Recent reviews by incidental.girl

If you enjoy the unhinged art typical of manuscripts, and Monty Python-esque humor, you'll enjoy this one.

The Demo felt a bit restrictive because there were sections left out (understandably) so I can only say that if the whole game keeps the feel and tone of the demo, it'll be a good time. That said I don't know how *much* time it will occupy, as I can see it getting repetitive for folks who don't have a deep love for fine tuning each of their designs, especially if the story is mostly for humor not a true engaging plot.

This was one of the best games I tried for Next Fest. Some bugs and still in need of polish, but I'm very much looking forward to the final product - it's the only game I'm still thinking about and wishing I could play more of already!

Picked this up in a bundle and didn't think it would keep my attention but it is very good at 'just one more round' play. Silly fun that gets better as you understand the mechanics of synergy for various items and has all the casino-style pings and starbursts your ADHD brain could desire.

Gave the demo a try and sadly nothing is clearly explained. Matching is fine but I don't understand the ingredients or spells or anything, as the current instructional page is rather unclear. It's a cute start of a game but absolutely needs more work before it is ready to be paid for.

Genuinely very soothing and fun to play! I was worried I'd run out of Things To Do since this is still EA but genuinely this game has been very addictive. The very, very low stakes make it easy to decide to just faff about some days and the way the prose is written when you interact with the giants is evocative and makes me want to know about the larger story behind this world.
The Dev is also active on discord and constantly updating so I feel confident there will be more to do in future.

Immense potential but just missing too much to make this a rec.

Pros:
Genuinely fun gameplay loop, absolutely feeds into 'one more day' playtime, I like the music and the general setting/tone of the story and how messy the NPCs are.

Cons:
This feels SO MUCH like an early access game. It's incomplete, but acts like it is a finished product and just far, far too much is unpolished or unresolved.
NPC dialog often does not match where you are in gameplay or location (the bartender speaks like we're in the bar while we're on the street, characters referencing an event that happened 30+ game days ago like it was yesterday)
Multiple large spaces in the town are just... there and unresolved by the game ending, and end up being decorative set pieces that your character comments on (but no one else does)
The game ending is very much "That's it? Uh... Ok then." Abrupt and leaves multiple points unresolved. Also you get your lore drop from your aunt about her ex all in one convo that feels very tacked on. You also never get the shadow figure explained which is incredibly frustrating.
The points system is unbalanced for unlocking things (too easy to stack up points between ch 2 and 3, nothing to spend them on once you unlock everything)
Instructions are unclear for the scanner which is very confusing for many people.
My game seemed to have a bug where it rained forever, including on the last day during the party.

I played to the ending and just felt... meh. There seems to be comments from the dev team that there is more coming, but also that the story was intended to be complete? So I suppose I will keep an eye out for patches/updates and see where things end up a few months from now.

As it stands if you like the basic selling mechanic and aren't worried about a lacklustre story, this is ok but pick it up on sale.

Mostly Positive!

I enjoy the base gameplay loop quite a bit but the debt system is pretty punishing and makes each day stressful, while the cosy setting is so lax it's very easy to beat the game. There really isn't any way to dial in the difficulty which is a shame.
There isn't really any depth to the character interactions, so if you pick this up expecting something like Recettear, you'll be disappointed. Likewise there isn't much of a story - you get some cute dialog between the Mole and his grandmother but nothing that really motivates the next day.
If you enjoy the base game loop (try the demo if you can) it is truly just that with eventual upgrades, but there wasn't enough variation for me to really Keep At It. That said I enjoyed what I did play and for $10 I am going to call this a positive review, with caveats.

I don't generally play dating sims, and I'm ace and don't find sexy content particularly engaging, but goodness this game is hilarious, mostly delightful fun. From the brilliant, self aware writing to the fact there is voice acting, to the wide range of characters and personalities and the ease of customisation - I really had a blast. I will say that the structure of the game means you're expected to play it all the way through 3x, and by my third time I just downloaded a cheat engine to get me through the grind, because there isn't much to do while waiting for the grind TO grind, but considering that was straightforward to do, and I am pretty anti-grind in general so other folks would probably find it more tolerable, I don't knock the game for that fact.
If you want a fun, spicy game and it's ON SALE, I'd snag it for sure. Not sure I'd have paid the full price due to the repetition.

I want to recommend this game, I really do. I suspect I will once the glitches/bugs have been fixed. That said, as many have already commented, this game has so many small but frustrating aspects that it really does not feel like it was ready for release.

