I will never not give a chance to any Terreria/Starbound adjacent project. I was really enjoying my time with this one which has a bit more of an RPG focus, until I got to the fourth town when things suddenly seemed to ramp up in terms of the amount of content but also the amount of aggravation.
The fourth town is split in two and not only has an endlessly labyrinthine sewer system but it has a huge amount of fetch quests which require you to run all over both halves of the city looking for specific NPCs. Previous areas may have had you look for one or two people but getting hit suddenly with a long string of quests that had me running up to every single person in the city over and over again to check their names, looking for 4 or 5 people each time, was too tedious and I was fine with tapping out and ending my journey with the game there.
The overarching story is not so compelling or unusual that it could propel me forward through the tedium, (look for head bad guy running a cult of necromancers or something- which is awkward if you've decided to become a necromancer,) and the game loop as you progress through each unlocked part of the map becomes quite predictable by then. Ramp all your crafts up another ten levels with the new ingredients, rinse, repeat.
Doing all your various crafts is mandatory to progress through a lot of quests but the game makes it not a big deal as the scrolls you can find all over the place in treasure chests give you boosts. Still, it takes away a bit from the idea that you are building your character as you wish and concentrating only on what you want. You must become an expert in everything.
With all of that said I did find the art pleasing and enjoyed the build-it-myself home base and "unlocked" areas that function much like the games it borrows from. I think to work as an RPG with this 2d format, the game loop needs a bit more variation and the quests need to remain simple enough to draw you through without wearing out their welcome.

Two genres I dislike somehow combined into a good game. Proven wrong again. One big leg up over most visual novels is the option for fast text. The main reason I clock out of most visual novels after a few minutes is the intolerable little dribbles of text slowly rolling across the screen. I just don't have the patience for that.
This has a few redeeming qualities though. The puzzles are good, the writing is not bad, the art is nice. Some puzzles and conversations are bugged and have to be fiddled with or repeated a few times to function. But nothing game-breaking.
What has finally made me tap out of the game before completing are the timed puzzles. Who wants timed puzzles in a game like this?? Partway through act 3 they annoyed me enough to stop playing. A shame, this would a have been a very chill game without them.

I like tinyBuild generally but this is a really embarrassing disaster. Game is utterly broken and shouldn't even be in early access in it's current state. You can't play through the early game for even an hour without bug after bug. My first time through everyone died because there was a cold snap and somehow being indoors with a roaring fire didn't stop anyone from freezing to death. Massive pathing and framerate issues too. I didn't even get far enough to experience the horrendously broken save system everyone's complaining about.
I will gladly come back and readjust this review if this is ever fixed because I long for a decent space sim. It seems to be a cursed genre however, as there are soooo many that are broken, abandoned or just suck, going all the way back to Spacebase DF-9. Still waiting on Signs of Life, Maia and many others that have been in development hell for years and years. Why is this one genre so impossible?
And bigger question: Why was this rushed into release in this condition? It's a small game, and there's no way they didn't know it was a mess. Nobody would have been devastated by a delay. Why rush it out, burn all your goodwill and piss everyone off? I really don't get it.

I keep coming back to this, such a simple idea yet compelling because each run builds in complexity. Yes, it's actually a deckbuilder but it still relies more heavily on luck of the draw than anything else. If slot machines really were this complex they'd be much more addicting. I love how adjustable the base colors are, a really appreciated detail for visual impairment that has allowed me to play longer than I would have. Love obliterating landlords too.

Edit: Still obsessed with this and the more I play it the more I like it. I'm up to building 16 and still discovering new items and strategies. When you get a powerful run it's nearly as thrilling as winning real money. Bumping up my score because this is really a perfect little gem that rewards exploration and experimentation much more than you suspect it will.
Just to be goofy I recently tried an eggs-and-pearls-focused run that ended up being my best run ever after I landed the diver, frying pan, essence frying pan, chef, and two golden arrows. I sometimes had omelettes paying off at 120+ per spin, absolutely nuts.

Would never have even tried this if I had known it was a timed game. There is no more unpleasant and anxiety-inducing game mechanic than a timer to me, especially as a player with a few disabilities to contend with. The play area looks fuzzy on my PC even on the highest graphical settings. It's much more of an area-restricted puzzle game than I was expecting as well. I was expecting Factorio type stuff with train logistic components but that isn't what this is at all. Whether the description of the game was unclear or my reading comprehension sucks is up for debate but i did not enjoy this. If you like timed puzzles, have at it. Leaving an extra star for possible user error.

A SimGolf riff that's lovely to look at and really fun at first, but late game mostly involves endless tweaking while you wait for enough money to accrue to get the big ticket items. It isn't balanced quite right and becomes a slog.
It can sometimes be very frustrating to understand what the AI wants. Try an uphill water hazard on one hole and get a 150 rating, try the same thing on another and suddenly everyone's hitting the ball in the wrong direction and becoming furious with you.
Still, it's pleasant and kept me coming back for a while. The weed mechanic adds complexity without being too annoying. The high tech and mini-golf style add-ons are cute.

I've played so many stardew/harvest moon clones at this point, and the biggest problem they all have is a refusal to deviate from even the least appealing aspects of those games to try something new. If it's not a little different, why am I bothering?
This one drew me in with a promise of more exploration, various islands to explore etc, but you don't get very far into the game before you realize that the exhaustion meter/daily sleeping requirement will take every last bit of fun out of exploring them. Plus there is a town you have to visit constantly with a cast of people with birthdays to remember. Please god, not more birthdays.
It's all too familiar, the creators here were not willing to deviate enough from the formula to make the new elements they wanted to add shine.
Worst of all, the controls are wretched and buggy. There is no real way to pinpoint what you are striking with a tool, you have to just sort of aim your body in a direction and hope for the best, even in combat. Sometimes your mouse cursor is on screen to help you with that, other times it inexplicably vanishes for no reason. Using a controller is even worse.
My advice: stop trying to cram every stardew element into your game and focus on the basics that make playing fun, like fluid controls and simple intuitive UI.