There are three ways I could look at this game

I could look at its fun and fluid combat, gratifying difficulty curve, beautiful animation, and genuinely unique and lovable music

I could look at its unfortunately short gameplay loop, deceptively small item and enemy pool, and barebones final level

OR

I could look at the absolute charm of this game. I have seen very few games that go so hard in the paint with sheer likability. I played for not even 15 minutes and already felt the violent urge to draw the main character because there's just something so lovely about this game. So while I will still take note of the highs and lows of this game, they're taking the backseat cuz my man Charm is driving tonight

(I am also fairly certain this game is in early access, so I doubt the cons will be here for long)

I want to preface this with the fact that this is an astounding game that still has an update soon to be released even all these years later. That being said I find myself encountering many issues that I can't simply look past which unfortunately makes my rating of the game lower, not because its bad but because it just is not quite what it could potentially be. First of all, the money-making methods are far too unbalanced. There are too many options that are widely better in ever aspect when compared to other methods of making money. For example, animals kept in coops are almost useless barring rabbits who are useful solely for gift giving, and most barn animals are almost useless except for pigs who are one of the best money makers in the game. This leads most players to choose to own almost entirely pigs with nearly no other animals as they are an easy method of making insane amounts of money. This is only one example but there are a few others similar to this as well. Slime breeding is also rather lackluster compared to anything else you can do in the game which is very disappointing as slime breeding sounds like a very fun and unique way to make money in a farming game, however, the profit for slime breeding is just far far too low to justify spending your limited time doing it. Another issue is that once you complete the community center nothing really changes. No one starts using the community center, no events start taking place there, the community center itself is just as useless as it was before you fixed it leaving you feeling as if fixing the community center left little to no impact on the community. On top of this, holiday events that take place every year soon become borderline useless as the rewards for taking place in said event either were already won or there is just no longer a reward to be attained. These events take up almost the entirety of your day, leaving you at your farm at 10pm. Townsfolk also have a lack of depth, as instead of raising your friendship by hanging out with them or chatting with them you are instead encouraged to shower them with gifts every chance you get which can leave the player not caring as much about the villager due to not having significant interactions with them. There is more that I could go into however I still do believe this game is more than worth the money as it has had support for an astonishingly long time and the amount of content and fun you'll have is well worth it. So long as you don't expect to become the richest guy in town from breeding slime or raising bunnies ducks you should be fine.

It can be really great with a few tweaks and updates but idk if I'm really wailing to wait that long, you can really feel how microsoft pushed down on arkane for this one just for a better gamepass arsenal/better sales etc etc
Kinda lacking and it pains me to say this as huge of a fan as I am to arkane's work but It's really undercooked and unfinished
Easily the most disappointing game of the year for me
I just hope that it'll teach them how special and important they are to the gaming industry and how much we'd love for more immersive sims by their hands
WE CAN'T LOOSE ARKANE

This games laughs in the face of the Ubisoft model for open world design. It's nice to just walk and see what you find. A true open world that allows you to make your own fun.

I understand that people have problems with this title. The lack of varied dungeons and the weapon durability are strong points of debate. I will totally admit this game has a lot of Love it or Hate it elements.

But by the end of this adventure all I wanted was to experience more like it. A true masterclass in design.