#76 Pax Romana

Let me start off by saying this: I tried really hard to like this one, i really did. I tried it sober, i tried it drunk, and i tried it stoned. It just didn't click with me. Generally, i love games like this, after all, it looked along the veins of early FF type games (pre 5). It seemed to have some level of customization, after all it says you can customize your farm. It implies resource management, gathering, and crafting. Sadly it not any of those things.

But, why? You may ask.

1st: It is, in all reality, an RPG Maker game. I have nothing against them, but this one, is off.
B. Customization; you build one of twenty different items, inside or out, and you place them somewhere around the farm. You can't move your house, or farm land. Your home has three rooms, one is furnished.
3st: Gathering is beyond simple. You don't cut a tree. You simply walk over to it and pick it up, the resources do not respawn/regrow. So i am assuming there is just enough of each resource to build everything once, i don't know. Crafting is simple. You pick one of about twenty items (yes, 20. If that.) You pick where to put it and poof! There it is.

I can forgive most of that. I understand EA, and that it is the ultimate loot box. There is always a chance it can improve, or not. However, this has two major flaws, that are really unforgivable. They are:

The pace of the game. OMG, it is sooooo slooooow. Like grandpa walking across the street with a walker kind of slow. Its bad. The other, its the story. Lets face it, it does nothing for you. A lot of people say the story is really great. Let me tell you, i am a nut for a good myth, but this one. Yeah. Its does absolutely nothing to pull you in, you simply don't care enough to keep going. I mean, you get a quest to find a temple, because your god father is coming for you. Thats the main story, and 5.7 hours later it hasn't changed.

Who is it for? Beats the hell out of me. Certainly not fans of FF or Graveyard Keeper.
Score: 4/10

I'm sorry for saying it, but i really think a lot of the reviews might be friends. This game is nowhere near that good. It might be, but its current iteration is certainly not going to get it there.

I know I've played very little for now and 1 hour of play might be a bit short to write a review nevertheless I feel I have to for a number of reasons but first let's get to the positives :
- graphics if not great are functional for a 7 buck game this is quite acceptable
- the farming system seems quite complete and compelling
- the story seems interesting

I'm sure there are much more good points to bring up but for that you'd have to read the other review because I didn't play enough and that is because a number of issues stopped me enjoying my experience so let's talk about it :
- First off The framerate, I was hovering around 12 fps this is not normal and is not playable please fix this as soon as possible
- the menus are quite bad to navigate, Not the most important thing but quite annoying
- Energy and food go down too fast, 10 am and both meters are almost at 0 this is quite annoying , especially when the items give you almost nothing back

Overall I won't be refunding this game because i want to see where it goes BUT I cannot recommend it until framerate and balance issues are fixed

PS: I know as a developper you primarily want to add content and fix these issues later but you can't do that with early access, I believe the game is a bit too early in it's developement right now

This is a throwback to the NES days. The mechanics for food and energy turn the game into a slog. Your need to eat and the terrible economy model makes farming useless for anything but feeding yourself. Other bad mechanics: No seeds dropped from farmed goods, Making wine requires alcohol?, making food takes half a day and then doesn't even fill you up! Overall, it comes off as bad knockoff of stardew valley.

Hello All, after playing the game for a few hours (44.5hrs) I feel I can give PAX an honest review. The game is in Early Access so content is limited but the story looks promising with many possible directions. Starting off you will struggle managing Energy & Hunger needed to perform actions. I found farming, cooking items into meals, and then selling end product enabled me to build coin to buy animals and other raw materials. Farming isn't fast and takes time but I was able to grind through it. Early on you will want to focus on mining for Turquoise to then have turquoise crafted into rune stones. These then are used to activate the rune portals to traverse the map between the different towns. Harvest wood/stone in between your crops growing. There were some bugs with different features (crafting recipes/beehives) and the Devs responded fast to resolved them. Feedback on issues and ideas were warmly received. Many games I have played you read from other players how Devs don't care about it's community. Locus Ludus does at least hear you an have responded. Is PAX the greatest game you'll ever play, maybe not. Could it use more content, yes! PAX is a game that won't give you everything and will make you work for it. It is a struggle to start until you get a better understanding of how things work (Energy/Hunger management). Berry bushes & mushrooms found while you're out collecting resources (wood/stone) was something i overlooked early on. Due to hunger consumption you might want to save those consumables for when you decide to go out resource collecting. Going into options and turning on "sprint always" might help speed things up as well. You don't die if energy\hunger depletes, you just walk very slow. I found using hunger items food/potions at your homestead really isn't needed. Yes, you will move slower but you'll find farming & tending animals takes time which wastes\burns your hunger meter. Once your established you can then consume meals\wine you craft as you feel the need but always make sure to buy enough seeds or regents prior to the next harvest. Also, be sure to take into consideration the cost of materials versus the profit of the finished product. It's not worth buying\growing something that gives 4 gold profit if something else that you can grow/craft gives you 14 gold profit. My basic strategy in playing is like so. Plant crops & manage animals, collect (Wood/stone), harvest crops you grow, craft items (Cook food from grown crops, craft wine & cloth, smelt ingots, collect honey), sell end product. After completing the stories quest chain sadly there is little left to do. I'm grinding out the achievements but past that I'm just waiting for more content, At it's current state I would give PAX a 7 out of 10. PAX does have potential to grow into a really good game if the Devs stick with it.

