Homestead Arcana

Alright so, another in my complicated reviews - I really loved this game. Like, I think it's fun, I love exploring weird wild west variants, and while some things were clunky and a little hard for me, I had a good time. What sank this for me, unfortunately, was a part in the story I just, personally dont ever really engage well with. Spoilers, while being as vague as possible: [spoiler]At one point your best friend asks you to stop what you're doing because it will hurt him and he is afraid.[/spoiler] And I know it's me being a bit of a baby, but I dont like it when a game has that as a plot point but doesnt give me any way of addressing it. You just bully through and continue pushing forward, despite knowing the cost for reasons that don't seem to be more important than "well I might be able to do it". I just wish that I had either been given more of a reason to push through or a way to talk about it with my pal in-game. Without that, I really dont want to put up with the janky controls, the lack of customization around your camp, the hard to manage and move plants, the sometimes too floaty, sometimes too sticky camera, the lagging and screen tearing when trying to do a race…

It's not for me sadly - I understand I didn't even play an hour, but it was holding my hand far too much and it killed any interest I had to play. I get you need tutorials, but when you have a conversation, go into a crafting menu to make a thing, then get another conversation, then need to place the thing you just made to have another conversation where they judge your placement, it's not great for me.

The character design is ugly, that I could forget after a while, but it is riddled with constant frame drops. Pity, it looked interesting.

This game is a mixed bag! Absolutely do not get it at full price, wait for it to go on sale, but I did ultimately have a lot of fun so I will recommend it. I will start off with my reservations: some of the gameplay is kind of janky, and while I didn't run into this there are some game breaking bugs that make it inadvisable to use the in game auto save. Just do your own manual saves every now and then so you can reload one if something goes wrong. Some aspects of the game feel unpolished, like the exploration and the quest system (you get all the quests way before you can actually complete them, which I found a bit stressful at first before I figured out they're just for cosmetics and don't really impact the story). The development team seems to have abandoned this game, so any bugs are there to stay, and we can't expect any new content. With that being said, I did actually find myself enjoying the main gameplay loop. I liked gardening and getting all the crafting recipes, and planning out my next trip into the miasma. I like the story, and the characters were fun, and the world was very interesting to explore. I like how the game pushed me out of my cozy farm comfort zone to ex…

I loved this game. The story was great and really pulled at my heartstrings. I enjoyed the exploration and farming and loved the concept of this game. I highly recommend it and I never had any issues with the game.

good game. tutorial is fun builds character for the cat. great concept! would definitely buy the sequel, if its ever made.