Recent reviews by Bootybasket

its good

monster good

(minor spoilers)

(TL;DR) shopkeeping is one-dimensional and missing out on loads of potential, dungeon crawling is okay with little challenge presented. whole game just feels like its holding your hand the entire time, and then in the end it slaps you in the face with a backstory explanation that was never necessary. not really worth its $20 in this state, but it definitely has a ton of potential that i hope digital sun will take advantage of in the near future.

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if you are looking for a simple, gratifying and back-patting ios app-type adventure, this one is for you.

however, if you are looking for more of a challenging RPG action adventure with a competitive shop-keeping side-game, this is somewhat of a letdown.


to start, the shop aspect is pretty underwhelming. for a game that presented itself as half dungeon-crawling and half shop-keeping, it's vastly disappointing in the latter. once you figure out the patterns, figuring out prices is hardly a challenge. some of the prices don't exactly make sense either, to me it would make more sense if the rarer items and the items required to make weapons and armor were more expensive, but the prices seem to be all over the place. the assisstant is completely broken as well, (not in that she is overpowered, but that what she is supposed to do simply does not happen.) i used her twice to sell some items and lost about $200k gold from it.

i would have liked to see more factors implemented into the shop section as well, like perhaps having the whole "demand/supply" mechanic they mentioned actually having an effect on something. it really doesn't matter how high of a demand something is, it will always sell as long as it's on the shelf. i was also pretty confused with the glass display cases? it felt like they were supposed to be something that thieves couldn't steal from and it would have been really engaging to have another factor that made you leave the counter to help someone open the display case for them. however, it's just another glorified shelf that seems to make most people avoidant of the items there, so eventually i usually end up taking the items out and placing them on the open shelves.

the thieves also seem to be pretty mundane and hardly a threat. i don't have a problem with catching them with one button, but there's hardly a risk in leaving the counter to catch them. people do wait, yes, but..... i've never even come close to having an issue with losing money from people getting impatient at the counter. ever. the only negative thing to come from that is the loss of money over time, but it hardly matters at all when you have the gold register as well as the counter objects that give you TONS from tips. the thieves feel much more like they exist to just make you feel good about yourself instead of an actual challenge.

why not have people feel more adverse to your shop because of a thieving problem? why is there not some kind of npc-fueled yelp system that can either make or break your shop's popularity? why are there no competetors in your village? these kind of factors would actually make the shop a complex and fun mechanic. however, it just feels like you're forced into it so you can actually get your money's worth for the items you sell. to be honest, you can very easily get to the end of the game by just using the mirror to sell your stuff.

which leads me into the other half of the game: the dungeons. this part is WAY more fleshed out than the shop. while the combat is not perfect, the dungeon crawling is presented fairly well. unfortunately, it is a bit disappointing that they never stray from the formula they created for them.

the hotsprings, at least in the early 2 dungeons, felt like what it was supposed to be: a breath of fresh air. a pit-stop you are thankful for. once you are fully stocked with decent gear, however, these simply become a landmark to show you where the next part of the dungeon will lead. they are not exactly necessary especially after you get the bed upgrades. being able to stock yourself with ten potions and have 3 free hits AND have a free 250hp shield that doesn't eat from your hp if you get hit with an attack that deals more damage than your shield just feels like a RIDICULOUS amount of coddling and hand-holding.

for a game with incredibly tight controls and a very satisfying combat system (other than the occasional sword bug where you can't start your attack pattern while facing certain directions), the enemies are vastly underwhelming. most attacks are easy to dodge and don't really do significant damage come midgame, and the hitbox with the sword and shield is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ big. i tried out the big sword and the spear (was curious about the claw, but was ultimately comfortable with the huge hitbox and speed of the sword & shield) but the S&S just feels vastly superior, even though the shield is only really utilized for one enemy. when blocking projectiles, however, the damage negated and pushback seemed really inconsistent. sometimes i blocked everything and was only pushed back a little bit, sometimes i took full damage and got pushed back a ton.

the game truly shines in its desert level. the enemy designs are really interesting and well done, and the boss design FAR outweighs the rest of the bosses. with all of the other bosses (save for the first phase of the final boss), all i had to do was sit far back and use the bow and arrow to hit the boss. there was virtually no threat with the other bosses, since every single move was projected right before it would happen, as well as two out of six bosses being completely immobile. which is INCREDIBLY disappointing to see.

however, i really love the desert snake. it was really engaging and challenging, and kept me on my toes the whole fight. while the moveset was still projected somewhat obviously, the movement and the projectiles definitely kept me immersed and engaged. and i love it when it would coil up and strike at me, that DEFINITELY kept me anxious and excited to fight it. though, at a surface level, for the most part i did just stand back and hit it with arrows again, the constant movement and aggressive moveset the boss had felt a lot more gratifying than literally standing in one spot and spamming one button for five minutes. and no, im not talking about sitting in one specific corner the boss can't reach you in, i mean standing outside of its hitbox (which is about 2/3's of the size of the room the boss is in) and waiting, rarely having to move out of the way of an insultingly projected attack.

i also wish the dungeons had more secrets to them, i LOVE the horde events. but i wish there were more secrets other than just being able to fall down a hole and smashing open skeletons for weapons/health potions. i was really hoping the doors on the walls of the forest dungeon had some sort of secret to them, but unfortunately they're just purely cosmetic. i would have loved to see more of the mystery of the game be presented, rather than just an unnecessary explanation of why everything happened in one 5-minute cutscene that felt like a HUGE insult. the cryptic part of the last area was so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool and interesting and then RIGHT as i started getting invested in the backstory a LITTLE bit, the game just slaps me in the face and explains everything in one rushed, boring dialogue cutscene. what a joke that was.


all in all, in it's current state, this game is not worth the $20 price tag. however, i hope they jump on the potential that they've created with this game, because i truly think it could be really wonderful. if i didn't think it had any, i wouldn't have listed the tons of suggestions that i did.