect their current location on the map, but their store’s location - can’t zoom in on the map (especially necessary in town, since this area is quite large) - bridge and crossroads signs are blank (they don’t display any information about the possible paths) - no manual saving (the game automatically saves at the beginning of a new day) - low stack limit in the inventory (stacks go only up to 99) - multiple value tiers for an item; different tiers for an item do not stack together, and this takes up a lot of inventory space which is quite limited as it is - no scrollbar in lists taking up more than one screen (character creation, NPC list etc) - there’s only one vendor that you can sell your items to - you can't see the value of items unless you go all way to the general store and sell them; similarly, you can’t see how much profit you can get by buying a certain seed / crafting a certain food - the objects being picked up have a visual clue, but not a text description too and sometimes it’s difficult to identify the item based on the image only (for example the stone / coal / iron have the same image and rather close shades); you can see its name by browsing through your inventory, but not at the moment of picking it up - there’s no indication whether an item was already registered in the library’s compendium or not, apart from going all way to the library and checking your unlocks; this information is essential in deciding what you should sell or not, since in order to complete your compendium you will need to donate one of each discovered items - no one click option to transfer inventory items into chests; each of them have to be moved and stacked individually [h1]Bugs[/h1] - various display bugs in regards to the quest progression (completing one quest step sometimes does not properly update in the list of quests visible on the side of your screen) - wrong placeholder texts in the main menu - missing filter texts in the crafting menu (the recipes are split in different tabs, but these do not have a name at the moment) - various collision issues with certain elements (sometimes you can go through trees) - constantly crashing when quitting to desktop - whenever you access a chest, the first item contained is automatically selected - noticeable framerate drop in the town area The game was recently released in early access (Nov 2022) and although it’s fully playable, there is still a lot of room for improving the main mechanics and ironing out the several bugs that the players commonly encounter in their gameplay (none of them being game-breaking though). The developers are not only extremely active and helpful in the forums, but they’re also amazing at taking in any kind of feedback and quickly implementing changes according to the community’s suggestions. The game improves considerably with every patch and judging by the team’s engagement, I can imagine that the end product will be pretty great. Even in its current state, the game is lovely and provides a very cozy experience. Despite its rough edges, I still enjoyed my time in it. [quote]💜 If you like this review, please consider following [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11354094]Lilly's Corner Curator page[/url] 🌸 [url=https://lillycorner.com/]Website[/url] [/quote]

This game is so cozy! I have only played a couple of hours so far but I already see a ton of potential. From the library donations to the mines, there is definitely a good bit to do! The controls were a bit awkward for me at first but I quickly figured everything out and got comfortable with it. If you like farming, witchcraft, or wholesome experiences, this is definitely a game you should look into buying. The amount I paid, especially as it is on sale for the release, was more than reasonable! Blue Oak Bridge is colourful, inclusive, and plays in a unique way that makes it stand out amongst other farming games. I love all of the characters I have met so far (Willow is so beautiful it hurts). Each one has a distinct personality and amazing voice acting to go with them. Time to get back to tending my crops and reaching the mine's next biome!

Alrighty! I'm editing my original review to correspond with the very fast update that went out. The dev team responsible for Blue Oak Bridge is absolutely phenomenal! The game just went into early access and they've already created a patch for the controls. I love a team that listens to their customers, so I'm already in for the long haul here! My initial issue was with the lack of control guidance and pause button. The controls felt a little strange to me, and some I just could not figure out. This new patch release has completely fixed the confusion on controls, and I think the little pop-ups showing which button to use is really cute. There are still a few hiccups here and there, now mainly about the lack of a pause button, but the dev team has reassured me that they're working on a fix for that right now. The fact that they even reached out in the first place makes me extremely happy, and I'm just so excited to see how this game and community grows. Like I said in my previous review, the game is adorable. The graphics are just like a storybook game, and the character portraits looks so, so amazing. Even the portraits on our little info journal are cute! I know I keep saying this but I am so excited to grow alongside this game <3

Pretty art, remarkably bad controls, awful map, broken quests, unclear where area/room exits are, basic resources (wood and stone) don't always auto-collect, awful dialog where errors are made up for by...having lots of puns? Constantly fighting the controls to reposition pointing in the right direction is what drove me to quit.

Blue Oak Bridge is a cute and addictive game for me, a real gem with pretty visuals. There is such a lot to choose from: Mining (100 levels), fishing, digging, farming, livestock, helpful animals that fish, water, dig etc. for you - cook and later on own a cafe - brew potions - choose a pet between frog, cat, dog, rabbit etc. And ofc quests - main and friendship quests, latter unfold as you gain hearts with NPCs. Not all are friendly, some made me laugh, others made me dislike them (yep, Isa, I am looking at you). In other words, this game makes it easy for me to immerse into this world. Controls were improved, this was criticised by reviewers, but by now you can rebind the keys, mouse nontrol is there as well and continues to be improved. The Dev team is exceptionally helpful, acts quickly with patches, listens to the feedback. I fully recommend this game to gamers who know that early access means: Taking part in changes and wanting to be a part of this. As it is even on sale now, grab it, it's worth the money IMO.

