Recent reviews by Jacq

Weak positive recommendation.

This is a walking simulator, just be aware if you are going to try this game. It has no action, limited puzzles (mostly related to how to find things/find your way around things), virtually no dialogue. Interactions with any other characters are very limited and few and far between after the starting sequence with the cat. (Despite the description I wouldn't say this game is about finding friendship, it's more about looking for a missing friend.) It has a nice premise which is fairly original. I actually appreciated the attempt to have a game from the perspective of a blind girl. The imagery is pretty, the sound effects/music are non-obtrusive. I liked how they added little touches like the protag trying to identify what is ahead from the sound and not always getting it quite right. (Like she comes across woodpeckers in the garden, and when hearing tapping near the road assumes that is what it might be originally but you can go over to see what it really is.)

It tries for emotional responses and it's definitely not a feel good game despite the claim of being a "modern fairy tale". (If anything it's more in line with the old faerie tales where things do not always end up "magically" working out despite the modern setting. Actually there's no magic in this game at all despite the often dreamy watercolour imagery and imagination of the protag.)

I feel like with a few QOL changes and a more accurate description, it could have gotten a better steam rating. (Putting them below although I suspect this game is no longer being updated.) Can't remember how much it was at full price, but this is a shorter, linear game without much replayability.

Negatives- The walking pace is far too slow. I get why it's done for immersion purposes but there needs to be an option to speed up the walking pace in the menu as it gets wearing after a while particularly as the game deliberately sends you in circles frequently and back through places you've already been to get anywhere. Again, would have been fine in moderation, but it's overused here so along with the slow pace + detours everywhere gets frustrating after a while. Padding out the run time with a slow walk does not improve the game experience at all and actually counts against it.

Interactions can be finicky. I actually looked up a walkthrough video to try and see what I was doing wrong at one point as I couldn't pick something up I was pretty sure needed to be collected due to the game's colour signalling. Turns out nothing, I was doing was wrong, I just needed to reposition the character dozens of times to get her in the right spot of the action to trigger ok. This happened more than once. Interactions were not always rewarding. Sometimes you'd do something and it's really not achieve anything to further the storyline. (Frustrating after you spent ages trying to work out how to do something in the first place.) Interactions are not always signaled well. It'd be nice to have some kind of shine or colour change if there's something you can interact with even if you don't have the means to do so yet. I missed one thing (saw it on the walkthrough) where I'd gone past the ducks multiple times without knowing there was something you could do with them if you went there first after picking up the bread. There could well be more little things like this missed as they're just not signposted well enough in a game where you literally can only see a small spot around the character.

There needs to be some sort of ability to trigger a help system to guide you to the correct path to the next check point/interaction. Because the game deliberately blocks off pathways (even previously open ones) all the time with vans, animals etc, it can become annoying to find your way back to a place. Again I get "immersion" but I actually gave up on getting to the last section of the game which was a real shame as I knew full well where I needed to go, but after walking back and forward in slow motion circles for ages, I just couldn't find the path that should have opened up earlier where I saw the man walking away. I don't know if it glitched and closed that path again because I didn't follow him at the time (I was fairly sure I visited the same spot?), or there was some other reason I couldn't find it, but yep, caused me to give up.

The whole story thread with the man and dog was left hanging. Unless I missed it, I still have no idea why a guy with an aggressive dog was visiting all the same spots you seemed to be at. Could just be a mechanic to block your path at regular intervals via a random guy and dog wandering about, but given it was such a recurring feature rather than different "blocks" I think it needed some sort of closure as to who they were.

I don't regret playing it, but was disappointed I couldn't complete it (I'm thinking I might have hit a game glitch and with no save system couldn't go back before I suspect it happened) and did find the slow walk pace very frustrating after a while. It had a sweet, sad storyline, and pretty graphics though. If you don't mind walking simulators, may be worth a look.

Again wishing for a "meh" rating on steam. It's not bad, but it's no where near as good as some of the other games bought out by this franchise. I mean I was sold on having one of these games with more of a storyline, but the storyline is kinda bland and boring and very linear to the point that I was getting quite tempted just the skip the cut scenes which is not a good thing considering its meant to be the core of this game. I'm sure this game could be made into something amazing with a storyline added, but this isn't it.

