Recent reviews by XenoDeer

• Hold shift to crouch literally sent me into a laughing fit for 10 minutes while playing with my partner.
  
• The talk/interact key (as well as many other important keys) cannot have overlapping assignments.
  
• Dungeon bosses have infinitely spawning mobs on high scaffolding to remove all areas of cover while you have no recovery items and the healer class has 1 overly long cooldown.

You CAN buy this separately but will have no access to a dungeon in the game and no annual pass. Bundle is better value but still at 150AUD.

There was my first expansion I've ever bought and wow there is so little to do in the game. Destiny 2 players really are like abuse victims, gaslit to believe the devs care about them. Destiny 2 is as empty as it gets. Each EXPANSION (Planet) is smaller than a single World of Warcraft zone.

If you want to experience anything even remotely fun that is outside the Final Shape, make sure to but the 'everything else and before except dungeon keys' pack.

TLDR:
Do not buy this game but if you do and want to save as much money as possible to get the full experience:

• "The final shape + Annual Pass + Dungeon key" is 150AUD
  
• "The everything else and before except dungeon keys pack" is 105AUD
  
• Witch Queen + Lightfall dungeon key is 2000 silver each:
  -3000 + 500 ~45AUD
  -500 Silver is 7.5AUD

Total cost of current game as of 10th Oct 2024:
307.5AUD or 206.56USD

Great game, good variety for a tower defence game. I was very active during development and the developer was really engaging. The digging system feels like a similar concept to GemTD but the inverse as you are creating the maze but creating area.

Looking at this post release, I have no idea why the game is over 70AUD at full price. Come on dude.
I would highly recommend it if it was ever 15USD or less so get it on sale.

Everytime I beat a boss, there is a 30% chance the game crashes after the cutscenes ends/are skipped.

I'm always itching for a tactics RPG and this one kept me busy for almost 30 hours. (completed 100% on hardest difficulty)
Silly and charming where it matters, challenging yet rewarding where it counts.

Positive:

• Great writing. The main story is adequate and littered with flavour text.
  
• Cute and charming pixel graphics. (was updated post release as well)
  
• Well balanced combat system using card decks with amazing customisation
  
• Each character with their unique class loadout which can be further enhanced with cross-class combination.
  
• This is further enhanced with flexible equipment point system.
  
• Great enemy and level design variety.
  
• There are collectables scattered throughout the areas you are exploring. (post release update will highlight anything you miss after you complete the area)
  
• Proactive battle rewards with times treasure chests scatted throughout most battles. They are quite gentle with pacing so no need to panic.

Other things to note:

• I finished it on the hardest difficulty. I recommend you play on Hard as the game is relatively easy and can be changed to medium or easy later. The hardest difficulty has permadeath and some fights can be frustrating to players unfamiliar with permadeath as experienced in the Fire Emblem series. If you play on the hardest difficulty, you cannot change this later so just play on hard if you don't care for 100% completion.
  
• Overworld trap/obstacle puzzles can be disproportionately mean in some areas and specifically designed to punish efficient movement.
  
• Devs fixed up all the major gripes with the game with a very fast update, they heard the feedback and really listened. The devs really care.

Give it a go, don't regret instantly buying when it appeared on my feed.
Editted for extra formatting.

Fantastic twin-stick shooter that hits all the right feels in amazing balance.
Positive:

• Super cute and charming.
  
• Exploring is fun, no bad cryptic hidden stuff.
  
• Communication and conveyance to teach the player mechanics is quite intuitive and easy to understand.
  
• Controls and abilities feel SPOT ON
  
• Player growth feels natural and on curve.
  
• Normal and easy difficulties feel fair.
  
• Aiming/Accessibility setting gives amazing options so it caters for all levels.

Sorta bad but not really an issue:

• Some areas or deeper areas need checkpoints rather than just the few major dungeons/caves. Backtracking can be awkward in a few areas.
  
• Promoted/ Slighty Higher-ranking trash mobs on Hard difficulty can feel like they have much more health they should have and become a chore. Not a skill issue but just a repetitive sitting in the same room dodging the same one enemy for MINUTES. (I was DPS focused too)

Edit after I got all achievements:
Definitely left a mark. A full experience through and through. I'm being vague to avoid spoilers but I'm very much satisfied. Well done Devs! The only thing left for me to do is consider the IRL plush to snuggle up with. <3

Good controls for controller, graphics and pacing.
Game is however overly simple and quick limited/clunky for combat styles compared to other mystery dungeon games.
It being a mobile game has made it emphasis on keeping dungeons short and sweet, simplified and completely unremarkable.

