Atlantis

Do you usually play games were you take care of a shop?

Nope. I think I never before played a game where I was any kind of shopkeeper or something as I always wondered how on earth that can be anything but stressful. I do play Zoo- and City-Building kind of games tho... I would not call most of them cozy tho XD (Even tho some of them are sold as such.) However, I did play "Hotel Galactic" which has at least somewhat a simular system of taking care of rooms and guests that want to be feed and fields to take care of for cheap food.

2. Would you say that as a shop-owner-game-newbie this was a hard game to get into?

Yes and no, I guess. In a sense the tutorial guides you through the first steps just fine and thus the start wasn't hard or anything like that. However, the moment MIA decided not to guide your hand anymore, it gets a lot harder. I am halfway through spring and I have no idea where to get an fishing rod from so that I can get my own fish. Neither do I know yet how I can keep my own Cows for Milk and cheese or chickens for eggs, for that matter as this part of the game is no longer something were it holds your hand and helps you find out. It tells you in the beginning that it is something you CAN do, but now HOW and WHEN.- When I missed an ingredient for making beer and didn't know how or were to get it I was in a total panic and the game was not helping. Ever since MIA is only there for the main plot of the game I am lost A LOT and often have to ask the internet for help. And mind you, I am playing this game since yesterday afternoon and have not even 8 hours of playtime yet, so that is still the "getting into it" phase.

However overall the beginning part is doable even for a newbie like me. I can take care of the tavern on a beginner-level just fine with some small but steady income with only myself handling it without getting too frustrated. HOWEVER... that didn't last that long XD

3. What is your biggest problem with the game at the moment? (Please remember it is still in early access!)

My biggest problem is how much everything costs ^^' You literally start the game with not one single coin on you. Not even some pitty-coins for some beginner-impuls-buys to get yourself started. They do give you some stuff in the tutorial to get you started but how long can you last with it in a way that will make your customers pay enough money for you to be able to raise your income slowly but surely to a level were you can buy new stuff for the Tavern? I am not ashamed that I used a money cheat after a few in-game days because I ran out of beer and was absolutely desperate to somehow still make enough money to do something with the tavern. The fact that I did that, obviously gave me a huge jumpstart and I am likely on a higher level right now than I should be after half of spring and 8 real life hours of playtime. And I keep telling myself that I will stop cheating money. However, the thought of not having enough income to have people work for me with how big my tavern already is, is absolutely frightening XD

The next thing I dislike is how complicated some of these recipes are. For a cozy game, I really want the dishes to be fast and easy with only a few ingredients and not to many extra steps. And while you do have SOME drinks and food that fullfill those requirements, the rest is rather hard to even make. Thanks to my cheating, I had plenty of points to actually get a lot of recipes when I reached the point where I could get them from the statue. But most of them I couldn't use so far because even with the huge amount of money I have and thus the access to certain ingredients and a huge ass farmplot, I still miss out on some stuff OR have to make it, first before I can use it for a recipe. I wish like with the challanges that you can in fact make easier, you could also make "cozy recipes" for those of us who do not wish to spend to much time and in-game money on complicated recipes.

Time goes on too fast with how much you have to do, and if you think that every day you do not open the tavern is a day where you lose potential money, this really is a bad thing. Its a totally different story when you can afford to pay employes, because then you can move around the map and do stuff while the tavern is running - however and that is also a bad thing, you have to return occasionally to refill the barrels and such for the drinks and as you only have access to four each (which sucks, especially when the tavern is mostly running without you) thinks WILL get empty.

This is more an issue for players like me who do not explore and talk much to NPCs, but its horrendous how long it can take you to figure out how long it tales to finally get the freaking fishing rod. Midway through spring I finally googled it and realized that I would get it from an NPC that I talked to just the previous in-game day (but only once and you needed to talk to her twice) when I finally realized that map has a beach and I never visited it XD I think they should add some sort of quests that forces you to do certain things in order to find out where to get Animals and the fishing rod. At least it would help people like me who don't explore much and don't talk much to NPCs. (However I did have a gold-cheat, I guess if I would run low on money because I have to keep buying the fish, I might have ended up searching harder for the way to get the fishing rod ^^' So that might be on me.)

You can, as far as I am aware of, only shop down trees around the tavern and there aren't that many growing there and in the beginning, if you don't know that, you might end up cutting them all down and then having a problem with getting new trees and thus new wood. We have a perfectly fine forst with plenty of trees why not be allowed to cut them down and let them regrow slowly with time?

