Pros:
Played the demo a year ago now, I believe, fell in love right then. I have to have spent at least 20 hours in the demo alone, replaying, exploring, trying to beat my own times. I'm not too far past that yet but I can say the feeling is consistent.

The feel of this world is so familiar to me. The artists that worked on the concept art and other overarching stylization are some of my favorites: Lukas Julian Lentz for game design and Martin Stig Andersen for audio/music and Mathieu Bablet for visuals and narrative. They had their hands dipped in other circles as well but this was their main focus from what I know. While of course this game is made by a multitude of talented people who deserve their due credit, these names are what brought me to view this deeper than an interesting steam release to come and probably what made it so familiar.

The climbing feels true to life, I can naturally tell where tension would build and strain would be reduced simply from intuition through personal experience.

The artstyle is stunning and consistent, both visual and audio design. I followed through the discord to see as much as I could of the dev process. I can confidently say it was well worth it.

As for price vs. value.... to be honest this is a bit subjective. I would say play the demo first, if you love it as I do, it's well worth your money. Even without deluxe edition add-ons, the gameplay you're receiving is something I've yet to experience with another game. Even games like Jusant fail to create the true feeling of a free climb on a mountain such as Kami.

Cons:
One thing I did find a bit frustrating is the way the manual limb selection works (selecting which limb you want to move when climbing). This has not changed since the initial release of the demo. While I have not yet remapped the keybinds, from what I understand, the way I want to do so is not possible. I would prefer a q,e,z,c selection to respective limbs, but you are required to toggle with the spacebar and scroll with the mouse wheel through the limb options until you have the one you want. It always starts the selection on the left hand, so I have been able to create muscle memory to quickly switch the limbs after playing the demo so much. (I play keyboard/mouse and have not tested controller as of yet.) This is not game breaking, I do not think this will take away from my experience as I am so used to it now, however I do think a custom mapping for the way this activates. (i.e. toggle rather than having to hold it down, ability to map the limbs to a specific button rather than the scroll wheel.)

To clarify, the above situation is more of a accessibility issue for me, while I can technically scroll my mouse wheel just fine, to do so frequently with my right hand is.... difficult. So I will likely have to take more breaks than I would otherwise need to complete my first ascent.

TL;DR
-play demo first, decide if it's worth your money from there. This type of game isn't for everyone.
-amazing artists and dev team all around, much love <3
-game feels fluid and intuitive akin to the strains of irl mountain climbing, Controls can be custom mapped.
-Personal rating of 9/10 only for personal preference on the toggle function for limb selection.

TL;DR at the bottom <3

Gameplay
The overall gameplay is a loop of gathering items to decorate with, completing decorating missions, and exploring to unlock decorations/story items/easter eggs. You have options to not only freely decorate your own layouts, but also there is no restriction for having objects in a specific part of the level besides specifications from the request. (i.e. these bottles must be on this shelf, I want my dog bed in my room, etc)

The controls are easy enough to use, I personally use keyboard and mouse, and although there is the restriction of a grid system it is fairly easy to place objects in the orientation you want them. I also appreciate the ability to freely move through the world and return to previous locations if you're unhappy with a layout you finished before, or to find things you might have missed. No need to start a whole new playthrough, it's all right there!

Art Design
I find the art to be very cute and detailed for the pixilated graphics you will be seeing while playing the game. Even the lighting effects can influence the feel of a room so being able to adjust those helps during the freeform decoration. They took care to design a multitude of different types of objects from clutter, to dividers, to windows and other major furniture pieces. It's clear that a lot of time went into making sure these pieces each stay cohesive with the rest of the game's art direction.

Soundtrack/Sound Design
The soundtrack is very fitting for the vibe this game is trying to provide, and has several variations plus area exclusive tracks that are meant to provide specific themes. Each one seems thought out in terms of integration, in addition to being pleasant to listen to on their own.

As for the sound design, there's not much to say specifically. The sounds when moving objects indicates weight and material which I feel points again to the care taken with this game. It makes it feel more tangible.

Price vs Value
The price vs value is always going to be subjective. If this kind of game appeals to you, it will give you at least 4 hours of main story gameplay, and a potential for dozens more through side content or personal projects if you find the time or reason to do so. At full price as of this review (14.99 USD) I feel it is a good sandbox tool and is worth the money if and only if you feel you will get enough out of it to make it so. Otherwise, maybe a wishlist is in order for you to be notified for the next sale.