Some of the things you're building/using are hard to work out what they are until you use them resulting in lost coins. It's kind of annoying when you have to abandon missions and redo them because the game has decided that you need to pay people you've already recruited to do something right at the end of the task. There's a lot of time wasting as you wait for trees to be cutable so you can build further out and sometimes the builders seem to move in slow motion to arrive. It feels like the game doesn't respect your time and it's being dragged out in places to make it feel longer which doesn't equal better value for money if it messed up the enjoyment of the game.

It doesn't even look like you need to be particularly careful of your crew, as unlike other versions where if you let them stay out too late by getting them to do extra tasks beyond the wall they can get wiped out, a lot of the time it looks like they just won't go out there or leave in time to be back before dark. It kind of feels like a reskin with a lot of the challenging and interesting features stripped out.

There's no cool rides that I've seen so far. Just variations on bikes that don't seem to be significantly better or worse than one another and many seem to look almost the same. I actually couldn't really work out which one (if any and they're not just cosmetic) was the best to use. Your friends come with you and have a tendancy to mow down enemies that are about, also removing a lot of the tension you get in the other games about exploring too far beyond the walls.

Anyway, it's not a bad game, it's just that it has a lot of things that seem to make it significantly worse and less enjoyable than it's previous incarnations, and nothing that's been really improved. The series really does need something to make it feel more fresh, but unfortunately this game hasn't managed to pull that off. I'll probably finish it eventually, but its not on my must play list right now.

It got me to come back to the game. (Unfortunately the multiplayer is terrible due to the long wait timers so I can only play solo. Really wish they'd introduce a fast round style multiplayer option as it's a common complaint.) The new cards are pretty and it introduces some new mechanics. I'm not sure if I'm completely sold on the whole nectar thing. It seems to unbalance the game by how strong a mechanic it is (counts for both end of round goals and is also a wild card so it seems it can swamp the effect of the previous DLC's cards. It'd be great to be able to turn the nectar end of round goals on or off to help reduce this effect. Weak positive from me on this DLC. Suggest you get one of the others if you haven't got them yet instead.

Act 1: This feels like what Hands of Fate should have been (Hands of fate tried to incorporate terrible combat mechanics into what otherwise a good card building, atmospheric game.) Have been enjoying it, but there the RNG does definitely factor in to how each run is going to go and can cause you to be sent back to the beginning on an unlucky draw so be warned if that's something you don't want to deal with. You basically collect cards, upgrade them where possible, and solve a few puzzles in the cabin. It's a simple concept but quite atmospheric and enjoyable if you like card based games. By far the best act of this game.

Act 2 is very different and changes into a pixel art style adventure x card battler. I enjoyed this part for the variety of deck builds and lore you can discover, but be aware the game does have some very sharp differences in game play throughout.

Act 3... I'm still trying to get through it. The game feels like it's overstayed its welcome here as it's a bland, boring hybrid of the previous acts with bad graphics. You can't just push through it as similar to act one, a bad deck draw sends you back a few steps to try again, and again. Not enjoying it at all.

Still rating as a positive as the first 2 acts are fun. It feels similar to other games by this dev where they're imaginative and have some great atmospheric parts, but other parts get too heavy on the punishing, overly repetitive parts that IMO could have been shortened to increase the overall game enjoyability at the expense of some play time. (I gave up on Pony Island as well which was far, far worse than this game for that aspect and watched a playthrough to see then ending.) Apparently there's a mod you can unlock to get another version of act 1 to play which is the only reason I'd finish it by this point.

I didn't particularly like this installment. The first game was IMO objectively better despite it's major flaws (the biggest one being it didn't have a satisfying conclusion.) It actually took me several attempts to get through over a few months as I kept losing interest (the hours played is way overstated as it was left running in the background more than once.) I just found a lot of the characters and dialogue bland and the story ranging from mildly interesting at best, confusing or bland at worst. I really didn't care (in a good or bad way) about any of the characters in the game (including the MC), neither was I particularly invested in the task I had been given to complete which is not ideal.

It seemed to be overly descriptive and wordy in places. For example "He slowly slinks away looking defeated, deflated, debased." (This did not need this many descriptors to get the point across. I think the character that said that annoyed me as much as it did the MC and not in a good way. There just wasn't much point to it when it even when it into metaphorical and belief systems territory. It kinda seemed like he could have been removed from the story completely without it affecting it except to mean you didn't have to sit through his pointless discussions.)

