Perhaps Im just spoiled by Gust's exceptional Atelier Ryza series. Perhaps, for the same reason, I have incorrect expectations for what the game should have been. Nonetheless, I find Atelier Marie to be an interesting but awkward expereince.

Unlike the story driven experience of Ryza, Marie is much more like a life sim. The core loop of the game is picking up requests from the nearby tavern, which either asks for materials you can harvest in the world, or crafted items you have to create. This is still in Ryza of course.

The key difference is that you have a time limit for the end of the game, and ~every~ action ticks down the clock. Want to harvest a material? That costs a day. Want to craft an item? Could take 5 days, or even more. The reason this is such a huge departure from Ryza is because you no longer have time for experimentation, and every action you take has to be strategically considered. Time spent crafting consumables that help survive expeditions to dangerous areas is time that could be spent tackling requests to earn money and reputation. Time holed up in the atelier crafting items is time that could be used for harvesting valuable ingredients, and finding rumors around town that provide valuable information.

The strictness of the design means the game's progression has to be equally tight... but I dont think it is. It took me a few restarts to even understand how the game wanted me to play it, and even then the randomness involved in many aspects of the game can leave you in a rut you just have to wait out. And the costly nature of crafting makes me feel like I need to have a calculator on hand to determine how much time a request is going to take, calculations that could be meaningless if the game's rng ends up working against you.

I can see the potential of the experience the game wants to craft, and I do really want it to work, but its implementation is too messy for me to fully enjoy.

!! This is a review of the Early Access version !!

Lightyear Frontier's world is an idyllic one. There's no real danger, the animals are cute and friendly, and resources are abundant. This is not a game where you are fighting for your live, but instead one that pitches the fantasy of a beautiful frontier homestead that you can grow on your own time. It's a wonderfully relaxing game thats thematically adjacent to titles like Terra Nil and Slime Ranger.

The Terra Nil comparison is important, because like that game your goal is environmental cleanup. You get access to new resources by cleaning up regions of the world. But the further out you go, the stronger the tools your cleanup efforts require, which is what defines the central progression loop of the game

Cleanup a region -> Get new resources -> Craft new workstations and new tools -> Cleanup more difficult regions

This loop makes for a great sense of progression, where each goal feels manageable with a bit of time and effort. Some environment design choices can pose a few annoying obstacles to this loop, but on the whole progression is consistently satisfying.

On the smaller scale, you spend your days building out farms, crafting resources to use in upgrading your tools and building new decorations and crafting stations. While there is a day/night cycle, you are never forced into certain actions by the cycle, like you are forced to sleep in Stardew Valley. If a new day rolls around while you're out exploring, you get the daily summary of the things you accomplished that day just like if you slept at home, and afterward can continue where you left off.

All of this makes for a wonderfully relaxing experience you can take at your own pace. There are still a few issues with the currently pointless economy, some awkwardness with how fertilizers work, and the necessity of certain buildings, but this early access build still provides a satisfying experience.

Its quite a simple concept. You fill your backpack with items, looking for synergies that create powerful combos, and use those items to battle other players. But the strength of this game is entirely in its execution. Theres a huge number of strategies you can employ, with each character having significant differences in the types of strategies you can employ. Exploring new strategies based on the random selection of items you find in the shop between battles makes it fun to discover new ways to build up your backpack. You can choose to play in either a ranked or unranked mode, depending on how serious you want to take the game. Some items can also combine into new items if placed next to each other for one battle, so discovering the recipes available for each character provides a longer term goal to shoot for if ranked matchmaking isnt for you.

My one criticism is that you're highly dependent on how RNGesus is feeling at the moment. Because of its limited selection, and large number of items, it can sometimes feel impossible to get the items you want.

All in all, Backpack Battles is a great casual experience for people who love searching for synergies and crafting fun combos, or are looking for a clever and highly replayable autobattler experience.