Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Came here as a gamer… left as a professional rice farmer degree
The realistic, in depth elements of rice farming combined with honing fighting skills plus surprising character revelations and development make Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin a magnificent game. Beside its beautiful story‚ Sakuna’s personal growth is a pleasure to watch. Her reason for living is tested to the limit. The balanced emphasis on farming and fighting provides a great variety of tasks to undertake, providing dozens of hours of fun.
– Real player with 114.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Farming Sim Female Protagonist Games.
I’ll leave a TLDR at the bottom.
I was hesitant yet curious coming into Sakuna. A game that’s half side-scroller beat’m up, and half in-depth rice farming is something unique and interesting to me.
We are introduced to Sakuna, a daughter of harvest goddesss Toyohana and war god Takeribi. Sakuna is a goddess who resides in the capital indulging herself on all sorts of expensive luxuries until one day she meets a certain group of humans and gets involved in an unfortunate event that has her and the group exiled to an isle of demons called Hinoe. It is on this isle that Sakuna will grow rice, hunt demons, and come to learn more about the humans that were exiled along with her.
– Real player with 83.4 hrs in game
Atomicrops
Note: Despite my hours I have seen quite a bit of this game already. This is because I played a lot of the Limited Thyme Preview, so I would say that I have to say here is just. Atomicrops: Stardew Meets Gungeon But Falls a Bit ShortSoundtrack…………………………………………………………………………..⭐⭐⭐⭐/☆ (4/5)- This game has an awesome soundtrack that fits into its theme quite nicely. It’s quirky, lively, and a bit silly, which suits the game well. Only complaint is that there’s few songs. Graphics…………………………………………………………………………………⭐⭐⭐/☆☆ (3.5/5)- Good graphics for sure, but not as good as EtGs or Stardews. Boss sprites and character portraits look quite detailed though. Atmosphere/Mood…………………………………………………………………⭐⭐⭐⭐/☆ (4/5)- A cultative combination of the music, bosses, crop animations, and more, the game accomplishes it’s mood quite well. Gameplay……………………………………………………………………………..⭐⭐⭐/☆☆ (3/5)- The game is a bit repetitive, and doesn’t have all the best permanent content. More on that later. Potential Time Investment…………………………………………………………..⭐⭐⭐/☆☆ (3/5)- Due to the lack of permanent content, and an issue with keeping players completely engaged, time invested will likely be a bit shorter than other roguelites. Price……………………………………………………………………………….⭐⭐⭐/☆☆ (3.5/5)- The price is probably a bit too high for this game. It is best to buy it on sale. Lacking of Bugs…………………………………………………………………⭐⭐⭐⭐/☆ (4.5/5)- I have found only one bug playing this game, though it’s hard to say if it’s a bug or an intentional feature. Overall Star Verdict*…………………………………………………………….🌟🌟🌟/☆☆ (25.5/35)- At its core, the game is a lot about management, where two interesting concepts have been combined in a way that is a bit short of being perfect. *Overall Star Verdict is calculated by finding the mean of the seven different categories; that is, adding them all up and dividing them by the amount (7) to calculate the Verdict. Generally, the initial Verdict will be rounded up for the final one.A lot of people want to say that this game is “Stardew meets Gungeon.” In part that is true, but definitely not completely. And not necessarily for the better. This game is a bit short of being a perfect combination of those games. Farming is definitely a major portion of this game, and for the most part it’s not bad. The player has to till the ground, plant the seeds, and water them, simple stuff. But the game takes it a bit further than that. Plants can be fertilized to increase their value. Fertilizer is dropped from enemies, tying in the farming with the combat a bit. In addition, if crops are
! planted in a 2x2 square and fertilized, they will merge into one large crop. These large crops are worth considerable more than their smaller counterparts. This is a fitting mechanic because it encourages players to think about how they arrange their crops, instead of just mindlessly planting them everywhere. The action is a bit short of being up there with the greats. Lots of the time it’s somewhat repetitive, and unfortunately this doesn’t just apply to the farming aspect. There is little enemy variety, and several of the enemies are just enhanced versions of weaker ones. However, some of the enemies that there are have interesting attack patterns, which spice things up a bit. This issue also applies to the seasons as well. There’s four main seasons, and one final season. Each main season lasts three days, and features one boss at the very end. Every night the player will face a siege of mutant animals trying to eat the player’s crops. The difficulty of this siege ramps up nicely as the game progresses, and rarely feels unfair. In fact, at the beginning, it is actually quite easy. Very few enemies appear, and those that do have very little health. In addition, during the first year enemy bullets move insanely slow. But more on that later. Unfortunately, there is only one boss per season, which makes the fights feel a bit less unique. Once the player actually manages through the first four seasons they will go into the
