Recent reviews by Kyralith

Would recommend. Played the initial demo, and found myself lost in it for a good 4 hours worth of gameplay in 1 day from Steam's Next Fest. I knew I would be grabbing it when it released! Some key points and descriptions to help you conclude this is worth it:

• Factorio progression meets Stardew Valley Graphics.
  
• Lots of skins.
  
• Ambient Music is A+.
  
• You get a laser gun, and a regular gun both usable in space.
  
• Automation with different robot types.
  
• Able make a lot of lubricant jokes.
  
• The boss fights are structured so you can be passive or beat them up. Catering to both casual and players who want a challenge!

Below may or may not be a spoiler if you are going to go into the game and play for yourself. This is spoilered for that reason.

• Add a way to automate rock production/ harvest as well similar to plants.
  
• Add the ability to be able to farm all the animals with outputs. Would make sense if you can farm the regular blue jellyfish and have it be fed the red orbs and would output the red jelly instead of having to kill them etc.
  
• Have a use for farming the red blood flower, thinking something along the lines of producing blood steel or something and would have a matching upgrade for a gun along those lines.
  
• A way to not have my companion bot be selected continuously when i'm trying to move a machine.
  
• Fully stock the space mall - there was two of the explorers you can chat with here, maybe add a quest they give you to unlock the other stall spaces?
  
• Would be nice to clarify or a popup or something when you finish the museum sections that you get a reward from Daniel. Took my friend telling me for me to notice!
  
• Could add event specific biomes eventually like an alien invasion portal on some islands as a way to further engage the players who like a challenge; but also add a way for the casual players to close said portals by either a setting or an offering on them like say a blood flower equivalent.

Overall LOVED the game and I continue to enjoy it!

If you've ever played boardgames like The Coup, Mascarade, Love letter, Werewold Mascarade Citadels, it has the same themes of deception and lies that break or make friendships. But really with the ship fixing aspect its probably closest to Burke's Gambit . Which I absolutely love as a boardgame.

PROS

• Beautiful art and design along with approximately 8 expansive maps to explore excluding the starter island.
  
• You can set animals on fire.
  
• Setting fire to trees gives you charcoal. This bypasses the step of having to cook logs in a fire to get charcoal.
  
• Some automation for processes are enabled like gathering wood and gathering rocks.
  
• There is a lot of recipes for food.
  
• Tool and progression of unlocking equipment is interesting and easy to learn.
  
• Sound quality.
  
• User interface is smooth no staggering.
  
• A lot of new maps to explore via the teleportation gate.
  
• Varied options for skills and talents for different use like combat, magic, and gathering.
  
• Graphics user interface is easy to navigate.
  
• Devs are actively patching bugs that are brought up in the discussion board. Keep it up!

CONS

• Generated maps repeat only with higher difficulty and no new ores/ unlimited ore sources to be found higher than silver.
  
• Translation quality of dialogues and descriptions are rough around the edges .
  
• Description for certain items does not reflect what the item does, or what the item is used for. Instead, a vague haiku is in place.
  
• Dungeon maps are repetitive and need more variety .
  
• Recipes including seaweed and cocoa beans are included, but there is no way to get these items.
  
• There are still unimplemented items such as the drying rack, and the loom that are available within the first 5 ages, but unusable.
  
• There is no automated way to collect crops that have been chopped down by rotating saw.
  
• Instructions on usage of some equipment need to be improved (such as the large pot) .
  
• There is only 4 total kinds of armor you can craft. 2 are leather, and 2 require metal but still a limited amount with very little stat value.
  
• Breeding: when you breed animals it seems that the spawn takes the level of the map or your level, and not its own level. For example: taking a level 42 and level 43 cow to the beginning island, when bred, gives me a level 5 cow and not a level 40 or so as one would expect. Breeding the same set of cows on a level 40+ map when I am level 25, will result in a level 25 cow.

• Add a way to automatically gather crops into storage. Maybe a robot to collect and store into a container?
  
• Add a way to automatically plant seeds on plantations.
  
• Have the ability to milk cows for a continuous source of milk.
  
• Add a way to change gamemodes so you do not die as easily. Similar to minecraft's peaceful setting.
  
• Drop cooked meat when animals are set on fire. This would bypass cooking similar to minecraft and a good source of early, quick food options.
  
• Add more maps so that they do not repeat when you go into teleportation, maybe at a later stage in the development.
  
• Add more dungeon type maps maybe with puzzles.
  
• Add items that can be found underwater, which would include having the ability to dive. This could be where seaweed is found.
  
