Recent reviews by klava

Let me be succinct: This game is a LOT of fun, when it works. The devs are working on fixing it, and eventually it'll just be "This game is a LOT of fun"

Depending on your hardware and location, players will have varying degrees of success in launching the game, and playing coop. I don't have any of the issues being discussed, but others do. That being said, it's obvious what kind of game this will be, and I think it will be worth the time and money once it's fully stabilized.

where to begin?

first: set aside your first impressions. this is not a weird Chinese app factory cash grab, this actually is a real title with real people behind it. take it from someone who regularly "gets got," this is a real game.

i first played an early alpha build of this title a year or two ago, with friends. at that time, the game itself had some interesting ideas, but was definitely unpolished.

now, in the title's public early access, there is more than enough content in place to warrant dropping $30. this indie studio team is hard at work continuing development, with major updates, and their community engagement is fantastic.

the visuals are fairly cartoonish, and entertaining. animations and rigging, while sometimes funny to look at, are responsive and make sense. the most recent update also drastically improved framerates in situations where you've built a monstrous shop structure.

the audio design is superb. everything you can interact with makes a sound that's not only appropriate, but satisfying. the full soundtrack is modeled around a central motif that makes up the theme song (which reminds me a lot of a classic 90s kid saturday morning cartoon theme). significant amounts of voice acting, as well! while that's a work in progress, most of the core storyline is voiced.

gameplay is where things really go off the charts. you start with the assumption that the game is about shopkeeping, but quickly realize that's only 20% of the core gameplay loop. it's an open world survival crafter, with exploration and questing elements, and a shop management central feature. if i were to compare the game to anything, it would be a mix of Recettear and Zelda:BotW/TotK.

i think the best endorsement i could make of the game is that it is built to inspire a semblance of that childlike wonder you'd experience as a young gamer, not knowing what comes next, and being pleasantly surprised at every turn. and in this endeavor, i think they have succeeded.

This is a title hand-tailored for people with specific interests:
- Difficulty
- Puzzle-solving
- Physical programming
- (extremely) Retro audio and visuals
- Computer science history
- Zachtronics fans

Huge nostalgia moment, playing this title. Reminded me of my early childhood, trading shareware with my nextdoor neighbor, and playing on my dad's C64.

I have a lot to say about this game, but I'm not sure how much I can share without spoiling some of the puzzles. Suffice it to say: I played through the entire thing over the course of 8 days and was never bored. The "final" stage took me nearly three days to solve!

If you're looking at this page, and going so far as to look at the reviews, then you should probably pull the trigger. Every level you complete will fill you with big brain pride!

Can't even begin to describe it. It's an incredible experience. Unfortunately, given the incredible amount of twists and turns, any reasonable review would involve spoiling the entire game.

Play it!

Surprisingly exactly as advertised: It's a game built inside of a "sand" engine, and boy is it deeper than I could have ever imagined.

Give it a shot. Dig deep. You won't be disappointed.

Honestly? The only thing keeping this from my top of the list IGAvania choice is the fact that it isn't multiplayer like Harmony of Despair, which was gimmicky at best. This is a fantastic entry into the genre.

Let me preface this review by stating that I've been... downright addicted to incremental/idle/clicker games. With ~1500 titles in my library, I'd have to say that I've probably spent more hours on incremental games than any other kind of game, to include my thousands of hours spent on ridiculous time sinks such as Ark: Survival Evolved, Terraria, Path of Exile, Elite: Dangerous.

All that being said, I'm strongly considering touting this as one of the best incremental games I've ever played.

The biggest hurdle to overcome in this genre is pricepoint. With so many great incrementals being completely free (Universal Paperclips, Clicker Heroes, Cookie Clicker, Realm Grinder, Swarm Simulator, etc), it's hard to justify one actually costing any money up front. A good number of developers opt instead to offer microtransactions, so that the player has a choice in whether they're supporting the title or not.

I saw the promotional price of $1.19 and thought, "I've spent more than that on free games. I can give this one a shot." I was definitely not disappointed.

Great Hero's Beard's story puts you at the reins of Turgut, a farmer with a questionable past, who ends up stealing a magic "golden compass" from some mysterious strangers at a tavern, and starting on a grand romp through time and space. There's no more cutscenes or dialogue after this point, and you're left to extrapolate your own story from the names of the stages you pass through, and the equipment that you gather.

The graphics are not stolen assets or creative commons freeware, as you see in the grand majority of indie titles of late. Everything appears to have been originally illustrated or designed, and while the art style and proportions aren't necessarily perfect (you won't find it hanging in any galleries any time soon), all of the design choices paint a rich and interesting universe for you and Turgut to interact with.

