My Time at Sandrock

There are a lot of games that market themselves as "cosy" but end up only being surface level good and lack depth. My Time at Sandrock, for me, is not one of them. It's a farming-life sim with a difference that really makes you think. Without going into too much detail or spoilers - water conservation plays a huge part in how you navigate this game and pulls the pace down at the start so you can't rush through, though as you progress through the story it gets easier but it's still has it's chanelleges. The characters are well thought out and their backstories have depth and their personalities are going to have you loving them or hating them. The script is so funny and doesn't take itself too serious, which always puts a smile on my face. There's massive QoL improvements since My Time at Portia, if you ever played that, and the two link together nicely, as their stories entwine. They do so without making you feel like you need to play Portia to understand though, so playing this without playing Portia won't leave you in the dark either, it's just got cute little Easter Eggs for those that have. My current playthrough's savefile is 221H41M long and I'm on Summer Year 3, I have no completed the story yet, so if you are looking for a game to sink hours into, with an asortment of love interests, along side funny, annoying, cute, npc which also have depth to them, I highly reccomend this game.

Almost as good as Stardew Valley. Falls behind on some freedoms in farm/land management. But it is extremely hilarious, there's just about something to laugh at during every cutscene. A lot of clever and fun references. Missing on some personalized and human touches. Characters stare off into space while being talked to and only adjust their posture when their own dialogue begins. There's zero consistency on addresses to the player. Sometimes they will refer to you as "the builder" and other times they won't mention any pronouns despite the subtitles and their words clearly directed at you while in a group. These aren't major issues though, they just break immersion constantly as it's nearly every conversation. Ugliest horses ever in a game too lol. Overall a great experience, with a bounty of warm and funny moments, with a wide colorful cast of characters.

I tried my best to enjoy the game, but it's very scuffed, in a way that wears you down the longer you play. The setup is the same as most life sim games, and especially familiar if you've played Portia: you get transported into a struggling town as the new Builder, and you have to familiarize with the locals and gradually fix the town's issues by, as the title implies, building stuff. There are some welcome QoL features, like the ability to set the length of each game day in the options and, most importantly, quests and commissions can be fulfilled by items in boxes in your workshop, instead of having to carry the required items on you at the time, cutting a lot of needless fiddling with crates and inventory management. The gameplay loop is also familiar: gather materials to build equipment to gather better materials to build better equipment, meanwhile chasing your favorite villagers to talk to them everyday and shower them with a random assortment of gifts to make them closer to you. Without going into spoilers, the main story is compelling enough... until you hit the midway point, where the major conflict presented up until there is resolved. At that point, you start to realize that you are only halfway through the game but the stakes are now incredibly lower, both narratively and mechanically. You are now just going through the motions, and the struggles that the game present can be resolved in a day or two as you have probably enough stockpiled materials. This means that events which are presented as life altering for the city happen in a span of days, and the impact is strongly diminished. The quality of the game in general drops after these events. The writing takes a nosedive after the midpoint, and is especially noticeable by the increasing frequency of pop culture references and film quotes inserted into the dialogue (I can recall Fresh Prince, Taken, Snakes on a Plane, even the Whistle goes whoo). You build a bus station, which you can step in but is completely empty, compared to the starting train station which has a fully furnished waiting room. One of the last characters that join the town doesn't even have perks for increasing the friendship level, as opposed to every single other one. The second to last abandoned ruin has overlapping mounds of dirt which make digging take twice the necessary hits, and the last ruin is just corridors and square rooms filled with dirt with straight lines of explosive barrels in the middle. The dialogue is definitely not a strong suite in general, bordering on atrocious at times. Characters will use terms like "stan", "sussy", "caucasian" (is there a Caucasus in Atara?) and reference to sovereign citizens talking points and NFTs. It wore me down, and never found it endearing. The vast majority of characters are one-note caricatures and all their dialogue will revolve around their one specific trope. Can you guess what's the area of expertise of a famliy where the members are called Rocky, Krystal and Pebbles? I find this especially a shame, as I think the voice acting is consistently good across the whole game. But, most of all, it is a very buggy game. I've had several hard crashes and a few softlocks, mostly related to my character turning invisible and unable to interact with the environment. Overlapping textures and flickering shadows are a common occurrence, as are NPCs walking away while engaged in conversation, or clipping into each other, or falling through the ground (once happened during one of the ending cutscenes, which undermined the moment a bit), or becoming unresponsive. The quest page can't be navigated once you have around 8-10 concurrent quests. The feather duster/vacuum cleaner won't work most of the time and the better method to maintain machines is lifting them up and placing them down again. During scripted sections where you ride mounts, they will zig-zag wildly. Targeting ores instead of the ground in the mines is a lottery. Combined with a weak second half of the game, these issues start to become overbearing. I pushed myself to finish the main story and, by that point, I was close enough to 100% so I completed the few remaining achievements, but I'm not picking this up for a second run.

