Distant Bloom

I played this game for 9 hours in a single day and was having a really great time until I got to a game breaking bug at what I am assuming is almost the end of the game. I checked the discussions for this game to see if this was a known issue and found that this bug has been a thing since at least 2024. I might come back in a couple years to retry getting to the end but I dont really want to replay the whole thing right now.

es ist ein super süßes cozy entdeckerspiel und ich liebe es^^

The game has game-breaking bugs and no support for resolving them. It looked promising otherwise, but I can't recommend a game that seemingly breaks randomly.

Has nice music. Expect some moments where you can get stuck, because you can't find the path forward, but as long as you just leave the thing you are stuck on for later, there is a high chance you will find it by accident when doing something else. I do however HIGHLY recommend to at least finish full revitalization of Bohl, as it presents you with a much more satisfying ending than the actual story ending even though there is no fanfare for it apart from a silent scene change and an achievement.

I really loved this game and often recommend it to others who are looking for a great cozy clean up the environment game. I enjoyed the character development and learning more about the planet, discovering new areas in the map and creating tools to clean different types of pollution with. I did get frustrated trying to find a specific location on the map near the end and ended up giving up when I couldn’t get to it, but otherwise this game was a unique and fun, cozy ride.

Warned by the other comments, I knew to be careful. Quitting to desktop saves all you've done just the same. There were a few times I got stuck (the handy "return to base" option in the menu is good for that). All in all, I loved playing this game. It was such a fun, cozy adventure. I couldn't stop revitalising nature. The quests get you on the way and the only time i needed help was to find the way to one probe (the road to which i somehow missed completely the three times I went looking for it)

Warning: spoilers. While the building aspect is neat and straightforward, the crafting aspect is severely lacking. It should not be among the first 5 tags. Characters were sufficiently developed with unique personalities. Genuinely enjoyed the gifting mechanic, it added a reason for me to care about my peers. I just wish they would stand out more, visually. I would confuse for instance the cook with the guard, due to their big gear, which also used same color scheme. And similarly to a review I recently did for a different game, I have to say, the story is better towards the end, too bad only 28% of players will get to see that! I also absolutely loved the plot/kicker, it could easily be used for a sci-fi movie, regardless of the protagonist race/species. The planting aspect is the 2nd biggest element in this game, first one being walking (I will get to that in the end). It's interesting, it's solid, it servers multiple purposes, but it's not enough to outweigh all the bad parts of the game. Oof UI bugs. Sometimes the whole hud is gone, no compass, nothing. Tab fixes this. When the UI is suddenly missing the held tool/item, I just want to reset the game, at least to the main menu. But upon rejoining I am in base. I should be put back where I left off. If I wanted to go base, I would have instead clicked Back to Base. So now I have to spend 35 minutes trying to walk from base back to where I was when the bug happened. Why am I being punished for the game's shortcomings? The most frequent UI bug is while in the seedbag, trying to navigate with a/s/d will randomly take me back to the first type, first item. I only wish it would take me to the first item every time I re-opened the seedbag, but alas, qol is a lot to ask when there are still bugs crawling around. And for some weird reason, specific binds like inventory/seedbag would only open them. A separate key is needed to close them. Weird choice to redesign the standard nifty toggle mechanic. There's also a bug I already reported where the last crafting ingredient is cut off for one of the items. Another UI related bug was the controls not being responsive for a while after closing random UI pages. Oof mission/quest bugs. First it took me a while to figure out that the compass had a progress bar. Since it was turning red, I tried guessing whether I am against time, hunger, tiredness, something. But no, it's progress towards being able to talk to the Alters. I don't understand how this confusing hidden mission, or rather set of hidden repetitive missions, made it in production in this state. So much so that many reported several bloom missions as bugged out and unable to progress. Even after I knew about the progress bar, the bloom missions still felt bugged. You do everything you are supposed to do, but they do not resolve. GG. The solution is, you have to do other regions, not mentioned in the main mission, so the hidden mission gets resolved which helps resolve the main mission as well. Just why? I wonder how many players paused/quit due to this. For the most part the music was cheesy, but there was at least 1 song that made me feel like oh I am onto something now, things are getting interested, I should keep going. That atmosphere was probably due to other elements, as well, perhaps the environment or other sound cues. But the gameplay, the minute to minute, was definitely not a factor, I wanted to quit more than once. The majority of the game is, sadly, walking. Wonky butt walking. Some is needed cus oh new area discovered but it's blocked, go base, upgrade tool, walk back to obstacle, finally new area reached. Sure, nothing new about this mechanic for reuse of space. But most walking is due to getting lost. In huge 3d mazes. With nightmareish, countless spirals, up and down, and branching and spiraling again. That can look awful samey awful lot. Many dead ends. Many one ways/jumps with more convoluted pathing to get back on the initial track. Jumping down should be a WARNING. And sometimes the terrain looks passable but it's not, and viceversa, which just made this major part oh so very frustrating, trying every inch of every edge. Whatever is traversable needs to be made CLEAR, whether I am walking somewhere for the first time, or for the 20th time. And little to no clipping... why must I get stuck so often, especially when the view is obstructed? And not all jump towers change player view to show what they connect to, it's just forced trial and error. This awful trend of extra, unnecessary, unenjoyable walking in the games in the last few years just... needs to die. If it's gonna be the main thing the players spend time on, look at how other games do it, make it fun, make it meaningful, don't just add bloat in places where precious gameplay hours should be. I was not motivated to finish the world after the main story concluded. I got this for $8 and rn it's even less than that but I only recommend getting this on sale. There's many reasons only a quarter of players 'finished' this 10 hour game. And sadly the latest update was over a year ago. It needs bug fixes, but no hope for that. It could use more content, as it looks promising, but no hope for that, either. Looks dead.