Cairn: Mathair's Curse

I really want to like Cairn--it's clear that a lot of love went into its design--but the way it's balanced right now isn't fun. Each encounter carries out like a small boss battle where you really have to be judicious with your healing items and spells. There are several spots early on where you can easily soft lock the game because you've run out of healing items and are unable to reach a shop or a healing spot. This means you have to carefully pick-and-choose which battles you do engage in. In Chapter 3, items and spells start becoming underpowered relative to how hard the enemies hit. So you end up relying on chance to not throw more at you than you can heal from in battle, even when you do have adequate items and spells. It's stressful. One other thing I feel should be mentioned is that I wouldn't call Cairn an Earthbound-like, except in the characters' visual design. I played both Earthbound and Mother 3 in the month prior to this, so they're fresher in my mind. The overarching story could possibly be found in an Earthbound game, but the way the characters interact and the world itself lack the levity you'd find in an Earthbound game. Sure, you fight furniture and other weird whatnots, but the characters remark on how strange this is rather than simply accepting it as part of the implicit strangeness of the world they're in. In that regard, if you view Cairn as a more traditional RPG set in modern day, it feels better. Characters are all fairly realistic and self-serious. There are some attempts at humor but they're incidental and, I found, somewhat unnecessary. For example, the animals all have their various chirps and squeaks and meows translated into English. The cat is always preoccupied with food, isn't that funny? So I went into Cairn with expectations, and that was partially my fault. But the dungeon design and soft locking are still major issues. Much of this could be fixed with future updates. And I hope they are, I feel like there's a heartfelt story here just begging to be told.

Edit: I am flipping my thumb. I don't do that often or don't like to, but for this I have to. I left the initial review under the dotted line. I've been RPGing since Ultima Exodus came out on NES almost 40 years ago. Yes I am an old gamer. I was also RPGing a little before then on Apple II. And this is the style of RPG I despise. The game feels like it punishes you for battling and wanting to improve your levels. Level growth is SOOO slow, and worse: healing locations are few and far between. You are really dependent on your items to heal and restore SP. So far in my playing I have found only one place that can be treated as an "inn", and occasional flowers that are one use full heals (maybe 5 of those). The point I am at now, the inn type location is blocked off to me. Add to that enemies do have attacks that can hit multiple times or hit groups, plus the small party size starting out, and the only way to really get through this is to run from monsters....or run out of items. Oh and money is not easy to come by either. Your character can get hit by one attack for about 10 damage. A sandwich heals 12 health. It costs like $25. That above fight will get you like $13. This makes battles overly frustrating...especially because the DRAG....... Because of all this, I've uninstalled the game...and instantly I feel much better. My advice: Play Earthbound...again.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This one is going to be a soft recommendation. Cairn is definitely shooting for that Earthbound vibe, but doesn't quite catch it. The artwork is very similar, but lacks a but of the soul that Earthbound has. Also, here is a big one: it lacks the rolling slots for damage. Instead Cairn goes for a more traditional style to the battle system. So what you get is a game that looks a lot like Earthbound, but doesn't feel or play like it. It has its own thing going. If you are looking for something to really capture Earthbound...its not here. As its own game, Cairn is decent enough. The characters feel pretty under powered so the battles seem to miss that hard punch to them. Being that I grew up playing RPGs in the NES days.....the game doesn't feel overly hard to me. I think there are a few balance issues, but nothing too game breaking. But I also know that I have pushed my way through some difficult RPGs, so there can be a challenge to this if you are not ready. If you are ok with the game reaching for Earthbound, but not getting it, or doing a bit of its own thing...then this one might work for you. But if you want something that is a dead set Earthbound clone...its not quite here. If you know that before leaping, and can accept it for being its own game...it might turn out to be enjoyable. Just be ready for some difficult battles if you are new to RPGs.

