Nice idea, boring game. Requires you to memorize or write down a ton of things, because you can't look up basic stuff like your wine reviews, or even different wine characteristics (the in-game manual is very clunky to use, and can't be accessed while you're making the decisions about the wine production process). The overall user experience is poor at best, and frustrating very often. I wanted a nice lazy game to chill around, but this is nowhere next to that.
It's so entertaining and funny, and so much different from all the other games out there, that I would give it 5 stars without hesitation if it wasn't for 2 small things: - while in most chapters there is a lot for the player to do, the closing chapters are more just watching how the story unfolds, and honestly it could have been made a bit more appealing; the final chapters just feel lower quality than the rest of the game (uhm... NO game), - for a game that relies heavily on spoken text, jokes and puns, it could use translations to more languages; as my kids were playing it, I needed to sit with them all the time and translate, as they wouldn't be able to solve some of the riddles otherwise. Overall I'd prefer to rate it 9/10, but having to choose between 4 and 5 start, it gets a 5.
I found this gem by pure chance when searching for some *ekhm* easy platformers for my kids. Ended up spending 300+ hours on it myself *so far* and I can't get enough of it. Just need to get that final achievement... Honestly this game is just perfect. You can beat it in a few hours if you want, but you can also explore the world, do the small side quests, fight all the crazy bosses, there's just no end to it. Oh, and of course you NEED to discover all the endings! And free all the grubs! And complete the hunter's journal! And play the Steel Soul mode! And... the list goes on. So going back to my search for easy platformers - this game is NOT easy. Prepare to die A LOT. But the whole concept of dying and retrying is so well built into the game that dying doesn't feel like a player's failure, it is just a part of the game's design. Personalyl I love both the visual part and the splendid soundtrack. The controls are super tight and you have full control over the character, which is essential in a few criitcal moments (although apart from one specific area, you dont need mad platforming skills to excel at this game; for comparison both Ori games are in my opinion more difficult platforming-wise). But the thing that really makes it so appealing is the story and the way in which it is told. You start knowing next to nothing (really - WHO am I and WHAT am I even doing here?) and have to actively search for clues that fill in the blanks. Talking to NPCs is actually meaningful if you want to understand WHAT is happening and WHY. You also find bits of lore scattered around the world and it's up to the player to decide if they want to learn it or not. This game (with a humble assistance of Ori and the Blind Forest) is what madde me return to gaming after a good 15+ years.
I'll start with the positives - the game is quite nice visually (except a few characters that look just weird) and ... well that's about it. It's probably the worst Daedalic game I've played so far (maybe apart from Deponia 4). The story just doesn't seem to make any sense whatsoever, and is told in a way that makes me not care about it at all. I'm on chapter 7 at the moment and I'm progressing just because I want to finish and uninstall it. Two stars rather than one only due to not bad art and an occasional humourous moment.
