Littlewood

Been playing this game non-stop for a week. I love the whole idea of building the town, collecting the townfolks as if they were pokemons, and them giving you blueprints to expand the town more. However, the game has some serious issues that piss me off: 1. The RNG is disgusting. It took me FIVE YEARS in game to get the rare fish/bugs for the travellers. One particularly infuriating instance - the Chimaeras, after spending years checking the bug tree, I found all 3 at the same time in the town square. There is 0 logic of when, where, what time, what season, or anything like that, to the spawn of fish, bugs, new crops, magical trees, etc. 2. The Edge of Solemn is pretty much nothing. The only reason you have to go there is to get the achievement. Combine this fact with all of the grind needed to get there - all of the items you need to get (with the disgusting RNG not helping at all), selling them to the travellers, checking the forest and cavern for the other travellers. I'm sorry but how does 5+6+4+99+5349+54389 equal 0. Absolutely zero payoff for all that grind. 3. You know what else has zero payoff? The Museum. My face when I completed the first room, walked out, expecting a message, a reward, a nudge to check tomorrow for something, a gift from Laura, a... whatever, ANYTHING. No. The museum gets a golden thingy in the hall to symbolise which room is completed. Groundbreaking. And the townfolks keep rubbing it in my face "oooh you've done so much for the museum" yeah and you didn't, where is my reward ffs. 4. The story is left in the dust. There is some great potential and I really hope they work with what they have in the future, but for now there is nothing. Ooh I don't remember anything, ooh the Dark guy doesn't remember anything, but he looks just like the Dark Wizard, oo do you know there are floating continents, ooh The Edge of Solemn, oo Lilith might be the next Dark Wizard, oo when i'm ready i will find out something, oo what if we need to fight again, oooooohhhh NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. That's what you will find. There is 0 explanation or resolution for the memories gone plots for you and Dark. There is nothing in the Edge of Solemn. There is no way for you reach any other place, continent, floating whatever. There is nothing more about Lilith. I expected something like a magical train station where you can go visit those magical places everyone keeps talking about, new quests, new towns, maybe new house, like how Stardew Valley did the Ginger Island plot. Nope. Excuse me for expecting something after the dozens of hints that I have to expect something. 5. Things are not really explained. I had to google to find out that the boat doesn't require 10,000 planks for example. I had to find a guide for the flower breeding, because even tho Willow does tell you to put the flowers together, it's not really explained which flower + which makes what. I could respect that maybe it's on purpose so you can experiment with the combinations, but the combinations don't make sense. Since when does white + white equal blue? Found out at the 4th year you can sell more than 1 item per stall. The coffee shops allows you to buy 3 coffees at once, but then doesn't give you 3 separate boosts? It's not bad per se, you still enjoy the game, it's fine, but it is annoying and could save you time. Overall the whole story needs a lot of work to make this a full fledged game. Things I love: 1. Flowers. They are pretty, the breeding system is unique (once you learn from Google about it), and watering them doesn't take energy. 2. No annoying mechanics. Cutting trees, fishing, cooking, nothing is annoying or hard. 3. The townfolks. They all have different personalities, their houses beautifully represent that. Most of them give you blueprints for buildings. 4. Decorating. The houses, statues, buildings, decor, everything is beautiful. The paths are fun and colorful. You can spend hours just decorating. That to me is probably the most interesting thing in any games so I appreciated it. It's kind of annoying what the requirements of some people are, just because I imagined some townfolks being neighbours with others, but the buildings they want or don't want to be near are not really compatible. I had this beautiful design from the start with my house, Willow's house, the Marketplaces, and then I come to find out Willow doesn't want to live next to the Marketplace. I had to put her just close enough to me but still far and it messed up with the other part of town. It was a bit disappointing, but hey, I'm not gonna run across the map to get my money so she can go, lol. 5. The house pages. It was fun looking for the specific beds and decor each of them want. 6. The tarot monster game. At first I wasn't interested and didn't get it, but in one day I went from level 5 to level 90. It's cool once you understand what's going on. I do like the grind, I love completing games, finding out as much as possible as soon as possible. I love that there are a lot of things you can do in the game, lots of skills to max out, items to buy, etc. The lack of story and payoff does leave you disappointed in the end. I will still get it to 100%, just because I like it, and I haven't done all, like I'm still wondering who to marry and if it makes any difference. God, I've never left such a long review of a game before.

*Update at the end* I am addicted to this game, it is SO FUN! It is so cozy & comfy & easy to relax while playing. The characters are all really cool and I think that the storyline is actually really interesting. I like the challenge of going into a game knowing absolutely nothing and just figuring it out. I am about 45 hours into this game and I know I still have a lot more to go so if you are looking for something that you can play for a couple months, this is for you. I think that the style & gameplay are really interesting and refreshing as usually most life sims have the same mechanics but Littlewood puts their spin on it. I highly recommend! *Update (SPOILERS)* - I am actually really disappointed right now. I grind out a ton of work excited to get to the Edge of Solomn and then its just... nothing? I literally just stopped playing the game bc there was nothing to do and it felt super anticlimactic and like a waste of time. This game would be so good if they would fix the RNG and finish the story... i had fun in the beginning so I do recommend but just be prepared.

I love how you don't have to worry about time constraints in this game. The day only passes by when you perform action and is not real time, and even that restriction is lifted in late game. No more running frantically to finish daily chores!

Such a cute farming sim! The storyline is very good, you play as the hero AFTER defeating the big bad so now you just build your town up from nothing and meet new characters along the way, I love it! <3

a game that does not respect your time

This is, to this day, one of the top games I recommend to fans of the genre. The peace that this game gave me is insane. It's interesting right off the bat, easy to pick up, comfortable on the eyes, and it's just SO GOSH DARN CUTE! I'm a huge achievement hunter as well so it was really satisfying that getting the last few achievements after finishing the lovely story wasn't a drag. It made you work for it, for sure as they should, but it was so much fun to do! I personally really enjoy a bit of a grind in any farm/life sims as I think that it isn't really in the genre to not have a bit of a grind, so for me this was lovely. Very much recommend this game!

A cute and relaxing game I very much enjoy spending free time on. The ui feels satisfying as well which is nice. But any new players keep in mind this game has been abandoned. No new content is coming and I doubt support is live.

This was a beautiful game. The mechanics are similar-ish to Animal Crossing, but it has more of a fantasy Stardew Valley vibe. I found the progression pretty satisfying and I like how it facilitates extensive decoration without energy consumption.

awesome

While it supports a 4k resolution, everything is so blocky it's hard to tell what things are and it hurts my eyes and brain to try to play.