highly recommend, when i found the game i'm like.. "okay why not try the demo it looks cute!" with barely any expectations but i think i am addicted !

Pros:
- cute and somewhat unique art style
- farming !! i love
- music is nice & fits well
- i feel like there's a lot to do and explore, in a good way, which is why i have 15 hrs on the demo
- nice build mode so far, i think ! i still have to try it a bit more
- you can pick up the storage box and place it elsewhere !! without having to remove the contents!! so nice (if that is actually common on this type of game, im sorry T_T but the games i've played had me empty the storage first before moving it)
- multiplayer is a thing :D but i don't have friends to try it so ehehe no comment

Cons:
- u might need to get used to the controls. it's not that much a problem, but i am struggling using the hammer and clicking tab (keyboard & mouse user) T_T
- if ur like me who likes acnh and hm/sos games, u will get addicted (!?) is that a con?
- dialogue isn't the best but also not the worst. i didn't notice any translation/grammar errors so far, but i'm just struggling with paying attention to the guide ><
- there's no high detail character customization (like where u pick the hair, eyes, etc., which i don't really mind, but someone might be curious so yeah); you can select which outfits to wear on your character(s) tho ! (4 options are available and then you'll unlock more as you explore in game)
- still not completely optimized and playing the game where i can see the grass/foliage just gives me less than 20 fps. turning off the grass makes it less aesthetic but it works T_T (my pc is kinda potato tho)

Even though I'm recommending this game, I want to make it clear that you should wait on getting this game, at least until they fix some things.

The game has a wonderful custom weapon/tools crafting system that allows you to mix and match a lot of skills. It also has a very intriguing food system that requires balancing warm and cold foods, while also making sure they give enough nutrition.

However, its currently held back by two systems:
1. Durability.
2. Food expiration.

These 2 systems single handily make this game a stressful game instead of a cozy game. The issue with these systems is it requires you to be constantly getting new food (Since it will expire), constantly getting new tools (Cause they break quickly), and even your inventory will expire. The inventory is handled by bags (Which is a cool concept), but since those have an expiration time, you have to worry about that too at some point.

What this all means is to even kinda relax in this game, you have to eat the easiest to get stuff only that doesn't worry about expiration, and you have to make the highest durability tools that don't require you to gather more. Because let me tell you, a lot of tools/weapons durability will just vanish. And food expires within 3-4 ingame days which go by kinda quickly. All of this just means you have chores to constantly do, and not really time to explore or enjoy yourself. The problem with the durability also means its un-optimal to craft custom equipment, which is a main selling point of the game.

I think once these 2 problems are addressed, the game will be a lot more relaxing and a lot more enjoyable. There is a lot of fun and stuff to do in this game, but ultimately right now, its just not possible to do those things because your having to micromanage 2 things constantly. If this was a hardcore survival game, I could understand them. But this game is being sold as a cozy game. So they really should just not exist.

Takes a while to get used to the menu's etc. but when you become familiar with the mechanics, it's a really good game. The art style, the environment, in fact the entire design of the game is great. Can't recommend it enough.

Not yet. I got the game on a whim. played the demo, seemed cool and since i mostly just did the crafting side of things the jankiness of the controls was acceptable. once you get into combat it becomes aparent that the controls are really bad for combat. you can brute force your way through but forget really aiming or efficiently dodging and attacking foes. the game is very pretty, nice sounds but the weird ui in combination with combat is really ruining the experience. not recommended, for now, with the caveat that some of these things may be changed... we'll see.

cute but still clunky and the beginning feels kind of empty and directionless. will revisit once fully released for sure!

While I recommend the game, there is a lot going on and not a lot of explanation at times. It has some cozy farm / build / social type loops, but there is a cloud of pressure that sits on top of it.

TLDR: Food spoils too fast, systems are complicated/under explained, and fighting is not great. Building is great; recruiting a horde of villages is fun and easy; farming is simple to set up and use; and the possibilities look great for as little as I've done so far.

