Recent reviews by Patathatapon

I want you to look at my play time for this game. This is how long it took me to get all of the achievements. I wasn't exactly speed running the game, but I was trying to get all of the achievements. There are still quests I've yet to do, and still post game quests after the main final boss. Despite that, I refuse to play anymore of this game. I received this game as a Christmas gift, and have been hammering away at it since.

So if you aren't aware, this game belongs to the "Banished from the hero's party, I decided to live a quiet life in the country side" franchise (For lack of a better way of putting it). At time of review, there are two seasons of the anime (Second season ongoing), and about 10 light novels available in English. I own all of the light novels, and adore the anime because I love the setting and the universe. I say all of this because this game is by far the worst part of this franchise. Story wise it's an AU, and frankly isn't that offensive. It's the gameplay that poses all of my gripes.

"Slow living" applies to some of the mechanics, such as your farming and fishing, but a lot of other stuff can get very stressful. Combat is required in this game to beat the story, get materials for weapons and armour, and to a certain extent, gather the herbs you need to make potions. There are many attacks that are virtually impossible to dodge, so you'll just need to have high enough defence to tank them. Some of your companions have ranged options, but you do not. If you think about relying on your companions I'll get onto why that isn't reliable later.

On the flip side, running your shop is one of the most stressful experiences I have had in a game about running a store. Customers walk around randomly in your store, so it can take a while before they grab the item they're trying to buy. This means you can lose out on sales just because they have no priority towards the item they want, and you may not be able to put down an item a different customer wants. Customers will also occasionally ask for things that you can't even make yet because you have yet to get the resources for them, or the proper rank to craft the items sometimes. Using perk points to increase customer numbers in your shop is a trap because dealing with more than 5 at once is a nightmare, even with a bunch of different tables, unless most of the requested items happen to be out already. You have no idea what they could want before they come into the store, outside of stuff that you could make. They will also still want items even if you don't have the resources to create them, even though your companion will state otherwise. If you have enough to make one of an item, your companion will inform you that you can make it, even if the customer wanted 5. This system wouldn't even be that bad in and of itself, if it weren't required to get a lot of sales to beat the game.

Your companions A.I. is a bit questionable, as they will often do nothing while tending the store, even if they could be asking customers what they want. They will usually beeline to chests to pull out items and put on empty tables (Whether you want them to or not), and serve customers at the counter, but if your behind the counter they will sometimes just do nothing. They also often take breaks (for me at least) at the most inconvenient times since it's based on time, and you can't send them on breaks early when there are fewer customers around. In combat they don't always fare much better, because with the exception of one, most of them will run directly towards enemies and attack them regardless of their health. So in harder dungeons you either let them get themselves killed, or you chug potions to babysit them. All of them have ranged options, but some are better than others, and all of them are prone to cooldowns. Nevermind that they are all unreliable, meaning they're best for a "Supporting" role.

To be honest though? The game functions decently. I've ran into very few bugs, and the game performs fairly well technically speaking. The issue I have with it is that it isn't really a slow paced casual game, nor a fast paced thrilling game. It tries to have elements of both, then forces the player to engage with both if they want to proceed. If you want a slow farming/life sim game I'd recommend Stardew Valley, or the Story of Seasons games. If you want a shop owning sim, I'd highly recommend Recettear. Both of those have combat mechanics that you can pretty easily ignore for the most part if you really want to avoid them, and don't try to do too many things at once to fail at all of them.

The instances that I would recommend this game are if the following apply to you:
- You want more "Banished from the hero's party" content,
- You like cozy farming sims,
- You like diner dash,
- You like dungeon crawling, and can forgive wonky combat mechanics,
- You have run out of other similar games to play.

Otherwise I'd recommend you avoid it. I should mention I don't like farming sims, and now I outright hate them. If you like farming sims, do not give this to someone who doesn't like them. It will be a waste of your money, and that person may hate you afterwards.

The game is very enjoyable and tense. As a survivor theresnothing more thrilling than successfully leading the killer on a chase for the entire game without getting downed, and as a killer little is better than taking out a team of survivors who were trying to run loops around you.

DLC's are a bit of a pain to get all of, but a lot of them are technically buyable in game, and only some of them are worth it. At the very least, you can play the game at base fairly well, since most base survivor perks are pretty good.

Fun game to play with friends. It's alright by yourself, but with some friends it helps enhance the fun the campaigns have.

Highly recommend this game if you like card game mechanics, or have at least enough interest to learn them for an interesting story. There are many mechanics that aren't obvious and require exploration, but the game itself can be beaten without understanding these hidden mechanics. This game offers plenty of little bonuses for the observant and explorative player.

Very fun game to play with another person, a bit easier in person to coordinate certain things, but overall very fun!

The only downside is that it isn't very good for replay value, unless you happen to have an inability to remember things after a day. I would still recommend it as the puzzles are fairly logical once you figure out what your supposed to do when exploring different things. As long as both people explore their options, an idea for the solution will likely follow. Much better than many "Puzzles" that require you to throw a wrench at a baby so you can fly to the moon.

Completely ridiculous. And I love it.

Probably one of the most fun games I've played, and having originally been made from a single guy is pretty inspiring to others who wish to create games as well.

This game is very good. It's filled with puzzles and turn based combat that's interesting in a way I've never seen done well before.

If you like Turn based RPG's, or comedy, I would highly reccomend this game.

If you want a quick review, I'd say this.

"Makes you feel good about making douchebag decisions."

If you want a more complicated review, I'd say it's mechanics are very basic for a videogame, and is riddled with quick-time events. However, it's strong point is not engaging gameplay. Its strong point is in an engaging interactive story. You actually feel for these characters in their situations. How you feel for the characters depends on your perspective and opinions though. If you can't get into the story, it breaks apart. If you like the Walking Dead show or comic books, you will most likely like it. If you like serious drama stories, then you'll probably like it.

Probably the weirdest absorbing experience I've ever had. "Papers, Please" made more sense when it came to enjoying it! This game is just all kinds of weird. The game forces you to put points into thing you probably won't even understand your first runs throughs of the game, and you will be murdered in many different ways. The game is mostly visual novel, forcing you to imagine what is happeneing, which I actually enjoy. Imagining what is happening is usually funner than actually seeing it happen, because you can imgaine how terrible (or hilarious) these things are.

However, at times the game seems very unfair. The first times you play through it you will be confused, and most likely get killed for a rookie mistake. For me, it drives me to find a way to keep going on, no matter how many times I get killed. It's like FTL, in the sense that you need imagination for it to work well.

Personally I enjoyed the game despite it's faults. You try to do your best, and your only warning is failing "tests", most of which you won't really have a warning of. My biggest gripe is how the games events remain the same, so you can plan for them better. It makes the game a bit easier once you learn all the tricks. I reccomend this game to anyone who doesn't mind having what is essentially a confused girl simulator.

(To me, 5 means average, 0 means Ride to Hell, and 10 means perfect. A 5 is by no means bad, just average.)

For those who need scores: 6.5/10

It's above average for most interactive visual novels I've seen, and could certainly use the odd improvement to make it more replayable and fun like FTL.