Lou's Lagoon

I really wish I could recommend this game. I love the world, right off the bat. There are two things holding this game back: Crafting Time and Mass Storage options. As of right now some items take MINUTES to craft as a single item. If you make stacks of items you are waiting for longer than Leo waited for a grammy. This would be borderline fine if there was anything else to do but gather materials, but the storage is holding you back from doing that, explained in my next paragraph. At the start of the game you have VERY limited space, as the game goes on you get items that increase that storage by just one slot. Then you have the plane storage which is also extremely limited and non-upgradeable for the amount of time I played. You end up finding enough spots where you can juggle things around a bit... for awhile. There are so many items in this game that get introduced that it becomes a "What can I sell that's easy to farm later" deal. There are currently, as far as I can tell, no storage options for the hub. If these two things get addressed I will gladly jump back into it. For now I'll keep an eye on updates. On a positive note, story good, characters good, optimization very good. Keep up the good work! TLDR: Storage very limited and Crafting times WAY too long.

Gameplay: Very Good Music: Chill Graphics: Excellent Here I will leave the cat, friends who pass by can pet it and give it a thumbs up 　　　 　　／＞　　フ 　　　 　　| 　　 l 　 　　 　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿ヽ)__)

I [i]really[/i] wanted to like this game. I played the demo, and was so excited for the release - it gave me such a buzz of nostalgia for PS2 games and cartoons I watched as a kid. But the game doesn't live up to my expectations. Other reviews have covered major issues - inventory space, getting locked out of quests, missing quests, crafting times. Other issues that put me off this game: [b]The absolutely ridiculous price to fully upgrade the gadgets[/b]. I've done almost all the quests (except one I'm locked out of) and had to grind crafting mats, then crafting items, to afford to upgrade two gadgets. I'll have to grind for the full price of the last two, as I have no more quests, and I'm just not doing that. Especially since I still have so many clothes to buy, which are also expensive (so, also not doing that). [b]Lack of money-making options[/b]. Per last point - lots of money is needed to upgrade the gadgets and buy clothes. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if there were money-making options other than grinding resources and crafting. I would be happy to do "fly me from this island to that one" or "fetch me x from that island" repeatable quests if they paid well. [b]Resource gather time[/b]. Even with the fully-upgraded whatever it's called, it takes too long to harvest resources. Can't be bothered. [b]Resource spawn time[/b]. Some resources are okay. Others - I'm looking at you, [spoiler]heavy ore[/spoiler] take FOREVER to respawn, are really limited, and essentially lock you out of progressing until you have enough. One node of that didn't respawn after I'd been out of the game for 12 hours!!!!!!!!! [b]Exclamation icons for quests[/b]. Just the whole thing is borked. A yellow exclamation shows up over the head of a guy who buys a resource from me at a higher cost, after I've completed the quest. He's not a quest guy anymore! And there's yellow exclamation points everywhere which makes you think you have new quests (because it's the same marker as used for a new quest) but no, it's just in-progress quests. [b]It's not hand-holdy, so you miss things[/b]. This is not necessarily a bad point, see nostalgia: I like having that 'figuring stuff out yourself' thing a bit. But, I somehow missed that you can [i]manually open the glider after a double jump so you can glide places[/i]. Obvious in retrospect, but I wasted SO MUCH TIME trying to figure out how to get places when I could have manually glided there. Why was this not made clearer somehow?? I usually dislike fishing in games, fishing in this game is tolerable. I'm not as bothered by the flying as other reviewers, I quite like the mechanic. But there's all these things on the map that look like you should be able to upgrade your plane to shoot them, and you can't.. I don't know if this happens with the final upgrade of the scanner, if not it should - there should be an ability to scan for treasure chests. Like a radar at least.

It is, overall, a fun game. However, I cannot recommend it to anyone prone to exploring. I´ll elaborate: I have encountered serious issues which made game completion impossible for me, or at least it looks like it. When first boarding my plane, I did not receive a ring challenge tutorial - either that, or it wasn´t mandatory and I skipped it. Either way, I spent a good while exploring the map in my plane, collecting chests and stuff. I continued my exploration and stopped pursuing the main story just before it puts you on Lou´s trail. I finished all quests i could on all islands and upgraded everything to the best of my ability, which was quite the grind. Much of the rescource grind and the crafting times feel unnecessary, only bloating the "play" time of the game. Eventually, i ran out of quests and options to progress. I lacked the points needed to unlock new crafting recipes and had no more quests to gain them from - only one quest left, which requires me to build stuff that I can´t craft the parts for due to lacking the upgrade points. So I took to google, etc., hoping someone would already have encountered similar issues and maybe found a solution. Couldn´t find any of that. However, I found out that i seemingly skipped a few missions. As said before, I did not get/complete the flight tutorial. I don´t have access to any flying challenges on the world map. I´m locked out of upgrading my gadgets due to a lack of upgrade points - while quite a few of the things I unlocked were never needed. There are no refunds tho. So, after finishing the main story, I´m locked out of completing the game, which is insanely frustrating. If there´s anything i missed, please, let me know. I can´t just start over after putting a whole day into it already.

