Four Divine Abidings

Look, I like this game. I really do. But it's only going to be enjoyable to a certain type of idler enjoyer. It's very obvious that a lot of care and love went into making this. And both thematically and mechanically, there's a lot uniqueness to it. But that's the problem. You can't really change a lot of what the game is going for without compromising on its core concept - the slow, often arduous path to enlightenment and beyond The game is very nice to you initially. You start out following something called 'the Path' which is just what it sounds like in the game's context. Through this, the game gives you tasks that both serve initially for easing you into the experience, and later as goals. It's got a very good tutorial experience through this, and it tries its best in the early stages to make you understand this is meant to be a low-stress idler. But then the tasks quickly get annoying. You MUST progress on the Path to open the game up further. And the tasks the game gives you start alternating between "use this new mechanic" to "do this unrelated thing an arbitrary amount of times." There's a section that annoyed the hell out of me where after unlocking the game's Tools mechanic and doing its initial task to learn it, I was told to... Click some buttons 30 times manually. And these clicks are on a timer. There's no progression until I sat here an actively did that for a bit. And then after I did THAT, it had another set of tasks I had to completely respec for. Now, respecing is (almost) entirely free, and it taught me a new mechanic after that. But I was already several hours in and still having to change to suit how the game wanted me to play, not how I want to. And it just keeps doing that for a long time. And, here's the thing: I wouldn't change that. It's instrumental to the idea of the experience. It compliments the theme; you can't just do the same thing forever and reach enlightenment. You have to broaden your horizons and try new things, and that may be uncomfortable. That's a terrific expression of the game's message through the gameplay. But it's also a complete pain in the ass and I only enjoy it because I'm a nerd about idle games and Eastern Religion. It's a great game that I just don't recommend to the average person. Try it, but if it doesn't appeal to you within an hour, it's not much different 20 hours later. Extra bit: There's another review complaining about the game having microtransactions. I don't know what that reviewer was on. There is a single DLC you can buy for $5 that gives you 7 'seedlings,' which you can individually apply to 8 different stats to get a 10% boost to them. You start with 1 at the beginning of the game, and as far as I'm aware you can get the other 7 completely for free through gameplay. And to be entirely honestly, that 10% boost has a negligible effect overall, so it's only really good for supporting the devs a single time.

What a time to be alive - someone has taken the tenets of the dharma and made a truly enjoyable progression based game that is as much educational as it is calming. This is my new 'go to' game for decompression, casual engagement (with some tweakable progression tactics that will surprise), and one of the better Godot implementations I've encountered. Small indie developer, which makes this a surprisingly high quality offering as I haven't actually found a bug yet (and I've been looking!). As a practitioner and gamer, this was a really good choice and I'm glad I made it. The ONLY recommendation I have for the developer is to consider allowing user to enter a youtube URL for background music and/to consider expanding the playlist (as it can get a bit annoying in repetition). Other than this, it's a triple gem of a game and I'm both happy I got it and happy it exists. TLDR: 9.3/10 and would buy it again. May even get a copy for my husband.

nice

Extremely confusing for no reason. Overly full of excess systems that don't serve much purpose? Some of the items you need to do to get past some parts are near impossible for either idle play or active play. Also has to be the slowest idle game ever. It's free, you can see for yourself.

Slow, boring, not much to do. It's not good as an idle game, and it's not good with active play either. It's just tedious hurry up and wait for active play, and the idle progression is like watching paint dry. When you come back hours later, it doesn't look any different, nothing has really changed. The art is pretty, the music is meh, it's free, but as far as any concept of it being a game. Meh, I can find more entertainment reading the dictionary.

FDA is a laid back and polished presentation. I've been looking at idlers for a couple of months now and it seems to me they are as varied in presentation as there are authors. This one didn't really do it for me, but the base game is free and just because it wasn't my favorite presentation doesn't mean you can't like it. If you find that you do like it, the dev offers DLC that will enhance your experience.

Needed 131h to complete the game, nice and relaxing Idle-game, with a spiritual component and medidative music. 8/10. The concept is a bit difficulut to understand at the beginning, as the main terms are so unusual/new to me, but there is a nice hint system to explain the features, and with time you unerstand what to do... there is a progression system, divided into 7 chapters, and some achievements. I found the music nice and calming... and its really Free-to Play without bombarding you constantly about some sales or needing to buy something. Definitely something different than most clickers/Idlers.

“It’s a good thing to be satisfied with what one has.” — The Buddha

Finally a fresh incremental that do not copy and paste old games. I have to say that I have no idea what I am doing, but I enjoy it. Plus eveything has tooltips and the game explains how to complete the goals. Maybe a little bit to hippie for my taste, but it worth playing, no doubt.