Into the Emberlands

This feels kind of like kicking a puppy (I mean look at it, it's SO cute!) but having beat the game, I'm pretty sure I wasn't having fun for a lot of my time with it. My metric for a good game is that you enjoy most of your time with it and a bad game is one you can stop playing without any regrets. Into the Emberlands is jammed awkwardly between the two extremes in that I felt like I wanted to see it through but was mostly bored to mildly frustrated while playing. It's so close to a good game, but even at ten hours I kind of wish it was shorter. The pace is painfully slow once you get your feet under you, with no option to speed up movement. Death is punishing (you lose all your items AND a percentage of your permanent upgrades), but recovering from is never hard, it's just a slow, tedious process of building everything you had back. There's no incentive to take risks, so you play cautiously and once you're used to how each biome's resources are acquired, it's just a slog. There's no storage in your town besides throwing things on the ground, which you can't do with any tools, so inventory management is also aggravating. If you leave anything on the ground when you upgrade your …

adorable, fun, somewhat simple yet challenging enough gameplay. great little push-you-luck system that makes exploration and resource collecting tense

Just not for me, I guess. Felt like it really dragged to make any substantial progress in the world.

cute game easy to play but kinda difficult

pretty good cozy game, albeit i crashed out a couple of times in the beginning because i kept getting lost. i eventually started playing like hansel and gretel, leaving every other piece of wood behind so i could find my way back to base lol i do wish the little dude walked faster though. i ended up playing pretty conservatively and constantly heading back to base to replenish my lamp before venturing out again. this dude takes forever to get anywhere.

Chill, cozy game. Took me 17 hours to beat. The graphics are pleasant. The gameplay is essentially point and click, with collecting, crafting, and trading. A great game for playing while listening to other music.