- relaxing, peaceful game
- controls are working fine (mouse & keyboard)
- nice soundtrack (you can choose between different songs)
- active developer (bugs getting fixed really fast)
- in it's current state you can already play ~10 hours if you just follow the story and do some of the quests/build your farm

In total i can really recommend the game. 8€ for 10 hours (and game is still in development, updates will come for sure) is really worth it.
I played the game using family share. I just bought it to leave a review and to support this nice developer.

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The game starts with a story about how you and your twin brother Remus were abandoned by your parents. Placed in a basket and left to float down the River Tiber until it ran aground. Here the twins are found by a wolf who nurses them for a time, then a shepherd called Faustulus finds them and brings them up as his own.

You play as Romulus and one morning as you awake your father Faustulus tells you to wake your brother Remus up as he needs to talk to both of you. He explains that it’s been a long time since he found them but now his time is up, he’s dying of consumption. Someday you’ll become great men and rule the people because you’re descended from Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Venus. Inside the basket in which I found you was a letter and it is now time to go after your destiny. Telling the twins that he loves them and to take care of each other, Faustulus dies soon after.

Remus ran up gambling debt and the twins had to sell everything they owned to pay them off. Then one day he just disappeared with the last few coins the brothers had, leaving Romulus with nothing and on his own. This is where your story begins.

Now that you’re on your own you have a lot of work ahead of you to get by each day. You’ll need to tend to your farm so that you can grow crops so that you have enough food to get you by each day. However, first you’ll need to earn some pennies by doing any jobs you can so that you’re able to buy any items you need. After receiving a letter from Bulla, an old friend of your fathers sending his condolences he tells you stop by his farm in Silvium. He has some jobs for you to help you back on your feet.

After making your way to the town of Silvium and doing some jobs for Bulla, there are more jobs around town which will help you gain some money and resources. These types of jobs are collecting wood, rocks, metal ores or taking items to someone else. Collecting wood, rocks and ores you’ll need tools for but luckily you already have some at your farm so make sure you find and take them with you as your travel. You can also collect berries scattered here and there; these can help keep the hunger at bay for a while although they you’ll need more than those to sustain yourself. You’re able to buy provisions, seeds etcetera from various people around town.

The game has a day and night cycle, and the day starts early 6am and night starts at 6pm, as the day progresses so will the colour overlay of the game. This changes from a bright morning through to dusk and then finally dark when it’s night. You can stay up as long as you’d like but sooner or later, you’re going to need rest. You can keep an eye on how much energy along with your hunger in the bottom left corner, also here is the time, date and month.

When your energy is getting low it’s time to get some sleep. If this happens while at home, you can just crawl in to your pit and get some beauty sleep. If you’re away from home then you’ll need to find somewhere to stay, this will cost a few coins, but you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and full of energy. However, this won’t replenish your hunger, so always try to keep something at hand and in a pinch, you can collect berries from the surroundings.

There are quests in which you’ll need to complete, upon completing one will reveal another one, there’s also some side quests in which you can take part. You check on any current, completed or failed quests in the menu screen. One of the main quests is to find the Temple of Vesta, your mother Rhea appears to you one night. Explaining that she can’t stay long or explain what is going on but tells you to find the Temple of Vesta, Fortuna will show you the way.

Here she will talk to you and explain what’s happening. Unsure of the temple’s whereabouts, you ask around. While doing so you’ll discover that you’re not the only one looking for the temple. Commander Lucius has men searching high and low to find the temple for reasons unknown to you, so you must find the temple before they do and discover what your mother wants and of your destiny.