TL;DR
-Game runs well, simple graphics, simple controls. Will probably run with little to no issue on lower end hardware or steamdeck.
-Art design is cute, I personally enjoy it.
-Soundtrack and sound design is well crafted and implemented.
-Price is good if this game is your style. Buy it on sale if this isn't something you'll play for longer than the 4 hour main story.

Played this for a good 3 hours, some of which on a different account as I was travelling, which is a lot for the fact that you could probably complete this demo within ten minutes if you really wanted to. I found quite a large number of combinations from the demo alone, allowing me to understand a lot of the information for Nima within this short demo.

I think this style of storytelling is very creative, it allows for a lot of replayability as there is always something that you missed, whether you realized it or not. The art style feels like it suits the story well, and the UI is simple enough for even first-time gamers to understand well. Definitely worth the time to play through.

I don't really want to spoil too much so I'll leave this here with a positive review. I'm looking forward to the release of the full game!

TL;DR at the bottom :)
I bought it, played for the extension of about an hour, then felt I had to return it since I wasn't in a position where this 40 USD was worth it. I understand it's early access, and I hope people can enjoy it, but it just feels so bland to play and the incorporation of AI tools makes me want to know where the training for said AI comes from. I do look forward to the full release, but right now it feels like a tech demo more than a life sim.

Zoi Creation
The character creation was less in depth than Life Makeover, which is just sliders in comparison to this game's precise point movement system.... Not to mention body type limitations. I couldn't make my Zoi have exaggerated proportions without some struggle and the actual morphs of the body were sadly unrealistic. Some things were fine, the muscle sculpting was alright, and the joints of the model skeleton adjusted well. The limits of adjustment for the body type itself was more geared toward thin semi-curved body types with very limited scaling options. An addition of a few more points to the body and face would make it much easier (Individual bone structure adjustment and joint adjustment + organic scaling instead of balloon scaling + greater detail options in face creation). The feet and fingers threw me off a bit, which upon my first view of them when switching through shoes and accessories were found to be low poly and blown textured in contrast to the higher detail of the face. I just couldn't bring my Zoi to wear sandals after that.

The clothes were also hard to put up with as the models felt harsh and jagged at some points, custom texture creation is rough to use as I can't draw on anything and just have to hope that whatever I upload fits well. The draped sleeves would jut out behind the character, a completely stiff and immersion breaking aspect for me as it was a preset clothing item. Some clothing, especially jackets or any sleeved item made my Zoi's arms look huge in comparison to the actual model. Same thing happened for the pants in regards to the lower legs. The limited options as you load in and create your first Zoi really makes it feel hard to connect to the character I created as I just couldn't get the right designs I wanted. Layering of clothing types is simply impossible if they're in the same category. (ex. long sundress - nonexistent, not awkwardly fitting jackets over other clothing, turtleneck sweater - nonexistent, tights AND leg warmers at the same time - impossible) Overall I'd like to see an overhaul in a lot of the Zoi creation systems.

Construction
The construction tools were hard to use, very limited in being able to create complex shapes or rooms in addition to the very limited item selections. As far as I was able to tell; you cannot resize objects easily, you cannot overlap objects without holding alt (which is no explicitly told to you, but that's a situation with the tutorial) the actual room creation is difficult to use and isn't explained in depth either (also tutorial situations). You are expected to pull from user made creations, presets, potentially create your own with the help of their ai tools and retexture their pre-made models in order to better fit your space. I don't think it's inherently bad, in fact I do enjoy most of the options they give for customization and the user made objects were wonderful. The texturing is often, however, low res or very low poly creations if trying out their upload to ai model through photo/video option. I appreciate the user creation focus they seem to be using to make their game more interesting and engaging to others, the things i've found on the canvas are truly wonderful. I do also think they should make it known that the user created items are the main things you'll be using to create constructions in this game rather than the dev made items.

Open World and Zoi Needs
The game struggles with purchases out in the world. My Zoi could spend 3$ on a hotdog repeatedly, and never receive it if they didn't attempt to walk up to the unmanned stand. My Zoi also seemed to have a few second period where even if I told it to do something, it just... couldn't? or wouldn't? Said hot dog, after spending 9$ to get my Zoi to move and grab it over the course of about 2 minutes, also did not fill their huger bar more than a sliver, maybe a few pixels worth. That being said, it's fairly easy to maintain the stats of your Zoi, simply stepping into the shower for half a second will fill their hygiene bar to max before the animation even has time to complete. The open world is fairly easy to move around in but it takes time. You can use a subway or drive a car/bike to go faster but that still feels slow to me. In cities it truly feels empty of life, which I feel is a struggle for most games due to optimization trade offs when considering how many entities could be loaded in one area. I think that needs trackers will probably be adjusted by the time the game is fully released, and I hope there is an adjustment to open world interactions to make it easier to guarantee what you spend your money on is actually obtained.

