[h1] A rough-around-the-edge novelty in a sea of bleh[/h1]
[h2] (but probably not worth $15... yet) ~ 7.5/10 [/h2]
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[h2] TL;DR [/h2]
It's a tavern/resource/relationship management game, that does its best to be it's own creative thing. That being said, it's got a lot quirks - some amazing, some confusing? It's got 10ish hours of gameplay right now (as of v0.761), a good chunk of which feels like you are progressing steadily, and is honestly quite fun. I've played a good handful of 'Life Sim' games, and this one is trying to do something truly unique with it's resource management and relationship system. The mini-games (aka, how you do the drink-pouring and cooking) are alright, but screw cleaning tables. There's some balancing problems further in, making money in the game not a problem past hour ~6ish. Overall, I genuinely hope to see this game continue its development, as it's got a fantastic core with some lose ends that need polished.
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[h2] Core Gameplay Loop [/h2]
So, the game follows a simple pattern (based on what is out now). Wake up, maybe go to town to buy things, open the doors, do the same 4ish actions on repeat (glaze the patrons so they like you, serve them food/drink, beg them to become regulars, clean the tables - [i]which I hate doing[/i]). Add on top of this the 'regulars' system, which is the core way to get most materials in the game (minus scamming traders, which I'll get to later). There's the market which you can ask people to visit your inn, gather resources by trading and create advertisements (which I barely ever used). Plus a card-battling section (that feels like Potionomics, which I'm cool with) to gather relationship points.
This loop is simple, but genuinely really fun!
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[h2] The Good [/h2]
[h3]The Relationship/Regulars System[/h3]
This is, in my opinion, the highlight of the game. I've seen a lot of games do relationship systems, but this one makes a lot of sense. Whenever you have a new customer come into the inn, and you get them to 5 stars, you'll be able to make them a regular. Once they are a regular, you are able to place them into one of your slots to have them come in almost everyday. The best part of this comes from the materials they bring though. Every patron (with a few exceptions) have their own material that they make, and when a regular comes in they bring you 2-4 of that specific material. I have found this extremely useful with harder to get materials like iron/stone/driftwood. Every time you have a regular come in they gain a heart, and after two hearts you can essentially permanently unlock the materials through a contract with Abi. So the game almost becomes a collectathon of gathering a patron of each material in the game so you can buy their materials. It's fun! I like.
[h3]The Card Battling Thing[/h3]
Like I said above, it feels like Potionomics which has a very pleasant card system. You have 12 slots which you can fill with cards to 'battle' patrons to gain hearts with them. Use can use these hearts to buy more of that specific patron's item, buy info (which I believe reveals new patrons, but I think I skipped that dialogue lol), and/or ask them to supply Abi. There's a pretty limited number of cards so far, and it feels pretty duct-taped on atm, but I enjoy the battling as it is.
[h3]Minigames[/h3]
There are two minigames currently, Bartending and Cooking. In act 1 you've got a cook already on staff, so I've done less cooking than bartending, but still. Nothing crazy, but they are both simple and enjoyable.
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[h2] The Bad [/h2]
[h3]Cleaning. Tables.[/h3]
I'm sure this dev team is amazing. They have a fun game. Whichever dev chose to make the cleaning speed be so slow: you've made me slightly sad, but I hope you have a good day nonetheless. I think I could outpace cleaning a table irl vs in game, because it takes like 5 irl seconds of holding E just for your character to swipe a rag back and forth like 3 times. Thank ♥♥♥♥ they added a magic cleaning, which still stunlocks you after you use it for some reason, but it means I don't have to watch my arthritic character slide their hand side to side for so f-ing long. Also, why does the speed not scale with dex level? I ended my playthrough at the end of act 1, and I was level (i think) 14? yet was cleaning the same speed as level 1. If I'm capable of building a wardrobe fit for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ king at like level 12, why do I still clean a table made of three shoddily put together boards at Mach -30??? ♥♥♥♥ cleaning by hand.
[h3]Bartering.[/h3]
This system [i]would[/i] go in the good if it weren't extremely unbalanced. I love the card based system in the game, and by no means wish bartering to be removed. However, if you go to Abi (guy in the house), barter with him to get him to a percent higher than +15-20, you get a free 10k+ gold. Simply get Abi to a high positive percent, and buy then sell him his own goods back and forth. (Sell him a C-tier steak for 20 a pop, then buy it right back for 8ish.) Wash rinse repeat till you have 30 stoves, workbenches, and crafting tables (which sell for 600-1000 a piece depending on the vendor), every material you'd ever want, and more gold then you can physically use. There should be a solid -5% or [i]maybe[/i] 0% cap on the percentage, cause this system (as it is) invalidates:
[olist]
[*]The entire friendship, minus getting one of each material contract for Abi.
[*]Every vendor, cause you can just get all their items for (basically) nothing.
[*]Money. I have like 6k gold, almost every recipe, and nothing else to really buy atm.
[/olist]
This system is cool, but not balanced. Also, why does Abi sell so many stoves/benches, who the hell is buying 30 stoves lmao (some math problem ahh 'Johnny goes to the store and buys 30 stoves, he had 12 at home, how many stoves does Johnny have now' type ♥♥♥♥ lol)
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[h2] The... huh? [/h2]
[h3]Building.[/h3]
Building in this game is kinda jank. Not bad, I don't mind what they are going for, but it's still jank.
There is a system to increase how appealing your tavern is, if you are someone who likes making stuff look nice, then there's a decent enough selection of decorations in the game to at least partially satisfy this. I personally couldn't care less, so I use a strategy called [u]100 shelves smashed together[/u]. Seeing as there is no collision for decorations, you can just create an eldritch abomination that meets every need in the game. Since Driftwood Shelves give one of each stat, just stack like 100 of them into a meaty chunk and call it good :) Also, I don't know why there isn't collision, but I wish there was.
Also, [b][i] please for the love of [insert your own ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ diety of choice], give building by grid. I hate everything being misaligned cause it looks so stupid.[/i][/b]
[h3]Animation Speed.[/h3]
I don't mind the animations. I think they are fine. I just don't like how slow they are. I've worked in a restaurant, if I picked up/set down every plate as slowly as the characters did in game, the kitchen staff would've called me very mean names. Outside of cleaning (which I've already said my piece on), just speed em up a bit please. <3
[h3]Loaaads of minor UI Bugs[/h3]
Nothing game breaking, but there's a consistent trend of the UI doing goofy ♥♥♥♥. You walk away from a bench and until you run into range of another interactable thing, the game will snap you back to the bench if you click E. Also, whoever you last speak to at the Merchants Camp thing, their little banner will reappear at the bottom of the screen after you go back to your inn. When you've got a handful of people in your inn at the same time (like, 8+) when you interact with two people on opposite ends of the list, there is a very audible scrolling noise that repeats a bunch of times back to back.
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[h2] In Conclusion [/h2]
I enjoyed the game quite a bit. It's a simple life sim. 7/10!
(I hit the steam review character limit somehow lol)