To grow crops back at home, you’ll need to dig holes for the seeds, plant and water them. The types of crops you’ll be able to grow are Carrots, Potato, Onion, Lettuce, Tomato, Wheat, Corn and Strawberry. You can also craft many items like furniture, painting, carpets, windows and curtains. You can also move and place any items crafted where you’d like. You can also change the floors and walls of your farm and even add rooms if you have the money and resources.

In your inventory there’s Alchemy, Food and Drink, Tools, Others and Quest Items which stores all the items you currently own. On your screen on the right-hand side are a list of consumables for easy access in using them. When I first started playing, you’d have to go in to the inventory and select something to eat. After which it would take you back to the game which was a bit of a pain as you’d have to keep going back-n-forth to the inventory after eating something.

However, now you can just select keyboard shortcuts to eat something it’s much better, so thank you Mr. Developer for that. The game is in early access so bare this in mind, but I’ve had several updates to the game so far and it’s nice to see the developer working on the game. I’m sure there’s going to one or two changes as the game develops and I look forward to seeing how it all works out.

On the main menu screen there’s Mew Game, Continue, Options, Controls, Credits and Quit Game. In the options you’ll find settings to turn On or Off Always Dash, Full Screen and Lighting Effects. Also, there’s Background Music, Background Sounds, Menu Effects and Sound Effect volume controls.

The controls have Primary and secondary options for Movement (WASD and Arrow Keys) and Interaction (Space Bar and Enter). There are also keys for inventory, quests, crafting etcetera, although they are more geared towards being used with the primary keys of WASD. I personally prefer to use the arrow keys and would have liked to be able to re-map the other in game keys to keys around the arrow keys but maybe this is something which can be done in the future.

Right click or pressing Escape will bring up the crafting, inventory etcetera, here you’ll also find The Music Box. Here there are several pieces of music which you can select and play as you game, you may also turn of the music should you wish too.


Positives

+ Nice graphics

+ Good music

+ Achievements


Negatives

- No cards


Gather resources, craft over one-hundred items, develop your farm, grow crops and design your house as you rebuild your life after being left with nothing.

8/10

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Pax Romana: Romulus is a nice RPG/Adventure game with warm graphics. The story of the game is well-chosen. We play as Romulus, the founder of Rome, to follow his destiny. In the meantime, collect some resources and create a lovely farm. I liked minimal and warm graphics, music, gameplay and also story. There is a few thing missing. But of course, I'll take that as early access. The price of the game is pretty good. I'll continue to play it and wait for more updates.

The game is really relaxed and it's up to the player if he wants to explore the city, enhance/build up his farm/home or if he just wants to do the very nice written and challanging quests.

The graphic is functional but it fully hits the setting of the story behind the game.

Also the developer is really friendly and active. He supported me several times (fixed a save when i got stuck) and answered all my questions within few minutes/hours.

I really can recommend this game. Especially for this fair price.

Especially considering this is early access, but honestly even if it was released as is, this game is fantastic. There are quests to give you a focus, but you can complete them at your own pace if you would prefer to spend more time building up your farm and foraging. The one thing that can be tricky to manage is your energy. You have to be able to stay awake until noon. This is not hard if you are modest with farming and foraging goals initially until you are able to cook or have a nice stash of foraged fruit to keep you moving, but it can be frustrating if you want to do more and have to keep going to sleep in the afternoon. The one thing I wish they would put more effort into is the dialogue. There are lots of issues with grammar and phrasing. Initially, it was tough for me, but as I got more into the game I didn't care as much. I still have more quests to complete and I am looking forward to playing many more hours. I am excited to see what they add to the game as they continue to develop it.

The developer has not posted any news, information or anything on this game in years. This game had a lot of potential but is now just another Steam flotsam of trash floating in the game sea of abandonware. The developer mentioned "health issues" to which if it's true I hope they're doing better / getting better. This was posted years ago though. It's been years now and there's still no word.

Other members in the game discussions said they've seen the developer active on Steam but just not posting about the game. I don't know personally if that's true but more than 1 person has said so. Regardless something should have been posted by the game studio at the very least to let players know what's going on and keeping people up to date at the very least in my opinion.

If you see this title I would hard pass on it. It's not complete, still early access, still a long ways to go and an inactive developer / studio that doesn't let the fans / players know what's going on. You have been warned.

Side note I did play this a lot offline back when it first came out. I do have more time than 16 minutes but Steam didn't register it. I can assure you the amount of content is not worth the price even on sale especially for a game that seems like it won't ever be fully complete or released properly. We will see what the developer / studio chooses to do though. Hopefully they'll come back, fix it, do updates, add content and prove us all wrong.