Positives first: the devs are engaged and eager to fix problems that come up. The game is adorable (I hugged a bear!!). The art is really great, the world is beautiful and the concept is intriguing.

The negatives: It becomes very grindy. Some mechanics are simply not explained or not explained very well. The game feels a little confused. It's obviously set in colonial times but it's like one of those historical romance novels that say they're set in one time period but everyone is doing/saying/acting how people act in the present. I never got the feeling that anything my character was doing was influencing anything else in the town. My character dropped dead in the town square with several characters nearby and nobody even blinked. Your character can emote (something that's not explained and I'm not sure I understand), but the NPCs don't seem to react to anything you do so it feels disjointed, like you should be part of the town but just aren't. They also respond to each other in the same static way, comes off as stiff. For example, if Mary keels over one day from the plague, there will be a funeral and no one will ever mention her again. You could dance at the funeral and noone will notice and noone will ever mention it. The NPCs just don't react naturally, by itself probably fine, but the whole idea here is that the town is living and breathing and reacting to your choices. Example: my character has a baby and goes to talk to the husband. Husband doesn't say anything about this significant life event. He said the equivalent of "nice weather we're having". Paying taxes for a town that never changes or grows or improves is a weird thing. That tax thing, btw - you can opt out (again, something that's not well explained, because you have to select opting out on one option screen then navigate to another that has an oddly placed "apply" button and select to apply settings), but there is NO grace period if you don't pay your taxes on time. There's really no way for you to buy recipes from a central location, like for food or building things, you have to come across them in a random shop or by trading with a random NPC or doing some tasks for a NPC. Example: paint. It's required for house upgrades. The ONLY way I have found to buy paint is from the ships that come into port, but there is no way to obtain this info in the game unless you happen to go down to the port and try to trade with the captain of the ship. The town is devoid of religion or religious symbols, but everyone is hung up on the witch who is practising magic (and I don't want to spoil anything but there are ghosts and afterlife components) which makes it the only religion in the game and makes religion strangely nondiverse. The hunger/food relationship and economy really seem unbalanced.

I enjoyed the first few hours, but after getting married and building a nicer house, I'm back to grinding away at trees which are strangely non-sustainable (at least the ones on the farm don't seem to regenerate) to make decent money. I built a charcoal kiln and a smelter but can't figure out how to use the smelter and there's no guidance for it in-game. Update: I did figure out how to use them through trial and error. It has led to less grinding, so that's good.

There's just too many things that feel arbitrary or not thought through and/or contradictory in this game for me to recommend it right now. If you're ok with all these things, or them potentially not changing, then grab it because you'll love it. I have high hopes that things will get ironed out and/or improved because the devs seem to love their game very very much and I wish the best for it.

Positives first: the devs are engaged and eager to fix problems that come up. The game is adorable (I hugged a bear!!). The art is really great, the world is beautiful and the concept is intriguing. The negatives: It becomes very grindy. Some mechanics are simply not explained or not explained very well. The game feels a little confused. It's obviously set in colonial times but it's like one of those historical romance novels that say they're set in one time period but everyone is doing/saying/acting how people act in the present. I never got the feeling that anything my character was doing was influencing anything else in the town. My character dropped dead in the town square with several characters nearby and nobody even blinked. Your character can emote (something that's not explained and I'm not sure I understand), but the NPCs don't seem to react to anything you do so it feels disjointed, like you should be part of the town but just aren't. They also respond to each other in the same static way, comes off as stiff. For example, if Mary keels over one day from the plague, there will be a funeral and no one will ever mention her again. You could dance at the funeral and noone will notice and noone will ever mention it. The NPCs just don't react naturally, by itself probably fine, but the whole idea here is that the town is living and breathing and reacting to your choices. Example: my character has a baby and goes to talk to the husband. Husband doesn't say anything about this significant life event. He said the equivalent of "nice weather we're having". Paying taxes for a town that never changes or grows or improves is a weird thing. That tax thing, btw - you can opt out (again, something that's not well explained, because you have to select opting out on one option screen then navigate to another that has an oddly placed "apply" button and select to apply settings), but there is NO grace period if you don't pay your taxes on time. There's really no way for you to buy recipes from a central location, like for food or building things, you have to come across them in a random shop or by trading with a random NPC or doing some tasks for a NPC. Example: paint. It's required for house upgrades. The ONLY way I have found to buy paint is from the ships that come into port, but there is no way to obtain this info in the game unless you happen to go down to the port and try to trade with the captain of the ship. The town is devoid of religion or religious symbols, but everyone is hung up on the witch who is practising magic (and I don't want to spoil anything but there are ghosts and afterlife components) which makes it the only religion in the game and makes religion strangely nondiverse. The hunger/food relationship and economy really seem unbalanced. I enjoyed the first few hours, but after getting married and building a nicer house, I'm back to grinding away at trees which are strangely non-sustainable (at least the ones on the farm don't seem to regenerate) to make decent money. I built a charcoal kiln and a smelter but can't figure out how to use the smelter and there's no guidance for it in-game. Update: I did figure out how to use them through trial and error. It has led to less grinding, so that's good. There's just too many things that feel arbitrary or not thought through and/or contradictory in this game for me to recommend it right now. If you're ok with all these things, or them potentially not changing, then grab it because you'll love it. I have high hopes that things will get ironed out and/or improved because the devs seem to love their game very very much and I wish the best for it.