Cloudy Valley

I was looking forward to this game so much. It seems such an innocent and carefree game, just what we all need in chaotic worldly times like these. So on launch day I played it right away. Not even ten minutes in and the game already pushes a social and political agenda. It starts with a climate message (no big deal to me but a first indicator nonetheless). Next is the part where one of the female characters you interact with tells you that she has a wife and is concerned about her wife because she is having her period and not feeling well... Seriously, why add that to a game like this? Knowing a large part of the audience will be kids, why bother them with this nonsense? Every single game nowadays has to push an agenda. It started with movies, now it's done through games. This game is tagged to be a family friendly game, which I find deceptive. Christian parents, be watchful of what your kids are playing. Just like with so many other games nowadays there is no indicator beforehand that these topics are included in the game. You'll only find out when playing. Deliberately so. I'll end my review positively with a quote from the Holy Word of God: Jesus Christ said: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a MAN shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to HIS WIFE, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

Very cute game, loving the vibe and the developer seems very friendly and responsive. Unfortunately I can't recommend the game in its current state, as my experience was sufficiently buggy that I actually can't progress past the starting area. After purchasing a train ticket to leave the starting area, my game hung on a white loading screen indefinitely. I eventually had to force quit, and after re-launching, my character was dropped in the middle of the ocean with no way to get back up on land. Unfortunately the game put a checkpoint there, so my save file was permanently cooked. I actually tried starting a new save file to just redo everything from the start, but there appears to be some kind of deeply rooted game-state problem related to starting a new save file: all the NPC dialogue was acting like I'd already spoken to them, or completed their quests, even on a fresh save. This meant the ticket seller wouldn't sell me a ticket - he would just congratulate me on purchasing a ticket, even though I had no way of getting one anymore. So, unfortunately, I can't even start a new save to fix this - it's like my entire installation has been cooked. The developer seems to be very earnestly working on fixing bugs, and I'm eager to support them, even though I have to recommend against buying Cloudy Valley at the moment. I'll be keeping an eye on this as updates roll out, and if I'm eventually able to get through the game, and these critical progression-blocking bugs get cleaned up, I will very happily switch this review to a thumbs-up! Good luck!!

Unplayable. I've tried on two computers and a Steam Deck, and I am completely unable to progress the game beyond the first area because quest givers are broken. Attempting to turn in a quest locks the game in an immovable state until I open my backpack. No other buttons work. It's like the dialogue just will not start, which means I cannot get the train ticket to get outside of the starting campground. Plus, autosave is the only save option and it doesn't appear to save until after you get on the train, because I have to start a new game every time. It's a shame, I love these kinds of games. Dev has said they're done, so I doubt this will ever get fixed.

Twice in twenty minutes did I get permanently stuck by talking to a quest-giving NPC, long before I even reached a save point, forcing me to start from the beginning again; you'd think the unstuck option in the menu would fix this, but it does, well... absolutely nothing, other than making Pix fidget a little in place. Camera panning feels sluggish and choppy despite the game hitting my 222 frame cap. The controls feel much the same in comparison: drunkenly unresponsive, never mind the lack of even something as simple as the ability to jump turns exploration into an exercise in tedium of swimming back to where I was prior. [i]A Short Hike[/i] or [i]Little Gator Game[/i] this is not. Don't waste your time or money.

This game does have some merit with it's tranquil and cosy vibes, but there is many problems that make this experience more stressful than what the game wants to make you feel. The climbing physics are borderline janky as not only do you have no idea how much stamina you have left before you suddenly plummet back down like a rock, but its hard to tell what sides you can climb without dealing with hit-boxes with the cliffs, especially with the edges. There is no way to check objectives of anyone who asks a favor of you, you move a lot slower than you think, your inventory is a mess, no map, and there is a bug that removes both your clover seed and stamina upgrades from said inventory, with no way to get them back without restarting. They also made the weird decision (on keyboard, not sure how it is on controller) to make moving left unequip whatever item you're holding. It is a nice game, but there is a lot of things that just hinder the experience. I get the message the game is trying to go for, but the bugs just make it counterintuitive.

Game is broken. You cant give stuff to animals and when you talk to them second time the dialogue doesnt show and youre stuck, Use inventory to unstuck yourself. Game is unfinishable

Lots of bugs, definitely wasn't even tested before they put it out and they haven't fixed anything. Unstuck does absolutely nothing and if you talk to someone a second time and they have no more dialogue you get locked in place and cant escape. Items that you can pick up in the world don't actually disappear and still show the interact key to pick it up when you can't. The climbing controls are weird, you have to press shift before you even move. If you're trying to move into the way and then press shift nothing happens. Dialog is bland and subpar. Just overall wouldn't recommend, not sure why there is so many positive reviews.

An A Short Hike-like game but with worse controls (they aren't bad., but... the fact you can't even jump makes it less immersive imo), a not as good camera angle (I prefer the overhead camera, just feels better), and the game overall just generally feels really slow (would it have hurt to make the run a bit faster? no offense, but the swimming is faster lol). It's an alright game but not for me tbh. Doesn't exactly capture A Short Hike's feel for me, but can see why people would like it. Btw, were the achievements a later update or something? Cause all the ones I have only 0.1% players have apparently, lol.

This has been such a cozy adventure. Now that I finished it I feel like I've been back from vacation. I really enjoyed finding all the secrets and hidden items. Talking to the locals was interesting. Every one of them had a little story to tell. And sometimes even a quest for me. Helping them and seeing how happy they are made me happy as well. I had a lot of fun playing Cloudy Valley. It has its little irks and quirks but I've encountered nothing major. Would definitely recommend it.

Rien de mieux que Cloudy Valley pour se rappeler des choses les plus simples qui font la beauté du monde <3