Blacksmith

The game is exactly what I wanted when I searched "Blacksmith" on steam. It has simple reaction time based minigames for smithing the weapons and a bunch of different materials you can use over the course of the game to make better weapons, armor, and tools. I'd say about 8-16 hours of game here. I wish Steam had a mixed review option though since the game has bugs that will require you to restart once in awhile. The most common one I had was blackscreens that didn't properly disappear and UI elements being off center as I navigated the menus (making some options impossible to see or select temporarily). There are a few hero story missions that I got lost in due to clicking fast during dialogue and poor in-game instructions that required me to use the Steam discussion board to find the answer. Finally, the "make an item of exactly x quality" achievements are not what they seem since its not about making an item of that quality... it's about reaching that exact number in the circle reaction time minigame. Overall though, I had a great time which is why my review leans positive. I even went back and got all the achievements so that's possible if your a resourceful achievement hunte…

https://youtu.be/JpEzNlogS0w Onboarding is the most prevalent system that feels unfinished as players engage with this mix of shop management and dungeon exploration.

This game is fantastic. If you like interesting characters and a shopkeeper/hero manager like sim this is for you. Developing the town feels rewarding, as does the progression of using new metals. The skill tree provides a nice variety for outfitting different builds on the characters.

I don't like how I have to walk my character around to go to locations instead of it being a map that I can transport myself around. The tutorial dumps all the information on me at once instead of informing me a step at a time as I do a process, front loading me with all this info is just gonna topple out, telling me I can view it all later in my bedroom by clicking books on the shelf instead of a menu is not cool.

I'm not even gonna lie. Blacksmith so far exceeded my expectations that I was hooked on this game from start to finish and that is saying something for a 10$ solo developed game that I got for free randomly years ago and decided to play on a pure whim late into the night. Disclaimer, this game is FAR from perfect. It is a quirky, janky, monotonous game. Several mechanics are obscure, obtuse, or otherwise unimportant to even bother with in the grand scheme of things. There are easy ways to break the game. Once you discover that, there is nothing to do but a uniform playstyle where you stick a big armored dude in front and load the ones behind him with so much +dex+int leather/cloth outfits. Give them the biggest piercing weapons possible along with the bow skill and obliterate every encounter from start to finish while the tank takes exactly 0 damage from EVERY enemy in the game. There is a huge town relationship system similar to games like Stardew Valley that eventually makes all the NPCs give you everything you want for free (I honestly expected them to start paying ME for using THEIR services after a point). There were times the camera bugged out, or I got stuck on terrain and …

Super slow to get into, and it was only when I tried to quit the game did I notice some features like a skill tree.