I'm a huge fan of the -Survivor type games. The tower defense stationary feel of this game really added just enough of a twist that gives this game a unique feel. I'm currently in the process of finishing Torment V on all the characters. Each playable character has enough of a difference that I prefer changing up my strategies based on their bonuses. Granted, some buildings feel way more powerful than others at times, but I think its just the luck of RNG. When making choices, it feels more akin to the game Brotato where I felt like I was one choice away from ruining a good build in the later torment levels. The balance of risk vs reward feels pretty good.

As for aesthetics, I love the art style direction. Its dark but not spooky. The music slaps hard too. I'm a sucker for a good OST and this one has some tracks I really adore. The interface was straight forward and I didn't run into any game breaking bugs.

My only complaint would be when combining cards or when a specific character holds a card, if you move it then that's it. I wish it was more akin to chess where once you let go is when it goes to you hand.



Death Must Die, Holocure, Brotato, Heretic's Fork, Vampire Survivor, 10 Minutes Till Dawn, Halls of Torment

This isn't a power ranking of BESTEST GAME OF ALL TIME OF THE GENRE because all of these titles are amazing for different reasons. So if your list looks anything like mine, then I think you should give it a shot.

I'll preface this by saying when I first caught wind of this game on Kickstarter, I backed it immediately. I love the Harvest Moon - SDV type games and Roots of Pacha felt like it would be a fun twist on the genre. I also played both a multiplayer game with ONE other person and a single player game. I also play with zero mods to get the full experience first time round.

Also I wish there was a more neutral recommendation because that's what I'd give.


I'll start with the good.

The first couple of hours were a lot of fun. The tutorial for each new skill / action were helpful.

Time period / Setting

I love the fact that we are in that prehistoric like time period where things really feel new and novel. Getting a bucket for watering felt really awesome for that reason alone. When I would progress with new tools etc, it felt more impactful.

Art style

Colors are vibrant and very much in line with Stardew Valley. Clearly being set in the stone age or whatever shakes this up. Different animals, clothing style, etc. doesnt take away from this at all. If anything they did it very well.

Music/Ambiance

The soundtrack slaps hard. It really keeps with the theme of the game and I added the OST to my VGM playlist the second I heard some of the songs (Savanna in the summer is a true banger and don't get me started on the last part of the caves music ♥️♥️♥️)

Mechanics

I loved how RoP approached fishing in this game. I also enjoyed needing to go out and "tame" your own animals . Mining, chopping down trees, farming are very much in line with the look and feel of games like SDV.

Mounts

I like the option of having a choice of mounts in both species and colors. Also you can get one really early on which helps with the traversing different areas.



The Negative

Story Length / Completion
In my multiplayer game, we completed all the prophesies by Winter 1. We weren't even trying to speed through the game or anything.


Relationships

For starters, I am one of those peple that enjoys achievement hunting if it's worth it. I stopped playing when I had to gain favor with everyone. It felt like everyone was so... bland. They also kind of all felt similar. Im not looking for Baldurs Gate 3 level of character development but just something that made me go "I want to see what this person is about. "

The other thing is friendship decay. I can understand this in most games but these people are my clansmen. I can't imagine why affection would diminish if I don't keep up appearances. I just think it's silly but there is a mod that exists that can circumvent this situation.


Mounts

Another issue would be mount collision. Just let me walk through my mount, please. It's such a small thing but when I'm trying to get that coconut at 1am and I get off my osteriche the wrong way it just really grinds my beans.

The other issue is finding my mount. Yes they give you horns everywhere, however why not just let my flute double as a whistle to call it over. When I'm taming animals it'll sometimes walk off and it's just stupid to not be able to have it stay put, so a whistle would be a nice change.


Animals / Taming

Rare and Legendary animals having no real benefit other than looking pretty. At least make it give me like 3 eggs or shiny poop or something. The payoff for grinding these animals was just not worth it in the end. I decided to just send all of them to Grob, turn them into glue and be done with it.

I did put the taming in the positive side, but after taming so many animals, it's becomes a chore more than anything. Like fishing, the more I tame an animal, my skill for said animal should increase to the point where maybe the song is shorter and shorter.

Side note: some of the legendary skins for the animals are weak, I'm looking at you Ibex.

It would've been a cool feature to go on a "hunting party". Maybe once a month you give Grob some materials and then over night you wake up with meat in the mailbox if the hunt was successful. It kind of sucks to tame an animal just to slaughter it when I invite it to live with me.

Yes there is trapping but it I think going to the main hunter would've just felt cooler.