4. What do you say about the main plot?

I am not that far in yet. Currently, I try to reunite the fishing guy and the old man who owns the hot spring so they can help me beat the Ninja-Guy. I don't really fully get, to be honest why I want to beat those guys in the first place. The game hinted at the fact that they are somewhat corrupted and all... but I still feeling I am just doing it for... fun? I mean, I am literally a one man show. I have to take care of the tavern, be a miner, a woodcutter, a builder, a farmer, a rancher, a cook and a pet owner and I honsetly do not thing I have to prove anything to anyone. I would have liked it more, if it was just our wish to open up a Tavern and be part of that guild or whatever it is called, one day and then we have to win some challanges in order to become part of them, we found out they are corrupted and arrogant and then we start kind of fighting them on purpose, so we can free the land from them. Or something along the lines like that. I feel like figuring out Hikaris story is more interesting than the main plot at the moment, to be honest ^^' Most of the time I just take care of the Tavern and all the stuff that needs to be done to keep it running and when and IF I find the time I do some stuff for the main plot, as it is really not that interesting. Not that I would exspect too much of a good plot from a cozy game.

5. Do you have easy access to resources, materials and ingredients in this game?

Yes and no. In a sense, you have access to anything easily enough but there is a limit to everything in one way or another. As I mentioned, Wood can be an issue as for now - if I haven't done anything wrong that is - only trees on your own land can be cut and if you cut them all, you will have trouble with new ones growing. The game does give you tree-seeds every other tree or so that you can use and once the trees have fully grown they will make sure to multiply after some time. But Wood is needed a lot in this game, especially in the early stages, so its very tempting to just cut all the trees on your land and then run out on a good source for wood for a while. (There is some old stuff lying around that you can cut for wood, once you have a better axe, however to get one, you need a lot of planks and for that, you guessed it, wood... so... I have never run out of wood so far but I certainly can tell that it CAN happen if you are not careful. Stone and metals can be found around the mine and can be gathered there. Usually they "regrow" with some time. I was worried in the beginning because anything and their mother needs fuel and its a real issue at the start, because wood is limited at first and coal, which is a better burning source anyway, seemed to be only available in small amounts, but then I realized that some of my sources around the map actually refill and once again, never run out of either coal, iron or copper. And certainly not stone, that you hardly ever need for anything other than buildings. When it comes to cooking ingredients, it gets a bit more complicated than that. In theory you can buy basically anything at the marked but not everything is available always and most stuff is not available in infinite numbers. You can of course, fish your own fish, eventually slaughter your own Cows and chickens and the likes and of course you can build yourself a decent farm that mostly gives you access to all kind of fruits and vegetables needed. But here too not all seeds are always available. Not to forget at the end of the day seeds and Animals and their feed (as well as their homes) also cost money that you need to have. Fishing might be priceless at first glance, but getting a better rod and good bait will at least cost you time. What I want to say with it is, that like with all these games, you need the money to buy the seeds to get the tomato that you so desperately need for your vegetable salad. Which yes is normal and there are certainly games were you do not even have access to vegtables without growing them yourselfs, so that is not critique, its just for you to understand the level of "cozyness" the game provides you in that regard.

6. Really important question! Can you date someone?

Nope. I do believe I read somewhere that a social system or something like that is part of their roadmap but rather long-term and not in the near future, so I wouldn't wait for it ^^' Not sure if I would find the time to do that in this game anyway XD I honestly hope that IF one day you can marry, they will add a system that allowes you to let your partner work as a cheap bartender at your Tavern or someone who takes care of your animals or something like that ^^'

7. Since this game is early access... how unfinished does it feel?

Honestly? Not much. I was rather surprised that it is still in early access after playing for a few hours. The stuff they apparently want to add, like social-stuff and magic really almost seemes to be too much at this point, as you are already, as I was saying before, a one (wo)man show that takes care of almost everything mostly on their own. Once again. Tavern. Farm. Ranch. Woodcutting and crafting. Miner. Smithy. Fisher. Also the best customer of those two girls who sell the seeds. How you are supposed to also manage to build social relationships and use some magic while still also taking care of the missions and challenges from the main plot is really questionable to me. Apparently, the main plot isn't finishable yet and neither are all levels of the mine (I have been to level one so far and not further as there is hardly any need for that ^^') so I guess that makes it clear why this game is still in early access but as long as you have not reached that part yet... I have to say that game feels pretty finished overall and is certainly worth the money.

8. Now the question of all questions: Do you enjoy it and is it truly cozy or is it not?

I do in fact enjoy the game. I find it a bit hard at times as money making is taking a lot of time and without money you will have absolutly NOTHING (hence the gold cheat ^^') But otherwise its really nice and certainly versatile.

