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I'm very excited to see where they go with this game. I love the world, love the character designs, and public servers are a nice place to hang out in if you're looking for an adult space to converse in. Just be aware that you're most likely going to be talking to horny people, but you probably already knew that.

It's so charming, you'll never want to leave!

Like ashes in my mouth.

Why did you put microtransactions in your highly anticipated $70 sequel to a cult classic game? This is just like the red orbs in DMC5 you can buy, why did you bring that back and litter the store page with this on release day? This sets a very bad precedent. Disgusting corporate behavior.

This is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. This is the kind of stuff you hear about when people talk about "capitalism and its consequences," as pretentious as that sounds. You know those predatory mobile games that say something along the lines of, "Need a hand? Spend $0.99 to keep going, or start over!" except it's in a $70 game where where you can save.

It's easier to pretend it doesn't exist in this case, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Greedy, scummy, soulless corporate behavior.

I hated this in Monster Hunter, I hate this here. This sets such a bad precedent, and causes so many issues.

This is an example of an acceptable DLC. All of the others? Absolutely not, and utterly shameful.

Is it worth buying? Abso-f***ing-lutely.

It definitely looks like, and feels like one of those "[X], hire these people!" type of games. Except instead of being a fan-made passion project, it's a spiteful parody. What it lacks in creativity, it makes up for by having 26 years of hindsight to work with and plenty of great concepts that are executed very well.


Alright, now I've dodged making comparisons long enough. If you've been around since the 2000's and have generally been paying attention to gaming and its culture, you'll recognize some familiar ♥♥♥♥.

You've got something that's trying to be RUST, with base building elements and the general feel of working your way up the food chain with how you upgrade your gear, and yourself this time around. Going from using a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ club and commanding cats, chickens and lambs to an unstoppable force of guns, bullets, and whatever the hell's gonna follow you.

You've got the open world exploration aspects of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, complete with the Paraglider, a heat and cold system, the entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ climbing system, I repeat, the entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ climbing system, except you can climb actually anything, the Stamina wheel, the bow that shoots three arrows, vital loot from mobs, and a silent protagonist, as far as I can tell.

You've got a slide, probably made popular by Warframe, and a shield that acts like the ones from Borderlands. Slide is currently insane rn btw, they didn't put any cap on that momentum. Speedrunners' wet dream.

You've got automation, but handled in what I feel can be either a very meaningful way or alternatively, a comically dystopian way. Y'know how you'd go outside and collect bugs back in the 90's? Yeah, something like that, except the bugs are Pals that can be shrunk down to pocket-sized monsters for transport. Novel concept, right?

You can take them on a grand journey all around the regions, catching and training more of them to fill out your Pocket Encyclopedia while expanding your ability to traverse (and fight) with them as you take down a sinister, shadowy organization that will use their own monsters against you. And you can build bases out there in the wild, with your Pals helping you every step of the way. From defending and fighting for you, to helping you cook food, cut trees, mine rocks, manage a full-blown ranch and farm.

For me, that last part has been the most enjoyable. It actually feels like I'm building a nice place to live with my funny little animals to enjoy with me. It actually feels like I'm roughing it out in the wild, growing a homestead while me and my little buddies help make something that seemed completely ridiculous into something that's actually quite comfortable.

And instead of them being these crummy little 3d models that slide against everything and do everything in their power to to animate as little as possible since there's close to 1000 unique individual ones, they're these admittedly generic little dinguses that feel so much more genuine.

And y'wanna know why? Because you can seamlessly interact with them. Wanna pet them? Yeah, just send them out of their ball, pull up the commands list, pick pet. Are they at your base, walking around? Walk up, pull up the menu, pet 'em. Both cases, they stop what they're doing to come to you since you called them, they get pets, they smile, make a happy noise, and their mood improves immediately. And so does mine. None of the hassle of having to make them Curry, or... Start camping, just... Send 'em out, and they'll run alongside you. You can even choose to hand feed them, if you want. Wonderful.


TL;DR

This is early access, and not worth the money if they cut and run with the profits as-is. But ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, everything for the spiritual successor you're looking for (with the addition of a bit of grinding too, but shhh) is right here.

Only real issue is some AI outcry about the devs getting design ideas from one of the image generators, or something. Go ahead an look into that on your own time.

It's been a long, long time since I've seen a game with a soul. Nice to know they're still around.

It starts really slow, but once you get the ball rolling this game will consume your life.

Phenomenal modding community.