[English version: see below] Lou's Lagoon ist ein herrlich entspanntes Cozy-Adventure, in dem wir einen vom Sturm verwüsteten Archipel erkunden, Ressourcen sammeln und verarbeiten und beim Wiederaufbau der Inseln helfen. Das Spiel setzt dabei ganz auf Entschleunigung. Wir fliegen mit unserem Wasserflugzeug zwischen den Inseln hin und her, erledigen Aufgaben für die Bewohner, sammeln Ressourcen und schalten nach und nach neue Werkzeuge und Herstellungsmöglichkeiten frei. Der Ressourcen-Sauger ist dabei das wichtigste Werkzeug und macht das Sammeln und Weiterverarbeiten angenehm unkompliziert. Dazu kommen etwas Plattforming, Erkundung, Angeln und natürlich die Möglichkeit, sich ein eigenes kleines Zuhause einzurichten. Die Story dient dabei eher als roter Faden denn als großer Spannungsbogen. Wer eine tiefgründige Geschichte oder komplexe Charakterentwicklung erwartet, wird hier vermutlich nicht fündig. Dafür passt die entspannte Atmosphäre hervorragend zum Gameplay und die bunten, unterschiedlichen Inseln laden durchaus dazu ein, ein bisschen herumzustöbern. Ein paar Dinge könnten komfortabler gelöst sein – insbesondere das Inventar und die teilweise recht langen Produktionsprozesse. Trotzdem hatte ich über meine rund elf Stunden (für das Abschließen der Hauptstory) eine angenehme Zeit mit dem Spiel. Wer ein ruhiges Cozy-Game sucht, gerne Ressourcen sammelt, Dinge herstellt und dabei in einer bunten Welt einfach seinen eigenen Rhythmus bestimmen möchte, kann sich Lou's Lagoon definitiv einmal anschauen. Reviewvideo (german/deutsch): https://youtu.be/CClN24T4Jv4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [English version] Lou's Lagoon is a wonderfully relaxing cozy adventure where we explore an archipelago devastated by a storm, gather and process resources, and help rebuild the islands. The game fully embraces a slower pace. We fly between the islands in our seaplane, help the locals with their problems, gather resources and gradually unlock new tools and crafting options. The Resource Sucker is our most important tool, making it pleasantly straightforward to collect and process materials. There's also some platforming, exploration, fishing and, of course, the option to build and decorate your own little home. The story mainly serves as a thread connecting everything together rather than providing a major dramatic arc. If you're looking for a deep narrative or complex character development, you probably won't find it here. Instead, the relaxed atmosphere fits the gameplay perfectly, and the colorful, varied islands are quite enjoyable to explore. A few things could be more convenient - particularly the inventory system and some of the rather lengthy crafting processes. Still, I had a pleasant time with the game over my roughly eleven-hour playthrough (for finishing the mainstory). If you're looking for a relaxing cozy game where you can gather resources, craft things and simply set your own pace in a colorful world, Lou's Lagoon is definitely worth checking out.

wait to buy till they fix some stuff. storage is a major issue (even 10 hours in), flying the plane is basically a cutscene, mashing the keyboard, then another cutscene. trying to climb up things, or jump from one place to another is rage inducing, load times are ridiculous for how often you have to open a new area. honestly, if i wasnt over the time limit id ask for a refund.

I was so so excited about this game but sadly it's fallen short of what I hoped it would be. Cost of upgrading gadgets is nuts and it's SUPER GRINDY. You need to constantly be gathering things to sell things to upgrade your stuff to gather new things to sell those things to afford more upgrades to get on with the story. I know that's not uncommon in cozy games as I play a lot of them but in this game it's truly excessive. It's just not fun. It feels like a way to slow down the gameplay so you can't blow through it rather than creating a more in-depth story. I would pay the same for a less grindy game that told a beautiful story, I really would.

Ok so I've played enough of this now to say with confidence that this is a really fun game and the bad reviews are people who either have little patience for normal gameplay bugs or are upset they can't keep absolutely everything they gather. It is true that inventory should be bigger (and they have said they are addressing that urgently and first). BUT. There is almost no reason to keep some materials on hand because you can either go get more, pay a drone to bring you some, or buy them back from a vendor for what you sold them for because the buyback inventory like never goes away. Another complaint I saw was that people were getting stuck and having to use the unstuck and it was taking them all the way back to the plane. I think I have gotten stuck all of 3 times in my entire playtime of 14 hours so far, and the number of times I've used the unstuck button for convenience to quickly exit a cave or return to the plane on purpose is at least 15x that amount. Someone also said "why can't you build more refineries and manufacturers" - they simply must not have played enough because you absolutely can. Another person complained about not being able to jump to a certain place. Not only did I do it the first time I went there with no issue, but later you get a glider that makes it even easier to do. Genuinely not sure if this person knew they could double jump. (Also you can stand on all the bushes and trees and even very slight outcrops from the rock so like, just try!) Lastly, someone said that chests were rng or hard to find.... there's a very obvious long distance visual tell for the ones that are not the underground kind you locate with the scooper. The game just doesn't hold your hand about it. You can see it during sun or night, but I think it is not visible during the rain weather. It also goes away when you get closer to the chest (I do think they could just let it show regardless of distance and it would be better).

I backed the game and was excited for the gameplay, but it has various issues that make this a not recommend. The crafting is tedious and grindy (a lot of the later game unlocks are VERY expensive), and the economy needs to be balanced better. The crafted item that makes you the most money (based on ingredient purchase/scavenge and crafting time) is Bolstered Wood, one of the very early unlocks. Everything after that is only useful for unblocking progression and quests. Another big hit for me is the story. The entire plot is based around a fairy tale the protagonist's uncle used to read them, and then the big reveal around meeting certain characters is so lackluster and glossed over as to be almost meaningless. The game makes a bigger deal every time you catch a fish than when you meet one of the most important characters in the game's story. I wanted to like this game, but I feel like it really missed the mark for me.