Blue Oak Bridge is a unique entry to the farming sim genre. First impressions, it's giving me a 90s feel with the style and look of the game. It's very colorful and has a sort of cartoon kind of look. I played 7+ hours on PC and at times it does feel a little clunky but overall ran great with minimal bugs. I'm looking forward to continuing to play this and trying on Steam Deck. Pros: - Farming, mining, fishing, crafting unlock quickly. You can start doing activities you enjoy pretty much immediately. - You get a pet who can follow you around. Just wave and it's your bud for the day :) - Variety of crops that were different from just basic turnip, carrot, and potato. - Unique monsters and combat felt relaxed. Great for folks looking for a chill gaming session. - I love the visuals and music. I felt really relaxed when playing. - The size of the farm felt comfy, not too big or small. I was able to build a barn pretty quickly so if you want to raise animals that's great for you. Also, you can hold the farm animals and walk around! Cutest thing :) Con: - Watering with the bucket felt difficult. I often missed which was annoying since you have limited water in the bucket to start with. - If you wave to your dog on accident while out he would sit and stay there. I've had to run back for him a few times lol. - The quests are a little hard for me to follow. It's a lot of finding items which if that is your thing then this is for you. - I'm prone to easily get motion sick from games, at times this definitely started to make me nauseous from running around. Hopefully they add additional visual controls in the future. Overall, this is a chill farming sim. I can see myself continuing to play this one to work on my farm as updates are made to the game. It's very story rich in tandem with the quests so be prepared to read and follow a handful of quests at once. I'm excited to continue getting to know the villagers. There is romance in this game so that's always a plus for me.

I love it!! <3 Super bright, colourful and engaging characters with so many places to go and things to do! Why is Ryder so attractive though? Wish he was real life!! Such a cute little unique world to run around in and the music fits so well! For a game still in EA there's a lot here!!

TLDR: pretty artwork, but everything else feels unfinished. The developer seems to be pretty engaged with the community on Steam and Discord, so hopefully players might get a better product in a couple of months. Currently it still feels very beta. Positives: This game has a lot of potential. There's interesting artwork and cute characters. I do like the bits of dialogue the characters have - that Enzo uses Spanish and Willow uses German is a nice bit of flavour. I like that you can romance characters of either gender expression or a non-binary character also. Developers seem very responsive as of November 2023. There are secret crops you can only get from using the wild seeds - this was an appreciated depth to the farming experience. Negatives: However there's currently no tutorial on the basics, e.g. like how to give gifts, or what the boxes in the barns/coops are for, how to add feed to the feeders in coops/barns, etc ,etc. Getting through the main storyline is haphazard and very unbalanced - you will probably get the library over 70% before getting a barn. Overall there seems to be a bit of storytelling in the game but nowhere near the depth for which you feel immersed in a world. The storytelling is at best very patchy and uninspired at the moment. There seems to be little or no acknowledgement of who the main character is or where they've come from - Maybe the Felix character could be a stronger contact in trying to help the main character recover their memories and guide them through the customs of Eloria. For storytelling - whatever measure you have for the scripts for all the characters - say 50 pages of dialogue from just greetings and chatting and quests - quadruple it. Invest in your writers. Maybe invest in some animated cutscenes to deepen the character development. The economy of the game feels off. The rewards for completing many of the quests are completely out of proportion to the effort put in - e.g. the royal artefact hunting quest gives you merely 2000 gold - that's it - nothing else. I would suggest a permanent speed improvement and more story development as reward for this - it was incredibly anticlimactic. Many character questlines give you 200 gold - yet the game seems to treat animal products as an early game item - but farm buildings cost 10000+ and the blueprints are required for the wildlife section of the library, which didn't sit right with me. The hit boxes for collecting crops and watering in early game (invest in those bedew daisies!) are tortuous. My least favourite part of the game is collecting my crops in the morning - I play on a keyboard, maybe it's easier on a controller? - but how is this still such an issue in 2023? Food - what's the point in making any food if it's not a beloved item for someone? All they do is have variable health and energy stats? Maybe some could have speed or armour buffs? Battle - fairly basic - just avoid getting ganged up on. Currently there's no reason to invest heavily in learning any strategy with combat because it's so simple. The enemies don't stop you from reaching the end of the mine - you can run past them easily. I don't think Willow should sell one of her favourite items (stew) - it's an easy way to gain max hearts with her. There's no challenge. Likewise, Hazel sells a key quest ingredient she requires for fixing the problem she caused (which I still haven't found a reason for)- which makes no sense plotwise. Personally I'm not a gamer who cares to design their farm a lot - so I can't really speak to this area - maybe this is a big positive? As of November 2023 there are no achievements.

I keep feeling like I'm missing something. It's a really gorgeous game with the artwork. The music is lovely, and I like the individualized gibberish the characters speak in. I hate the slurping noise with the potions with every fiber in my being (misophonia). The quest-giving is poorly paced. You get a whole bunch of quests up front, but there isn't a lot of hubbub over completing them, and you only ever get 2 personal quests...? I'm down to just a lot of completionist items in the library, and I just can't bring myself to care about fighting the awkward controls anymore. If you can get this on a deep sale, it might be worth it. Otherwise, there are probably more satisfying indie games out there.