Recent reviews by Jay

Overall a great entry in the farm sim genre.

Pros: + Looks great. Very detailed designs for levels, characters, and critters that all fit the setting.
+ Lots of quality-of-life simplification for tools, inventory management, and decorating. Entering the decoration interface pauses the clock, letting you take time to arrange your farm, build furniture, and even move crops and trees around with a click.
+ Controls really well, it feels great just running around and exploring. Probably the least stiff feeling farm sim I've played.
+ Farming is simple but fairly deep. I particularly love the flower farming system. It takes the breeding ideas from Animal Crossing, but makes them much more straightforward, clear, and frankly satisfying.

Cons: - Shallow NPCs. You can only befriend a few, date some others, and the rest will act like it's the first time you've met throughout your entire playthrough. The calendar also mentions birthdays, but as of this version, there is no way to do anything about them. I think this game was designed with multiplayer in mind, to the detriment of its NPCs.
- Not much to do once you finish the 40-50hr campaign (I guess that's what DLC is for). Then again, there are all kinds of goals for a completionist.

Let me get this out of the way, if you were looking for Morrowind, just go play Morrowind.
Some players will be initially turned off by Dread Delusion's relatively simplistic gameplay and skill system. Once you acclimate, though, you'll find a beautiful world that's fun to explore, with interesting lore to unveil. This game is full of bleak and weighty decisions. This aspect of the role playing is really the game's core. If you love making difficult decisions, this game is for you.

While this game is in early access, and a ways from completion at the time of this review, I feel confident that it is going to be one of the best games in the farm life sim genre at launch. I check back every few months and am stunned by how much new content there is. Some bullet points:

- Great art direction. Hands down the most visually appealing game in this genre, even compared to higher budget entries like RF5 and SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town. The environments are lush and full of life (both flora and fauna). Furniture and architecture look great.
- Diving is a great feature and perfect for the island setting. It's very gratifying to heal the ocean and see your community improve.
- Fun and unique festivals (like Tree Planting Day) as well as refined versions of genre staples (the harvest festival is very thorough and rewarding).
- Great cast of characters. Tons of options for romance- you will be spoiled for choice! Everyone has an outfit for each season- it's a touch that builds on their personalities.
- Best video game museum I can think of (second only to New Horizons).
- Progression is well paced and implemented. I particularly like how you upgrade farm products via the Lab.
- QUAILS!
- Really fun selection of tropical fruits and vegetables to farm. The fruit plant, a middle ground between a regular crop and a tree, is a great addition.

Looking forward to v1.0!

Just finished the main story. Very highly recommended.
Pros:
+ Thoughtful design. For example, your day is split up into chunks, but you can spend as much time as you like within a single dive. You don't feel the pressure of the clock like in other management sim games.
+ Lovingly crafted animations and entertaining dialog. I burst out laughing at least once each play session.
+ Lots of different genres get thrown in- rhythm, stealth, even bullet hell, but it always manages to be fun. A lot of games falter when changing things up, but Dave always keeps it fun and never drags anything out.
+ Beautiful music. The use of some traditional Korean instruments give this a very distinct sound.

Cons:
- Lots of quick time events, which I personally am not used to dealing with. They sometimes threw me off, but overall it doesn't detract from the experience at all.
- I hope you aren't sober, because this game makes beer look SO appealing.

I don't know the last time I had such truly mixed feelings about a game. I'll start with the positives.

-My Time at Portia is a game that starts off simple, but quickly opens up to being a hugely diverse experience. The central point is to take on missions that have you assembling a wide variety of items. I find this a very engaging take on fetching and crafting, as you're putting together and then installing all of these things by hand. Even the fast travel system feels incredibly well earned, because you have to craft each stop individually. Your efforts turn the tiny backwater of Portia into a bustling metropolis, and it's very satisfying to see that you did this all.

-Portia is brimming with mini-games, and they're most all fun. It has one of the most enjoyable fishing mini-games I've played. There's darts, slots, see-saws, lassoing, all kinds of things to keep the experience fresh. Even cooking is gameified!

-Combat is simple, but effective, and generally pretty easy. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to take on enemies way above your level.

-The characters are pretty flat at first, but most get more interesting as you get to know them. I particularly like the rival builder, who is such a jerk that you will be constantly motivated to get a high rank just to rub his nose in it.
Most of the dialog is whatever, but I laughed out loud a number of times.

For the negatives...

-This game is not well optimized *at all*. Despite being a simple looking game, I had to tank my graphics settings to get it to a functional place. There are a lot of times where the game will just momentarily hang up (like when ordering a cab or opening the workbook). I had a number of crashes, mostly in main quest dungeons. These crashes are especially frustrating with the game's save system, because you're libel to lose 20+ minutes of progress. I avoided getting this game on Switch, because I read there were some game breaking bugs and poor performance. I was disappointed to see these are also present with the Steam version.

-Some of the voice acting is pretty good, but most is... bad. There are also a ton of dialogues where voice acting simply wasn't added. A few characters have spoken dialog that rarely matches the written dialog.

-Player feedback in general feels off. You can barely tell when you take damage in combat. Cutscenes tend to start VERY abruptly. Some areas almost encourage you to cheese your way up hills and walls, particularly in dungeons.

Overall, I think My Time at Portia is a great spin on farming RPGs. There is a REALLY fun and satisfying game in here, but DO NOT buy this if you are unwilling to wade through a lot of glitches and poor design to get to it.