Creature Keeper

Really cute and fun game, i just wish it had achievements and cards for steam.

love this game

When taken for what it is, this game is fun. It was an enjoyable 12ish hour game to get to the end of the story. There is no endgame besides filling your bestiary from the already accessed areas. It isn't perfect but it still is a pretty solid recommend from me. The solo dev is active at helping and fixing problems. Within a day of my accidentally sequence breaking the game and getting soft locked they had manually fixed my save file and patched the problem out of the game for everyone. I think the biggest downside isn't necessarily in the game itself, but the expectations the alpha gave. Some significant systems saw cut backs in the final version that made the final product feel over simplified and less rewarding. The alpha had the cost per creature that is seen in the final game, but didn't have the number of creatures allowed limits that are now found. If you wanted to have multiple cheaper creatures or fewer/one big creature you could do it. Now you are mechanically encouraged to have as many big creatures as you can afford for your slots. Areas used to be more densely populated with enemies with the neutral creatures fighting them. Now it is more set encounters of smaller sets of enemies. There used to be 3 slots for equipment, now there is just the one for activated skill per creature. Equipment had a diablo like affix system to give it variety, and now it doesn't exist at all. I can't blame the dev for simplifying the systems to make something that they could finish in a reasonable time frame. I also can't help but wonder how many of the negative reviews are because of the expectations the mechanically rich alpha set. I would love to see a sequel with more of the systems and world design from the alpha. This game is fun for what it is and I enjoyed my time with it. I just hope to one day see the game the alpha was growing into.

Creature Keeper is really funny, I am quite enjoying this game.

Creature Keeper is a cozy little top-down RPG that takes a more wholesome approach to the creature collector genre. It’s got a mix of monster management, light farming, and some action-packed exploring all wrapped into a charming pixel art world. Pros: ✔️ Bonding Over Battling: I appreciated that the game focuses on forming bonds with creatures rather than just capturing them. It adds a layer of depth to the gameplay. ✔️ Berry Mechanics: Once I got the hang of it, having berries ready for befriending creatures became second nature. ✔️ Real-Time Combat: Getting to fight alongside your creature crew in real-time just works. It makes battles feel way more alive than the typical turn-based fare. Cons: ❌ Simplistic Mechanics: The rock-paper-scissors style weakness system felt too basic and didn't significantly impact combat strategies. ❌ Creature Overload: It was too easy to accumulate repeat creatures without a clear purpose, leading to a cluttered creature box. ❌ Slow Story Start: The storyline took a while to pick up, making it hard to stay invested initially. Conclusion: Creature Keeper has a lot of heart and a solid idea behind it. While it’s still got a few rough edges and mechanics that could be fleshed out, I really enjoyed my time with it. If you're into creature collecting but want something a little gentler and more interactive, it’s definitely worth checking out. Score: 7 out of 10 beloved berries — a sweet companion game that plays better the more you nurture it. 🍓🧡

