Rating: 9.5/10

I would say this is like a love child between Terarria and Stardew Valley, but I haven't beaten either of those games so I'll keep it a bit more original.

I took the time to 100% Core Keeper (heads up this was like 160 hours, my time playing on Steam Deck wasn't added in idk why) and it was absolutely worth it. The game has so many different facets; farming, mining, fighting, fishing, base-building, collecting, etc. all built into a graphics style that makes me reminisce the GBA. It's hard not to find a reason to love this game.

You can tell the dev put a lot of time and effort into crafting the littlest details about Core Keeper into something enjoyable. For example, I usually don't notice subtle sound effects and music transitions but with Core Keeper it's hard not too. The sounds are built seamlessly into the game and make it so satisfying even when meandering around doing pointless little tasks.

The combat is no joke either. If you go into this game thinking you're going to stomp on all the enemies since you've played Elden Ring or similar like I did you will be humbled quick. You actually have to put time into leveling your character, looting gear, and matching up sets to get bonuses that make just that little bit of a difference to put your character over the edge. Plus, you can get a variety of pets that give stat bonuses and it follows you around everywhere. S'cute.

The one and I mean the ONE drawback this game has it can be extremely grindy. Especially if you're looking to 100% it. For example, leveling up your stats to 100 takes forever depending on which stats you focused on throughout your play-through. This isn't deal-breaking by any means but still, it can be a bit annoying when you already completed everything else. But hey, beggars can't be choosers, especially when hunting for achievements.

Aside from the grindiness, it was an amazing game. 9.5/10 for me. I'm sure this game is great in Co-op. I just didn't have friends to play it with.