First of all... I dont usually leave reviews on games but this one was a HUGE EXCEPTION. I don’t even know where to begin. THIS GAME, was a massive experience. It’s heartfelt, quiet, and deeply emotional in a way that sneaks up on you. The story, the people, and the atmosphere of it feels alive, I can tell that the developer really put as much care into the game as possible. This is the 2nd game in all history of games that I have played that have made me cry so much (first one being Mother 3) and that says something. At first the game does start slow but I think that's something so charming about it. It lets you take time to wander around and talk to the people of the island there. I must ask that people should be patient with it if it feels "boring" when you start the game. There were so many little details that reminded me of things I used to do as a kid and well in general. It’s rare for a game to capture that kind of nostalgia and make it rather wholesome. As someone who grew up with a lot of RPG games (especially loving earthbound), this game hit me in the same place those did. That strange mix of magic spells, skills... Including those moments where every smile hides a little sadness, and every quiet moment feels important. Cairn gave me that same feeling again, and I honestly wasn’t expecting it. I cried during a few moments. Not because the game forced me to but because it felt real to me. SPOILERS [spoiler]From Alex' friend... Andy turning into a half robot half human and slowly remembering his memories... Alex' grandmother sacrificing herself inside the facility core and saving the people there to sealing each and every cairn until the end where the mother sacrificed herself to give Alex and everyone she knew another chance to see the world be in peace again. It broke me. It broke me more than anything I could have ever imagined.[/spoiler] The music, the atmosphere, and the writing fits perfectly into the games theme. Even the smallest interactions felt intentional, like each one carried a piece of the story’s soul. It’s beautiful, haunting, and unforgettable. If you’ve ever loved the earthbound series, If you want to fight weird enemies, listen to nice music all while doing it PLEASE take the time to play this game. I cannot recommend it enough. Ross, Thank you for creating something so special. For yourself. For me. For Everyone.

The game is ridiculously unbalanced; nearly every fight feels like a slog to get through, paired with the fact that you have to scrounge items for healing, due to the cost and lack of other means. Healing abilities also cost too much mana, and using any form of healing leaves you vulnerable to the disgusting amount of damage enemies deal, meaning that you'll likely blow your means of healing in no time. The defend action is also pretty useless as it barely blocks any damage, and because most status effects make you lose a turn, this makes the attack buff from defending useless. I was fighting some puffin cultists in chapter 5, and was being stunned indefinitely, like barely being given a chance to take a turn. The game is difficult in a bad way; not in a way that actually feels rewarding or at least has been so far; I mean it's not impossibly difficult, it's just annoyingly difficult. Hoping that getting more party members will even things out, that's if I ever go back to it.

When I started playing Cairn, I thought I knew what to expect based on the trailer: an Earthbound-like game with kooky self-referential humor in a modern setting (and also Scottish). You fight sentient stop signs? I’m in! As the game progressed, however, it slowly dawned on me that that was not exactly what I’d be getting. Let me explain. As far as story and tone goes, this is more like Mother 3 than Earthbound and even then, not quite. Though there are humorous and light moments, it tends to take itself very seriously. This isn’t a bad thing, just not what I was expecting. I think the game does a fairly good job of straddling the line between showing reverence to Earthbound/Mother 3 without trying to be those games. Cairn visually looks like them, but is very much its own thing. While I thought the story was generally quite good, it did have some pacing issues brought about by structure of the story and exacerbated by some issues with combat in the early launch version I played. Without going into spoilers, the story bounces around a lot, and chapters often end on a cliffhanger with the following chapter slamming on the brakes and beginning with tons of exposition. Storywise it works to create depth and build the world, but gameplaywise it feels like whiplash. It’s not helped in the early hours by the difficult battles and minimal resources. There are no trash mobs in this game, every enemy encounter is a battle to the death and I was constantly low on spirit (mana, MP, SP, whatever you like). I found myself often having to leverage the defend function which restores a small amount of HP and spirit every time you use it, but in these early hours you often have a party of only one or two, so the mobs will easily gang up on you. Often what I had to do was whittle them down to the weakest enemy, leave him alive, and then defend over and over to build my spirit back up while taking as little damage as possible. This method worked, I don’t recall ever getting a game over, but it further disrupted the pacing. Alternatively, you can use items liberally after battle to restore your HP/Spirit, but early on they are not as plentiful, and it is still disruptive to have to go into the menu after every battle to do this. I know since I played, an update added a mechanic that restores your HP/Spirit one time in a dungeon (similar to butterflies in Earthbound), but unfortunately for me I completed the game before I could benefit from this. I expect it helps the pacing somewhat, but I was having to rely on defend and items so much that I can’t see a one time restoration doing much heavy lifting in that regard because the very next battle could easily deplete your reserves. That all sounds very negative, but it eases up significantly around the halfway point, and I never was not enjoying the game. I also understand that they have updated the balance to make the beginning of the game less difficult, so although I did not go back to experience this, I know the dev has been very receptive to feedback and none of what I’m saying is particularly novel, so I expect a lot of this has been resolved at this point. The benefit of the story bouncing around between chapters a lot is that you get to see a lot of unique environments and meet many different characters. The environments have a lot of character themselves, I particularly enjoyed the movie theater which I thought was a high point. When the story starts to coalesce as characters finally meet each other and the plot is tied together, all the pacing issues I mentioned earlier melt away and the drive to continue the adventure is at its best. I think it’s important to go into this game understanding that it looks like Earthbound, but it doesn’t feel like Earthbound, and again that’s not a negative. Cairn is its own thing; it’s quirky in a serious way whereas Earthbound is quirky in a humorous way if that makes sense. But you can see the developers’ love of video games throughout, and obviously their love of their home. It shines through in a way that absolves any negatives I’ve spoken about here. There’s something special about a game made with this much love and reverence for the medium. I think if you go into it with an open mind and temper your expectations about it being an Earthbound-like, you’ll find a very heartfelt game with a compelling story that actually earns the tears it might get out of you by the end.

