Recent reviews by Doctorine

An overweight, out of shape, pacifist cowardly smoker is able to tip toe through hordes of zombies unseen because she is lucky, graceful, and inconspicuous...

Seems legit.

PLEASE PLEASE LET US HOST PRIVATE SERVERS!!!

Sell to another developer. Do more crowdfunding. Something! So many of us love this game exactly as it is, despite how short it falls of where you wanted it to be. There are so many support systems for situations like this, please at least consider them before just shutting it down completely!

As of writing this, I only have about 3 hours of playtime in Kynseed. Despite this, the game has truly been a joy to experience. Even with the pre main menu warning about how early the game is in its development, it easily already outranks some of the fully released games in my library in terms of beauty, atmosphere, and just overall enjoyment of playing. I can hardly wait to see where this title goes in its future development. Absolutely worth the price.

UPDATED: 18/05/2019

I will preface this by saying YES I UNDERSTAND THIS IS AN EARLY ACCESS GAME... that being said, the amount of money one makes off of a game, in my opinion, also helps determine whether or not a game is truly "Early Access" or if the developers are just trying to use that as an excuse. So... let's get on with this.

In one of the comments on this review, I said that it would be the devs that made me leave this game... it seems they are taking that as a challenge, as things have changed drastically since my initial review.

I am officially changing my review to a downvote. Since my initial review, the devs had made poor decision after poor decision. Initially they went very heavy-handed on the pro-PvP changes, then they back-pedaled and went heavy on the pro-PvE changes. Finally, we thought that they had managed to find that balance between the two when they closed all the servers (but one, the RP server) and opened a new, all inclusive PvP and PvE map. Again, that wasn't the case.

The changes made to PvE were unnecessarily tedious (example: it has been 4-5 months and most people's max flax QL is no more than 50. In the same 4 months, we've just barely managed to start providing warhorses to those lucky enough to have them)

The changes made to PvP were unnecessarily restrictive (example: using ANYTHING but siege ladders to enter a base is a BANNABLE offense. Furthermore, a guild must have a T3 outpost and a T3 monument to seige another guild (note: a T2 monument with a T2 outpost costs 2.5 gold coins per RL day (2.5 million support points). T3 monument and one T3 outpost is 5g per RL day (5 mil support points). That's all well and good except the trade post fails to work more often than not, forcing guilds to pay in god's coins (premium in-game currency purchased with RL money). The God's Coin equivalent would be about 5USD per RL day, or 150USD per month. (1 mil support points = 1000 God's coins = 1USD.

These examples are really the last straw, and I don't think it's worth the time to mention everything else that has gone awry over the past 12 months. Suffice it to say that, as a LIF:MMO player from day 1, and having nearly 5000 hours in playtime, I'm going to go ahead and say that I believe that this game won't make it through another year.

--------------------------------OLD REVIEW STARTS HERE--------------------------

So I was going to hold my review until the game was released, but I feel it has far too many half-educated bad reviews for that. Steam should weight reviews based on playtime.

Firstly, as of writing this, only half of my overall playtime is shown here as I started playing pre-steam. (800+ hours not shown)
Is LIF grindy as all hell? Yes, absolutely.
Is it glitchy, buggy, easily exploitable? Undoubtedly so.
Has it improved vastly in the 5 months since its original beta launch? Yes, and I expect it to continue to do so.

And that's the problem with "early access" games. You are paying, voluntarily, for an unfinished product but far too many expect a finished product for their money. The overall feel of the reviews here reflect that.

Furthermore, a great many of the negative reviews are based on a solo play mindset. The sort of people that want an alt for every skill (a feat which costs 10$ per) when the world is designed for cooperation (to some extend). If you want fast food, you don't (usually) buy land, get permits, build a resturant, order supplies, and then make yourself some fast food. You find a place already equipped to offer fast food and you trade for it lol But time and time again, this is the mindset people have when they approach LIF. Soloing in LIF can be done, but not without A.) Paying for every character you want, and grinding many MANY hours per day or B.) Being willing to trade with other players for things you need.

It's also worth noting that the content shown in some of the game trailers (the first video on this page, I believe)... most of it isn't even possible in game (yet?). The animations, layouts, and models used in this video don't exist in the forms shown. This goes a long way to selling people something that they can't have (right now) and may never have depending on how development goes.

Why do I give LIF a positive review? Because of the overall community. As I said, LIF itself is grindy, buggy, easily exploitable (for now)... but it's one of the few games that has created an environment that allows communities to grow, change, collapse, and regrow as new stronger communities. Most MMOs require little actual personal investment from guildmates into their guilds since they're essentially just a large "party" system, but in LIF you are a cog in the whole system that is the guild. The forester grows trees for the carpenter to make handles for the smith to make tools for the farmer to harvest the wheat that becomes straw for the horses (to later be trained into warhorses by the trainer) and wheat for the cooks to make flour in the windmill that was built by the whole group.

To me, that's beautiful progress.

Of course, it's also prudent to bear in mind that with that beautiful rewarding teamwork comes the risk of being raided, having all those supply chains interrupted, and that idealic windmill destroyed. Too many seem to forget that LIF is also a heavy PVP game, and when everything beautiful gets razed to the ground, they want to quit. It's a natural reaction of course, desperation sets in when faced with what seems to be redoing MONTHS of work... but when you have a community of already skilled workers, pulling resources from already established resource sites, that time is greatly condensed; some times into as little as a few days.