If it is cozy or not is really hard to say and I think depends a lot on who is playing and how you are playing. At the point were I am, were I started to also take care of Poultry and livestook, have two pets and a huge ass farmland I feel a bit overwhelmed at times to be honest. You have no energy limit, which is great because the game would not work otherwise. Having to be in bed at 3 is a good compromise to make sure your character still sleeps but it works for you as someone who owns a tavern. You have no time pressure. No mission, main or not, gives you any time limit in which you have to fulfill it (challenges from the main mission aside of course) so you can take all the time in the world. No one punishes you, if your tavern stays small and only with a small amount of food and drinks you offer for quite a while, as far as I know at least. So that are certainly strong points for cozyness. HOWEVER as it is with most, if not all those kind of games, just because there is no timelimit, doesn't mean there isn't a timelimit. At the end of the day, your pets and animals need to be fed and your crops need to be watered at least once every 3 days and you need to keep the tavern open for as long as possible in order to gain money and level up. So it can be stressful at times. I guess at the end of the day, it depends on the player, if you feel the game is cozy enough to be called a "cozy" - game. BUT it certainly is more cozy than and JRPG waiting for me in my backlog right now XD

9. So how many points do you give it for your first impression review?

Since you said the "Cult part" was kind of an issue for you when hearing about the game for the first time... how do you see it now after playing the game for so long?

I do believe that the fact that we play animals and fight animals and everything looks kinda cute - even tho sometimes in a rather weird way - makes this all feel much less serious than being in a cult, much less being the freaking LEADER of a cult, actually is. There is also a lot of superficial stuff in there, like resurrecting the dead or turning snowman (uh... snow-sheep I mean XD) into living beings. Which makes the game feel more like... well... a game. It does not feel that serious. Although it does still feel weird to say I play a game where I am the leader of a Cult that apparently worships the last living sacrificial sheep ^^'

2. In many games were you can somewhat decide between being good or being bad it usually means being good makes the game way harder to play and being bad makes it easier. (Like in Black & White - yes, I am that old.) Is that the case here too?

Black and White was cruel. If you wanted to be a good god, you automatically played on hard difficulty, like it or not. While when beeing a bad god, things were so much easier. I mean, I pretty much got through the final world, by sacrificing all of my enemies' followers by using an immortal guy from my side of the island to even get access to them to begin with and that guy I needed to throw around like a freaking ball. Nothing of this would have been possible for a good god, meaning it would have been way harder to even just get close enough to the final boss to even attack it. Cult of the Lamb is nothing like this. While there are certain upsides for making "bad" decisions in this game as well, choosing the good ones does not put you into a big disadvantage. Sometimes it even gives you better rewards. I think its actually quite well balanced AND you can be too, because in this game you can chose whatever you want, without having to consider you previous decision. Meaning if you chose to feet your followers instead of starving them, which is a seemingly good decision, that doesn't mean the next decision can not be to sacrifice your old and useless followers instead of worshipping that they get older. Its not a contradiction. Its your cult. Do whatever you want with it.

3. Regardless of that, you DO have to make decisions... can you undo them if you regret them?

I am not sure if this was added with the Woolhaven-DLC or if it was always that way, but post-endgame-parts of the game offer you a chance to gain a certain item (and you can gain it multiple times!) that allows you to add the other doctrines that you have not chosen previously. HOWEVER until then, you will have to stick with your decisions, no matter how much you regret them. Either that, or you start the game all over again. Per se I have to say tho, while I did regret some decisions, I made it through the game just fine despite that. It was just a matter of convenience for me, not really an issue that made the game harder or more frustrating or whatever. I honestly think MOST of the decisions I made this time, I would make again in a second playthrough. And while that would be very likely boring, all I want to say with it, is that you have not many reasons to regret your decisions too much.

4. You said the game was good... what made it good for you?

First of all, the most important thing for me in a cozy game, is that it is actually cozy. Meaning for me, that there is no timelimit for anything. So in that sense Stardew Valley, were you have to catch a certain fish in Spring or have to wait for the next spring to finish the main-story-plotline is something that is already stressing me out too much for the game to be really cozy. (Not saying I dislike Stardew Valley or that it wasn't overall cozy, but compared to other cozy games is that part of the game certainly very stressful in my eyes.) In Cult of the Lamb, you can take as much time as you want for the maingame. I have spend days just staying with the cult in the base to build, upgrade, take care of the farm and so on, instead of going to fight agianst the enemies that move on the story. Just as an example, wasting a rainy spring day in Stardew Valleys first year instead of using it to fish for that one stupid fish that only shows up on rainy spring days, would not feel right or good. Staying at the Cult was never a stressfactor in the mainstory tho. The fact that you can take your time makes this game already good for me. The way the game works and how easy it is without being too easy and becoming boring even on the easiest difficulty makes it basically perfect. I really enjoyed how nothing is too complicated in this game. Also... the dungeons usually take around 10 minutes, a maximum of 20 later in the game. Which is amazing. I love it when stuff like that doesn't take too long. In most cozy games I use cheats either for the mines or fishing-minigames. Neither was necessary here. The Fishing-Game was easy enough and there are no mines, just the dungeons and I could handle them with ease. (I only died once in the main story and it was quite late in the game.) HOWEVER I did also buy the DLC along with the main game and that was a totally different story ^^' The Main game tho is just really amazing, cozy and allows you to play at your own pace, while the difficulty is good but not boring. Everything feels very well-balanced.

