Graveyard Keeper

Good game! I had a great time and am looking forward to the sequel (assuming the dev does not resort to using AI). Unfortunately, the DLCs are vital for the game to feel complete. And because of that, despite what would have otherwise been a positive review, I cannot mark the game as recommended. If you do not get the 2 available DLCs, you will quite quickly encounter deliberately empty map areas, unsatisfying story beats, and oddly shallow NPCs. Yes, the feeling of "something is missing here" was indeed [i]very blatant[/i]. Furthermore, if you complete the vanilla game and [i]then[/i] decide to play the DLCs, now the sections that would have otherwise been filled by vanilla gameplay and story beats will feel woefully empty. If you think you will like this game, GRAB THE DLCs IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT BOTHER PLAYING JUST VANILLA. YOUR VANILLA EXPERIENCE, AND SUBSEQUENT DLC REPLAY, WILL BE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED.

Having completed the game, other than a few acheivement, I can give you my verdict. Are you a Stardew Valley fan? If so, this game is comparable but a much less deep and evolved version of the genre. Although I spent over 100 hours on it, I'd say half of those hours were spent forcing myself to complete the game, but it was so monotonous that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The game is fun for the first few hours as you discover the story and build the different areas you own, but it all becomes repetitive and lacks depth in its progression. You grow a few vegetables, improve your cemetery, and then advance the story, but this story is nothing but drawn-out dialogue between NPCs. The dungeon is a real shame, especially when compared to Stardew Valley. The NPC availability mechanic makes progressing through the game even slower and sadly tedious. Except at the very beginning of your adventure, as soon as your constructions are even slightly advanced, all you do is try to find a way to fast-forward time in order to talk to X NPC to advance Y quest, which then requires you to talk to X other NPC, forcing you to wait days before their next visit. I got this game for $0 (steam deal). If I had paid for it, I would have been extremely disappointed. For $0, it was still entertaining for a while, but it quickly became a chore. I bought all the DLC hoping for an interesting addition, but it was a complete waste of time. One of the worst game purchases of my life. Thanks