So, the TL:DR of the whole thing goes like this for me:
LIF is a crappy but swiftly improving game about building things with friends and strangers, while attempting to defend against other friends and strangers.
Graphics: 10/10
Audio: 8/10 Needs less dirt dropping sound, and more ambient sounds
Story: 5/10 The lore is nice, and I look forward to seeing where they go with the "Natives" concept but there's no real story so far except the ones we make for ourselves
Community: 11/10 I could be the odd-man-out here, but I even value my in-game enemies as part of my overall community.


Doctorine Kureha, Queen of the Kingdom of Arandar [discord.gg] [/h1]

I love this game. I enjoy playing healers any chance I get, and I do my best healing against nearly impossible odds.

This game gives me that "on my toes" feeling of dungeon/boss healing without all the coreographing of other players.

It's simple, and effective. It scratches a very specific itch, and for that I love it ♥

Added Bonus: No monthly fees to get the aforementioned "itch" scratched LOL

Pros - Cheap, almost endlessly replayable, pretty w/o being GPU heavy, controller support, FUN
Cons - Could be very boring for some people (repeatitive/dull)

As far as Visual Novels go, this one has to be the most feature packed. The replayability is boosted by the ability to control the behaviors of not just the "main character" but all the supporting characters as well. Making one character a pervert, and making that same character smart and good natured in another playthrough.

There is one thing that bothers me though, and that is the Knight.
The Prince is short tempered and stubborn, and the Merchant is level-headed but flaunts his wealth. Supposedly, the Knight was meant to be something in between these two extremes. Elisa even comments that the fact that he refuses to flirt with her makes her wants to try even harder... then within the next 10 minutes of game, he is already falling over himself to keep her around. He knows nothing about her, and she knows nothing about him. There was no character development, and yet he has become a totally different person just in the time it took her to change his bed sheets.

I agree with Elisa's original statement in that the mystery of the Knight is what had drawn me into wanting to get to know his story... but how quickly he flipped and became basically "just another smitten suitor" was very offputting :'(

That being said though, the game is still WELL worth 10USD (current price as of 13/04/2017). The writing is a nice balance between historic (Using titles such as Your Grace, and My Lady as per the time period of the game) and modern (relaxed tone such as "What's up?"). The music, when lowered to the first quarter of the volume slider makes a perfect background addition to the events taking place. The art is very well done, and the expressions of the characters are believable as well as invoking some empathy (if one happens to be empathetic :D ).

My only real gripe is the save naming system could be improved
:)

I may have my gripes about some of the "character development" in the initial scenes, but it's still an excellent game. Definitely worth a try for any VN fan.

DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT THIS BEFORE PLAYING IT. The whole process is 10 or so minutes, and it is awesome.

As silly as it may sound, tending to these virtual plants long enough to see them flower has actually been pretty rewarding lol I also have a real world vegetable garden so maybe it's just a gardener's spirit, but I think if anything this is a good exercise in "sticking to it" for anyone who has trouble in that area (myself included).

I loved this. Probably because I have a rescue bird myself, and my life from early childhood has been devoted to rescuing and recuperating animals. I can see my own little rescue bird in so much of this story. I don't know if someone at Freebird Games has rescued a bird but they've essentially nailed the experience.

The story is simple, touching, and beautifully illustrated. The music complements the two wonderfully, especially the night the kid fell asleep at his desk and woke up tired the next morning :D Very cute.

I would definitely suggest this to any fan of interactive stories, or even just good short stories in general.

As for the ratings, like so many interactive stories on Steam, it receives many unjust thumb down votes for "lack of game" when things of this nature were never really intended to be a "game" to begin with. If you are looking for a game with choices and loot, and other things full fledged games have, this is not the story for you.

Alright, you win Novectacle. I'm officially freaked out. Bravo.
It's as if the game read my mind... I won't spoil anything but...
that block of red text, hidden away... it freaked me the xxxx out,
because I was so not expecting it. I even had goosebumps.

Though I hesitate to call this a "game" in any traditional sense, it is a fantastically wonderful novel. Moreover, it's of my most favored genre, the "mindxxxx" genre. You think you have some idea of where things are going, then comes the big reveal. I've only come remotely close to correctly guessing the climax of one of the doors, and even then there were surprises.

Truly a wonderful experience so far.

As for the technical stuff:
Visually: The character design is wonderful. I appreciate that little detail was spent on the bachdrops and instead effort was concentrated on the actors themselves. The various emotions captured on their faces is very well done.

Audibly: The music is beautifully done. There is a song to match every mood, from lite and cheerful to dark and eerie. By default it was a bit loud for my liking, but once I adjusted the settings it became a perfect "cherry on top" to the visuals and writing.

Finally, the writing: They say to save the best for last, and that's what I decuded to do. The writing for this VN is truly wonderful, both plot-wise and in format. It's not so relaxed that it reads like your average conversation, but not so formal that it's Shakespearean, On several occasions the most subtle detail has later revealed itself to be of the utmost importance, and conversely something that might typically be very important in other novels turns out to be of little consequence. A literery rollercoaster.

TL;DR
Graphics 10/10
Audio 10/10
Writing 11/10