After the PirateSoftware Drama and observations: After Thor became a full time streamer his interest towards Heartbound felt down and the dev updates and dev builds he was doing on streams become fewer and fewer. Previously he was working daily on it or almost daily and there were live videos with him working on the game. Now he plays games and is interested in making an internet persona influencer. His good persona and vibes are not shining anymore. And after the WOW Drama his good guy persona was shattered. I just hope that he will reconsider himself, his mistakes, admit the reality checks and take a break from being a huge internet persona and finally refocus on the game. Why is his streaming career and him relevant to the game? Well he is the developer of the game and in public eyes he lost focus for the game. Original Review After having Thor's face shoved daily in my Youtube Shorts clips and really liking what he says in those I decided to give his game a go. Having saying that initially I wasn't aware it was Early Access, I thought he was doing bugfixes on streams but I was wrong, he was actively developing the game. Having said that, I want to be clear: THIS GAME IS NOT FINISHED IS IN ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT (DAILY). From what I checked in the gameplay videos, The First Chapter has been completed 5 years ago, The Second Chapter has been expanded and it's quite good but still incomplete, and the 3rd Chapter is not even started, it is just a 2-minute intro to it. So long way to go. I am not a game dev and have no clue about it, but 5 years in development I would have expected for a short intended game that it would have been in a higher state of development. I do not watch Thor's streams, but I generally like what he is saying, I am not really in the know of the game's progress, but I wanted to give it a go due to the low price, and gameplay theme, and support the guy making it. I have to highlight the fact, that while looking initially very direct, the game has a lot of variety and small dialogues that impact the situation and even the final game outcome. This requires attentive planning and a lot of work to be sure that everything looks right. And there are situations where the players won't even ever see the work behind that. The combat moments are cool implemented in an Undertale Mechanic Way, and one of the fights is a dialogue fight that reflects your game choices. So those matter. It's worth giving it a go and seeing what is all about and if you want to help Thor, but I am sad that is not complete. I have to state from the looks of it that there is still a long way to go, so if you expect it to be a full game, it's not. If you are off-put by paying 10E for an Early Access game, do not buy it then. Get it when it is fully fleshed. I won't lie, I am also disappointed that I did not get to fully experience the game as I was drawn into it, and not having the conclusion of it, having to wait, and most likely forgetting mostly everything about the game by the time it is completed it sucks. But I am willing to give it another go in the future once is 100% done. *Huge piece of advice - You can try the demo and see if its aesthetic, gameplay and dialogue are for you.* Having said that, what is in the game feels well though, and qualitative. It's a game about life, having great general bits of advice but also quirky old-man humor which he does in the streams/shorts. I cannot go much into the game as it has to be experienced to understand it but it is a game made in Gamer Maker, having graphics similar to StarDew Valley and many of this RPG Maker look alike. The gameplay, tone, and delivery are similar to Undertale but also have brighter, happier levels. Having said that the game isn't super intuitive. There were moments when I didn't know what to do, or where to go. So it is not for everyone. Moments where I got stuck or my brain did not work* - Not knowing that I have to roll the logs to clear the path in the prologue. I just got the axe and I thought I had to chop them. I was looking for the keybind. I tried to push it to make it inclined. Accidentally discovered how to clear it. I got stuck in the datapad level. I wanted to clear it successfully, and I know I could push 7 times and just finish it, but one of the numbers, for me, the "40-Love" was impossible to ever figure out, even after reading the explication on it. The second level, the second chapter is so much better in indicating where to go, having paths cleared and opened when reaching a certain threshold. The second chapter is generally such a much better game in terms of player choices, graphics, and settings. I love the save system and how it works. Many Save Points and are easy to load and save. But, I would have loved different save/load slots for different choices/achievement hunting and a QUIT button. Not ALT F4. I like how fast can you get back in the game even after alt f4-ing. Having no save/load system might be also a game's design decision where it teaches you to live with your decisions, not sure about that. BUT... again... I would love a save-load slot system at least after you complete the game.
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