"Building" your own weapons is neat, but the details of how the different handles affect the different heads, and sometimes what the heads do is a little bewildering. The blowfish / chicken hammer doesn't damage chickens, and "breaks" (I think "break" is like stamina / stun on enemies) more than others, but I'm not sure if that is right because trying it out seems to get me in more trouble than just going in with a dagger and running around to heal as needed. The whole combat system is strange. If you go too far from the enemy, they heal. So you get in a loop of just getting them to agro on you and then running around to heal and strike a few times. The enemy scaling jumps pretty far too. The fat armored dudes take a beating because the best "penetration" stat I can get is like 38%, which I guess means 38% of my damage goes through? IDK.

Food is interesting once you get the hang of it. High or hot Chi foods make you more susceptible to heat, and low/cool Chi to cold. A little hot adds some power at the cost of defense I think, and a little cold the other way. Too hot/cold and you get bigger boost but also can take heat stroke/frost bite damage. You need potions or hi/low Chi foods on hand to cancel effects before you hurt yourself if you are trying to use Chi boosters as a strategy. There is also nutrition, which is just a number/gauge I think, but you have to eat foods that boost nutrients as well as manage Chi (heat). Pork is the best I've found so far for that. Oh, and if you eat too much at once, you don't get all the nutrition.

Also, to make better cooking stations you have to combine them on top of each other. So a bamboo rack on a fire gives you a grill (add the charm to not burn your food! Huge help), and adding a pot to the grill lets you make soup isntead. You can roughly judge what food will do (as far as nutrients and Chi), but occasionally certain combinations give you blue/purple goo that has some good and some bad, and usually adds more "stinky" stat (but IDK what "stink" does). You also have to add water every time you cook soup, where a grill you can just drop stuff on. Keep another similar sized or larger bucket next to the soup pot and you can just add from there instead of filling up a can at a time.

Cold/Hot biomes can also hurt you, but you can try to dress for the weather. Except to get to the biome, especially cold, you have to cross the opposite one. So you either have to keep two sets of cloths on you, set up teleporter signs, or leg it. Most enemies will ignore you or at least not chase you very far.

The progression of buildings/materials is still a bit of a mystery too me. It seems standard, except there is also a few different woods that have different building styles and apparently some tool/weapon differences, but I really don't understand those. Peach wood lets you make a wooden sword ... that shoots fire? A wolf tail lets you build ... an ax? I'm still trying to get a tier above copper for mining because I can't get tin with stone, copper, or ... a chicken beak... and I assume tin is better than what I have. And what I have for weapons doesn't do much against Captains or really the armored fatsos either. The weapons all have Damage, Break, and Penetration (I think) stats, and each material / weapon type seems to be better for some cases. There is also a ... balance of some sort for each part (head and shaft). Not sure what the balance does, but I'm assuming it affects attack speed. None of the weapons I've found / made are great for more than soldiers and archers; the bow is useless so far against anyone expect soldiers and archers so far too. There has to be a way to make fighting easier, but I'm probably not using teas/potions right either.

It may sound like I'm down on the game, but I'm really just trying to pass along what little I have learned so far. There is a lot to love about the game. Getting your own little village built with villagers to work the fields for food, mine rocks, and gather lumber is rewarding (I think I'm supposed to play with friends or bring villagers along so I stop dying on raids, but I'm learning). The way you can interact with the world isn't intuitive to me, but has some great ideas. I saw a YouTube video showing how a guy would build a farm around a water pond and just drain part of the pond every few days to water his crops. The shear volume of item varieties means the devs are probably / have already come up with some great gear potentials. I already like the idea of added parts on armor and certain armors can't take certain add-ons. Makes you think about what you need from the kit.

Setting up you farm is pretty cool too. If you put the farm inside the circle of the camp management station, you can make small areas of hoed land be part of a "plan." So if I do a 2x2 block, skip a row, do another 2x2 block (or whatever side), I can set the plan for block 1 to be yams, and block 2 to be cabbages; the villagers set to farm will just plant and tend without more instructions on my part. Next thing you know, you have a bunch of yams to cook up and feed to the farmers.

A few thoughts on what QOL changes would make this an awesome game:

1. Let us save recipes / better food combination clarity while adding ingredients. I think some of this is localization issues since the text (in English) runs off of the cooking menu.
   
2. Longer food timer. At least some of the rare foods. And remove the timer on special items that are not food/mostly not food like insects and special items.
   
3. Fix some descriptions (like the chicken heart and some part of the pig) where it says you can dry them for more nutrients / different uses. Maybe I haven't unlocked a bigger dry rack, but you can't dry chicken hearts on a bamboo weave.
   
