While I do have to play on low settings due to having a slightly aged PC, I have yet to have a crash and only get stuttering when i've been playing for literal hours and it starts to hog memory which is fixed with a quick save and quit to menu.

Game is tons of fun, definitely a top 3 BL game, story is great, side missions are fun and harken back to the old BL2 side missions, weapons feel awesome, legendaries feel WORTH farming, I am very happy with this entry

PC spcs:
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Pinnacle Ridge 12nm Technology
RAM
32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR4 @ 932MHz (13-13-13-31)
Motherboard
Micro-Star International Co., Ltd B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MS-7C02) (AM4)
Graphics
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (MSI)
Storage
1863GB Crucial CT2000BX500SSD1 (SATA (SSD))
1863GB Samsung SSD 860 QVO 2TB (SATA (SSD))

I am putting this as a recommend as it is a very fun game, and I can see where it's going and I am very excited for it. That being said I feel there is a few things that need polishing:

- Movement: This is essentially a FPS bullet hell game and while the bones of the movement required are there, it's not at a point where it feels fair to the player. If i'm punished for sliding, dashing, running, or standing still then I've really got no choice but to pray and try and out heal the damage. There needs to be some I-frames on the dash so that the player has a chance to get themselves out of danger and reposition. Currently you dash and you just eat all the bullets the enemies have strewn everywhere and die.

- Healing: I love the mechanic that you need to stun enemies to get healing, and that the environment is how you do that. That being said, it's incredibly frustrating having to try and lure enemies under a building/structure to get it to drop on them just for it to whiff by a cats whisker and suddenly you're only hope is finding stuff on the outskirts. I would like to see the environment break up better into throwable chunks and those chunks do a better job of stunning. You would still have the same gameplay core but it feels more rewarding rather than chuck one grenade then sprint around for minutes while you pick them off one at a time and pray you find an explosive barrel

Weapons: Love what we're doing with the weapons, they feel like they have a reason for use and they beneifit certain playstyles. They also feel like water guns against the enemies. Enemies have absolutely zero reaction to being shot until they die, which makes it waaaay to easy for them to just swarm you and mess you up (see in tandem the mention of bullet hell). I would say a small recoil stagger (not as in the mechanic but just them reacting) would fix this. that way you still need to play smart as if you just focus one the others will flank you, but you aren't murked instantly. It will also give added benefit to mods like the ricochet and spread projectiles.

All in all, very excited to see this game progress and where this dev takes things, and for a solo effort this is an absolute banger of a first release

This game is a souls like designed by people that have no clue what makes a souls like fun.

- Lots of loot to bring variety to your build = good
- Loot from literally every enemy with random stats making min-maxing a chore and your inventory messy as hell = bad

- Different enemy types = good
- the same different enemies in every level = bad

- different weapons for different playstyles = good
- one weapon style and one firearm being the objective best and if you play anything else expect to get absolutely nowhere = bad

- Cool stamina mechanic allowing you to regain on the fly and keep up pressure = good
- stamina running out after 2 swings and then leaving you completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ = bad

- imposing bosses making you feel like you're up for a challenge = good
- bosses will literally one hit you at EVERY POINT IN THIS GAME and your options are to either use the oddly laggy dodge or spec full heavy armour and lose all stamina after 2 steps = bad


ONLY buy this game when it is on sale cause paying anything more than $10 for this is honestly theft and will leave you pissed you spent the money

This game is fantasic. If you are a fan of RPG's and specifically fishing mechanics in RPG's then this game is for you. Having completed the game as well as all side quests, here's my concluding thoughts:

Pros:

- No cooldown on fishing, you can catch fish as fast as you can land a hook on them
- No energy/bait/resource mechanics. You can buy bait to help improve your stats but you can get by just fine without it, and theres no artificially inflating the time by making you sleep at the end of every day or anything, just go your hardest
- Gimmick battles are fun! It gives a lot of flavour to the different species you can find, and if there is any that are particularly annoying for you, then it leads into my next point
- The crafting is meaningful. Each rod has a reason for existing and the progression makes sense. You can make rods that combat specific gimmick fish to make them easier to catch, as well as just flat upgrades so you can keep up with the more difficult fish. Same goes for the hooks, they give a good reason to spend your materials if you aren't selling them, and have a meaningful impact on your stats without making you OP super quick.
- The story is cute and fun. There's nothing groundbreaking here and I doubt the devs were trying to recreate FF7 or anything. You have reasons to go to each area, a reason why each fish is there, the side quests are fun and lighthearted, and the progression of going from catching a fish on your home island to the end game never felt force. honestly can't ask for more.

Cons:
- Some of the Gimmicks are really annoying. This is less a con and me having a whinge to be honest, but some of them really kicked my ass XD
- The translations need an overhaul (I have seen this is being addressed by the devs and when done shouldn't be an issue)
- The side quests are a little lacking in lore. I would have liked to have maybe seen an NPC in each town say "hey I heard this place has a fish that fights with a sword!" or something like that. You do kinda just stumble across a few of them, catch them, then get some loot and bail.
- The shops are hard to memorise where to buy certain levels of things. I would have liked if it was like pokemon whereby as you progfress, all shops get upgraded (but unique items are set to each location) just so I don't have to remember where to go to get the best bait/potions etc

Ideas for future:
- I would love a combo system for chaining criticals or even hits. It could allow you to bump the difficulty on higher level fish and reward players who do well.
- Expand the fish information in the encyclopedia. Currently it lists one location for the fish then says "etc." which doesn't really help find them. Listing all the locations they can be would be really helpful so you're not jetting all over the map when it turns out the next island over has what you need.
- More superbosses would be awesome. The gold sidequest was great but I want to see more real endgame content.