General overview the good:
Great vibe, very cosy, I like resource collecting games and so the grind wasn't really an issue for me, especially once you start unlocking tool upgrades. The characters are varied and the art and music are good. Sound design is ok. The map could be a little larger and resources could be more plentiful but I didn't find any of the 'pause and grind here' areas to be too difficult. The puzzle solving is fun for the most part and not too difficult for someone with bad coordination (I can't do most quicktime events because of nerve damage)

General overview the bad:
Pacing is really off, and I'm not sure what the core game loop of this game is supposed to be. There are so many small scenes where you have to wait 2, 3, 5 seconds for a little 'you did it' to play. Fine the first time, incredibly frustrating when you're making a bunch of potions or diagnosing a group of people, as it slows everything down.
For a game that says it's about being a chemist and making potions (and friends) with open ended play, it feels a lot more like it's just a story driven RPG with resource gathering fetch quests with a distinct end. There's no resource management - you just gather every day at every area - and the patients come in randomly and infrequently and rarely more than 1 at a time, so the loop isn't really about curing the villagers at all. It's more: walk around town, talk to folks to up your friendship meter which will unlock cut scenes which will unlock fetch quests which will unlock a new area/tool/potion/recipie. You'll need money so you gather potions to make and sell, so you can make your house bigger or the clinic nicer or your knife sharper, but all of those have a max.

And the plot potions unlocked are all one time use only, so they only exist for that story beat. I have not completed everyone's story arc, but I have completed about half and all of my 'own' character's progression and what happens once you have unlocked full friendship with someone (not dating) is.... nothing. You unlock a portrait but that's it. So by the time I have unlocked the full clinic and friends the game is... done. Which is fine? But certainly not open ended. I think there was some attempt to give the game some longevity by letting you decorate your bedroom, but I don't care about decorating and even if I did that'd have a pretty quick cap since you're not designing anything yourself.

The game blurb suggests that being caught in the weather will cause issues, but the only thing the different areas give you is harder to collect resources. Also it's genuinely a shame that you can't make and use potions on yourself?? If I can make a potion that makes someone faster, or stronger, it would make sense to make that and use on myself for smashing rocks?

Overview the Worse:
The bugs are frequent and frustrating. Cut scenes don't load, quests show up and disappear, quests reappear after being completed but can't be completed again. Cut scenes freeze. I'm going to reiterate how frustrating it can be to have to wait 5 seconds for a little 'you did it' screen to play every time you fulfil a quest or finish a cut scene. Cut scenes can also run back to back to back with one another which can be overwhelming and also break immersion. Dialog can become completely off kilter and out of order, or loop within a scene.

Worse, the dialog really needed a bit of polish. Characters have 4 lines they seem to say on loop, and those lines can be looped by just talking to them multiple times a day. They feel more like Pokemon Trainers Waiting To Battle Me at the street corner than people in a village I am supposed to get to know and care about. Their lines of dialog also don't have any time or location flag - so Osman at 7am will say he needs to get back home to his wife, or wonder what she's making for dinner. Also characters will say things like "Let's talk about this in my office" when you are IN their office, which isn't terrible but is a bit story breaking.

The character interactions and romances are pretty flat, especially because you play such a passive character. You have zero engagement in any cut scene, any conversation. You don't get to choose anything and so NPC characters do all the heavy lifting, but because the dialog is weak it feels... hard to get invested. Martha is just worried everyone thinks she's a ditz. Dean likes food. Ottmar apparently thinks shouting GRILLED CORN when you're walking down the street is... conversation? And the fact that Rue is romanceable is WEIRD AND KINDA GROSS when it is very difficult to read her as anything but a sheltered teenager, a young one at that. I'd assume she was 12. 16 at the latest. Her dialog is almost entirely made up of "Mama likes flowers" and "Papa doesn't like me going places" and "Papa is strict". Supposedly she wants to be a chemist, but she's never had a single conversation with my character - a chemist - about this dream. She's also animated like a little girl and it just reads so poorly.

I feel like this game has amazing potential. I don't even care about the weird DLC furniture items. The potential loop of gather resources to cure people and rebuild the town is there in potentia but I see no space for actual growth. I don't regret the $20 I spent on this, I absolutely have gotten my money's worth, but I can't in good conscience suggest this game is worth buying unless you go in knowing the flaws and being ok with them. I really think once modders get a hold of this game we're going to see some very cool things, but for now the devs need to fix the bugs and maybe take the profits to get a writer to smooth out some of the dialog (though considering the wide range of localizations that will take a while).

Purchase with care, and hopefully things will be fixed sooner than later.

(Also Helene is best girl why the heck can't we romance the woman FLIRTING the whole game??)

I gave this a try after being disappointed with the JW games because I don't want to feel forced into dino fights, I want to run a cool dino zoo, and that is what this is! Straightforward gameplay with charming, simple music and enough task escalation to keep me playing. I wish there were more mission modes/more workshop activity, but for the price this was well worth purchasing!