I dont really wanna make it seem like im just on a bandwagon of hate for this thing. I got this game all the way back in 2017, donated to the kickstarter, have my name in the credits etc. Ive been following this thing and have been on and off the creators stream for a long, long time. I think its cool what hes done for the game dev community despite the stupid and frankly petty controversy surrounding him, but frankly after all these years, even before he really took off as a creator, i never really agreed with his philosophy when it came to making his own game. It, for the most part, just felt more like something to build a platform off of through streaming its development and whatnot. It sorta became more evident when spurs of content came down to an absolute crawl, and i think the whole structure of drip-feeding content for an indie rpg like its some multiplayer mmo game is pretty bizarre in general. I think around 2017-2019 was the best period of development for this game, because it felt like there was at least a more complete vision, with even the chapter after Animus being worked on and shown off. But since then it feels like development has been slogged down to just refining the animus portion for the last 5 or so years. There was also a constant stream of disappointment checking into streams of his specifically tagged heartbound and game dev, instead just being him making a minecraft server or playing games.

When it comes to the quality of the actual game itself, I really dont think its all that, unfortunately. The writing is pretty shallow and shoddily paced, characters constantly promise that all these loose plot points will eventually make sense but they never do. I dont really think writing would count for much anyway if the game werent like actually fun, but as for the gameplay, I wouldnt even really consider it an rpg, at least not in anything other than the literal sense, because there's very little actual gameplay. The demo portion is the best part of the game by far, with actual puzzles and combat sequences, but after that everything just sorta stagnates into walking from point A to point B. If i remember correctly, and please correct me if im wrong, theres only like 3 real battle sequences in the entire game, not counting the fakeout one in chapter 2.

So yeah, wouldnt really recommend, and as it stands, not even as a finished product would I really recommend buying this unless you just want to support the creator. Im not really much of a reviewer so sorry if this came off as a bit of a ramble-fest, I just felt like I had a lot of thoughts to add to the discussion after following this game for so long.

[EDIT : the previously mentioned "petty controversy" was me referring specifically to the league of legends stuff. If you live in the EU, remember to sign the Stop Killing Games petition and regardless support the cause however you can!!]

I dont really wanna make it seem like im just on a bandwagon of hate for this thing. I got this game all the way back in 2017, donated to the kickstarter, have my name in the credits etc. Ive been following this thing and have been on and off the creators stream for a long, long time. I think its cool what hes done for the game dev community despite the stupid and frankly petty controversy surrounding him, but frankly after all these years, even before he really took off as a creator, i never really agreed with his philosophy when it came to making his own game. It, for the most part, just felt more like something to build a platform off of through streaming its development and whatnot. It sorta became more evident when spurs of content came down to an absolute crawl, and i think the whole structure of drip-feeding content for an indie rpg like its some multiplayer mmo game is pretty bizarre in general. I think around 2017-2019 was the best period of development for this game, because it felt like there was at least a more complete vision, with even the chapter after Animus being worked on and shown off. But since then it feels like development has been slogged down to just refining the animus portion for the last 5 or so years. There was also a constant stream of disappointment checking into streams of his specifically tagged heartbound and game dev, instead just being him making a minecraft server or playing games. When it comes to the quality of the actual game itself, I really dont think its all that, unfortunately. The writing is pretty shallow and shoddily paced, characters constantly promise that all these loose plot points will eventually make sense but they never do. I dont really think writing would count for much anyway if the game werent like actually fun, but as for the gameplay, I wouldnt even really consider it an rpg, at least not in anything other than the literal sense, because there's very little actual gameplay. The demo portion is the best part of the game by far, with actual puzzles and combat sequences, but after that everything just sorta stagnates into walking from point A to point B. If i remember correctly, and please correct me if im wrong, theres only like 3 real battle sequences in the entire game, not counting the fakeout one in chapter 2. So yeah, wouldnt really recommend, and as it stands, not even as a finished product would I really recommend buying this unless you just want to support the creator. Im not really much of a reviewer so sorry if this came off as a bit of a ramble-fest, I just felt like I had a lot of thoughts to add to the discussion after following this game for so long. [EDIT : the previously mentioned "petty controversy" was me referring specifically to the league of legends stuff. If you live in the EU, remember to sign the Stop Killing Games petition and regardless support the cause however you can!!]