All in all I am incredibly excited to see what comes next for this game and I plan on sinking many more hours in!

The bones of this game show a lot of potential. I love the setting, the gameplay loop seems workable, and you can see what they are going for

At this current point in production though I don't think it's enjoyable however. There's too little explanation about where you're going and what you're doing, the menus feel clunky and un-intuitive, the level design while clearly on theme is impossible to read as it's all one colour and filtered to oblivion making it impossible to see, and the optimisation needs a lot of love.

I know i've only put in a short amount of time and I fully intend on putting in more to give it a fair go but first impressions are this is a game that is going to need a lot of iterations and I really hope the devs stick with it as with some polish this will be a great game

Joon Shining is a golf-inspired puzzle game with emphasis on precision and platforming to reach the goal. This review is written after having completed the qualifier (tutorial) level and some of the main levels.


The titular Joon takes the role of the player character, who must use his magical powers to direct dodo eggs into their nests to avoid their extinction. The player has access to various objects in the world to help or hinder their progress, and can also apply magic to slow/stop the balls progress or continue rolling to achieve a better shooting position

Off the bat I’ll say the tutorial is pretty bare bones at this point, introducing you to the tools/concepts but not really providing any idea how they will come into play. Self explanatory ones like camera movement and adjusting shooting angle are fine, but when dealing with manipulating objects it can be a little hard to decipher. I can definitely see an argument for this being part of the puzzle, however for an introduction to the game I feel there’s no harm in laying things out for the player. It’s also worth noting that once past the tutorial and into the levels proper, certain things you have already come to learn about now take on whole new functions with no warning (the bubbles you used to bounce around now suddenly act like donkey kong cannons shooting you in a pointed direction) or obstacles and enemies that will now harm you. Again this can be viewed as part of the puzzle, but explanations don’t hurt.

The gameplay itself does feel good once you get into the rhythm and understand how the ball moves through the level, however as noted by some others it can tend to not follow the arc line which means for highly precise shots like threading the ball into a pipe become much harder and not in a fun way. The inclusion of spells to allow you to get the perfect tee off spot or land on smaller platforms does work quite well and adds much needed player control into the gameplay, so definitely a big plus for that.


The art is again a bit bare bones unfortunately. While level design definitely fits the function it needs to in order to provide challenging shots and tricky puzzles, it feels like the levels were made and then decorated to look filled up. Some shapes and areas look like generic shapes that have been coloured to blend but don’t appear to serve any form or function, which I feel could be removed to give a cleaner look or make way for more unique assets

In terms of colour and lighting, A+ all round. It’s easy to see what you’re looking at and things don’t look monotone and boring. I’m personally not a fan of the checker pattern on grass seen in these sorts of games, but that’s more a personal gripe than anything. Art style and textures blend well together, at no point was there ever an asset that made me say “wait why is that there” which is a hard thing to do so kudos for that.

Music and sound meshes well but can be a little bit overbearing, such as the wave sound whenever you drop the ball in the drink, but it doesn’t kill the experience in my opinion.


No game is without these and for a game this early in production it should not be taken as anything other than feedback:

Menu’s need work: The main menu only has two options, both of which start the game and nothing else. I would recommend adding in access to the options menu and a quit to desktop button in future builds as it can be annoying having to start the game to exit the game. The pause menu faces issues in which the mouse doesn’t seem to show correctly, and when clicking restart level the game will be stuck until the menu is opened and closed again. I’m aware holding R restarts the level but I didn’t find this out until the very end of the tutorial meaning I faced this issue up until that point.

Camera is restrictive: Being locked to one view and having to move the camera away to see the shot then go back and try and line it up is challenging for the wrong reasons. I would suggest have the camera set dynamically so that depending on the range of your shot, the camera moves in and out to capture the intended path (zoom for tight chip shots, pan out for long shots)

Ball arc: as mentioned in other reviews, the ball does not follow the arc meaning precision is compromised as a result. A review of this is very much needed, but i imagine already on the list so I won’t harp too much


In its current state it is exactly what is advertised. A golf-inspired puzzle game with emphasis on precision and platforming to reach the goal that is in early access. I personally don’t think it is worth its current price point at this stage of development, however I can definitely see there is a solid game on the way that will emerge as it is built upon. I’m definitely looking forward to future updates and seeing how things progress.

Fantastic game. Feels like a spiritual successor to Portal 2, with great gameplay, lots of little hidden secrets, hilarious self aware humour and plenty of pop culture references. Quite a short game but offers replayability in trying to 100% the game and find all the stuff you missed!

I freaking love this game. The gameplay loop works incredibly well as a deck builder, the world feels very lived in and dynamic which helps greatly with immersion, and each character you can play as feels unique but doesn't feel like you're playing a different game each time. Rook is my hand down favourite to play as, and going the diplomacy route is so much fun with his coin mechanic. 11/10 highly recommend

I unironically have lost sleep thinking about this concept in real life. Somehow this game makes it less scary.

Interesting mechanics, fun gameplay loop, cute art, all in all great game.

Imagine diablo, but with all the quality of life improvements you wish it had, then add guns. Absolute banger 11/10