As random as this might sound, I picked up this game because it reminded me of Tirisfal Glades and the undead starting area in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. I 100% got it because of the vibes and aesthetic and I loved it. I loved the idea of tending to a graveyard, working at the morgue, learning alchemy, and having my own zombies.
I've barely touched Stardew Valley, which is where most players seem to come from. People compare these games all the time, but I've noticed that those looking for a traditional cozy experience enjoy this less than the people just playing for the vibes. I'd recommend it if you like the idea of it more than the actual genre.
[h3]About the game[/h3]
You start your journey when you're appointed the new graveyard keeper in a strange world, where a speaking, communist donkey brings you corpses to bury, and you have to help the townsfolk with their various problems; all while trying to figure out how to get back to your own world. The characters have unique personalities and they're all hilarious in their own ways. You get to reunite families and there's a lot of lore behind this little town.
The game has six different days, each representing a deadly sin, on which a specific NPC will spawn. These NPCs have their own questlines, stores, or game features (selling food at the witch-burning session, holding a mass, etc.). [i]B-b-but aren't there seven deadly sins?[/i] Yes, apparently, you represent the seventh one: GREED.
Listen, anybody would be greedy if they had to live in this world. Making gold here is harder than making gold in Warcraft Classic. There are a lot of options to make a living, but it's reeeally slow in the beginning. By the time you have everything automated with zombies, you don't really need the gold anymore, but now you have 49 different small businesses bringing in cash. You only need gold for a couple of things, really, but what are you supposed to do with all these amazing income sources after you get those things? [i]Just stop?[/i] /gasp No, no, no.
Even tho you're the graveyard keeper, you spend most of your time doing quests, figuring out how to get out of this place, collecting mats, growing food, building stuff, managing machines, systems, zombies, etc. By the time I finished the game, half of my graveyard was still untouched, unfortunately. After reaching a certain quality for a quest, you don't really need to keep upgrading it, so I used a lot of corpses to make zombies and also cremated a bunch for the ashes.
You don't have to go deep into the dungeons if you don't want to, and you don't need to fish either (thank the lord, because I hated the fishing mechanic; I think it's the same as Stardew, but I might be wrong). You don't even have to automate things or get into zombie min-maxing; you can stay at a pretty casual level and still finish the game and do plenty.
[h3]THE GRIND[/h3]
The grind people talk about didn't feel like a long, tedious thing to me. It's more like a million little tasks you want to do at the same time, so you end up starting one and switching halfway through because you remembered you needed to get that other thing first.. oh, but if I run to town NOW and catch this guy before sunset, I can get the quest item for that other guy three days from now. Wait, actually, I need to deliver some bread before I can talk to that guy. I guess I gotta start growing wheat. I mean.. since I'm growing wheat, I might as well grow carrots for the donkey, right? Ah ♥♥♥♥, I gotta go to town to buy seeds. [i]OH, BUT ALSO![/i]
I'm way too familiar with this hell loop, it's the bane of my existence in real life, but here, it never caused the typical analysis paralisis you might expect; the game actually helped me deal with the anxiety of having 99+ ongoing tasks. I'd just do one thing, literally anything, and that would get me going. You can always find a manageable task to get you going without getting ahead of yourself and planning the whole week before you even launch the game.
You don't have a deadline, so if you want to focus on getting mats the entire week, you can do that and go back to questing later. You can focus on whatever you want for as long as you want; the story will progress when you decide to, so there's no rush.
[h3]DLCs[/h3]
I'd definitely recommend you get the DLCs rather early. I got them when I was close to ending the game, and I finished the game before I finished the DLC questlines. You can log into your last save after you finish the game to wrap up the DLC stories if you want.
It's definitely easier to craft what you need for the DLCs once you have all your technology trees unlocked, but at the same time, the rewards are definitely more helpful early on.
The extra quests and lore we get are definitely worth going through. You help the donkeys with their revolution, hunt down a vampire, and get lore from hundreds of years ago. I got them all on sale and I think they were all worth it. They also have their own achievements, so you can't get 100% unless you get all the DLCs.
[h3]Some things that need work (that might hopefully be improved in the sequel):[/h3]
- The alchemy system is too complex for no reason. There are too many stations and you don't have the recipes until you ♥♥♥♥ around with materials and accidentally find one (or until you google them). Also, the game never reminds you how to craft the components (powders, liquids, etc.) for the big recipes, even after crafting them multiple times and studying the mats at the study table. This is the only thing I had to google several times.
- There's no recipe book of any kind, so if you're out and about and want to know what to buy or gather to craft something, cook a meal or brew a potion, you gotta go back home or google.
- There's no inventory search or indicator to show if you have a specific mat in one of your many chests, which makes organization very important.
- There's no easy way to see your ongoing quests outside the NPC tab, which wouldn't always tell you if they had asked for something recently.
- There's no feature to manage your zombies. No easy way to move them around or re-assign them, and no way to see if you left one on the floor somewhere before you put it to work. You have to manually move them around.
- Gathering buckets of water (with casting time) to craft TWENTY (20) UNITS OF WATER, when you need a minimum of TWO HUNDRED (200) for one of you MANY tasks that involve water. The fastest way to get water was using the well from the Game of Crone DLC's encampment. What a blessing that was. I'd buy the DLC just to press E and get water instantly.
- There's no "you are here" marker on the map, which was disorienting at first and just a small QoL change I'd make.
[h3]TLDR[/h3]
If you want to play something like Stardew Valley or are looking for a short, cozy, and non-grindy experience, this game might not be for you.
However, if a graveyard, zombies, a talking skull, and a communist donkey sound like your cup of tea; if you want to harvest crops but also organs, if you want to befriend the innkeeper but also the sketchy guy doing cult rituals under the church, and if you live and breathe for the spooky vibes.. then this game is definitely for you, my friend.