Careers and Aspirations
The careers are boring at best, you have to simply watch and you can't speed up time further than 3x speed while they're there. Minimal interactions for the player to influence what is happening there. The tasks and aspirations for your Zoi can be difficult to complete as there is a barrier for newer players to understand what to do to complete some of them. (ex. My Zoi wanted to donate to charity through the ATM system in the game but I couldn't find one after traversing near the whole map, and the bank is closed on the weekends. They aren't marked, nor can I tell my Zoi to go complete the aspiration.)

Understanding Game Mechanics
The tutorial is lengthy, a lot of words and pictures in an itemized list of what you can do, how to get started, how systems work etc. However for the amount of information thrown at you by the time this is completely read, the played time of the game would have reached close to 1 hour already from just character creation, property creation, and trying out the gameplay. One standard day is 96 minutes, and in that time you simply cannot experience the careers before the 2 hours are up for your decision of if you want to keep this game or refund it to steam. You can change this to be much faster, but most initial players will not realize this or will go with standard settings.



TL;DR
-The game's appeal is freedom of creation, uses AI tools for emotes, items, and textures. There is very little in the base game without using these things or pulling from the user created items.
-Actual life part of the life sim is bland, underdeveloped, and the world you live in has a bug to encounter at near every corner. (ex. Walking through buildings, struggles with movement and purchases in game, careers and aspirations feel bland)
-Character creation is not as in depth as expected, specifically body types but the facial structure is hard to change to different people's more prominent features. (ex. I tried to create eyes with exterior corner droop, I can't change where the eye center is placed within the lid.)
-Tutorial needs work, you'll end up past the 2 hour mark in most cases if you truly want to experience everything before deciding if to keep it.
-You're stuck with long 96 minute days, a good bit of which will be work or sleep throughout the week. You cannot speed up work time, and you need to take care of all notifications before sleep will speed up to 30x.
-Feels like a tech demo more than a life sim.

I want to point out that I'm not giving this a negative review because I dislike the game, I really do like it, but not for this price for what i'm given.. I get it, it's new, it's a competitor, people want to like it and some people genuinely do. I'll try it again, but I want it in it's finished state not this...

To preface, I do like this game. But the promises versus execution is terrible. I've been keeping up with this game for years now, paid for and played back in legacy version. For the amount you pay, it is not worth it.

For starters this new map is un-optimized, and incredibly dull. There is barely any of the AI/NPC food sources that the devs claimed would be coming in this update. They also did not include the *MAP* they claimed to be coming in this update. I would have preferred they kept the old one until the new one was available because the current map is hell to move through as a non-flying dragon (which is all of them at baby - juvenile level) and overall there is not enough difference in biome to warrant how spread out everything is.

I won't blame the devs entirely for people in game being aggressive. It's a problem with the player base, for sure, but I also think the lack of food on the map does makes it worse. The game is meant to be pvp, but a lot of the time that is exclusive to specific guilds that hoard the resources on one server or another. There are servers specifically PVE so if PVP is not for you that is the way to go.

In regards to the dragons, I found that a lot of people reviewing this game say they are all behind a paywall, which is blatantly not true. You would have to pay to be able to spawn in as some dragons, but you can still *be* those dragons if someone invites you into their nest. And so long as that dragon doesn't die, you have it forever on that server. This is true for even the kickstarter exclusive dragon (biolumin) which those players can nest others who did not get involved with the kickstarter to play as.

Playing as these dragons is... fine? The dragons they promised in the 1.0 update were not put in, the original map and biome data meant to house different habitat types was not put in. The animations for the dragons are okay, it feels a bit limited sometimes but it hasn't been updated much since legacy. There is an issue with fire breathing dragons where the fire animation and the damage cone do not line up properly when moving, so players who don't know this won't be able to fight well. The eldering system is rough at best, and the benefits of the elders aren't worth the amount of time needed to actually do so (imo). The game isn't friendly to casual players who only have an hour or two after work/school/life stuff to play.

TL/DR;
Game idea is good, does not deliver on promises.
Unoptomized, limiting play.
KOS communities on PVP.
Long haul game with permadeath.
Not worth the price, trailer does not reflect gameplay.


Just don't buy it in this state.

100% worth the money you put into it. I really enjoy it. I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom.