Most choices didn't seem to have a heap of impact and it seems to add up the choices from a select few during the game to determine the ending outcome. The ending I got didn't make as much sense as I'd like, but at least this one did have a proper conclusion unlike the first game. You could probably replay it twice at most to see a couple of events you missed and get the alternative ending if you really wanted to.

I really disliked some of the imagery. There seemed to be a lot of pulling images in and out of focus, sometimes with a double vision effect which I found distracting and unpleasant to look at.

Not much to the game. You avoid big fish that want to eat you, catch flies and use the left and right keys to move. Pretty style but after playing for about 10 mins I can't see there's much to hold my attention.

I may change this review as I'm planning on using it some more but so far it's "ok" but has a few things that have tipped me over to a negative but depending on your planned use, YMMV.

Pros:
Kinda cure graphics. Soothing sounds.
A couple of different meditations and breathing exercises.
Ability to set the duration.
The idea of having trees and things grow over time is an interesting one.

Cons:
Streak "feature"- This makes it demoralising rather than encouraging to use this game for me. There's no way I'm going to be able to log on daily. I work varied and often long hours and frequently come home exhausted. Trying to meditate under those conditions is a good way to fall asleep at your keyboard. If you miss a day from what I can tell it resets you back to the beginning of your level... So that means I'll never get off the first stage or see what the rest of the game has to offer as it'll be locked behind this "feature". Note to devs: Don't make your users log in daily. It should be something you want to do, not a chore. Make it an opt in or out.

No audio cues except for the "finish" bell. This means if you're trying to pick up a breathing pattern you have to have your eyes open and watching the screen for cues. Even free apps I've used on my phone has options for voice and chimes for breath in/out/hold cues.

Having the countdown ring is also a bit distracting, the idea of meditating is meant to be to lose yourself in it, not be counting down the seconds for it to be over. There seems to be no way to toggle this off that I've seen.

It has meditation "levels" but no explanation as to what those change. There seems to be no manual way to set the timing of breathing and holds if you wanted to practice something in particular. (Something I've again seen on free mobile apps.)

I'm guessing the fire is meant to simulate a candle type meditation but there is no way to control the flame size apart from making it bigger with the streak from what I've been able to work out. Otherwise it's almost just embers.

Very limited meditation/breathing exercises. There's a heap of different ones out there, but only a handful on this app. More variety would go a long way to keeping interest higher over time.

Some of the discussions with the fox stray into cliched territory.

No way to set the time of day. If you feel like meditating under simulated sunshine beside the river, bad luck. The game has decided it's night now. (The game seems to decide a lot of things and put them out of your control. Maybe that's meant to be a deep and metaphorical comment on life, but for an app meant to help you focus and meditate I find it less than ideal.

Conclusion- It's a pretty meditation app and I guess if the thought of keeping a streak going motivates you to meditate daily then this is probably the app for you. It's nice and all, but seems lacking in variety and some fairly essential features.

This is a surprisingly good game and probably the one I've most enjoyed for quite a while. I was on the fence as I usually don't love games that require repetitive grinding to get the story to move along, but the variety of animals you can catch and the frequent danger (especially at night) keeps you on your toes. Sometimes the dredging gets a bit annoying, especially since sometimes there's just nothing of the one thing you need to progress, but it didn't bother me enough to stop playing.

As I'm sure most people have gathered, this game has heavily lovecraftian inspired storyline and atmosphere, masquerading as a "catch'em'all" fishing game. I strongly recommend going into this as blindly as possible, as seeing spoilers will ruin the experience which is meant to be trying to find your way as a fisherman with no memory of what happened prior to washing up in a wrecked boat one day, in an ocean that has seriously creepy and dangerous events going on. I will just say it's best not to overwork yourself lest the madness takes you.

I've seen some people saying they completed this in 6-8 hours. It took me longer but I was in no hurry, gradually branching out my exploration into the world and completing side quests as they came up. So time of play is going to depend on your gaming style. There are still a few things that are incomplete (undiscovered creatures and I think at least one side quest) but I'm not up for that level of grind. But potentially you could get even longer out of this game if you're a completionist.

