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1 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year

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Gained 3+ followers

Gamer

Played 250+ games

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Gained 10+ total review likes

GOTY '22

Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event

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Played 100+ games

Favorite Games

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley

256

Total Games Played

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Played in 2024

030

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

Dinkum
Dinkum

Nov 18

Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm

Nov 13

Risk of Rain Returns
Risk of Rain Returns

Nov 11

Deep Rock Galactic
Deep Rock Galactic

Nov 08

Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3

Nov 08

Recently Reviewed See More

This game is great, but it could've been perfect if they'd taken the time to work on a few little nuanced things and not paywalled the final update. It's still one of my favorite games and something I return to with no small amount of regularity.

--- Nitpicking follows ---

The editor for the final update in terms of house decor and the areas outside of villager houses could've been worked into the main island by loading only certain sections of it and would've made editing/decorating your island more fulfilling as doing it one block at a time can very quickly lead to burn-out.

The crafting is one item at a time instead of allowing for multiples like others in the genre and is slowed down by a slew of dialog boxes.

Overall, a lot of the items are wonderful, but even if they hadn't added major content patches in the future it's disappointing that they discontinued it so soon instead of simply adding minor patches with new furniture later. Unfortunately, Pocket Camp will always be the priority for this sort of thing as they can't get you to pay micro-transactions in NH for special currency. Honestly though, I think I'm mostly sour they only added one variation of cactus outside of potted varieties - Suguaro are nice, but they're not the only kind of cacti you can find in the southwestern areas of North America!

They also failed to add back some of the fruit from previous games! They could've made the cooking list all the more exciting if they'd added JUST bananas in addition to the other farming stuff! And grapes! Grape vines would've been wonderful decor for my island!

..Anyway. I'm passionate about the series because we went so long without a proper installment it seemed like a lot of oversight missing out on these details.

(Since the game needed an actual review, and not people using it as a personal message board...) I'm really enjoying it so far albeit with the caveat it ha(s/d) potential to be much better if GameFreak wasn't trying to push a title every single year to capitalize on the Holidays. It has a lot of great ideas and is the first (modern/recent) title of the series to not derail you every few steps to explain some mechanic or plot to you and does not railroad you into a set goal in a predetermined order - you are expected to complete every path afforded to you, but the order in which you do so is up to you.

If the game gets its bugs/optimization issues (lag, crashing, insert twitter thread or video of numerous glitches here) fixed it'll be a passable title worth the money albeit it's currently evidence enough of an overworked development team rushing another title to market before it's ready.

Without the polish it's still doing better than SWSH, which isn't too hard in retrospect, but I'd call it an accomplishment. The bar is low, but they did meet the expectation here.

Would I suggest getting it? If they patch out all the issues, maybe. You're not missing anything terribly adventurous but if you stopped playing Pokemon Games when they started really holding your hand and if you enjoyed Breath of the Wild or Skyrim you'll probably like it well enough.

Am I satisfied with the money I paid? Mmm. No, but I knew I was buying an unfinished buggy mess before I walked into the building, so it's par the course for me.

Am I enjoying the buggy mess? Yes! For what it's worth, I've had a lot of fun running around and adventuring. I've been playing it almost nonstop since release and still haven't beaten it, which is a nice change of pace from previous titles.

Is it good enough for there to be justification for being a completely unfinished game? Oh, absolutely not; I wouldn't recommend anyone spend money on a game that isn't finished. In a few months after they've dumped a few patches into it, maybe. If you have children who won't really notice the quality, sure. If your expectation is to be entertained and you like Pokemon, you'll probably be fine.

Mario Party but it became somehow more bloodthirsty (and anime)