Beat the game recently. I was thoroughly impressed by the effort put into the art and design of the game. The story was deep and thought-provoking. The world building was gradual and fairly rewarding once we uncovered the secrets. I definitely was taken aback by the grotesque additions and horrific elements. The gameplay itself was a bit simplistic but complicated at the same time, if that makes sense. Goals were hard to follow, I basically had to deduce that if I finished a simple main goal, the story would naturally progress at some unspecified later point. At first, this isn't clear and the world feels open, but closed at the same time, blocked by unspecified (but mysterious) things. And the farming elements feel important but also not at the same time, which, actually serves as a commentary on the world, I believe.

The game isn't perfect, and that's fine, the gameplay functions well and the world is understandable for the most part. What I didn't understand was timing on certain things, though, like timing on the passing of the day, timing on plants needing watered, and timing when animals could be worked with again. A clock would really help, or making these mechanics more obvious in some way. And the tides are really wonky, especially with the timing of them. At one point, I became *literally* unable to play the game further until the tide went down and I didn't have a way to pass time on my own or change the tide on my own. I had to leave the game open and just do something else until the time came of the tide going down. Very wonky. But that's probably the largest complaint, there weren't many complaints, I appreciated the gameplay and the function of the world mostly.

You're compelled to improve your farm area but the rewards are lackluster or nonexistent, but again, this might be on purpose because of the comedic tragedy of the story. Nothing about improving your farm was overly difficult, in fact, looking back, it was even easier than I understood it to be. You can work with your animals and there's a mechanic to reset them so you can work with them again and grind faster for those goals. The more you understand what and how to grind materials, the easier your goals get. You have to pay attention to all the options of the world, and you can get kind of overloaded on materials. But none of it seemed too obvious to me, but a bit of exploration and critical thinking got me there.

I think if you're looking for a horror game, this game can get you some of what you're after, but the main element of this game I'd say is a compelling world/story to discover. That's the true selling point, as the horror feels a bit random at times, with random confusing jump scares and horrific things you stumble upon, but it does a great job at putting you in a state of uncertainty. And you have to remind yourself you're in the shoes of a young boy, and how can this boy and his sister cope with this horror? The truth of the island reveals itself to them and they do their best to act intelligently, discarding their trust in their dad and finding their own answers.

Navigating the world at first was a bit upsetting to me, as I didn't know which paths I could take, or even that a path existed. I couldn't even tell what rooms had exits, at first. But after a lot of moving around, you start to remember pathways, and then try out new ones. It just wasn't all that intuitive, but also, I think the game wants you to travel under the trees and bushes and explore the corners of caves, just like normal kids might do when they want to get lost on an adventure.

I must say the dialog is a bit of a.. drag. I do compliment how well it was thought out, but it really goes on and on and you don't know what's important to pay attention to. There's tons of dialog as you interact with your sibling and you comment on the world and the farm animals. They talk about things childish siblings talk about, but occasionally slip in a detail about the main story, like their mom's disappearance. So there's a lot of noise with that dialog, to be honest, but some of it is important, and I wish there was a way to easily understand what's important, without playing a ton of attention to basic sibling squabbles (not that that doesn't make sense for a brother and sister at their age)

There *are* gameplay glitches, but I can't expect an indie game to be perfect. But nothing too game-breaking or frustrating.

Anyway, decent game. I'd recommend it to a story-lover, who's okay feeling uncertain (in a good way) and willing to wait for a decent payoff when the story completes and we find out the truth. As long as you're okay with a touch of clunkiness and confusion, it should be fun for you. (What I mean by that is the UI and navigating the world)

Spoiler section:




I was really upset that Will died. A horror story needs someone to die sometimes, but the main character that I played as was *insisting* to get the heck out of dodge, and Samantha refused to, causing a story to progress to Will being eaten alive while SHE gets to get away. Makes me feel bitter that Will did so much work for Samantha, and didn't know he'd be just a pawn for her to get away. I'm confused, I thought Will could use Bless too? Isn't he a chosen one-in-one hundred thousand as well? What about his destiny? Only Samantha isn't allowed to die? These answers aren't completely clear, but maybe I didn't explore enough to understand why, but also, I feel like I did just fine when it comes to any human being exploring a world. I feel like I found out what anyone would find out when they play this game. So that's what confuses me about big pieces of story missing.

Where the heck do I use the Keybla-- sorry, Bladekey? Was it just a meme? Did I use it without knowing it? Did I happen not to stumble upon major areas of the game? If this is the case, these areas are *not* intuitive to access.

It was absolutely legendary and fantastic to find Dragonballs. I wish I found them all, but again, I don't know what areas I possibly missed. I feel like I combed over the world pretty well, and if I didn't find things, honestly, they're just not intuitive to find.

The commentary I mentioned earlier in the review, I hope it's true, that the gameplay of grinding away at farm tasks, and not getting a payoff, is literally a message to the player that these kids are doing all of this to get a better score, but they don't get a reward, you don't either, they just get harvested and you just see that concept come to life. If this was commentary on the grinding not paying off, then great job, but if it was unintentional, that I'm a bit bitter I did all that grinding lol, what do I do with these thousand eggs?

I absolutely loved the Harvest Island reveal. The story about demons manipulating humans to raise their children to be harvested... absolutely insane. I'm glad I got that payoff and really enjoyed the mystery along the way.

Thanks for an awesome experience!