Money making

Money making is also kind of sad. The best money is in fishing and only fishing. imo. Now I love fishing and I think the fishing in this game is done well, but for anyone who hates it, it kinda of sucks for them. They need to up the numbers for some of the means of contribution making to make it worth while.

Mechanics

The totem powers are interesting, but become absolutely tedious (especially monkey form) when in trying to farm for specific things.

Also I wish fishing had more "map" options. It's the same look throughout each biome. A little variation would've just felt really good.

Irrigation was good in theory but I hated it in practice. Its awesome that they give you a spinkler type system but there was no great way I could set up the farm I wanted while using it. It was also clunky when it came to connecting certain points.

Building placements

On one hand it gives you nice options to place buildings in different places. However, I can't see why anyone would want to move their house away from the left side of the map, especially in the later game.

Keybinds/ Menu

Let me hit M to close my map. Why is this not a thing? Why do I have to hit escape?

The menu also feels very clunky. Especially in a multiplayer game where time doesn't pause, needing to menu over to find something can be painful.

A search feature in recipes would have gone a long way.

Because the animal menu doesn't give enough information, I need to name my animals their color so I can know which variation I'm missing. Why it doesn't tell you the variation makes no sense.


Multiplayer Housing

I wish it gave the option to just use ONE house. RoP gives the option to let you keep playing a multiplayer game as a single player. The issue is, when that person isn't on and their DOG is in the doorway and I can't get out of their house... It's an issue. Either let me control their animals to follow as well or let us share a single house as one.

Yes we don't have to build multiple houses, but if we both want pets it's absolutely necessary. If I were to come back I'd probably just forgo getting pets and animals for the most part.

Summary

I know more content is supposed to be released in the future if they are sticking to their roadmap. I will come back for the update and if they tweak anything in the meantime, I'll update my review accordingly.

As of right now, this just made me excited to play the new SDV content when it's released. TBF SDV is a very polished game, and has been out for a bit. But entering this genre, certain things should be way more polished.

Luckily I only ran into ONE big. I was going to butcher an animal and it froze me on the dialogue. It was painful because the other person in the game just farmed a TON of high quality fish and because I didn't just pass out, enabling the option to save, I had to restart the entire day. Considering it only happened once, it's not the end of the world, but it really took the wind out of our sails.

I don't recommend this title simply because there are better titles out there right now that do it better. Unless you really love this time period, it doesn't really change enough up in meaningful ways. There are not enough mods to fix things that I wish I could change. If I grabbed any of the few, it would be the one to stop friendship decay.

By no means is this a "BAD GAME". I just feel once you hit a certain point, the game is no longer fun. But before that the game is awesome.

If give it a solid 6.5/10. Decent game currently with plenty of room for improvement.

I just finished this game and 100% the achievements. I've also been playing "local co-op" with a friend in his game using Parsec (which by the way, runs smooth as butter). So my honest review, ZERO SPOILERS.
I will also preface this with at this time I'm going through anticipatory grief with my elderly cat. I decided to play a "Stardew Valley type game that would help take my mind off losing him" and went in COMPLETELY 10000% blind. I bought the game a long time ago after seeing a few seconds of the trailer thinking "Oh its like a chill game but you're on a boat".

Single player experience:
Controls: I always prefer playing games on PC with mouse and keyboard, but with the platforming involved, I felt the controller option was far superior of an option. The platforming I found was also very smooth. I never once said "darn it Stella, what is your problem ! just do the thing!!"

Time: There is a day/night cycle which is what I normally hate in games. I have anxiety when it comes to being on time, being late, not finishing things etc. I did not have that AT ALL with this game. It doesn't completely shut you out of doing things on your boat during "sleep time". I think I only used the sleep function when I wanted to get something done at a particular time etc. Also, you can go at your own pace. That includes when you decide to progress the story. I admit, I stalled heavily at times because I wasn't ready, and I was never penalized which YAY.

Chores/Mini-games: So fishing, planting watering crops etc. I don't know why but I love fishing in games. I really enjoyed fishing in this game. Watering plants/crops did become slightly tedious, however I did enjoy they had ways to speed up certain things if you needed like 30 coffee beans and 30 tea leaves NOW. I really liked "mini games" if you want to call them that. The only thing I kinda hated was the windmill, but when I just did the set it and forget it method (as i like to call it) it was fine.

