The Last Craftsman

I haven't been hooked by a farm sim game like this since I bought Stardew Valley in 2019. And I have, like, 1,000 hours played in that game. I can see this game devouring my life, in the best way possible. The design is gorgeous. It's so cohesive and charming without being overly saccharine. [sorry but super cute lolita stuff isn't my style] The items are clever and funny. They are unique and varied enough that it doesn't feel like you've seen everything. Not just in the first 2 hours of playing, but in other similar farm sim games. The characters are also varied in skin tones which I can appreciate. It's not too, well, visually minimal in regards to character design, to be tactful. The map is large enough to feel like a real township, but small enough that it feels respectful of your time. You are [probably] an adult with a job, hobby, in school / training, or something else. You are not going to spend 1 hour out of 2 game play hours simply doing nothing but running around an overly large, mostly barren map. [Not to disrespect other games in this review, but I found Harvest Moon One World really annoying for this aspect] This Farm Map is large enough to accommodate crops, machines, animals, and orchard. Run out of basic materials like stone or wood? There are other, well stocked outer maps to harvest from. That's not to say that there's no resource management. There's a very good balance to this game where you never run out of things to do, but it's not brainlessly easy with no challenge. It's incredibly fun to explore and poke around at what works and what doesn't with the present materials. The fishing game: I hate fishing, 99% of the time. I don't have the patience for it, and most fishing games within games are kinda repetitive. Being on a default laptop keyboard and [not that great] touchpad, it's particularly difficult because most games assume you have a proper gaming mouse. This isn't like those other fishing games. It asks you to start the game instead of dumping you straight into GET FISH NOW minigame. I appreciate being able to set my own pace. It honestly takes the stress off. It's also a pleasant variation of... how would you describe it? The 'keep the cursor on the highlighted part to win' game. It involves your participation beyond that, which I think it pretty cool. Could this be called a shooting game? Albeit a very departed version of it. [side note: I appreciate the lack of guns in the game. As an American, I kinda don't like guns. But let's not get into that here.] Also you mostly maybe don't need to do fishing if you REALLY hate it. There are plenty of items in the game which will have the materials you need. But you are missing out on a) finishing the collection and b) some REALLY cool critters. Seriously, the pixel art is amazing. Crab is the best creatchure EVER :3 They get their own chest because I love them so much Also, speaking of pace, you can set your own in the game, which I also greatly appreciate. There's no countdown timer that demands you do X within 3 days* or you lose out on something. You can take your time to harvest materials, make friends, explore the world, before prompting the plot to continue. * ok excluding meeting someone at a train station, but there's no particular reprimand for that besides embarrassment on your part. Oh one other thing I like is the Notes tab in the UI. Oh my god I don't have to write things down in notepad dot exe and pause the game to reference that every time I want to do a quest. And it even tells me the items I need. I am figuratively smooching the dev on the forehead like I'm bugs bunny. Also a separate tab tells me what materials is in the Research Lab so I don't need to run back and forth between the Lab and my Chests on the Farm to retrieve materials to advance to the next level of Craftsman. Wow. I know this sounds silly, but devs that understand quality of life for video games is something to laud. There are no fan mods for this, as far as I know, but honestly that's fine. Not once have I thought to myself, 'damn, wish someone would add this to the game'. Because it's already there. The care and thought put into this game is amazing. The plot and mechanics are so well balanced. Do you find X annoying? Well don't worry, it's been accounted for and you haven't gotten to the right Craftsman level to unlock it. [Ok well I might want some fan mods. Such as different clothes since they are congruous to the design, but rather basic. But frankly that's a non issue, non urgent desire. It does not detract from the game at all.] My only complaint is this: Blue eyes? On a Black person? Well ok. I guess it's fantasy / scifi genre. There are stranger things in heaven and earth, or whatever that quote is. ANYWAYS. This is a game made by someone who clearly loves farming sims, and it shows. If you like Stardew Valley, try this game. It isn't a dupe, knock off, or anything like that. The Last Craftsman is very much its own game and I really hope it only gets more popular. It's a game that's well thought out, and has learned to improve from other excellent examples in this genre. And I think SDV players would enjoy this game. ps there's stairs in my house; I am protected. Pak chooie unf!

Really enjoy the tags for crafting, the dungeon card game is ok (havent spent time creating cards yet). The interaction with the townsfolk is really lacking, but I understand that they are probably trying to pace out the crafting tech levels...it just gets a bit tedious. Theseus is great.

A novel twist on the stardew style cozy game, while the crafting is the main focus, all the subsystems are pretty fun and, best of all, your default move speed is pretty damn fast! Story is cute, music is great, graphics are great. Highly reccomend, perfect type of game to hop in, play an in game day, and then hop out feeling satisfied.

this is a great game. seems like a solo project, which is astonishing!! something in particular i like a lot is the "tag system" for materials and stuff -- like instead of requiring 50 pieces of wood, the game requires 50 things that include wood, kind of. (you'll see!) so you can use different materials than you expect, recycle items into new things, and seek out whatever unusual tag or attribute you need. i'm having a lot of fun

Очень понравилась игра и концепция. Играешь за местного человека_на_все_руки жители просят тебя чего-то сделать, но не заставляют. Чем больше делаешь для жителей тем выше твой рейтинг в гильдии. Чем выше рейтинг тем больше доступно всяких улучшений для мультитула. В игре любопытная схема с тегами, рецепты крафтинга требуют определенные теги в определенном кол-ве а не какие-то конкретные предметы. типа нужен тег "дерево" 20 штук для стола. А тэг дерево могут иметь совершенно разные предметы конечно-же всякие бревна, некоторая мебель, и даже есть "деревянная" рыба :) из недостатков пожалуй по сравнению с другими фермами немного не хватает информации базовой. Не указано сколько растут растения, какие растения дают много урожаев а какие только один. Не указано какие подарки понравились людям.

A solid cross between Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia/Sandrock. Has a really neat "tag" system that drives the game and allows multiple paths through the game and multiple solutions to every puzzle. It's a little grindy, and a little buggy, but it's a very solid game for a solo developer.