After 112 hours, I think we've kind of finished this. Aska is one of the more unusual entries in our collection of survival games. It is more of a city builder survival game than the others. Most of the gather and crafting activities are too slow and tedious to do them by hand for long. You have a way to summon villagers to do those things for you. Doing so makes it even harder, however, to keep them watered, fed, clothed, etc. Meanwhile animals will attack you and the weather will test you. Moving forward on the skill tree, while keeping everyone alive and building your defensible village is pretty much the whole gameplay loop here. There is an island to explore with boss areas to kill and gain resources from.

The pace of the game, overall, is quite slow and yet it somehow manages to make you feel like you can't wander away from the keyboard for long. We played as a group of three and enjoyed it, but were hoping there'd be more skill progression from unlocking resources and an endgame of some kind. We more got bored in the end than felt like we had conquered something. Still was worth playing. Some of the mechanics here are uniqaue and it definitely has a neat art style and feel while playing it.

What is this game like right now? You may ask. It is like a frustrating Valheim colony management game. I like colony sims like Rimworld, but that's because I don't actually play as a character. Having to micromanage a viking settlement while trying to advance in this game is tiring and even when you think you get the management right, something comes along and throws you off. This just doesn't mix well if you want player retention, its burning me out.

What's so frustrating about the villagers? :
Villagers complain about the smallest things and will refuse to do work that they don't even need tools for, like hauling etc.
Villagers will run away from the weakest enemies even if they have a sufficient weapon in their inventory to fight back.
Villagers will not use additional storage spaces available to them like the warehouse.
Villagers will not make their own basic tools and will make you run around gathering supplies to make tools.
Villagers will sometimes abandon work and go to sleep or leisure (This can be wasteful with cooking or bloom making)
Villagers are very dependent on you in general and will not do something unless specifically told to or under the perfect conditions.
You have to manually dress them in new clothes and armor.
Villagers need safety, but you have to look up online how to make them feel safe (patrols and barracks)
VILLAGERS WILL LET YOU DIE WHEN YOU ARE WRITING A REVIEW (death message said I was slain)

What needs to change? :
The management of course, please make them less dependent! I want to adventure and kill monsters, not bottle feed grown adults.
Provide players with hints for basic production buildings that give little side quests like, assign villager to X job, assign their priorities, decide what crops will be planted in the summer or autumn.
Markers should not require resources to build, I just want to be able to tell villagers where they should work for their own safety and that's it.

Lots of time gathering items and then making fire, shelters, places to store items, etc. Each item has a sequence of actions that must be completed. Building structures hinges on building other items first. By the time you figure this out, your camp is attacked, And if you cannot fend off the foes, they kill you and then ransack the camp ... which then requires you to repair or recreate the item. The attacks get increasingly intense. I could never get to the point of erecting defenses. I give up on this game, it just frustrates me.