The thing that just kills it for me is the lack of progression, you only keep most of item types and your character level is completely reset every dungeon. Achievement hunting and successful runs boils down to merely luck and not skill as it's non-progression mobile style removes any feel for growth.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, IT IS CURRENTLY UNSTABLE AND ONLY HAS VANILLA MAP AND FEATURES.
MY GAME TIME IS BEARING THE TERRIBLY BROKEN GAME AND CRASHES TO PLAY WITH MY FRIENDS.

I crash every 5-10 minutes or if I do certain things:
*Open a menu wrong, some menus will crash you on use at 50% chance.
*Close a menu wrong by pressing Escape
*Open a Vault to access its items
*Leave shadows on
*Leave shadows off

Weird quirks of the game:
*Runs on more than 1 CPU core in remaster but you have to remember to input a console command unlock GPU limiters every time you hop into a game/on a server.
*Some 'black spots' on the map when entered will blacken your whole screen until you leave or will derender all objects except the ground and won't let you interact with anything.

Lots of other small issues I just don't care to list but most of them will crash your game.

Wait for it to go on special/Get the original for free. Quality of life may be missing but mods will make up for it for a stable experience.

Pros:
*Dino mount system is pretty great for farming/exploration.
*Cute Dinos, you can pet them all.
*You can change game speed to be faster or slower.
*Soil type system along with season changes can encourage you to grow different plants in cycles.

Cons:
*Overly simplistic in many ways. Once you've played through 1 year and unlocked the 3 areas, you've done it all.
*Sometimes collision just happens. Sometimes on objects that never existed.
*Controls can be clunky for even smaller dinos with important farming functions but massive turning radius makes them frustrating.
*UI bugs, sometimes the menu just don't work or keep scrolling up for no reason.
*Why is there a furniture placement system? Am I just going to put furniture on... grass? No pathways, walls or carpets. No extra buildings to work with. Rotating items just slightly offsets them in a direction.
*Side-quests have precedence in conversation over main quests, some require you to get something from 2 seasons later and will not be available until you pass 42 days to reach it. My main quests are in limbo until I have to arbitrarily give someone 3 turnips because they want to talk about their main quest.
*Some dino's farming functions are locked behind requirements that are too deep into the game and there is no way to figure it out. Ground tilling, crop watering and harvesting are unlocked relatively on pace but cleaning your farm areas is weirdly time gated. I STILL do not have dinos helping me plant seeds are 34 hours of gameplay.
*(major gripe) Collection of dino patterns and crops are an absolute nightmare. ALL crops, ALL dino patterns, ALL discoveries are in their respective SINGLE statistic. There is no catalogue, there is no collection, there is no way to mark off what collectables you have other than search all 3 areas+farm+towns again and hope you run into the missing pieces.

Gameplay gripes that don't ruin it but are really annoying:
*Character turns around and faces the camera for no reason when I'm trying to apporach soemthing o interact with it. decorating/placement of items and interacting with anything you can interact with is just awful.
*There is no way to select how many items you want to withdraw. If you press confirm, it fills your inventory and you have to put away all the excess stacks.
*You can't split or select quantity in menus unless it's a shop.
*If you hop on a dino, it removes it from your party and you have to quickly pull out the flute to re-add them to the party.
*Collecting items in the 3 areas is a headache, there is no way to tell which items you've already collected and each item has a total count for ALL areas together (3 main areas+town+your farm)
*There is ONE SINGLE STAT for how many variations of all dinos you have... tamed? discovered? I don't know and doing so is very costly and tedious to the point of frustration.
*No rebinding keys cool I guess.
*controller works okay, for some reason some functions are just not available given how little keys you really need (not many at any time)


I paid 45AUD, it really doesn't feel like it's worth the price. Get it on sale for sure if it's at least 30% off. Otherwise I can't see myself paying this much for a clunky farming sim. Cute dinos sure but everything around it just makes it frustrating. Overall, it just feels okay. I finished the 'main goal' from the start of game after 1 year cycle and it gives me no incentive to come back.

Weird unblockables that make you lose 35% of your health with strings, bosses need 200~ combos to take down on easy mode... if they even hit. Hit boxes make no sense given the movement options. Enemies have massive hit and hurtboxes but your punches barely have any forward reach. I don't really understand the hype. The combat is so bare bones while bosses will empty your health in 3 combos but you have to repeatedly bait with Rush mode for measly damage... which bosses with fully heal up anyway. I was punching Majima at the cages for 20 minutes and got him 70% of the way before i used all my healing items.