[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url]
This game is partially or completely made with talentless, soulless AI generated content.[/quote]
RPG Maker strikes again!
"Routine Soul" is one of hundreds of low effort retro-pixel RPG Maker asset/construction kit flips spamming the Steam catalog, made with the RPG Maker video game construction kit... in their own words, "Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child." Like all RPG Maker "games", this is essentially a bunch of low quality/canned assets from RPG Maker coupled with a cringeworthy high school anime club fan fiction.
Yet another painfully generic RPG Maker asset flip here. You're summoned to another world, a world made of pixelcrap stock RPG Maker assets that the developer flipped when making this garbage. It's presented as a "soulslike" which means the developer never played Dark Souls, because RPG Maker asset flips involve no skill when playing them. Or developing them (it's a kids toy construction kit).
However, kudos to the developer, because at least the plot of this RPG Maker asset flip does not follow the defacto standard for all RPG Maker asset flips... it is not all about the developers imaginary anime girlfriend for a change.
As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine displays badly in fullscreen and doesn't have full HD support or any graphics tweaking options, making this unacceptable for any dedicated modern PC gamer. The point can be made that the intention of RPG Maker is to make demos and small games to pass around friends, and shouldn't be used for "professional" game development.
Like most RPG Maker shovelware and asset flips, the game features extremely low quality copy + pasted 2D retro pixel art, looks awful, and has even worse gameplay. RPG Maker is an absolutely terrible construction kit, and never results in games of any reasonable quality or value to gamers.
There's no English translation for the this, but that's okay. The language of bad products is universal.
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too.
In terms of public reception, this failed to appeal to the 130 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at just a dozen or so concurrent players, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it.
Given that this free title won't increase your game collector count, is it worth your time to add it to your library?
This is a "nope". While it won't necessarily cost you money, the time and hard drive space it requires could be better invested in one of the many higher-quality alternatives on Steam.
The use of AI slop is a direct insult to gamers and real, ethical content creators and artists everywhere.
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
The first thing the developer wants everyone to know is that they are "The Main Character". You, as a gamer, don't matter. They breach Valve guidelines for developers just to complain about a fully accurate and informative review (with facts their ego doesn't like). It's evident from their attitude that they never created this product with gamers in mind. They did so to stroke their own ego. When developers, especially failed ones who would never be able to get a professional job in the industry, put themselves before gamers, we end up with garbage products like this. That explains how this trash ended up on Steam, but it doesn't excuse it. At least we finally got to meet The Main Character, and nobody else matters.
The developer proves this with this appalling admission:
[quote]it’s already fulfilled its purpose of entertaining me and my friends.[/quote]
This is a direct admission that this RPG Maker asset flip, replete with AI slop, was never intended as a product for actual gamers. Therefore, there's no justification for this AI Slop/asset flip fan-fiction ever being published where the general public might see it. See what I mean about main character syndrome?
The developer then breaches Valve community guidelines by using profanity and insults, in a direct attempt to make his complete and utter failure (SteamDB does not lie) about this reviewer instead of his garbage product that nobody wanted.
The developer admits this garbage was made with disgusting AI slop, an insult to everyone.
The developer laughably claims he spent thousands of dollars on custom assets, while at the same time using AI Slop and basically just taking stock RPG Maker assets and pretending he was the creator. Either this is a lie or the developer got scammed, although the latter possibility and opportunity to ridicule the developer is certainly more entertaining than this crapfest AI slop asset flip.
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this failed RPG Maker asset flip garbage to anyone.
Edit: The developer continues to breach Valve Community Guidelines with attacks on members of the community as a coping mechanism for his utter failure as a "Developer", dumping AI slop asset flip garbage onto Steam.
The SteamDB figures do not lie, it's a FACT that this developer is a failure.