⠀

As random as this might sound, I picked up this game because it reminded me of Tirisfal Glades and the undead starting area in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. I 100% got it because of the vibes and aesthetic and I loved it. I loved the idea of tending to a graveyard, working at the morgue, learning alchemy, and having my own zombies. I've barely touched Stardew Valley, which is where most players seem to come from. People compare these games all the time, but I've noticed that those looking for a traditional cozy experience enjoy this less than the people just playing for the vibes. I'd recommend it if you like the idea of it more than the actual genre. [h3]About the game[/h3] You start your journey when you're appointed the new graveyard keeper in a strange world, where a speaking, communist donkey brings you corpses to bury, and you have to help the townsfolk with their various problems; all while trying to figure out how to get back to your own world. The characters have unique personalities and they're all hilarious in their own ways. You get to reunite families and there's a lot of lore behind this little town. The game has six different days, each representing a deadly sin, on which a specific NPC will spawn. These NPCs have their own questlines, stores, or game features (selling food at the witch-burning session, holding a mass, etc.). [i]B-b-but aren't there seven deadly sins?[/i] Yes, apparently, you represent the seventh one: GREED. Listen, anybody would be greedy if they had to live in this world. Making gold here is harder than making gold in Warcraft Classic. There are a lot of options to make a living, but it's reeeally slow in the beginning. By the time you have everything automated with zombies, you don't really need the gold anymore, but now you have 49 different small businesses bringing in cash. You only need gold for a couple of things, really, but what are you supposed to do with all these amazing income sources after you get those things? [i]Just stop?[/i] /gasp No, no, no. Even tho you're the graveyard keeper, you spend most of your time doing quests, figuring out how to get out of this place, collecting mats, growing food, building stuff, managing machines, systems, zombies, etc. By the time I finished the game, half of my graveyard was still untouched, unfortunately. After reaching a certain quality for a quest, you don't really need to keep upgrading it, so I used a lot of corpses to make zombies and also cremated a bunch for the ashes. You don't have to go deep into the dungeons if you don't want to, and you don't need to fish either (thank the lord, because I hated the fishing mechanic; I think it's the same as Stardew, but I might be wrong). You don't even have to automate things or get into zombie min-maxing; you can stay at a pretty casual level and still finish the game and do plenty. [h3]THE GRIND[/h3] The grind people talk about didn't feel like a long, tedious thing to me. It's more like a million little tasks you want to do at the same time, so you end up starting one and switching halfway through because you remembered you needed to get that other thing first.. oh, but if I run to town NOW and catch this guy before sunset, I can get the quest item for that other guy three days from now. Wait, actually, I need to deliver some bread before I can talk to that guy. I guess I gotta start growing wheat. I mean.. since I'm growing wheat, I might as well grow carrots for the donkey, right? Ah ♥♥♥♥, I gotta go to town to buy seeds. [i]OH, BUT ALSO![/i] I'm way too familiar with this hell loop, it's the bane of my existence in real life, but here, it never caused the typical analysis paralisis you might expect; the game actually helped me deal with the anxiety of having 99+ ongoing tasks. I'd just do one thing, literally anything, and that would get me going. You can always find a manageable task to get you going without getting ahead of yourself and planning the whole week before you even launch the game. You don't have a deadline, so if you want to focus on getting mats the entire week, you can do that and go back to questing later. You can focus on whatever you want for as long as you want; the story will progress when you decide to, so there's no rush. [h3]DLCs[/h3] I'd definitely recommend you get the DLCs rather early. I got them when I was close to ending the game, and I finished the game before I finished the DLC questlines. You can log into your last save after you finish the game to wrap up the DLC stories if you want. It's definitely easier to craft what you need for the DLCs once you have all your technology trees unlocked, but at the same time, the rewards are definitely more helpful early on. The extra quests and lore we get are definitely worth going through. You help the donkeys with their revolution, hunt down a vampire, and get lore from hundreds of years ago. I got them all on sale and I think they were all worth it. They also have their own achievements, so you can't get 100% unless you get all the DLCs. [h3]Some things that need work (that might hopefully be improved in the sequel):[/h3] - The alchemy system is too complex for no reason. There are too many stations and you don't have the recipes until you ♥♥♥♥ around with materials and accidentally find one (or until you google them). Also, the game never reminds you how to craft the components (powders, liquids, etc.) for the big recipes, even after crafting them multiple times and studying the mats at the study table. This is the only thing I had to google several times. - There's no recipe book of any kind, so if you're out and about and want to know what to buy or gather to craft something, cook a meal or brew a potion, you gotta go back home or google. - There's no inventory search or indicator to show if you have a specific mat in one of your many chests, which makes organization very important. - There's no easy way to see your ongoing quests outside the NPC tab, which wouldn't always tell you if they had asked for something recently. - There's no feature to manage your zombies. No easy way to move them around or re-assign them, and no way to see if you left one on the floor somewhere before you put it to work. You have to manually move them around. - Gathering buckets of water (with casting time) to craft TWENTY (20) UNITS OF WATER, when you need a minimum of TWO HUNDRED (200) for one of you MANY tasks that involve water. The fastest way to get water was using the well from the Game of Crone DLC's encampment. What a blessing that was. I'd buy the DLC just to press E and get water instantly. - There's no "you are here" marker on the map, which was disorienting at first and just a small QoL change I'd make. [h3]TLDR[/h3] If you want to play something like Stardew Valley or are looking for a short, cozy, and non-grindy experience, this game might not be for you. However, if a graveyard, zombies, a talking skull, and a communist donkey sound like your cup of tea; if you want to harvest crops but also organs, if you want to befriend the innkeeper but also the sketchy guy doing cult rituals under the church, and if you live and breathe for the spooky vibes.. then this game is definitely for you, my friend.

I'm actually so upset that I just found out about this game!! It scratches the itch I have for cozy-ish pixel games while not being a copy of dozens of other games out there. the concept is super unique, and the dark humor is soooo good. i've laughed out loud at multiple points during the game. I will say, the game doesn't really tell you what you need to do to progress a lot of the time, so for the first chunk of the game, you definitely have to look stuff up. when people say it's a bit grind-y, they aren't lying - it's not as easy as something like stardew valley for sure. but i personally am really enjoying it, and i love the grim/dark twist on the cozy pixel sim archetype!!!

Quem não jogou ainda PRECISA jogar essa preciosidade, é excepcionalmente maravilhoso

Cute, interesting story, good soundtrack but slow paced and anti communist in a very infantile way.

Figure it out simulator

Miserable game with miserable direction and miserable timegating with miserable guidance. Getting softlocked into not getting bodies delivered and not being able to resolve it after many hours is just terrible design. Got it during a free weekend and I still feel like I paid far too much. Not worth the time, belongs in the compost heap.

4/10 I give up, i'ts so boring. The only reason i gave 4 is that the dry/dark humor was very good, i actually laughed out loud in some of the dialogues. But to be able to see those dialogues, you have to grind for hours, maybe days with nothing to speed you for a very long time. The game doesn't have any actual tutorials. Which is good and bad at the same time. It's good because you can start anywhere, do anything in any order, abandon and come back to certain quests. It's bad because there are certain things that are very complex. Like soul techs, zombies and maxxing out the cemetery. It's relatively old game so there are no good/ in depth tutorials on the internet and wiki is weak. I still don't know how to make more zombies than the first free one, and i did that with the help of a friend. I hate to leave it here, maybe I'll come back to it later. But almost 60 hrs of playtime left me more confused than the beginning.