The Good Life (2021)

When you start a game made by SWERY, you expect something like Deadly Premonition. Something dark and moody. But what you're getting this time is some kind of half-baked mystery story, with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of unnecessary systems thrown on top. There is so much to keep track of, for no real reason. There's hunger, sleep, health (HP), how healthy you are (not the same as health, if this gets too low, you get sick), your “faction”, stress, and then there's also stuff like gardening, tending to your sheep and doing an insane amount of side-quests. I found it best to just focus on the main story and ignore the rest of the stuff as much as possible. If you're going for all achievements, good luck. It requires insane amount of grinding, including spending 365 in-game days in the little town. It would have been a much better game if it was just the story, and none of the extra ♥♥♥♥ that only are there to frustrate the player and make it feel more complicated than it really has a need to be. The story gets interesting around the end of the game, but by then it's too little too late. 10/42 achievements.

I think I'm around 2/3 done with the game, writing is really fun and if you don't mind new and unique mechanics being undercooked this has plenty, unfortunately it also has baffling design choices, overall very charming.

This game has got that strange charm to it that makes all the features and jank pretty unique and endearing. Reminds me of more old school games where it isn't too hand-holdy but also isn't mega easy with all its mechanics, despite looking like it'll be a cakewalk. The story is a bit random, which is good (didn't realise the game was developed by a Japanese group, so I guess that tracks)! My only gripe is that it felt at times like I wasn't sure if the time investment into it was worth it. This is reflected in many of the achievements requiring a pretty extreme amount of time to get them. As someone who enjoys hunting achievements, I don't really feel compelled to do much more after finishing the main story due to them taking a long time (for little reward). Overall, think this is one game I'll look back on fondly.

One big MAIN problem, I hate when devs make a first main quests so stupidly specific! I am at where the game wants a golden egg, I need to wait for a full moon, so if you miss it, you need to get to another, AND the cursor for where the lady is, is bugged :) Literally spent the last hour or two running in circles! Sigh! I am going to stick with it, because I actually like the premise, you can become a cat or a dog and you take photos. Sim aspect is silly, especially 'getting sick'. I had good stats overall, food, sleep, all good, and I got sick from rain!! - Don't like that you can jump higher with a cat, the main problem probably is that you can't change from cat to dog or vice-versa without going back to human form. Should have cut that step out, or even better, made the change instantaneous. - Can't collect things while riding the sheep unfortunately, unlike when you are a dog or a cat. - INVENTORY!! And to make it worse, there is a refrigerator in the house that is just cosmetic, in a game with cooking, that is a life-sim. Edit: After more than 15 hours, this is a HUGE issue, I am fighting the inventory more than anything else in this game. Edit2: OMG, really? Didn't thi…

im having a good ol time with this

Another game from Swery that I've loved. I've played it long ago on gamepass and now I've finished it on steam. Fun but requires knowledge for smooth play - not long after start you get 3 questlines you can do in any order but the recommended order is basically a must otherwise you don't get fast enough the qol unlocks. Also some tricks you just discover as you play, like killing small animals(for example hunting birds) while a cat feeds you etc. Right know the game had few bugs I've encountered but once the game got stuck after a cutscene and I had to reload save. Another con is that garden accessories and most clothes are very grindy to get.