Recent reviews by YEEHAW

For a game that was made to be satire about corporate greed, Sony sure decided to drop the ball on not being a terrible company.

To start off, I've been waiting for this game for ages after seeing it on TikTok ages ago. At the time of writing I'm a little over an hour and a half in, and I will be giving it more time to try. As a long time DBZ fan I was pumped for the concept, so here's the pros and cons of it all.

Pros:
-Wide open, can go basically where you want from the get-go
-Unique power system where you break down objects like boulders and trees to gain power-ups
-World is visually and audibly pleasing
-From what I've found so far, the energy abilities feel very fun. For example the creation beam allowed me to scale random mountains and structures given enough time
-Stats feel mostly very straight forward. Strength, Vitality, etc. and skills tell you what they scale off of
-Some dude in a camo suit blasted me in the face and flung me like 200 feet down a hill. Got a genuine jump and laugh out of me. Dunno if you can kill him, but he's there somewhere.

Cons:
-Energy charging takes far too long. Not saying it needs to be instantaneous, but for example there is a timed activity in the game requiring you to use energy blasts to hit moving targets. If you run out of energy, you don't have anywhere near enough time to get it back in time
-Game is extremely dark. Not the themes, just at night and in caves. One portion of the game took me underground into some catacombs, and at times it was pitch black. The only way for me to see was to charge my energy for a brief flash of light to see what was nearby
-NPCs in this game are absolutely devoid of life. Most of them look like they're standing in a shadow and cannot be seen, and some of them don't even have names such as when I met Student_04. Additionally, dialogue felt extremely stiff.
-A currency system that doesn't seem to be explained anywhere. When you defeat enemies, they drop coins and sometimes items. However I have yet, in the three settlement areas I've been to, found a way to use any of this currency for anything.
-Distinct lack of direction. No quest markers, no mini-map, no compass. All of which a game can absolutely do without, yes. But when an NPC tells you "go to the cave, it's right outside" and the game is pitch black, all you can do is wander around and hope. There are some helpful bits such as when an NPC told me "follow the road signs" but at night I didn't even realize they were there due to lack of visibility.

At time of writing, I wish this game had been released as an early access. As a 1.0 release, it leaves a lot to be desired. If the creator shows the passion to continue improving the game with the same passion he showed while creating it, I'm certain the game will eventually be polished into a unique gem. It has the potential.

The game is a neat blend of Raft and 7 Days to Die. The crafting and gathering immediately gripped me and I enjoyed it.

HOWEVER. I spent about 60 minutes playing this game total with a friend, and you cannot password protect your lobbies at all. There is nothing stopping a random person from joining, ruining your supplies and base, and leaving with no repercussions. In the hour we played, we had three different times where someone would join and grief us. One joined, grabbed a bunch of wood and built random walls around. One took all of our scrap and wood from our containers and left. The last straw was someone joining while we were in the water, emptied our chests as much as they could and took our boat away from our island somewhere and left. If the game didn't allow constant griefers, it would probably be pretty fun.

I was Fred. She was Bread. We spent three hours and never made it out of the first area. 10/10 game.

Do you have chicken

Built house. Had stool. Fatal error. Average lake enjoyer.

Looking for a cute, time consuming game without the usual rpg "chosen ones" trope? Look no further, Atelier: Sophie is a wonderful game.