• Add the option to be able to dye equipment. This could be done by utilizing the herbs (red, yellow, and blue) to be able to craft other colors using the color wheel.
  
• Change the cactus to be like trees, or like the mushrooms in the swamp biome: drop more than 1 piece of cactus per plant.
  
• Add in different types of arrows that you can get as drops or crafting from different biomes: slow from frost biome, poison from swamp biome, fire arrows from volcano biome, piercing damage from desert biome.
  
• Have the option of upgrading chests instead of reorganizing everytime.
  
• Add a backpack as a wearable storage option. Start with leather for earlier stages, and eventually requiring different metals.

• Gold: Easiest way I found personally, was selling the peach fruit. Once you have breed the seeds to the top 14 star tier, it gives you an excellent payday for very little work. Estimate for around 15 plots of peaches could generate you 6mil gold in 10 minutes sell time in the market.
  
• Merchants: You can catch, and breed merchants and interact with each new bred baby. The level of the merchant corresponds to the items you can get. At level 40+ you can get diamond ingots even though you cannot utilize them yet. At level 5 they sell bird feathers, leather, and lower tier items. You also get exp from killing your spawns.At level 20 they sometimes give you the option to grab more monster prisms.
  
• Wheat farms: There are already youtube videos on how to set up automated wheat farms although it is still not an ideal compact solution.
  
• Hosting Table: It spawns a villager everytime the countdown goes down and gives you an egg. The egg has special buffs on it that will apply to you when cooked. It also augments food recipes that includes eggs in them. Thanks to Bell Cranel in the comments for this.

Even during development this game is tonnes of fun, definitely worth a try and the devs seem to be fixing bugs as they are being brought up in the discussion page. An example was when the rice seeds would not plant, the next day it was fixed! Definitely recommend this and excited for things to come.

Edit: 2020.09.10
Edit: 2020.09.13

1. Identify attack patterns - All of the monsters have an attacking pattern. These are different depending on the distance between you and the boss. Learn these patters, and you can learn how to dodge when the time comes.
   
2. Learn to dodge - There are invincibility frames in between the moment you press dodge and when you stand back up. Take advantage of that frame and practice timing it.
   
3. The firekeeper can respawn if you "accidentally" kill her - I am glad they did this. Not like Dark Souls 2 where you cannot level up nor upgrade your estus flask. In hindsight, I should not have done that.
   
4. Panicking or Being greedy with hits will get you killed - Sometimes, they chain attacks in a different way than you memorized. When you get hit, don't panic. Instead, roll, drink estus, re-evaluate your positioning and continue.
   
5. The best place to farm for souls is Grand Archives for the three Gold Winged Knights - They reward you with several thousand souls per kill, AND have a high chance to drop Large Titanite Shards. They can also drop Titanite Chunks but less chance of doing so.
   
6. Get the mimic head for farming souls - After every boss fight, I would recommend swapping out the head to the mimic hat for quick increase in cash and levels. It will sap your health slowly as you are wearing it, but you still get the benefits when you just finished a boss fight and switch to it.

1. Beautiful graphics
   
2. Enjoyable in single player
   
3. Ramps up in difficulty, reasonable (increments of increase in monster health and monster attack per restart of the game)
   
4. Audio is atmospheric and fits the areas
   
5. Story is linear and it is easy to navigate
   
6. Paying full price is worth it - if you plan on playing the DLC get it in a pack

Crosscode is a retro-inspired 2D action RPG set in the distant future. The Protagonist Lea can not speak and is mute creating an interesting atmosphere when interacting with other characters in the game. There are puzzles, there are plot twists, there are bouncing ball mechanics and lots of combat.

It is probably the Best Game I have played this year that captured my attention for 60+ hours in two weeks. I would recommend this game for the storyline, battle, and the puzzles. Most of the challenging puzzles takes a couple of tries to get, purely because it requires quick reflexes. Once you have that "oh hey that's how you do it" moment you will be hooked till the end.

Story: 9 - point off due to parts of predictability
Challenge: 10 - perfect for a wide range of people
Pointless Voiceover: 10 - there is a bonus code as a gag that is actually pretty entertaining (do try it at least once)
Puzzles: 10 - some are easy and some are downright reflexive sensitive
Controls: 10 - easy on the controller and easy on keyboard+mouse
Content: 10 - it has enough areas to be satisfying, but not overwhelming

Overall? Closer to a 9.8/10 game rating for me!

Surprisingly a really well made game that encorporates... really non-traditional elements in a game. If you like surprises with classic indie games where you feel like God: play this.