Weirdlands

I found that this was a pretty solid indie rpg with a fun story told over two sequential playthroughs. I feel that the strongest aspects of the game were its storytelling and the puzzley way in which you interact with everything to discover secrets and impact the world. On the more critical note, I think the core systems design of the game are somewhat shallow and can at times be quite monotonous (combat), or outright not fun (fishing). By the end of the second play, I managed to discover all secrets and defeat all combat challenges, but the fishing log was just not something I felt was worth completing. Barring some of the more involved optional encounters or secrets that are clearly not intended for (or explicitly disallowed on) the first play, the game is actually quite compact and a comfortable length of around 10 or so hours per playthrough. Even doing all that extra stuff, it only took me 30 hours to 100% the game across both runs. I've seen that an update was released to give more detailed clues on the various puzzles and secrets, but I didn't personally see much that wasn't clearly laid out for the player on the default difficulty. There were a few instances of situations that I expected something more to, but never found myself stuck or at a loss for how to solve a puzzle or find a secret. In fact, the only secret that I missed on my first time through was just due to my own lack of attentiveness on a particular list of names. All in all, a relatively fun experience and one that I felt was worth the money spent. I really enjoyed the realizations at the climax of each run of the game, and how the dialogue was mostly rewritten for the second run, providing a very novel experience.

this game is cool as hell. despite the cavalcade of nostalgic influences (earthbound, pokemon, undertale, and point & click adventure games), it's a unique enough take both in concept and execution that makes it stand well on its own feet and a solid recommend for anyone who's even remotely interested in any of the named classics. i do have to stress the point & click influences—the game is purposely obtuse in how it delivers info and encourages you to check everything out and take everything in, but i don't feel like it's obtuse to the point of frustration. if you want a game that doesn't require you to engage with it on any meaningful level beyond Go To Obvious Map Marker -> Press Highlighted Button -> Do Thing, there are mountains of them somewhere else. if you want an interesting game that that respects player intelligence and creativity, particularly in the combat sequences, then weirdlands is it. for anyone having heard or complained about the 'grindy' nature of progression; weirdlands is no more or less grindy than its influences, and the dev has added accessibility sliders so you can tweak the experience to your preference. exp is dummy easy to come by if you just think for 2 seconds. weirdlands gives you everything you need to succeed; just try not to get in your own way.

I simply cannot recommend this game enough. The developer did an absolutely fantastic job for what looks like one of their first games. The story is poignant and fascinating. While some may not enjoy the lack of explicit instructions or hand holding, I found it truly delightful to explore the world. I'll come back to write a longer review later, but this little gem might have become one of my favourite games.

This is undoubtedly one of my most favourite games in YEARS! The story, the puzzles, the creatures, the adorable graphics there is so much to love. As an avid creature collector player it was lovely to play, enough variety that you can mix and match around but not so overwhelming that collecting them all is impossible. The dialogue is well written and feels natural when reading (I played this game in English I do not know if it has support for other languages). If I had one complaint its that the puzzles are fantastic but sometimes identifying the solutions is a bit obtuse because its not always clear what clues you are supposed to work with. Thankfully the small but fantastic community did help me with a few puzzles that really had me stumped. At the point in time I'm posting this review there are no guides and it would be awesome if someone who plays through this in the future makes one. I look forward to any future games made by this creator as I'm sure they will be absolute bangers. I highly recommend this game to everyone 9/10 buy it and play it!

I landed here because I'm a fan of monster taming games. I've been playing nothing but this game for the past couple weeks. It's very solid. The lore, I found genuinely enticing. I was pleasantly surprised by how much it drew me in. Some of the characters were great. There's a chunk of grind required right at the start, which personally I don't mind. There was a patch released partway through my second playthrough which apparently addressed this, but I never tried it out. Pretty soon you're thrust into an open world and kinda left to your own devices. Not a lot of hand-holding. Thank goodness. There isn't anything stopping you from massively overpreparing and maximizing some or all of your stats, which is tempting, but obviously removes a lot of depth from the gameplay. I joined the creator's Discord, and constructive feedback and bug reports are welcome and appreciated there. New Game + is not what you'd be expecting. You don't carry over stats or captured spirits. Instead … something else happens, which makes a second playthrough very satisfying. The core mechanics of the game change a bit. You can also kinda blitz through it the second time 'round once you already know what to do. Anyway, very neat indie game. Great stuff. Recommended.

I was recommended this game by a friend and I really wish more people were aware of it. I'm only a couple of hours in as of writing this and I can already say that I'm having quite a bit of fun with it. The start can feel a little grindy but the grind isn't like extremely hard or anything, you get experience points for pretty much everything you do and it only costs 100 per point to level up your stats; and there are only 3 stats to level. There are item based puzzles like a point and click. And the real highlight for me is the writing, it has a lot of charm to it. You can go through the entire game and examine pretty much everything in the game and everything has a very charming and often times witty thing to say about all the decoration. All the characters have their own unique voice and they're fun to talk too. I spent like a solid ten minutes making friends with a vending machine. It's also fun to see your magic get stronger as you level up, everyone starts with a weak beam, but level it up enough and you start throwing out Kamehameha. I do wish the auto save would auto save a little more often, I've gotten in the habit of manually saving more often. But sometimes you can be going on at a decent clip then an enemy will one shot you out of nowhere, it's not a huge deal, getting stronger is not hard like I said, but sometimes I'll lose like maybe 10 or so minutes of progress and it's a little frustrating. Overall I think the game is very charming and fun, I'm looking forward to see how it expands.

I loved weirdlands! I wish people knew more about it and honestly would love to make a guide. It is a beautiful mix of fantasy, sci-fi, activism, and intrigue. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and puts you in your place if you go the wrong way before you are ready. I adore it and wish I could play it again like I knew nothing again. The new game plus is an integral part of the game and even changes the story for the better. I absolutely loved it. I need and want more. I appreciate that it rewards you for speaking to everyone and doing everything. The only thing I will say is that I experienced some glitches fishing, especially when encountering the most rare type of fish. It made me not want to complete the fishing journal. I would love that to be patched for future players. Otherwise I loved everything.

Weirdlands is one of those charming indie JRPGs that you can't help but love. The inclusion of monster taming and point and click elements set the game apart from other post-Undertale indie JRPGs. Weirdlands is quirky and clearly influenced by that zeitgeist, but it's also doing its own thing and never feels like something I've seen before. There's also a New Game+ mode that continues the story and changes up gameplay mechanics in a big way, which is very cool. It's not often that I do New Game+, but I had a lot of fun with it here, and it was an integral part of the experience. The art style and character designs are both appealing and unique, while the music creates a particular vibe that strengthens the feeling of the environment. Well, in the sections that have music -- some tracks were not ready for launch. It's not the biggest deal, but the absence was felt in a couple of places. I'm a bit mixed on the gameplay. The balancing was odd, with your main character progressing completely linearly. That is, experience converts into stats directly at the same rate for the entire game. Your monster companions only progress by catching more monsters -- they'll be quite powerful, but you can't grind for levels or anything. It's a strange mix of progression, but it actually felt somehow immersive. The other issue is that most spells just felt undertuned, requiring multiple turns and HP to use. I beat the game mostly just using basic attacks and the main characters healing spell as needed. I would have liked more diversity in the combat, but, it wasn't a huge deal for me. Weirdlands thrived on the vibes and interesting story, so having simple, but unoffensive combat wasn't a huge problem for me. Weirdlands may not be the best fit if you're looking for a mechanically complicated monster collector, but it's absolutely worth a play for being an interesting, charming indie JRPG.