the amount of times i've had quests/requests for items that require things i haven't unlocked yet... is insane.

in short: this isn't a traditional farming sim / "cozy style" sort of game, so if that's what you're looking for, it might not be for you. but if you're used to the farming sim formula and you've been wanting something with a little more depth and meat on it, this is a really, REALLY good game. it balances humor + silliness really well with more serious topics in a very irreverent way. i went into it expecting a goofy little game, but i was floored by how compelling it all was. genuinely one of my favorites now. the longer version: the worldbuilding is phenomenal, the characters all have an astounding (and honestly surprising) amount of depth, and the plotline itself is very fulfilling. it's very satisfying seeing the improvements around town as you go through them, especially because they actually feel like you ARE making a difference. i was captivated by the story itself, and couldn't wait to see where it turned next. i looked forward to grinding friendship with the townies because they all had character arcs of their own (and getting buffs depending on how close you are with everyone made sure it felt like ACTUAL progression). further, there's an INSANE amount of content. like, i can't stress enough just how MUCH of the game there is. at the time of writing this, i'm a little under 170 hours of playtime, and i still haven't beat the game. i didn't even MEET my romance option of choice until after 100 hours of playtime. there were plenty of wonderful options available at the beginning, but i'm a one & done kind of guy, LOL. the post-marriage content is incredibly fleshed out, too, and offers you a LOT more opportunity to engage in a domestic life with your partner than other farming sims i've played. the game isn't perfect (the models & animations look kind of funky at first, the voice acting for the english dubbing swings wildly between god-awful and genuinely fantastic, sometimes there are minor bugs that are usually fixed with a simple restart), but for the most part, it's one that i've thoroughly enjoyed playing. it was my first step into the "my time" series, and now i've got the next installment on my wish list, and am planning on playing the first (portia) soon. there's sort of a steep learning curve if you're coming into it from regular farming sims: i would call it more of a crafting/building sim than a farming one. they throw a lot of machines at you in the beginning of the game, but if you stick with it, then you get the hang of it. inventory management was sort of unique too; if you're the type who likes to hoard and sort everything in lots of different chests, you might struggle a bit at the beginning to organize. it all evens out imo though; it makes the payoff when you DO work things into a smoother/easier process more satisfying. i recommend trying out the demo first and seeing if you gel with the first hour or so of gameplay. the demo is an unpolished version of the game, so there will be a few more major bugs that aren't in the full version, but it will at least let you figure out if you hate it or not. the worst part is the beginning; once you get a handle on the basics, the rest comes easily. trust the process on this one - it pays off, i promise.

Great game, but it doesn't know when to quit. The first 3/4 is awesome - cool places to find, fun missions, and bosses that are decent (though Souls vets won’t break a sweat). Everything feels 'measured' and rewarding. But man, that last 1/4 is a slog. It gets so grindy and repetitive that I stopped caring about the story entirely. It’s worth playing, but the ending almost ruined the vibe. 6/10

Comprei My Time at Sandrock há bastante tempo, mas por algum motivo deixei ele parado na biblioteca. Hoje posso dizer que foi a melhor decisão sem querer que já tomei. Joguei justamente no momento em que precisava de um jogo leve, acolhedor e que me fizesse sorrir de novo. E Sandrock entregou muito mais do que eu imaginava. Se você jogou My Time at Portia, prepare-se. Sandrock pega tudo o que Portia fazia bem e melhora praticamente todos os aspectos. O combate é mais divertido, a construção da oficina é muito mais prática, os personagens têm mais personalidade, a cidade evolui conforme a história e as missões principais conseguem prender do início ao fim. Mas o que mais me marcou foram os pequenos detalhes. Ver Sandrock crescer graças ao seu trabalho, construir uma família, decorar sua fazenda, criar laços com os moradores e, principalmente, as referências a Portia. Para quem viveu aquela primeira aventura, esses momentos têm um peso enorme. Em vários momentos senti uma nostalgia que não esperava sentir. Quando os créditos começaram a subir, eu simplesmente chorei. Fazia muito tempo que um jogo não me fazia sentir tão conectado aos personagens e à jornada que vivi. Hoje estou praticamente com 100% das conquistas e, sinceramente, faria tudo de novo. Se você gosta de jogos de fazenda, construção, RPG, gerenciamento e personagens cativantes, dê uma chance para Sandrock. E se você jogou Portia... não pense duas vezes. Sandrock é exatamente a evolução que eu sonhava ver para a franquia. Obrigado, Pathea, por criar uma experiência que vou lembrar por muitos anos.

Amazing characters with great voice acting that you quickly grow attached to. Lots of quality of life features that make it easy to play such as all your storage connected. Story is full of wonderful surprises and plot twists. I almost never write reviews and play cozy games but I just had to make an exception for this one.