I picked this up thinking it might scratch that Legend of Mana itch -- action RPG combat with lots of systems to play with. I should have looked into it a bit more, since it's not really that. It's a fairly straightforward Secret of Mana-style action RPG with a rather normal skill tree. There is a pet system, which is why I got my hopes up for something Legend of Mana-esque, but they just function as passive bonuses. Totally my fault for not doing enough research on that end. Still, I like action RPGs, so I didn't let that deter me.

Unfortunately, I really don't enjoy the writing. It has that very referential late 2000s internet humor that simply doesn't work for me. I find it to be a bit grating regularly, and it only made me laugh in a couple of spots.

This could all still be saved for me if the gameplay was excellent, but it was just alright. Certainly not bad, but the movement felt a bit stiff and I found most of the special abilities to be awkward to use or just not that exciting. I respecced a number of times, but just couldn't find a build that excited me.

The collectathon aspect of it is enjoyable and well done, if a bit grindy (as the games name alludes to). If I liked the combat a bit more, I could see hunting down all of the loot motivating me to complete the game.

All in all, it's not a terrible game, and I can see how some people may really enjoy it. I'm just having an 'ok' time at best, so after ~7 hours, I think I'll just move on.

absurd difficulty spike from about the 2nd half of the game onwards. tiny rooms filled with hp sponge mobs. boss battle after boss battle with way over the top levels of hp, endless attacks that fill your screen (there were times i couldnt even see my character), attack windows are sometimes too small and it doesn't help that movement is stiff and somewhat unresponsive.

95% of the story/dialogue is jokey references of other games and movies etc, just ruins any sort of originality of the world and characters. whole game just feels like it tries too hard to be too many things at once but fails

(pasted from steam)

as of today (12/20/23), the game's playable beta branch is at version 0.99b, meaning the whole game is playable and the endings are achievable. do not listen to any of the reviews saying the game is never coming out. it makes me sad seeing the recent reviews stuck at "mixed" because people are mad the devs decided they want to work at their own pace, especially since they warn you about the time it will take in the early access info.

this game is a great rpg to play with friends. the exploration and combat are so fun and it feels great to diversify your build based on how your friends are building. theres no better time to start playing it than right now.

i picked up secrets of grindea in the fall of 2015 a few months after it came out, played it with friends, stopped when we reached the end of the game's current content, and then waited with bated breath until the official release. and boy, i am still waiting!

i say it jokingly- i've been playing every time there's been an update to the game, i keep up the dev blog, and i am glad that the game has taken so much time to finish rather than the devs rushing to the end-zone with quality compromised for speed. it is a fun, challenging ARPG with a good sense of humor, fun online co-op, and incredibly smooth pixel-art animation (and also funny looking character portraits but they're charming).

from what i can assume following the dev blog, Secrets of Grindea is slowly reaching completion and im honestly still excited to see it. it just took a little time!