For what it is, it’s great but has flaws. I remember playing the demo years ago when I was a little preteen and loving it, and it still holds up now. I love the rpgmaker vibe it has and the soundtrack is surprisingly good for a game of this caliber. I got it on a sale on my switch for $4, and for that cost it’s worth everything and more. It DOES have some flaws though, and with them in mind… I wouldn’t pay the full $15 like usually advertised because I don’t think it’s quite that optimized for switch.
On my console the hunting is unnecessarily hard due to how it functions with switch controls and one of the mini games is straight up unwinnable unless you take days to master it, again, due to console controls. The hunting is one that really bothers me besides this because some prey have an unbelievably small success margin that the sensitive controls of the switch controller can’t replicate and I end up failing time and time again relying on game exploits to trap
prey at the edge of the map to be able to kill them.
For actual game flaws not related to my system, the health system is incredibly annoying having most herbs not heal you at all past 10-20 points when you have over 100 and there’s nothing else you can do to heal besides sleeping for like 30 or going all the way back to camp and paying to be fully healed. The days also go by way too fast for me to bother doing any quests because they literally do not give you enough time to complete them and you can go through a full year in a day compared to stardew valley where it takes a day just to get halfway through a season. Some of the art for the cat head sprites is also just. Unappealing. A lot of them look muddy and unfinished.
Some people have mentioned that the world also feels empty and unpolished and while I slightly agree it’s not as bad as some might say to me and you can still find things to see, there’s just not much to engage with.
It all really distracts me from the true purpose of the game and they’re flaws I seriously can’t look past, but isn’t HORRIBLE enough for me to set the game down for.
It does what it should for what I paid and is still an enjoyable experience, open flaws or not. I recommend getting it if it’s on sale or cheaper on your platform, but I can’t necessarily recommend it for the full $15 and urge you to wait for the sequel.