! Nuclear Winter. This season is different from any other. It is entirely at night, and features only a single day. During this the player will be fighting off against the
! Corpse-a-copia, a giant head composed of various fruits and vegetables. This boss fight is actually very unique, because unlike most enemies it cannot be damaged through usual means. Instead, the player must
! farm and harvest crops to damage it.. This boss fight is executed in a way that perfectly combines both the fighting and farming aspects of the game, and is definitely one of the highlights. I mentioned how easy the first year of the game is. While that is still true, that does change later on. After beating the game once in the current year the player will be able to access the next year. There is not much difference between years, other than difficulty. As the years increase so do enemy bullet speeds, enemy attack speeds, enemy health, etc. Think of it as the Summoning Stones from UnderMine. There are some rewards for completing higher years, though they may not be enough to keep players engaged. The only rewards are
! some new characters and bachelors/bachelorettes. The marriage portion of this game isn’t exactly what it might seem like at first. It centers around roses, a rare crop that have a few, valuable uses, including dating. Dating one of the characters really just comes down to what they are offering at the time for the player’s roses. This makes it feel less like a relationship and more like a bartering system. In addition, besides from character portraits, none of the characters are interesting in the slightest. They have very little personality or story of any kind. This game has a beast of a soundtrack. The songs capture the feeling very well in the majority of the scenarios. My personal favorite is the boss theme of Summer. The graphics in this game are good too. Some sprites look a bit flat, especially with character and enemy sprites. This is heavily contradicted by the greatly detailed nature of the crops and boss sprites. There are some features that the game is missing and feels a bit unfinished because of it. Keep in mind these are from what I know and have experienced. First of all, there seems to be no almanac of any sort to keep track of the different crops. This makes it difficult to know which crops are more valuable than others, and as such makes it hard to prioritize which ones to grow. In addition, there’s no way to keep track of all the different items either, unless the player actively sees them or has them on them. Second, the game does not have an on-screen map. There is one in the inventory menu, but it’s quite small and not that helpful. Because of this, it’s easy to get lost at the start of the game. There’s also some areas that are just empty, with nothing in them at all. This is very apparent towards the ends of each biome. There’s also very few achievements in this game, and I don’t really see why that is. Hopefully more will be added in the future. So, for the most part, I do enjoy this game a fair bit. However, if you want to play a true roguelite, go play Enter the Gungeon or UnderMine. If you’re coming here purely for the farming, go play Stardew Valley instead. This game is not the best example of either of those two genres.
– Real player with 267.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Farming Sim Indie Games.
Target Audience: Roguelite fans wanting something a bit different, and want something to put a lot of time in.
Summary:
Atomicrops is one of those games that’s the definition of a solid purchase. You’re not going to feel bad about the 15 dollars spent here as you will get a fun return on investment here, something that you’ll play for hours at a time (hell even with leaving the game on, notice the hours played here). Will the game be something that will revolutionize the genre or will stick with you 10-15 years down the road? Not right now no, I do believe that is possible with tweaks here and there it could be, but it’s a game that has a couple of “yeah, but”s about it that won’t put it in the elite. That definitely doesn’t mean it’s not worth the money.