Gameplay:
There were some aspects that annoyed me at first, and certainly annoyed others (as I've seen in the discord on day of release and past) such as the lack of manual saves outside of the garage, so if you had to leave mid-run, you would lose progress past the last checkpoint. These runs can take anywhere from 20 minutes to even an hour+ so not ideal. However, it is done with good intention on behalf of the devs. You could accidentally soft lock yourself into bad situations which could ruin your ability to progress if you started out in the middle of some hazard.
The main story of the game could probably be finished within 12-20 hours, but that doesn't mean that everything you could do is done. There's plenty of customization options for your car, and plenty of collectibles to find as you journey.
There are accessibility options that really helped me to be able to play this game in a way that wasn't too stressful for me, as I use this game to decompress, i.e. subtitle adjustments, auditory queues, ease of difficulty, though I will point out there is no "easy, medium, hard" modes. The game simply is, and you can modify parts of it to your needs.

Customization:
I absolutely love the customization options for the car. You have to go out into the world to find most of the items that would allow you to have it personalized to you, such as paint, steering wheels, bumper stickers, body decals, stick-shifts, and a few other things.
I personally bought the DLC for space themed decorations back when it was a pre-order game, and I was not disappointed. The value of that DLC is subjective. If it would make the game that much more enjoyable for you, as it was for me, is the key factor on if you should spend your money on it. It is not necessary to enjoy the game at all.
You can also customize parts and augmentations of your car later on. This will be unlocked with progression and isn't based on luck to find unlike the decals and paints for your car. Great to use for different play styles.

Sound Design:
This was a huge selling point for me. The sound track is wonderful, sound mixing for story pieces is great, SFX for game pieces are all well put together and make me feel immersed. The car itself has great SFX for different conditions (flat tire, glass breaking, etc.). Rain effects are a huge thing for my enjoyment of a game and here they have many different mixes depending on what kind of rain you are experiencing, thunder actually makes my headset rumble, and wind howls past my ears. The small details within the mechanics of the game really help when it's dark and I can't quite see the hazards, but I can hear them. It's great, overall.

Voice Acting:
Amazing job by all of the voice actors. They truly cast with purpose and everyone went above and beyond. Without spoiling too much; I can confidently say each piece of dialogue is well written and the emotionally driven parts are done extremely well. I enjoyed listening to the characters as I drove, and other bits of lore found throughout the world (auditory) are so well put together I almost feel like i'm actually listening to a radio show or broadcast. I fell in love with the game after the demo with just a few minutes of listening to these characters and it really brings the whole game to another level.

UI:
Ok, so this one can be a bit tricky. The UI is not entirely intuitive, but it is stylized and makes sense once you know where everything is. There is a large log of data that you can refer back to in the notebook. There is the usual tutorial notes to re-read in case you forgot. You can replay radio transmissions from the main story in case you missed something in the chaos of escaping the zone's harrowing storms. You can also play and replay cassette tapes that you find out in the world. There are notes and scraps of lore all around that you can bring back and store, along with many logs from the scanning of hazards, world items, and weather patterns. Some of these things are helpful, some are for lore, and some can just be ignored.
The inventory system is dependent on your ability to rotate and place things to fit within a grid, not always so uniform as you would like, and that can become frustrating for people that have a hard time with spatial puzzles. It's not super difficult, the storage area makes sense for the containers and you can carry things that don't fit in your bag in your hands as you go to put it in more adequate storage, so I don't attribute this to a downside.
There are a few things in game that could take some getting used to, and that is more spoiler-y so I won't be going into that. I can just say that if you don't pay attention to the tutorials or the ways your car can change it may become very frustrating to figure things out.
The map is pretty easy to read. Both the local map within the car's display and the area map within the garage are static, which I prefer.
The information about where to find a material won't be given until you've found it before, so search search search everywhere you can until you're comfortable with finding things on your own. There is going to be a lot of back and forth in this game as you always return to your starting point after a run, so knowing where you want or need to go is better than guesswork.


10/10 would recommend, love this game so much, gave me so many hours of peace.


TL;DR:
-Gameplay is great, UI can be confusing at first but it looks nice and functions well.
-12-20 hours of gameplay to finish the story if you really rush it, but it could go much longer and there is constantly things to find out in the world.
-Customization options are many and varied to fit your preferences and play style. No game difficulty shift but accessibility options can help fit the game to your needs.
-SFX and other audio mixing+soundtrack is wonderful and fits the vibe perfectly.
-Voice actors were well chosen and well acted, it really brings out the story and emotions of the characters in a way that makes you feel immersed both for main story lines and side story voice acting.