Recent reviews by RitheGuardian

Yeet delete the cart.

Absolutely in love with the art style & sound design.
The game play loop is really satisfying, the story is amazing.
The meaning & small metaphors throughout are beautiful, can not wait to play this game once it's released.

Only mild personal 'gripe' is that earning & depositing howls for teardrops feels *just a little* tedious. The unlocks are worth the grind and it feels very balanced with progression but the illusion of a grind via multiple deposits to unlock 1/3 of something vs a larger full requirement makes it feel bad. Sectioning out the smaller unlocks make sense since they're incremental, but it makes it feel a little less satisfying to unlock the larger main ones in the same manner.

Critical Gameplay Feedback: Going into the 2nd zone or I guess technically the first zone for the first Great Spirit 'Creek of Spectral Falls and not having a sacred grove in the beginning of that area AND it only being accessible after 2 battles, one being a rather large one from the first zone.. is not it. This was frustrating enough that it made me quit playing the demo at that point, despite wanting to continue otherwise.

The game does not work properly.
Always needs to be online, obv. using the EA launcher.

Doesn't respond to controller or K&M correctly.
Car is stuck in 2 gear, sensitivity is chaotic and acceleration / deceleration randomly stops working all together.

So many other issues. Don't waste your time.

The pixel art is really lovely, very aesthetically pleasing.
The game is simple; you mostly just watch, and sometimes singularly manage, a persons work time.
It is a nice thing to have on your screen while doing other things, checking in and seeing what the little guy is up to from time to time, encouraging them to work if they have the energy.
Though, you can only make them to work. You cannot stop them from working once started or direct them to do anything else.

It nearly plays itself, for the most part, you just check in to make sure he's being productive & unlock upgrades, like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ manager.
You also cannot just leave it to idol without tending/minimal levels of intermittent attention to make sure your little guy isn't 'being lazy'. (Which, calling a solid representation of depression and lack of interest in hobbies/joys as 'lazy' is ... really ♥♥♥♥ and a terribly damaging mentality.)
I really don't think rarely managing with a single click, and unlocking stuff you can't actively do anything with is great for a game that also requires your intermittent active attention. I do dearly wish there were more active things to do with it, even if it's all just optional.

This game feels like depression wrapped in hopelessness. Like a ticking time bomb of burnout you can't control.
A listless NPC doing random actions that may or may not allow them to 'recharge'. You can ONLY control one aspect, click desk to make them 'work' -- even if you buy upgrades to help their rest/recovery, you cannot direct them to use the items/objects. Leaving it to it's own devices does seem to keep the stats evened out.

My biggest gripes -

QOL - EATING SOUNDS/CHIP CRUNCHING. the loudest sound in the game, and it horrid. Needs a misophonia toggle to mute just the chips crunching/eating sounds. Your only option currently is to mute all the activity sounds.

Gameplay - It sucks to not be able to interact with or control anything except peon poke 'get back to work!'
Would be really lovely if you could at least direct them to 'relax' in some way -- like directing them to watch tv / play games / drink coffee etc. -- I understand this would allow the player to control the 'barely surviving' aspect, which perhaps is not the intention of the game.


TLDR - It's BARELY an 'active attention' idle game, with a bit of management of unlocking/buying things that make more $ and passive items that allow the character more energy/creativity - that they use on their own. You can only poke them to 'get back to work!'

I'm torn, as I really like the aesthetic & general premise, but the minimal game-play is not enough for me personally. I think it's still worth it just for the art alone ~
It may very well be just what you want though. :)

Great game. Really interesting story. The art and the vibes are immaculate.
One play-through is really short (1-2 hours if you really take your time)
The ending, or at least the one I got the first time, was kind of ... meh. Very lack luster.
I assume there are multiple endings, which will add to play-time + replay value.
As of writing this review, there is only one ending (with 2 choices that lead to the same end)

The biggest QOL issue is there is no manual save AND it doesn't have any indication of when it last auto-saved the game.

I played the demo for a minute and decided to get the game.
There are more mechanics/aspects in the full game vs the demo; more information on reports and more rules/violation to report on

Steam achievements aren't working. Perhaps playing the demo messed it up.
Upon starting my second play-through I am now earning achievements.

Auto-clicker doesn't work for fishing.

It's obviously intentional, as the auto-clicks register for other aspects of the game.

A single-player idle clicker game that intentionally negates the use of an auto clicker? why??? I've literally never had this issue before with any other single player idle/click game. Intentionally blocking something that doesn't effect anyone or anything else but the players experience with the game is asinine.

I like using an auto-clicker for games like this, not only for accessibility to avoid RMI flair ups, but it's also just how I enjoy playing these types of games; even if the clicking isn't a huge aspect of the game.

The story seems interesting so far, but it crashed 6 times within 2.5 hours. super annoying. Would love to actually play the game as I got hooked since the demo played just fine.
I checked the file integrity, & all my drivers are updated. So, not sure what more I can do about it.

Only got a crash report pop-up once, every other crash just froze and closed w/o any means to auto-report

About 2 / 2.5 hours of playtime if you don't rush.
The art is fantastic and the voice acting is great.
The story is really silly and fun, it's short and set in a small location, so it wasn't a nuisance to revisit areas / characters upon finding more clues.

Wonderful game. It really scratches that 'shop keeper' itch. It's calm and relaxing to play.

- This may be a downside to some; (so far) there is no combat or risks in this game.
- Interesting & varied inventory, very simple 'crafting' system (put item in / wait a day / get different item out)
- What you can gather changes with the seasons! I believe seasons change on every 12th day?
- Very intuitive UI & controls + pleasing aesthetics. Satisfying gathering + stocking animations/methods.
- The cashier / checkout system is really fun and immersive. Plus, there's an option for those who don't want to do math to just type the change owed amount in.
- A nice skill leveling system that grants bonuses per level.
- Lots of interesting things around that make you go 'hm.. I wonder.. is there more to this?'

I don't think it would be far fetched to call this game one of the best games in this niche style/genre.

While I personally find roaming the same zone & collecting the same nodes to get a bit stale after a while; this game keeps it a bit fresh by having random 'events' & the appearance of Boone Bestowing creatures being random per day/night.

I appreciate the silly little extras for those of us who enjoy 'breaking' the game a bit & exploring *everywhere*

I've started to create a small spreadsheet to keep track of all the prices & inventory in the game :)
Teddy's Rest Inventory + Prices List [docs.google.com]

Relaxing & enjoyable. Nice to just watch the npcs come and go, hearing all the little machine sounds.
The nighttime ambiance is wonderful, especially when it's raining.
Fun to decorate/design the machines and decorate all the different locations.
I really hope a lot more decorations and assets get added. It's pretty bare bones atm.

The amount of NPCs that liter is rage inducing. Just like real life :D

Bugs :
- Someone threw trash *into* the wall (no way to remove it) and now one of my locations is permanently 4.5 cleanliness.
- Sometimes the awnings don't actually block the rain.