The sound design is fantastic. The effects feel appropriate to the action they portray, making your strikes and attacks feel worthwhile, and give the attacks you suffer a measure of weight. The score starts out lighthearted and mirthful, and grows darker in tone as you progress into more sinister locale.

The gameplay itself is fairly simple. You are responsible for outfitting Turgut's equipment, and selecting his advancement through level-ups. You select a stage, and Turgut begins attacking the enemies you find in that stage automatically, based on the stats and skills he has available at the time. There are no activated abilities: every skill is either truly passive, or a chance-based mechanic. Once you are in a stage, you have no control over Turgut's actions, and can only root for him on the sidelines.

Every defeated enemy provides you with experience, and a chance for equipment to drop. Leftover or replaced equipment can be ground down into base materials to fill a reward box, which provides you with another form of gameplay progression.

Speaking of progression, there aren't any progression locks. There was never a point where I felt forced to have to sit and grind out levels on a previous stage for hours at a time, like some incrementals, and if you chose to visit previous stages, there was never any wasted time spent battling, since even lesser enemies still give you experience points and drop equipment. Every choice you make can feel like a step forward, which is what is rewarding about incrementals in the first place.

Some may find that after their first four or five playthroughs, that they've reached the "end of the game." I was one of those people, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was at this point that the game opened up another path, and allowed me to progress further! I don't necessarily want to spoil the reveal, but suffice it to say: don't be fooled into thinking you've reached the end.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the title. More pragmatic readers would appreciate the claim that I have easily had more than $1.19 worth of fun. Even now, 25 hours in, I'm still eager to continue playing!

8/10 - Great incremental, solid title, worth every penny.

I purchased this title, fully expecting it to be just another third-rate artsy-fartsy indie title. In some regards, that may not be off the mark, but it's only fair to speak objectively.

The title is very linear, and there isn't much in the way of decision-making. Progression in this game is established through the repetition of a very simple point-and-click MMORPG-esque game within the game, the completion of which sparks text and audio conversations to occur. Of course, the fact that it's simple goes hand-in-hand with the situation that's trying to be conveyed. While the "game" that you're playing is simple, repetitive, and boring, it's the interaction with other people that keeps you coming back.

Inserting yourself into this other person's perspective, with access to the poorly-sorted collection of poetry and photography, their private diary entries, their conversations - this is a very efficient means of immersing you as the player into the story to be told.

Unsurprisingly, the title is very short. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the intense nature of the soundtrack and conversations versus the extremely repetitive "gameplay" would get exceedingly boring if you were forced to play for any longer.

The cinematography is pretty classic "film student project," but that subtly reinforces the idea that you're taking the perspective of a college student. Nobody's trying to win any Oscars, here. None of the characters do or say anything over the top, or cringe-worthy. Out of the entire hour that it took me from start to finish, there was only a single scene that felt awkward or out of place, and it was very close to the end.

The presentation of the interface and the art style of the "game" are engaging enough to keep you from growing tired of it. Again, extremely simplistic, but if it were any more complex, you wouldn't be able to keep an investment in the story that unfolds as you play. Clever.

Would I recommend playing this title? Absolutely. While I don't feel the price point matches up with the length of the title, it's still a refreshing change of pace, with alternating hints of honey and melancholy.

I'm severely cynical of all sides in the recent social justice craze. Individuals must be objectively judged for there to be true justice, regardless of their stance on (insert prejudice or cause here), and hopping on a indignation hype train is not the way to do it.

Criticism of the development staffmembers involved aside, there is some good information to be had from this project. Do I believe it belongs on Steam? No. Do I believe it could potentially assist the general public with becoming more educated about "depression" as a whole? Sure.

It feels disingenuous to call this a game, when it's more like an after-school special, or a pamphlet you'd find at a clinic. Having had to live with and help many people in my life come to terms with and work through their issues, I understand exactly the message trying to be conveyed, but also fully understand that the only people who would benefit from a run or two through this "story" are practically non-existent: simultaneously open-minded and ignorant.

A person with depression doesn't need this to understand depression, because they live it.
A person who deals with depression in others doesn't need this to understand depression, because they live(d) with it.
A person who honestly believes depression is not a real illness doesn't understand depression, and this won't convince them otherwise.

This belongs on a website, which I believe was its original form. It must be easily and publicly accessible, and distributed, to be truly effective.

I recommend talking about depression to raise awareness, but can't recommend this on Steam because it (and mental illness) isn't a game.