Creature Keeper is a unique creature collector game. It has several interesting mechanics that I haven’t encountered in other games of the same genre. Instead of the typical turn-based battle system, creatures fight in real-time, using their own signature moves in combination with the player’s attacks. All creatures and attacks have one of three types. This forces the player to change up their active creatures and attack style on the fly to combat the opponent’s type. I also adore the unconventional healing mechanic of the game (you spawn healing hearts by petting your creatures, and you can do this whenever). Aside from combat and healing mechanics there are also novel ways to unlock the player’s skills as well as your creatures’ perks. I especially liked how the bestiary functions – slowly unfolding an artistic representation of each creature. I really enjoyed the design and animations of the creatures. They feel like they’re always active and responding to something. Their design is also very clearly more detailed than the rest of the game. For the most part this is not an issue. For the most part, the world doesn’t feel empty and all the characters are very expressive despite the sprites being as small as they are. However, when there aren’t any creatures on-screen, the world feels sort of frozen. None of the characters or areas are as animated or detailed as the creatures, so it’s quite noticeable. On the other hand, I just don't jive with the player character’s design. I also didn't like the main menu’s and settings menu’s designs. The start-up screen is kind of missing and the font type doesn't fit with the rest of the game. While playing I stumbled across several bugs and small things that could use some improvements. Some pixel sprites (like exclamations) remain burned on-screen until you change areas. The ellipses dialogue box doesn't disappear the first time you talk to an NPC. So, it feels like you've missed something even if there's no new dialogue option. At some point Millienne changes her hair colour but the colour change is not consistent at all for the rest of the game. When using a ranged weapon that shoots arrows, the arrows don't turn when shot diagonally. Creature types don't appear when the player's vision is obscured, like in some sandstorm and cave areas. You can’t see the player character or creatures behind obstacles like big trees. Similarly, when you discover bigger creatures and can command more of them at once, your character player and opponent get overlapped by the creatures, making it hard to avoid or hit an attack. When trying to damage a creature from the side, the hit box feels much smaller and harder to hit. Sometimes your creatures just freeze in place and don’t follow you/attack anymore. This is fixed immediately by changing areas/interacting with the creatures but can be frustrating. The quest log sometimes updates in advance, spoiling what happens next. This happened to me, when I went to the library with Millienne but the quest log already told me that Millienne is going to go into another tunnel. The game doesn't feel as fleshed out as it could be. The map could be more legible and the tutorials clearer. Only the first couple tutorials pop up in-game. If you want to learn more, you have to track down the other tutorials in the menu by yourself. I genuinely enjoyed the novel mechanics but they need to be explained better, especially rerolling gems and trading with creatures. I also think the game would benefit from rewarding exploration more. It feels like such a waste because the world looks so interesting, especially the houses but you can only interact with a few of them. I liked the wraparound tower design and the various plot twists at the end of the game. I also loved seeing all the NPCs again. I'm just sad that most NPCs were missing for most of the playthrough, especially the other creature keepers from the start of the game. Overall, I genuinely think this game has great potential. Yes, there are quite a few kinks to work through but there are also a lot of good and interesting ideas hidden in Creature Keeper. The real-time battle mechanic is the main difference to other creature collector games and I think it works incredibly well here.

I've waited years for this game to come out, and even with the shaky launch, still believe in the vision, and the idea.

O Jogo está muito bonito, ambientação, Cenários, animações e a historia até onde joguei com Diálogos bem mesclados, entre humor e situações mais sérias, Também Vale ressaltar as Criaturas, Criaturas interessantes e criativas para poucos Bits. Mas ainda pode melhorar muito, Aqui vão recomendações minhas para o jogo : Melhorias no Combate ( Acho que ainda dar para polir bastante o Combate do jogo, especialmente a movimentação e mais ataques do personagem). Melhorias na Progressão do Game : Acredito que o Começo do game é um pouco Confuso, começa lento e depois acelera repentinamente e isso pode ser melhor trabalhado. INTERFACE : Também acredito que a interface do começo do jogo e Também a Interface do Inventario precisa ser mais trabalhado, o Conteúdo do game tá ótimo, porém, Agora é hora de trabalhar esses Detalhes. Ainda vou zerar o game, mas Até onde joguei tá ótimo, o Jogo ainda vai melhorar muito, por favor uma Atualização no combate para deixar um pouco mais interessante, É isso Joguem Essa Maravilha.

Very much enjoyed the game. Played it after some of the system uptades. gameplay was good, the controls felt responsive and the aesthetic is amazing. there was some jank with the puzzles and some of the dialogue had repeted words or minor spelling mistakes but that doesn't take away from the fun I had. Some of the systems remain unclear to me and the progression didn't pose that much of a challenge. all in all, I may revisit it if it gets an achivements update and try it from 0 again. Dad's got to be one of my favourite scarecrows in fiction. Ty devs for working on it, hopefully this game was a great learning experience so you can cook something better in the future.

An inventive gem in a rough ground. If even half of the roadmap gets completed the game will be amazing, but for the moment it is a bit hard to get into as lack of QOL killing the pacing in a fast way. As an original backer, i have all the hopes that the dev will pull through. Cant wait to see the rest, after the patches though.