Recent reviews by Leaf

Don't be put off by graphics or early access, this game is up there as one of the best RPG Sanboxes ive played. I think when they finally release full, this will be on same level as stardew valley when people think of farming games.

The game is just pretty boring, played 8 hours and no more content to be had just build up a nice looking place I guess. Needs mod support 100% if the devs are gonna take years to release an update on fishing... Modders do things like that in 2 weeks.

Good game so far,

few suggestions:
workshop - mods with new ships and features would make this game just insane.
ability to build own ships if you build your own shipyard
more fluctuations in price and events like famines etc
Make separate fleets and set their trade routes like patrician
Be able to claim a bit of land and build own town
Auto restock - so many times i have to reland
Ability to always skip landing and take off scene

The person who made this has never played blackjack in their entire life.

Every update, like 10mb you have to unpack and repack 40gb in your files so it takes like an hour to patch a 10mb file, really poorly optimised

So outdated, the conversation, controls, camera.

The story and gameplay are fine, but it feels much older than owlcats previous games.

V buggy also.

Boring, the last game was fun because you could spend an hour or two on a house and your reviews and price would reflect it, you could see your work after. Now? Spend an hour or two on a house and get pennies, however if you walk in and just clean up and slap a few things down you get 20x that. It doesnt reward effort, the jobs are decent but not enough incentive to do them. And no before and after or any indication of how youre doing is frustrating.

It's super difficult (I am jumping straight into realistic), and I've failed to keep my population alive every single time, but every time I learn something new and get better, keeping them alive longer. Of course I'm bankrupt by then so have to restart but its worth it. Very good game for strategic minded players.

I want to recommend it, but there is a bug that has not been fixed for 30 patches where if your team is larger than the recommended by even 2 or 3 people design and development takes 6x as long so you find yourself having to micromanage every single team to make sure they are the right size.

Apart from this the game is solid. But until I can actually have large teams and it just give diminishing returns like its suppose to I will drop this for now.

Updated review 120 hours in:
I had once sang this games praises every second of the way but now that things have settled down and I see clearly I have both positive and negatives. In short though I would 100% still recommend this game, just some minor gripes I have.

Combat - Overall good, I found that some classes are more potent than others, wizard and druid being especially weak. Wizards just good for learning the shovel scroll, and druid just being a 0 damage sponge. Luckily there are mods to fix druid but wizard still feels terrible compared to sorcerer. Rogue assassin being the strongest being able to nuke a boss down a hundred health in 1 round if done correctly.

Companions - You can respec any companion to any class as many times as you want which means if you like a companion you can take them with you. For some reason though Shadowheart always misses even with 80% hit chance? Not sure if that's hard coded but shes the only attractive companion in the game, any other companion you are taking their personality.

Exploration - Insane in Act 1, Good in Act 2, Okay in Act 3. Quests can be completed in multiple ways and different dialogue can take you on an entire different path and outcome which I love.

Romance - Overall lacked depth, same dialogue and definitely not the focus of the game, just a feature. So if you looking for in depth romance this aint the place, not unless you wanna romance Astarion (only one that seems a little fleshed)

Multiplayer -Works seamlessly so far barely any issues at all, the only issue is that important cutscenes will have my attention as my friend runs on and just loots everything and gets into fights, maybe the main cutscenes drag people in. Theres also a small bug that anyone can just join your game if you played multiplayer, so they will make a character and this character will remain in your party and you cant get rid of it. So randomers will join and mess up your game as a companion will be instantly dismissed and replaced with some guy thats trolling you - I haven't experienced this though.

Camera - When you take a ranged shot the camera will zoom out, if you click again for your second attack it will zoom in and click you to move making you take an attack of opportunity. There are also some fights in which enemies are above on rafters and you have the impossible task of trying to move the camera to aim at them.

Books - Books are 3-4 lines most of the time, which I can get, who has time to write 200 books, but they could at least make a few Skyrim like detail ones like lusty argonian maid that makes me wanna read the books instead of clicking them in case theres a quest and instantly going off.

Act 1: Impossibly good, details on every corner and feels good to replay over and over and rediscover things for the first time, easily the longest and best act in the game - as expected with so long in early access for polish.

Act 2: Felt way too short, the boss for the area is really weak and although the main concept and area is insanely good and well thought out, content wise there wasn't much here.

Act 3: It's good, but again too short. Lots of variety and new things compared to previous acts but again just felt a little short for me.

These thoughts I can understand are just superficial after coming out of Act 1, but I was told Act 1 was only a third of the game when its more like 60%. Hopefully there are some updates with dlcs in the other areas and also please make the bosses harder, they are way too easy minus the gold boy who one shots you.

*Minor Spoiler - There is one boss fight where you literally just kill 30 1hp mobs that don't ever get to move or do anything for 6 minutes straight, why not make proper enemies or waves during this to make the fight more high stakes?

To be honest, if each act is looked at individually they're amazing, its just Act 1 overshadows the rest of the game a little much, I wish they'd have spent more time on Act 3 especially. So many opportunities for improvement there. Act 2 simply needs a buff in terms of mobs. I am playing on tactician also for reference. Playing act 1 with different classes and ways seems to be the best part however.