Overall the atmosphere was great, the characters largely interesting and the game play overall good with a few frustrating issues which the rest of the game was still good enough for me to overlook and recommend it. Minor spoilers below about the issues/areas I felt could be improved. Although I've tried to keep it vague about specifics to not spoil the game, I still recommend to stop reading here if you haven't played yet!
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The attacking fish in the devil's spine were a bit over annoying. They seemed to sometimes aggro (it was quite inconsistent at times from what I could tell) even when you were no where near them and unless you had a deterrent or escape route handy if you got swarmed it'd usually be the end of you. One of the side quest artifacts was particularly frustrating to get at in among these guys.

To get explosives is too far into the game requiring back tracking for many people (if people are playing anything like me) if you want to complete some of the side quests. The cliffs monster could be dealt with without deterrents but it was frustrating and I ended up playing the game out of the order I think it was intended and coming back when I had something to deal with it which meant completing the mangroves without explosives (where I suspect some of the side quest goals might have been if I had've been back.)

There seemed to be an occasional bug where the boat would randomly take off forwards and break if you were close to land/rocks. It seemed to need to be docked to stop it sometimes.

The dark robed quest can be accessed WAY too early. No way I could've completed the quest at the stage of the game I was in when I found him. IMO needs to be behind a level trigger of some description to be able to accept the quest. (If you see him, don't interact unless you've explored the whole map and can move around at a good pace.)

Important people/artifacts shouldn't be able to "fall overboard" and disappear if you're attacked. It means some side quests cannot be successfully completed. Worst case they should "wash up" back on a shore somewhere to be found again ideally.

Card builder that will keep you occupied for at least a number of hours.

Pros:
Randomly generated levels.
Customise your deck as you find/ trade for more cards.
Some cards can be up graded.
3 categories of cards that need currency to use: Monsters (summons capped per round by the number of orbs so need to choose carefully if a challenging round), potions (heals, poisons etc) and spells.
Decent graphics.
Good range of creatures.
Equipable items with bonus stats.
Doesn't make you restart the entire game if you die.
Addictive game play.

Cons:
I can see this may start to get a bit repetative once the novelty wears off.
The movement isn't great at all with the arrow keys. I find myself point and clicking with the mouse more often than not.
Difficult to move accurately if being chased by the boss.
Boss WAY OPed. Seems designed to grind up many, many levels to beat them.
Level only restarts rather than save slots.
The tavern area seems a bit of a missed opportunity for more interactivity and quests only seem to appear occasionally.

Summary: I got this game in a sale bundle and for what I paid for it I reckon I'll get my money's worth and am glad I have it in my library as I have been having fun with it. Wish it had a bit more variation for longer term game play. If you like card builder games, this one may be something worth checking out.

Weak positive if on decent sale and you're looking for a fairly basic solitaire game. It has a couple of add ons you can "buy" along the way, but does get a bit grindy as it doesn't mix up the solitaire theme enough to keep it truly interesting and graphics that don't change enough along the way. The reason why I have so many hours is I'll tend to play a couple of games when having a break and then leave it running in the background.

I guess I was most disappointed in the theme having played regency solitaire by the same company before this (which I do very much recommend despite the theme not usually being my cup of tea) is the storyline is absolutely bare bones. Like often one line of text per level bare bones that has little to do with the game play leading to no investment. Don't buy it for the storyline.

Releasing the fairies also gets old. They're exacly the same sprite, just different colours. They seem to say one random line of little seeming relevance, and then are never seen again. There are "pets" to unlock, but again they don't do anything except sit in the pet's inventory page and seem to be an odd mixture of cartoon and realistic sprites. They also need randomly dropped materials which is super annoying. (I have a few that I can't do anything with because the game seems to be refusing to drop rock. Why you need rock to evolve some of these things I don't know but you do.) Seems like a missed opportunity to have a pet and fairy add a new element into the basic solitaire game while active and give it more interest and relevance.

Some of the prerequisites to proceed are also annoying as by design, this game is heavy on randomisation. Like you have to get a combo of 15 cards and keep replaying the same level until you get it. Then you'll get combos of 15+ cards for the next couple of games.

It's not a bad game, and if you're looking for a casual chilled solitaire game to mix it up sometimes from the basic card version it's ok, but it's a bit sad as it could have been so much more.