[quote]A review copy was provided by the developer.[/quote]
[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote]
[h1]Overall Rating - Average ★★★☆☆[/h1]
[h1]First Impressions[/h1]
I'll admit I was hesitant about choosing Totemlands (TL). It looked somewhat promising, but it can be very hard to get a sense for how a Harvest Moon style game will play. Plus, unless it turns me off very quickly for some odd reason, it's something I would need to invest into for a number of hours before I started seeing the writing on the wall. Others seemed to enjoy it though, so I figured I'd join them and try it for myself.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
As the name suggests, your main focus in TL is making totem poles. While you might think it's a quick process, it's not as easy as throwing some seeds down. The most basic parts can be made quickly enough, by defeating and obtaining spirits, along with a few components, such as wood and quartz. Getting more advanced ones takes longer as you have to venture further from your place and craft components out of the basic resources. What makes this worthwhile is that totem poles create relics each day, and they're your primary source of income, creating the basic cycle for TL. Obtain resources, craft materials, gather the right spirits, build better quality totem poles, and use the money to upgrade your abilities and gear. Toss in some fishing and farming for good measure, and you have a decent game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2881698521
[h1]Controls[/h1]
This game can be played with either the keyboard or a controller, and the options indicate that TL recognizes more than one controller. When using my Xbox controller everything functioned properly. These kind of games have a priority on managing the inventory, and can be a bit unintuitive in the control layout. I had a pretty good grip on it, but still mixed things up sometimes. Since you have to line up the cursor in order to either harvest or interact with your machines, it could be a bit fiddly sometimes. However, it does help the player target the right item, so it's more an aid than a hindrance.
[h1]Story[/h1]
Instead of inheriting a plot of land from a dying grandfather, your character buys land from a cursed island. It's inhabited by active spirits who linger even in the daytime, and they have the audacity to stare at you no less! With the game setting things up this way, with a fairly colorful and tongue-in-cheek introduction, I expected more plot points to follow as I progressed and opened up more of the island. However, even after spending 10 hours in TL, seemingly making pretty good progress, I haven't seen any further reference to this story. At most, I saw the governor's aid, who name-dropped him when I first met him, and that's about it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2881699092
[h1]Visuals[/h1]
The developers weren't afraid of bright colors, as much of the game is colorful. Maybe the spirits weren't supposed to be intimidating, but considering how some of them are aggressive, it might help if they didn't look so harmless. Looking as if they're made of plywood doesn't really help either, and I can't tell if that's wholly intentional or not, since they get turned into totem poles. Overall, TL has its own aesthetic and feel, which works well enough.
[h1]Sound Design[/h1]
Having played TL for quite a few hours, I couldn't tell you what the music sounds like, having largely ignored it while focusing on the gameplay. In my defense, there really isn't any music in the game. Sometimes you'll hear a medley when in certain areas, or some ambient noise, but it's a mostly quiet experience. I think I'd have preferred some faint music of some kind playing more often than not, but if I didn't notice its absence, I guess I didn't miss is that much. The noise that plays when you startle cowardly enemies is a bit obnoxious, and the volume for it can vary a good amount. Otherwise, I found the sound effects were fine.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2881698807
[h1]Pros[/h1]
🌟 There's no energy system, so you'll never get exhausted and have to stop your tasks. Although once it turns midnight, you'll start losing health and will have to go to sleep.
🌟 Over time, you'll obtain new tools. However, they don't take up precious inventory space; they're tucked away in their own compartment.
🌟 You can unlock shortcuts pretty early in the game.
🌟 Resources respawn fairly fast.
[h1]Cons[/h1]
❌ When compared to similar games, TL feels deserted. You don't have a town full of residents to interact with, let alone romance and marry. The island doesn't have a sense of being inhabited when you don't see other people more often. Plus, all of them function as shops, so they're not really filling a social role.
❌ Overall, the island isn't that big, so you see the same areas and spawn sites exhaustively. Without a season system in place, there's nothing to change up the visuals or landscape.
❌ Certain tasks, like fishing, get old quickly because there's not enough variety in what you'll capture. Leveling it up is kind of boring because you catch the same fish so many times.
❌ There's almost no challenge. I've been hit a few times, but combat is really easy.
[h1]Tips[/h1]
🔍 This isn't covered very well in the tutorial, but you want to look up the preferences for each totem pole part. They're more effective if they're placed next to ones they like. Only the top part determines what is produced by each totem pole, so as you construct it, work through it backwards, starting with the top. For example, if you want a star totem pole, you'd see that they like red, which likes green, and so on.
🔍 At some point, you might want to build duplicates of some of the bots you use, such as the saw. However, you'll absolutely want multiple ENERGY PRODUCERS. I started with about 2-3, and over time needed 5 to meet my demand. Moving further forward, I may have wanted even more.
🔍 The vault is very useful, and helps with inventory management. I primarily store produced goods in mine, such as dyes, cloth, purified souls, wood planks, etc.
🔍 Press Start then Select to bring up the menu in order to quit. You only save after sleeping.
[h1]Final Thoughts[/h1]
Having put some time into TL, I found myself enjoying it, but it's not without some issues. First, aside from optional job board posts, you have to create your own goals and objectives. In theory, you want to upgrade your abilities and unlock new stuff, but there's no plot hooks or carrot on the stick giving you extra oomph to keep moving forward. Second, after you've explored an area once, there's never going to be something new to look into, aside from the spectral chests. TL does have an addictive nature to it, yet it also begins feeling kind of empty and monotonous. It comes close to being really solid, but is missing that spark to really shine. Since it's still a good game, I recommend it, just be aware that it might fall short after several hours.
[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote]
[table]
[tr]
[th]PC Specs[/th]
[th]Performance[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
[/td]
[td]The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - TL is healthy
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
