The Legend of Khiimori

I have about 100 solid hours of actual play time, while the rest is idling and doing silly experiments within the game with it in the background. That said, currently, I can’t recommend this game to anyone interested in the early access or beta versions and suggest, instead, that potential buyers wait until the official release to decide if it’s the game for you. Since its Kickstarter in Mar/Apr 2025 LoK seems to be in the throes of a massive identity crisis and that mercurial state has proven more obnoxious than any other EA I've supported. As well, I count myself among those discontent with the addition of corruption. I don’t like being led to believe I’m buying one game (a realistic 13th century Mongolian YAM courier with no combat) only to end up with something entirely different (a D&D-esque fantasy game SET in 13th century Mongolia dependent on combat). However, there are plenty of other reasons to be skeptical about the outcome of LoK. It lacks depth and whatever authenticity Aesir promised to begin with has been dashed away. While I know nothing about Mongolian spirituality or religion, between the corruption update and the ensuing live-streamed AMA, it comes across more as mockery than intrigue. LoK does possess a few good qualities, but they’re limited to a fantastic, near-to-realistic Mongolian steppe environment with a decently-sized, open-world map, a thoughtful breeding system, and horses that have been designed and animated quite beautifully. If that’s enough to get you to shell out $30 or so dollars, great. Be warned: the horses are still treated/programmed like vehicles and are as dumb as broomsticks. What began in development as a horse-centric game targeting tween- and teenage girls has since removed the original plot (ref: the Windstorm franchise) but still remains superficial and juvenile in its execution. The main character, Naraa, no longer has purpose and has since been relegated to fighting against a fantasy corruption represented by huge swatches of purple destruction which overwhelm the entire map. This corruption system was designed specifically to keep players engaged so they don’t level prestige to 10 too swiftly. Thus, there is no overcoming it no matter how many times you clear it away. Courier deliveries become dull, repetitive tasks after a few hours of riding the circuit. Other than earning prestige and gold, there are no meaningful rewards. There’s also no indication whether that will change with the introduction of an actual storyline upon release. The only improvements so far are bridges requiring an exorbitant amount of grinding to gather materials and quality-of-life upgrades that make little sense — why do I need a water trough next to a river or a campsite when there’s one less than 100 yards away? Aesir’s answer to the complexities of horsemanship is to distill it down to disabling your horse at every turn. Whether that’s tripping over its own shadow, breaking a leg on rough, rocky terrain, or fighting the Great and Terrible Cosmic Purple Goo at a walk, your horse will have zero sense of self preservation. It can’t even hear, smell, or see a bear coming from a furlong away. It can’t jump flat-footed, at a walk, or down a foot of rock without being disabled somehow (unless you turn this limitation down in the settings — there’s that, at least). Your horse also won’t survive the northern or southern parts of the map because of extreme weather conditions which require you to dose it to keep it from dying of hypothermia or heat exhaustion. You can, however, ride through the desert at night and while it rains without drugging it. Kudos to whomever put some depth of thought into that gem. For intense training and attribute boosts, you can also collect crafting items after clearing corruption that will damage your pixel pony’s well-being for the duration of their influence. Yay. Some final thoughts on the ability to disable corruption. Yes, this is an option. However, it has been made abundantly clear that if you object to, or discover you don't like the experience it provides, shutting it off will also bar you from advancing the storyline. This is a punitive tactic in a game that otherwise boasts about being a "fully" customizable experience. Shop wisely. Do your own research. Know what you're buying into.

Man I really enjoyed the beginning of this game, such good structure as a horse game and LIVING an amazing historical time period, like if it already had this many features it had such promise! But I am just ***so uncomfortable with the Ovoo, Corruption and religious/spiritistic feel to this game...*** Yes I can toggle 'Corruption' off but I can't get past the tutorial without having to make offerings to spirits, risk being cursed by entering territories or undergoing supernatural phenomenons, etc It's just too much. I can understand hinting at the religion of this culture, but making this a core activity of the game is a complete turn off and I will be putting down this game until perhaps this feature is enabled entirely optional. I would've really enjoy living this time period and exploring the equestrian nomad life much more, I can tell I've barely scratched the surface of the horse gameplay.

First of, it's not like i think this game wont be good - in it's own way. It's just not what i thought it would be from the description. I was interested in the realism part, horses, mongolian history. When i read the description i did NOT expect paranormal monsters. I think to make the buyers know what to expect it should be more clear that the game is NOT about realism, but takes inspiration with a hint of fantasy. I would have expected horses, races, bandits/enemies, some story of the girl and the people. SO yeah, my not recomended comment is purely based on the description making it seem like it would be more naturalistic since i personally would not have been interested in the monster part. But some might be. Just make it more clear.

What the heck is this game? I thought it was just a courier horse back game!? Went to deliver my high value cargo to someone and a land plague apears out of no where preventing me from delivering it?? I cant avoid it not fight it spent an entire hour trying to sus the game but i dont know what to do if i fight them my cargo gets wrecked if i avoid it i cant reach the village thats effected because I HAVE to defete the thing!! FALSE ADVERTISING!!

Corruption is ridiculous and they aren't planning on being able to toggle it off. Just turn off the spread when you sleep. Not what I thought I was purchasing at all.

I am not a fan of devs that change the direction of their game, and try to claim that it was the goal all along. Particularly when it's explicit like.. say.. adding bosses to a game that originally waffled about even adding something as aggressive as hunting game. Not sure I could confidently say what this game will look like in six months, it's impossible to recommend a product in this situation.

Prior to the corruption update my review would've been 100% positive. I love a lot of the game despite the glitches it has. I, however, cannot recommend it at the moment after the update as it has left me rather concerned for the direction the game is going. If they were going to add a more fantasy aspect they should've based it in Mongolian folklore to fit the game better, and while I love the appearance of the Breton it simply does not fit the setting. There are other horse breeds that they could've added instead of it, even some draft breeds if you really wanted to stretch out into saying the horses were acquired from some of the areas the Mongols conquered around the time that the game takes place. I enjoy the idea of the more fantasy esk elements but I think it should be based in actual folklore from the region. From everything I've read so far it seems like the team has not been listening to the community and whether this is the result of the company deciding to give the players the middle finger or the devs just not caring about maintaining the vibe their game already had is unknown to me. I just hope things turn around by full release as I'd like to be able to recommend this game to people again.

If you want to breed and train horses, or do mounted courier missions... You're better off playing on a modded RedM server. I understand this is Early Access, but corruption probably should have stayed in the beta branch a while longer to find an identity that doesn't ruin the core gameplay. If it had a clear purpose, or even felt good to play through, it wouldn't [i]need[/i] to have an off switch. Being able to turn it off is the lazy way of acknowledging that no one actually wanted this sort of overwhelming fantasy nonsense that looks, and feels, horribly out of place in the world we've all grown to adore. Everything that was truly excellent about this game so far has now been overshadowed by the ugly corruption element. Khiimori devs should focus on it's existing strengths, and the advertised features that got folks interested and invested in this game in the first place. Where's the backed content that was promised?? Why did we get this half-baked update before anything players actually wanted, and funded?

Ruined the game with the corruption update and the devs dont seem to care either. The game is no longer as it was advertised to be, so dont waste your time buying this game