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Recent reviews by jigokukoshaku

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163.4 hrs on record (126.2 hrs at review time)
Early Access Review
Okay, first of: My time at Portia is (at this time) still in Early Access, but does not really handles like that.
In the 120+ hours I have invested in it, I only had one or two crashes total and only mirror bugs, that got resolved by loading up a resent savefile. Glitching thru walls or going thru things were nearly non existent.

The idea is to build (and assemble) more and more stuff to sell or solve quests and buy upgrades for your workshop to make even more stuff. The last few updates added a ton of new events and interactions with the NPCs, whom you can befriend and even marry. For comparison think of harvest moon with less farming and more crafting (and a bit of combat).
The game runs very stable, even if some people have complained over low frame rates, bugs or glitches, yet fear not, the team is working on it.
The graphics are beautiful, the colors very vibrant and the world itself very breathtaking with its backdrops and even overall design.
The sounds/music are nice if (after some time) very repetitive.
The gameplay is spot on, the controller gameplay is at times a bit … fiddley (especially if you want to choose a number of materials between 1 and maximum) but overall playable without trouble.

What I like:
The world looks beautiful, handles fairly well and the story is amazing (in a relaxing, kind of low key sort of way).
There will be no nasty surprises, no difficult moral choices or hard to miss little side quests. (I frankly love all of these, but sometime a something different is just the right thing).
The interaction with the NPCs and the world at large.

What you will find:
A vibrant world
non-punishing gameplay
funny and engaging story (mostly relaxing)

What I don’t like:
The repetitiveness (of the music and “commerce commissions”) – I do not know how many water storages / leather belts / etc. I have crafted for the people of Portia and the other cities and I frankly do not want to know.
The grinding – lets face it, there are (multiple) times where you just have to bite down and … well grind to get your darn materials – same with earning money outside of quests.
The saving system (you safe when you end the day in your bed)

What you won’t find:
Difficult combat (level up and you can just hack/smash/slash your enemy continuously)
A huge world
Devious plots and twists (you think you know the next step? Most likely it’s gonna happen)


Whom is it for:
Someone who wishes to calm down after a stressful day, who doesn’t mind predictability and a bit of grinding.
Posted 24 November, 2018.
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16 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
131.4 hrs on record (124.3 hrs at review time)
Banished. to be cast out, without a chance of return.

The idea is as simple as it sound. You take control of a bunch of people (between 4 and 6 families) and have to keep them alive while expanding your settlement, for the winter sure is coming.

Con:
You don`t get any kind of mission goal or scenario, just simple survival. That can get quite tiresome very fast. Also the game is played nearly entirely thru infterface windows.

Pro:
A very simple game mechanic, that makes learning to play super easy. And yes, the enormous steam workshop diversity.

I liked the game due to its very easy start but challenging development. The harsh winter starves your people, and every field, orchard, hunter's hut and everything else must be planed to ensure your people survive. I loved how the greatest resource are the people themselves, how they have their own name (even if its hillarious if messages like "Rock the miner was crushed by stones" popup and you can`t seem to get over the Irony), how they have their one home (not like - for example - simscity) and their work. How they are born, age, reproduce and die themselves. And yes, while it gets boring after a time, when you know just how to build your town, when to change fields or when to accept normads and when not to, the archivements and the available mods can give you new challenges to make you enjoy the game for quite some time (I´m currently at around hour 120ish).

All in all a solide, highly addicting game totaly worth it`s price.
Posted 27 December, 2017.
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