Circadian City

I really, really, really, really wanted to like this game. I followed the development for months and eagerly awaited the day I'd get to play this fantastic idea for a game...then, the day finally came! The result: it is incredibly lackluster. First: the game is incredibly confusing (where it really does not need to be) and provides you with little to no direction. I am dropped into the world and taught the basic controls and then sent to the city, told I have a job, and that I need to make sure my mood remains positive (but not how to keep my mood in check). Then, I go to sleep where I am introduced to a dream world that is no less confusing but provided with equally poor direction. This game really needs to introduce a longer and better thought out tutorial. Next: The controls, graphics, and interaction system really feel like they lack polish. Now, I came to this game from Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, and Gleaner Heights (all fantastic in their own right) and, compared to those titles, this game seems to be lacking a lot of polish. The pixel art looks awkward and out of place, the dialogue options are confusing and feel rigid, and the controls just outright feel janky a lot of the time. Furthermore, the game world is extremely small with near nothing to do and a minuscule population. It feels empty and fake. Games like the aforementioned Stardew Valley, Friends of Mineral Town, and Gleaner heights have game worlds that feel larger, more complex, and more lived in...this game's world feels more like an extremely forced, awkward, and subpar potemkin village than a real city or town lived in by real people. Finally, the game lacks direction. I am confused by what I am supposed to be doing and how to achieve certain goals the majority of the time and that really ruins the experience for me, and a lot of others judging by the other reviews. Overall (TL;DR): the game is subpar in that it lacks polish, provides no sense of direction or motivation, and fails to present a world that feels lived in. I'd give this game a 4/10 and wouldn't even purchase it on sale right now...but, I would keep an eye on it and potentially pick it up once it's a bit farther along in development. EDIT: In hindsight, I would also like to add another gripe I have with the game...it simulates the wrong thing. Games that simulate real life (The Sims, Stardew Valley, etc) can be incredibly fun because humans tend to enjoy the sensation of getting work done and achieving certain goals. Games like Stardew Valley and The Sims allow us to replicate those feelings without major investments of time/money and without actually needing to work. However, this game does not simulate this aspect of life...it simulates the negatives. It simulates the boring, repetitive, downtrodden, and hopeless aspects of life (working in a 9-5 job, loneliness, the feeling of not having enough time in a day, money being tight, etc)...with the issue being, NO ONE WANTED THOSE ASPECTS OF LIFE SIMULATED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Including these aspects in a game is perfectly reasonable, but centering the game around them? Not so much. That just makes the game as boring, depressing, and repetitive as the aspects of life it attempts to simulate.

This game had a lot of potential, but sadly it's abandoned.

Dead game

Unfinished.

Unfortunately, after making multiple characters and trying multiple strategies, I can't figure out how to avoid being stressed out, and being high stress really limits what you can do to progress the dream world. It's not very clear what you need to do at any point, and I don't feel any motivation to make progress in the dream world because it isn't clear what that will do for me or how I go about it anyway. I feel bad for this reviw, as the game is still early access and I try to hold my judgement, but I played this game when it first came out in EA and have come back to it now to see if I could get into it, but it still isn't fun to play. I hope there are developments now that the devs are able to work on the game again!

seemed like a good idea and i can even look past the art style which is not my favorite, but the game has either been abandoned or is on a looong break. The game isn't really fun to play in the stage that it's in. It feels empty as well as unbalanced.

No Update in almost 3 years. Studio is working on new games now even though this one is still in Early Access.

I was really excited for this game and have been waiting years for the game to be fixed. There are too many bugs to even play the game. Sad to see it's abandoned, I would be skeptical purchasing from this dev in the future.

there isn't really a lot to do, but i did appreciate exploring due to how pretty the environment is. but a lot of the UI looks horrible and unprofessional. the characters themselves look terrible. besides those two things, the game is really pretty! a major flaw is that they use AI voices for the NPCs, but they are speaking gibberish, which ends up sounding weirdly creepy. several of the voices are recognizable, and some are very clearly not in english, which breaks immersion even further the dreamworld is boring and isn't near as detailed as the real world. and in general, you never really know what to do in the real world no mouse support only made me bored even quicker. but i did know this before i bought the game, i was just willing to give it a try anyway. if the game was better, id be ok with this flaw. the game has been abandoned by its developers and, even if they come back, i doubt it will lead anywhere. this abandonment will forever stain the game which is a shame as it has true potential. the artists are talented (but the characters look awful, im sorry) and theres some cool little features in the game i wish other life sims had. exploring the city isn't fun or engaging, but it's chill. there is really no reason to buy this game

The characters are hideous and sound terrible....even though someone said you can turn the noise off...The biggest things were the controls. They are really bad controls. Tedious, not simple or intuitive. I just got annoyed.