– Real player with 142.3 hrs in game
Professional Farmer 2014
Playing Professional Farmer 2014 since Christmas. Some glitches along the way but with adequate developer response I think. The lack of complete controller mapping and a limited fuel, fertilizer and seed acquisition system are the most negative for me. If I purchase all the fields, I should be able to use every farmhouse, etc. I am Glad I bought Farming Simulator 2013 yesterday when it was on sale for $8.39 as I thought it may be better. I am sure it will be fun but a tour around the map and quick use of some of the equipment gave me a real appreciation of Professional Farmer 2014. FS2013 did have some of the features I wish PF2014 had like thorough controller mapping and more plentiful supply acquisition locations but the lesser equipment/landscape detail, ambiance and immersion quality is immediately apparent.
– Real player with 58.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Farming Sim Agriculture Games.
I have a long history with UIG and in all honesty we both(UIG and me) would admit it has not been a great relationship. I was given pre-release access to this game so that, as I quote from UIG “you will be pleasantly surprised”. Well as I played it….I was pleasantly surprised. You can find a thread labeled ‘CE - This game delivers’ in the profarm forum if you desire more info into all of that. Now with the review.
Technical: Currently at the time of this writing there are about 5 people saying they have bad frame rates. This means this game runs fine for 99% of all buyers. Which when you think about it, is a pretty darn good ratio. No crashes have been reported from what I have seen. From my side of things it has run very well with only some minor technical issues that I would think will be fixed in upcomming patches. These issues include odd and overly bright reflections from the sun at sunrise/set and from headlights. The occasional piece of texture floating a few inches above the ground after plowing (only noticable when you have camera at the right angle. Some controller mapping issues. All in all though no serious techinical glitches or bugs that break gameplay or the fun level.
– Real player with 48.9 hrs in game
Stranded Sails - Prologue
So first off, I must say I actually bought Stranded Sails [The full game] awhile back… but sadly it has sat in my steam inventory unplayed with many many other games. I tend to buy more games than I play through, so this isn’t uncommon. (I’m sure a lot of you can relate!) So I got a notice in my steam feed about a Stranded Sails Prologue, and it’s free for the playing! I’m a bit of a stickler for free stuff… so even though I already own the game, I thought maybe this prologue was a good way to introduce myself to the game! So I tried it out! One more thing, I’ve never written a review before, and I’m not really sure what compelled me to do so now… but here I am, so bare with me.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
❥₊˚ Why is the game good? For me, it has a few glitches BUTTT the game is so fun!! I could play it on and on. And the fact that its free is amazing, to be honest, i like exploring and the game is just gold to me. There are so many places to explore and i totally recommend the game if you have some free time!
❥₊˚ Does it take long to finish the game? I don’t know to be honest, for that question you can check out other reviews, I have been playing it for over 3 hours now and i can’t stop playing it!
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Dark Farm
I used to be a warrior. Fighting and beating huge enemies. But i’m tired. I just want to retire. Enjoying a simple life, being a simple person. But something went wrong.
This is my life now…
“Dark Farm” is an RPG raid game. You have to take care of your garden, which wants to kill you. Grow killer vegetables. Water your garden beds. Defend yourself. Perform a ritual to get rid of the dark forces.
CHRISTMAS UPDATE!
Features:
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Plant a plant.
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Take care of him.
Gleaner Heights
Don’t mistake this for Stardew Valley
Well, it needed to be said. Gleaner Heights is a farming-rpg that does share a few common elements with Stardew Valley and other games inspired by Harvest Moon. But it has an unique style, charm and in short is a game you really want to experience. It isn’t without its flaws, but the developer keeps an ear to the community and has expressed a desire to keep working on the game. Even as is, it is a damn good game, well worth the asking price. That’s the short of things.
– Real player with 76.6 hrs in game
This review will not be short, but I’ll preface it with the colloquial ‘short of it’. This game is mostly a positive experience, with a couple solid, avoidable gripes- and one which I’d say needs to be fixed on principle.