4. QUICK STACK FROM INVENTORY!!!! I hate going into each box and trying to stack items into chests. See the game Grounded for a very good way to do storage stacks. You can turn some boxes off from quick stack and a single button lets your inventory go everywhere else.
   
5. Some clarity on what might go in the boxes. Maybe an item descriptor added like where it says the stats. I think something is an ingredient and apparently my villagers think seed for things like roots and yams. Still don't know why grass is an ingredient but the stuff to make linen is an "other."
   
6. Some way to see what an item can be used for. I hate to think I'm burning all that rainbow poop that is actually used for mega potion and I just hadn't noticed.
   
7. Add a crafting range. I don't want to go from one craft station to the next for every sub ingredient. Or at least make some craft stations work alone or as an add-on. The linen/rope station can go with the sewing table for example, so you can combine them or have them separate. Or maybe make it where you can have a few villagers tending the supplies so you can always have 20 rope on hand or what have you.
   
8. Add a way to not attack strangers by accident! I keep hitting people when I'm done talking to them by clicking one-too-many times.

Overall, it really is a fun game. It's not a chill as it could be (because of food mostly), but strikes a pretty good balance so far. The world is huge, and while some of it is repeat biomes, they are still fun to run around and explore. The character interaction with the story is coming along nicely I think.

Had to refund … wish it had controller support

So far it's promising, but the controls are overly-complicated. Picking up some things uses E, and some other things uses R. The right-click-to-aim-camera is awkward. Overall, the controls need to be streamlined. Building also needs work - the pieces often want to snap together in strange places. One of my walls is shorter than the others, and I have no idea why. There are lots of little dots of information on each building piece, but none of it is explained yet. Also, the day/night cycle goes by VERY quickly - I feel like I've barely picked food and cooked it, and the day is mostly over. It's a really cute game though, and I am having fun, even if the controls are frustrating. I think I will revisit this once it's more fleshed out and refined for quality of life stuff.

It's only a day after release and I never write reviews, but this early access game has me super impressed. The mechanics are different and interesting so its not a drudging, same old sandbox open world survival. The bones and meat to the game so far are already really fun. The demo was addictive and 8 hours into the just released early access is even better.

The building is smooth and looks great, the creatures and mobs you find, the farming, the combat system, the crafting, and the campsite/followers all keep me on my toes. I love the chi and physique system so much, it adds a whole new layer to how you take care of yourself and how that translates into your abilities. This way you can't just cheese the game and eat 1000 yams and drink water. There's many regions to explore and when I go out I always find myself discovering new things, unlocking new recipes, and combating new challenges. Of course as well, the art style is super cute!

Cons-wise, I'd say the menu and controls feel a difficult to get used to at first, but every time I find there's a button for the thing that I wanted to do all along. When you just spawn in and explore a little, it's not super obvious about all the interesting things the game has to offer, you have to get used to the mechanics first and give it some time to find more enemies and environmental challenges to get stoked about. To help this you must do the quests in the beginning to get an essential tool and a good step into what you are starting. You can't customize you're own character, so if you are into that, that is disappointing. I believe this is because they have slots in the game for a variety of future playable characters, and those characters will have skins as well.

From what I've seen on the road-map, the future updates will be big game developments and I am stoked. It's pretty obvious where the game will add more meat, like more playable characters, livestock system, more tiers including iron, more regions, maybe more follower types, new resource usages etc. It's such a good start that the potential here seems limitless. I really want to support this game and see what it can become, and hope others will give it a chance too.

I hate using other games to compare, but I feel it'd be best here. Take the Quality of Life and Social stuff from games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing (farming, meeting people, ect) the base building style of Valheim, and a Zelda BotW style of combat and graphics, and here ya go.

This game has its own, unique way of doing things as well with the nutrition system, the way you can mix and match to create different weapons, a class system of some sort, the way you level stuff. For being so early access, there is, surprisingly, a LOT to do in this game, with a beautiful roadmap... To put the cherry on top, the Discord Community for this game, which includes the developers, is extremely welcoming, friendly, and helpful.

I have been playing survival games a LONG time, and this game skyrocketed top 10 favorite easily.