There are mechanics that can clearly be improved upon in the farming/community sim genre. More games could have rival romance and rival children like Animal Parade. More games could have a detailed crafting system like My Time at Portia. More games could have multi-generational stories like Rune Factory 2. Roots of Pacha doesn't have any innovative aspect like these. There's unique aspects, like the prehistoric setting, but that just change for the sake of change rather than making something better. Making it so animals have to be befriended via a rhythm mini-game rather than buying them doesn't make the game better, just different. In the future the game could always have unique mechanics, but as of 1.0 it's just another average farming game.
There are a lot of interesting ideas here that I really like, like the whole prosperity points system, irrigation and the setting itself, but it feels like there's no interest in doing anything more interesting with them than having them as a background to an otherwise generic Stardew Valley farming cozy game of the month. I really enjoyed this when I was playing it, but looking back at it now just makes me sad.
Not a bad game, lots of variety to gameplay and cute design but for some reason it never felt fun. Everything felt like a chore I was rushing to get done despite there being no time limits and the dopamine payoff upon completion of tasks felt lacking. Yet I couldn't stop playing. Farming felt slow and animal taming felt frustrating. Traveling feels tedious. I liked the animal taming song tho. I think the gameplay was too spread out across different regions, characters, and various tasks and it didn't feel like I ever really connected with any one thing. Giving this 3 stars because I'm not sure even what else was done wrong. Probably partially the fault of my desensitized brain
Fun game. It's not Stardew (throwing that out there for the people who get upset that not every farming game is a Stardew clone) but it stands on it's own creativity and interesting characters. I enjoy the customization of the player and the cute way the game handles buying goods in a stone age game. I enjoy that the game has no combat in it and lets you truly get cozy. There's a lot of ways you can improve your farm and you can decorate your hut and fields to your liking. I also love that this game is great on the Steam Deck.