Gleaner Heights is a farming sim that, at least in my experience, lies just outside the expected norms of it’s genre- this is not a bad thing. In an extremely short forty hours it has forced me to confront particular habits and reliances that have embedded themself into my psyche, and to bash them against the rocks until they’ve cracked wide open, allowing me access to the tender meat within. It’s been an admittedly love-hate relationship, as a consequence of how it’s made me rethink what it is I value in the games I play, and reminded me why I started to love this genre in the first place.
– Real player with 60.4 hrs in game
Re:Legend
monster taming homesteading RPG
first off; the monster taming: monsters in this game are called ‘magnus’ which isnt a name that rolls off the tongue; theyre seemingly called magnus after the developers
every magnus you come across (except bosses) can be tamed; to tame them you need to feed them something they like (land crops, aqua crops, meat, fish, ore, lumber… and theres a couple of odd ones; like nerlicts are cannibals); whilst every magnus has a favourite food you dont need that to tame them (shroomies favourite food is rubrum logs; but you can feed it any logs to tame it)… once theyve been fed enough you can interract with them and a minigame occurs (theres some scaling to this to try and prevent you from getting high level magnus too early)
– Real player with 73.6 hrs in game
Hi,
I have played this game for a little under a week. While the game is still in early access, the devs have posted news about getting the game to a release soon thus, this review is mainly for their use and hopefully will allow them to fix some issues that I have found.
1. Gardening: The seed-plant pricing ratio becomes ridiculous immediately after the first spring in the game. The cost for the seed is almost equal to or significantly greater than the cost of the fully grown fruit yield. The gardening mechanic is effectively broken, as seeds often only give 1 fruit per grown seed, and then you have to buy more seeds. Half of the seeds are priced significantly more than the cost of the grown fruit, these are seeds that give fruit regularly(~3 days) per grown plant seed, but the cost is often greater than 10:1 and the entire season’s growth will just cover the cost of the seed in the first place. There seems to be no other method of acquiring seed other than the shop, as grown plants do not yield seeds for garden expansion or selling.
– Real player with 30.4 hrs in game
Touhou Adventure
*** NOT RECOMMENDED IN ITS CURRENT STATE **
But seem to be getting some developer love.
Keep it on your wishlist and come back in around 3 to 4 months.
Changing the review from a negative one to a positive one since the developer is really trying to fix whatever is wrong with the current build.
– Will update if things change in the future.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Come Bye: A Sheepdog Simulator
A farmer’s best friend.
There’s no better feeling than working with a dog. In this quirky, casual sheepdog simulation game, you’ll experience that first hand.
Playing as the shepherd, you’ll whistle commands to your dog, Daisy, as you run to keep up.
Using the same simple commands that actual shepherds use, you’ll guide Daisy and your flock through trials, around obstacles, and away from danger.
The sheep have a mind of their own, so it’ll take everything you and Daisy have to make sure they get back to the barn safely. (Especially with the reports of abduction-happy extra-terrestrials in the area!)
Features
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Compete in trials against the clock and score points for keeping the flock together.
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Guide the sheep away from hazards like water, fire, and abduction-happy aliens.
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Open and close the gates carefully–you don’t want any of the sheep to escape!
Theo’s World
Theo’s World is the rarest game I have ever played. I personally believe that the best part of Theo’s World was the fact that I felt elite knowing I was one of the only sets of eyes that would likely ever see this game. There was clearly alot of effort that went into the map, however within 5 minutes I was stuck, glued to my tricycle and forced to do nothing but tour the island. Another 5 minutes past and poor Theo tipped over the tricycle and we got stuck, in the hellscape that is Theo’s World.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
when i clicked usar, it says please close to any items or esc button. i clicked esc and actions doesnt disappear and i cannot do anything cuz of that i have to exit to menu all time.otherwise game’s graphics are good and should be uptaded. GO on!
Edit: They fixed the problem. They will be more uptaded for this game i guess. Optimization was better than previous uptade btw.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game