Recent reviews by rhizo

They fixed many of Pokemon's mechanical issues while staying very true to the genre and pocket monster trope. Art is great, story is light and doesn't take itself too seriously, and music is nice. Really impressed with this game and would recommend it to anyone who gave up on the pokemon series but still has a hole to fill in their videogaming heart for it.

This game really captures the Hogwarts aesthetic and vibe but unfortunately the story and characters are so blandly written that I couldn't immerse, which is a real shame. There is a ton of tutorialization and hand holding as well which is frustrating. I've been playing on hard (most difficult setting) and haven't felt challenged enough yet to engage with most of the extra battle mechanics like potions and botanicals. The little scenes you see of NPCs are charming and entertaining, but do not a good game make. I'm probably going to dink around a bit longer on this game but may not bother finishing it. At $60, not recommended. If you can buy it on sale? Sure go for it.

Sorry, but I can't recommend this game *yet*. It needs a lot of game design and quality of life work before it's properly playable. I'm mostly leaving this as a note to the developers so they can prioritize where to make updates to the game. I think it's a great effort and onto something good, but has some execution issues that really need to be ironed out.

Note: I'm playing this on steam deck which likely effects my experience

The good:
Cute AF and great character design
Likeable characters
Dialogue is enjoyable
Fun to design character

Needs improvement/changes:
Resource limitation - quickly experienced an inability to collect enough resources to craft the items to make the sales that the game hinges on, kills the game pacing, there needs to be a great deal more resource generation each day in the meadow area

Repairs - early on it seems *all* the repair and purchase options are opened at once, and it isn't clear what those repairs do. A description is needed. They mostly seem aesthetic rather than unlock more gameplay, which would be fine if not for...

20,000 Amber goal - it seems that the current amount of Amber in your pocket only counts towards this goal, not your total earnings, so if you spend money on repairs it subtracts from this goal, doesn't make sense and disincentives repairs and interacting with other aspects of game

Field of View settings - this isn't playable on a TV screen because the FoV is too close to the character, makes me motion sick. Is fine handheld though

X to open shop - please include an "are you sure?" confirmation, the amount of times I've accidentally opened the shop is not great

Custom order tracking - seems there is no immediately obvious way to see what custom orders have been requested or their timeline, makes it hard to prioritize crafting

Character interactions - the characters aren't interactable outside of scripted events and shop opening, would give the town life to see them walking around and be able to chat

Editing shop decorations - as far as I can tell, there is no way to pick up and store items you've placed in the shop

Haggling is boring - it's not a fun mechanic, and is annoying to deal with, sorry. I think you can individually lower shop prices to avoid this but that is also annoying to do

Not enough to do - you can craft items, run the shop, and collect resources that are scant in the first place, having some life and interactions in town would help

Accessibility - in general it is hard to tell what menu tab you are on or what you are selecting, needs much clearer highlighting and attention catching

Anyways, I'm putting this down for a few months to see where it's out then

I'm loving this game, the vibe, the mechanics, the strategy, *chef's kiss*

This game is so worth a try! Everything is so well done: gameplay, level design, difficulty scaling, pixel art, music, and humor. I've never played a game that encouraged pursuing "extras" so well with the promise of bonus levels and interesting places/NPCs to experience. There are a ton of characters to play as with widely different playstyles; I ended up gravitating towards one character and sticking to them while strategizing with different magical weapons. Can't believe three people made this. Bravo!

Probably one of the best games.