Really disappointed with the performance of the game. I've got a mid range system (Ryzen 7 with RX6650 XT, 32gb Ramm). Game just stutters all the time, even on mid level detail which for the game like this should really be maxed detail with no performance issues. One minute I'm on 80FPS, next down to 24FPS - makes it a horrible experience.

It makes the game very annoying to play to the point where I've had enough after an hour.
Shame as was hoping this would be my next v-rising fix but afraid not.

Requested a refund but unfortunately I'd bought it before going on holiday so after the 14 days refund limit, poor from steam when only played for an hour but I guess live and learn.

The game has potential but not sure it's going to be able to overcome such huge performance spikes, also it's missing something that games like v-rising have. Just doesn't seem to give you that feeling of progression in the same way or achievement.

As of writing this, i'm almost 30 hours into the game, so i feel that i've played long enough to be able to provide an objective review of the game in its current state. First off, this review is not a criticism of the game, but instead an opportunity to provide constructive feedback on the game for the benefit of others and for the developer if he so chooses to take my feedback on board.

--- Visuals and Environment ---
Visually, the game does quite a good job of conveying the atmosphere of environments, with all of the biomes looking and feeling fairly 'right'. It's fun to wander around and explore these areas 'for a while', and they are quite pretty as long as you are not fully zoomed out at the time. There are however several points regarding visuals and locations that I feel are severely lacking.

Firstly, the underground areas are bland, boring and repetitive. There are few if any unique POIs, and the only reason you ever go there is for upgrade ores, otherwise you would never bother visiting at all. Underground gameplay consists of Mine rock and ore > Build stone bridge to next land island > Mine rock and ore > Build stone bridge to next land island. It is monotonous and depressing. These areas could be so much more. They could be populated with ancient underground cities, or even just be filled out with some more interesting and unique visuals like void corruption. Additionally, the environment could be made much darker so that the torch is far more useful. Creating a shroud of darkness around the character where the torch only illuminates a smaller area would feel more like you are explorating and adventuring in an unknown area that is unseen, and also you could make underground sections that are biome specific, like frost caves, etc. As a visual idea, light beams could come through from the surface in some locations where there is moss and greenery growing to add a better overall aesthetic and break the monotony. Hopefully some of the negatives i've raised are amended in future.

Secondly, despite the islands that you land on being visually pretty, the vast majority of them are utterly useless, except to grab unique plants, trees and stones. Once again, these could be populated with some more interesting features and items that make visiting them enjoyable and purposeful. The game has a unique building toolset, and you could build castles and all sorts of cool other dungeon areas that you have to crawl through to get to a treasure at the end. It seems wasteful not to use this toolset... Additionally, the size of the land masses are far too small amongst the enormous body of water that you travel, leaving the feeling of visiting these places as though they are just tacked on...

--- Combat and Character Customisation ---
The combat in LI is actually quite fun, and it's very satisfying to time your strikes and rolls perfectly to deliver the maximum amount of destruction upon your enemies. I particularly like the critical strike feature that gives you the power to decimate your enemies if you get your timing right, and Iframe balancing seems just about right. While the combat itself is quite fun and there appears to be a good selection of weapons, the truth is that there is only really one weapon worthwhile using and that is the spear. It outplays and replicates the effect of just about all the other weapons but does it in a better way. Granted that it has slightly lower damage than other weapons, but it has enormous reach, it can close distance quickly, and it is extremely fast. Thinking that the hammer is good because it has an AOE attack? Why bother with a terribly slow and average weapon when you can add an electricity rune to the spear and spam an extremely destructive chain lightning AOE on your enemies. The point i am making is that the balancing of the weapon systems needs work so that you want to use other weapons. Additionally, adding magic and bows to the game would be a nice option for players that prefer that, and i don't think it would be too unbalanced given all the fast distance closing enemies in the game.
The variety of enemies is also pretty poor with the same skins used over and over again but just in different variations rather than making entirely new creatures. I hope that enemy variety changes in the future as well.
The character levelling system is far too linear, and there is not enough branching customisation to lead you into unique builds. This is a BIG failing from my perspective.

--- Weapons and other Items ---
As i mentioned in the combat section, while there are plenty of weapons to choose from, they are pretty poorly balanced. This is negated slightly through use of the rune crafting table, but the variety and selection of runes available is just not enough to create a great deal of unique play styles that would warrant using all but a few of the weapons (*cough spear...). Armour sets seem out of place in their balancing, and there are zero customisation and upgrading options available for each of the sets where i think having the same system of upgrading and enchanting as the weapons would be very refreshing. Also, there are some creative decisions that make no sense, such as the padded cold weather armour providing more armour protection than the samurai armour set. This makes no sense to me whatsoever. Cloth doesn't protect you as much as proper armour, so why is the afforded protection not reversed for the sets?
You only ever find weapon and armour sets while dungeon crawling or in a few island locations. Again this ties in with my point i raised in the visual and environment section that there is no incentive to go exploring underground except to mine ore. Yes, you do find some blueprint items like chairs and tables, etc, but no items that actually benefit your character in combat or exploration. I feel this is something that detracts from the game experience. Item sets that you do find really provide almost no benefit. Who cares about a sailing buff set when it hardly takes any time to travel the entire known world...

--- Building, Farming and Economy ---
It is nice to be able to craft a majestic castle or chateau on some random island, and this is one of the good features the game has going for it if you like that kind of thing. However one of my biggest frustrations is the seemingly unpredictable system of foundation and plot placement. In some grids, you cannot build anything even though there is nothing there to block the build, and the ground seems a sufficient height. This frustrates me enormously. Elevation and foundation placement needs fixing ASAP.

Farming is fun enough i guess, but at about 10 hours in, it just becomes a matter of spam planting crop xyz and selling the plants and vegetables you grow to the traders. In fact this is really the only way to make enough gold to buy items, because you don't get hardly any gold in dungeons. This becomes repetitive much like the underground ore mining, where you Plant > Harvest > Sell > Plant > Harvest > Sell. Once you can make banana bread, all you will ever plant will be banana trees and wheat so that you can sell it for $40 a pop in the snow town. When that happens, the economy is a cheese and money becomes meaningless and pointless... Again, balancing is way off here...

--- Conclusion ---
The game has great potential, and i appreciate the vision of the owner/creator. It is impressive that he has achieved so much and his achievements shouldn't be taken from him as a solo creator. This however is i feel the achilles heel of this game. The amount of work needed to get this game to a state of quality and completion requires the work of many people, which simply will not happen here, and i believe that even after its full release, the game will be a shadow of what it might have been. I recommend people wait for the full release before pledging any money to this project due to the uncertainty of aspects of its completion.

It's fun