Building: Great pacing in building and ingredients plus the pacing when you get them. Granted some buildings I wish there was more of a tutorial for how they work, and since I'm a stickler with figuring out things myself I refused to go googling. I finished the game so as long as you aren't completely inept, it's fine as is. Plus part of me likes when a game doesn't hold your hand to the point where you no longer can feel it because they crushed the life out of it.

Downside of building: The only irritation I had was when i'd want to rearrange my buildings. Yes, I'm one of THOSE PEOPLE who try and Tetris the crap out of things while making it Sim Citied where industry stays together so I don't suffocate my cows. If you are placing one building over the spot of another, it will let you "swap" but if you tried doing that in an area that takes up say a garden and your kitchen, you need to move one out of the way first. It's just mild tedium and it doesn't ruin the game at all.

Graphics/Animations: IMMEDIATELY what blew me away was how smooth the animations are. Seriously, just idle and watch Dandelion. Anyone with a cat can respect that is so fluid. I don't even have to mention how beautiful of a game this is. I mean... you have eyes right? LOOK.

Downside of animation: Each thing you do, cutting down a tree or mining etc. There is an animation that takes a few seconds but again, if you're looking for a game to blast through or speed run... I don't think you were the key audience. Luckily I was able to cancel out of accidentally clicking on a tree I didn't want to chop so I wouldn't even call it a true "Downside".

Soundtrack: Are you one of those people who listen to a song...and now its on repeat for like 3 days straight? Yes this soundtrack I've went into areas, jumped off my boat and closed my eyes to just keep listening. The music is POWERFUL. DO NOT PLAY WITHOUT MUSIC. Yes I know some people want to listen to their hip hops and technos but don't. It really rounds out the entire experience.

Story/Dialogue: Okay this one is complicated since I'm being as spoiler free as possible.
When i started the game, I'd say before I was able to really get the progression going... I was left a little confused about what was happening. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THAT. Just read the dialogue, and keep it in your mind. Not everything is meant to make sense right from the start. I won't lie, I wanted to google the crap out of it but I stayed true and I'm really happy I did.

This is a very well told story. At no point did I feel like there was a mockery of the content and message being portrayed. However PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, talk to EVERYONE. The one-liners alone still have me laughing. There were time's when some of the background non relevant npcs would just chat and I felt like I was in a fever dream. HILARIOUS. And make sure to talk to them when you return. DO NOT RUSH IT. I'm a fast reader, and if I skipped any of this knowing the gems of hilarity that exist, I'd have hated myself.

Bugs: I didn't find any weird game breaking bugs at all. I think I only ran into one sort of maybe bug where youd go to someone thats supposed to be there, and they're not there . A simple reload or traveling and entering somewhere different first and coming back fixed it. It was so minor it's not even a bug. ALSO, if you are trying to chop a tree, and dandelion isn't there... just wait. The dev's found a very solid way of bringing her to where you are ... maybe not solid but "unique and interesting" I think is a better way to describe it.

Characters: You ever went to school or work and just hated someone? Maybe it was your teacher, or the guy on the bus who man spreaded just a little too far, or your neighbor Eric who called the city on you because you didnt mow your lawn for a week because you were sick ( I HATE YOU ERIC). Or someone who was just the complete opposite? Warm and kind, willing to help you no matter what, be there when you were scared? Someone who was just absolute fun or brilliant or both? This game really brings out "that one person" that you loved, hated, were weirded out by, etc. The "cast" ,"supporting characters", and "background characters" are so well done. Everyone I met, I thought to myself "I knew a person like that".

Final Thoughts:

I've been gaming since Atari 2600, Sierra-Online days. I play hip MMORPGS, Mobas, AAA titles for console and PC, Indie Games, Visual Novels... I do it all. This game blew me away. I was honestly surprised I didn't hear more about it when it was released (I was knee deep into BDO so maybe thats why). My only regret playing it is I can't experience it again for the first time. Death is scary. Whether it's losing someone we care about, not knowing what happens next, how it'll happen, will there be suffering etc., our brains can't even fathom how truly vast space is. This game takes such a topic, and expands upon it beautifully and with respect. Moments of light hearted banter are welcoming, the ease and relaxing nature of crafting/farming etc, and sailing around on the seas with some fun little mini games help bring you back to the comfort and familiarity of a Stardew Valley type game. It was truly a joy to play and I really hope more people take the time to just experience this story for themselves.









Okay I do have ONE sort of spoiler but it has to do with completion.
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"I have everything but it says im missing x amount of x"
It can't have just been found but it had to have been done/made/ etc yourself. So as any true completionist like myself, make everything, go everywhere, do everything.