Just finished the game, it was overall a fantastic game that needs a bit of polishing. I grew up on turn based RPG games starting from the NES era so Cairn was a pleasure to play through. A few areas of improvement. Early game is rough. Even optimizing over how much skills I would use, weighing in how much damage I would take by trying to balance skill use, there were a few moments where I barely on the skin of my teeth manage to keep making progress in the game. Notibly Ch1 and Ch7. When you are able to level up it went a lot smoother. Similar balance adjustments, late game I was running from all monster battles because they were tough with little reward and the bosses were not too difficult. It may have just been me, but there were a lot of equipment in the game and most of them I skipped over. Probably could have set up the characters with different play styles. All of the rest of my feedback is just tiny minor things. Ran into a few collision issues, got stuck in a few places, managed to walk off the map in a particular place. I hit cancel on upgrading electronic thing but the game still went through the upgrade and couldn't move afterwards. There are some dialogues where after you go through, would have transitioned a second set of smaller dialogue. There is an item that you can sell that has tremendous value, wasn't sure if I should sell it or not, but would have 10x more money than I had through the entire game - so would double check some key items that should be able to be sold or not. Like I said, overall fantastic game. Great combat, great story, nice maps, nice soundtrack. You can tell a lot of creative thought went into the game. I especially liked the early dream states when you realize there is something much more going on and builds upon the mystery. I also see a great way to transition to post game / new game + content to help with the replay replayability

This game is wonderful, and I'm surprised that this is a really obscure game. ESPECIALLY with how much content and story is in this. Though I will admit, there are parts in the late game where it's hard to actually progress. Especially with the lack of money to buy enough supplies, which leads to you constantly trying to balance keeping enough supplies for the next battle, and trying not to die in the current one. Even though it's quite expensive (Php 615), I would say that it's worth it. Especially since it has so much more/better content than Kindergarten 3 (for reference), which was the same price. TL;DR: ITS PURE CINEMA (also ♥♥♥♥ you Captain McBullshit or whatever your name is you cost me 30 minutes of backtracking)

I'm about halfway through cairn and I'm really enjoying it so far. Engaging story and lots of fun little things to find all over the chapters. The combat is challenging enough so that you are kept on your toes without being too difficult. Music is really great as well. Recommend!

I found an extra crunchy sand-wich!

After finishing the game last night and sitting with it for a while, I've gotta say Cairn is the best RPG I've played this year if not in the last few years. Nearly every spare moment I've had these last couple of weeks has gone into it and I don't regret a single second. Cairn wears its Mother/Earthbound influences on its sleeve, but it really is so much more than that. It's a labor of love where the deeper you go, the more it starts to establish its own identity. One steeped in, as it says on the tin, Scottish culture and folklore and government conspiracy. But there are also themes of love, friendship, and family that I think run even deeper than Mother's in some ways. I love how human the characters are and just how attached I got. And I have to say, a lot of tears were shed by the end. Combat was challenging. Where normally, I'd find myself conserving MP(or Spirit) for bosses, this game had me strategically using every tool at my disposal, even for ordinary enemies. This meant weighing risks. Should I fight or sneak by? Which enemies pose the least threat? Is it better to restore spirit with items(which you may need later), or leave the weakest foe in a group standing long enough to restore spirit by guarding(which will require some patience)? Either way, you generally won't be breezing through with ordinary attacks. Which might not be for everyone, but I like how it kept me on my toes. Also worth noting is just how worth it exploring is. As someone with a habit of going the "wrong way" in search of treasure, I appreciated just how many side paths there were. I uncovered a lot of secrets in my time with this game and if my achievements are anything to go by, there's even more that I missed. It's left me eager to play again and see what else I can find. Side note: I really appreciated a lot of the little references. I've lived in the US my whole life, so I can't pretend to have caught all of them, but I definitely spotted a fair few(Girder Brew my beloved). It'll be fun to see just how many more there are when I stream gameplay for a couple of friends in Scotland. Anyway, thank you, Ross McRitchie, for the experience. I will definitely be recommending your game to all of my RPG-loving friends.