Blue Oak Bridge

Fun game! Be sure to save because some times it crashes and you lose all your progress!

I absolutely adore this little charming game. I bought it on sale and I wouldn't have regretted buying it at full price, the time I spent with it and the joy it gave me was well worth it. I liked almost all aspects the story, the farming elements, the decorating, ect... its just such a fun game, and the npcs all make the world feel full properly. You are encouraged to give everyone gifts to experience their drama filled lives, the humor of it elevated this game a lot for me. The stories touch on more adult things like nervous breakdowns, unrequited love, heart break, struggling to survive in this economy, ect... but its still very much in the cozy genre. Its something I think a child would find boring but as an adult I was sufficiently amused. There are some very nice and amusing touches that go along with this. It was well put together. For those of you who find watering and harvesting a chore, the devs do as well and give the player [spoiler] A water potion that waters everything on the field in a single click. You can get a permanent one for the 75% Library crop completion reward. There is also a crop picker (that will not pick flowers (for a good reason as you need those for honey) that will pick all of the crops and all you need to do is walk around and collect them. [/spoiler] All of that being said this game is very, very far from perfect. Its very much a bug and clunk riddled experience. The negative reviews are completely correct. I can't tell you how many times I've run into a weird bug and had to restart the game from it. The clunk is almost as bad. They made some strange and unusual decisions and there are times when you'll be confused. They did not finish quite everything they wanted to in terms of content and there are two areas on the teleport map that don't really exist and one on the normal map. The combat is very simple: swing sword. It didn't really detract from the experience for me, but its once again clunky and sometimes buggy. I've lost sound on many occasion for no reason I can explain. Overall I give the game a 7/10 simply because it really meshed with me. It was really fun underneath and because of its unique quirks. Its a hidden gem that would be way easier to recommend if it wasn't so buggy. Protips: -If you character is walking only in one direction and slower, its not bugged, its a special mode you activated "farming mode" you need to turn off again. 'Shift' on mouse and keyboard. -Join the discord. The devs will help you through some of the weirder issues, like your house upgrade getting stuck, or quest NPCs taking the story off. Not to mention a quick search will show you someone has run into a similar problem like not knowing where to find a certain item or ect... There is also a wiki. -Don't kill yourself for 100% completion on everything. No rewards and also I'm pretty sure its impossible or very buggy. Sitting at one fish that refuses to show up ever, and 3 potions that the wiki nor the discord can account for. If you still want to walk this path, make sure to get gokies to catch fish, the eakeies to get the wild stuff, and set up at least 2 lobster traps in the valley, the ocean, the bog, and the cove. Always throw the first of anything you get into the Library no exceptions. This is sound advice even if you just want to play the game as some stuff you need is very rare. -Keep 10 of everything you'll likely need it for a quest somewhere when you least expect it. -The regrowing plants are your biggest money makers.

Playing this game, I felt like I was playing an early access game. Or even beta, to be honest. Unwieldy controls, moving your character it gets stuck looking one way and walking backwards slowly, things don't get picked up properly, nothing's really explained. You're supposed to be able to click M for the map but that doesn't work for me. And then as I was on day 2, the game promptly crashed as I entered the store. It's got potential but it's certainly not a fully completed game and has no place pretending that it is.

Although I haven't played much of this yet, I can already tell I will pour in hours and hours worth of gameplay. So far this game has been really fun and easy to manage. I really love that the characters all have their own amazingly beautiful character art when you talk to them, and I love that they all have their own voice too! I find this really unique, and definitely a plus for the game. I'm very curious to see where the gameplay/story will lead me as I continue, as so far there hasn't been a lot of that. Definitely a game I can recommend!

The good : Solid farming sim from the time I've spent. I'm eager to play more. There is a large farm area to work with and I like the ease of creating decor for outdoor customization. Creating your own seeds is also neat and many can be crafted early on. I can imagine progress occurring fast in this game due to that. The selection of animals is varied enough and they are unique and charmingly designed. The townspeople are also an eclectic crew with somewhat unusual character designs. Fishing is quite simple and effective, immediately rewarding. I haven't jumped into combat yet but I'm glad it's an extra activity to liven up the tasks that are possible each day. The not-so-good : Tilling, planting, and watering is a little basic and slower on the outset than I'd like it to be. I had some considerable performance issues and slowdown. The menus are a bit lacking in polish.

Does not feel like there is any kind of story in the game and personally it does not feel like there is any reason to continue playing. The game feels like it's in EA to me.

Enjoying this wee game, nice graphics. Plays fine on my Steam.