5. So... since you did bought and played the Woolhaven DLC how was it?

The spike in difficulty, even if you play on easy was huge. There goes the cozy part of the game because suddenly you have no time anymore to just lazyle stay at the base and do your thing After all, if you run out of rot, the heater won't work and if it won't work, your people will actually freeze to death. You cam also suddenly run out of food really quickly and so there is also that, which you need to keep an eye on constantly. Honestly? When I started to feel stressed while playing, I've decided to turn the in-game cheats on and make it so that no time passes when I am in a dungeon, so that in case I do run out of rot, I have enough time to find it somewhere in some dungeon without my followers dying on me in the meantime. I also at some point turned on max-HP, because the enemies were getting a bit more difficult and I had some trouble with the weapons given to me. So the Woolhaven DLC would not get as much of a good review from me as the main game. But I will rate it separately. All in all tho, the whole idea about the DLC was really nice. The story about the sheep and their goddess was really interesting. The Ranching was a nice addition to a cozy game and in itself, adding winter and its difficulties to the game wasn't such a bad idea either. It was just made a bit too hard a bit too fast. And I would definitly buy and play another DLC like this for that game, althought I hope they make it a bit less stressfull next time.

6. Were you a good or a bad cult leader?

While I would say I mostly chose the doctrines that were meant for good cult leaders, I certainly also made some questionable choices XD The game also forces you to kill/sacrifice your Cult-Members every now and then, like it or not, so there is that. But usually I was a good cult leader. In the DLC you get those "rotten" characters and they can only survive like 10 In-Game-Days but in these days they will neeither freeze nor starve to death, they work and even give you some extra points with the godesse. But the whole time I just sat there and been like: "I wish I could save you" and then I was offered the choice. Either I use my medicin and stuff to heal them, or I keep them this way and gain some extra points for it (or something like that) and of course I chose to actually save them. So I guess I was an overall mostly good leader.

7. Any complaints aside from the DLC?

My only complaint was that I could not change the doctrines, but since you actually CAN chose the other doctrien post end-game that complain is gone and there is no other complain from me here.

8. So now... how many points do you give this game?

The main game "Cult of the Lamb" gets 10 out of 10 points from me. Which is absolutly rare, but also absolutly well deserved.

First of all: The game prides itself with being made without any use of artificial intelligence and given how absolutely beautiful it looks, I kind of decided it was worth supporting the Team behind it. (Apparently, the art-style is close to what Studio Ghibli does. To my shame... I never watched anything made by Ghibli. Please don't throw rocks at me, there is only so much time between work, shores, responsibilities, games and animes ^^')

What is this game about? As the name suggests, the game is about building a hotel and making it successful... while it is on a floating island on the galaxy. What the game does have in addition to that is a interesting story and... well, would you have guessed it? Some farming.

Its a really cozy game. The pacing is rather slow and you have no annoying time-limits to keep in mind. HOWEVER sometimes you really which the story would just move on and give you the next feature already XD To top this off, A LOT of things only happen on your freaking command and while keeping you occupied while playing the waiting game for being able to fulfill the next mission that moves on the plot and the development of the Hotel, it gets somewhat tedious at some point. While the stuff does do stuff by itself and you can make sure they prioritize certain tasks and thus do them on their own sometimes... most of the time they don't ^^' You have to click at every freaking guest who wants to order food to make sure that they get what they ordered. And while I do appreciate the option to offer them an alternative if what they ordered if it is not available anymore do to a lack of resources, it is really annoying that the game doesn switch over to a recipe that IS still available on its own and makes me go through the full list myself.

The whole cooking thing in addition to cleaning the sheets is probably one of the most tedious parts of the game. While not per see annoying, it gets kind of exhausting at some point. Why? Because the whole process is just... kind of a mess. Its not bugged or anything. Its just the game has like 50 or so ingredients it seems and whenever you call the merchant over to buy new ones because you run out of the ones you have, it takes him 8 whole hours to get there and THEN he hardly ever has the same ingredients you have used before, meaning you have to make new recipes for the same freaking dish. There is one Pasta-Dish that I think I have like 10 different versions of at this point, because I needed to change the ingredients for it so many times by now because I just hardly ever got the same stuff twice. And despite having a kitchen full of like 20 different ingredients, I somehow constantly run out on something and once again, have to either choose another version of the recipe to be put on the menu, make the same meal with different ingredients AGAIN or mix an entirely different meal with my new ingredients to put on the menu.

We are still in early access so I hope they do something about this. Like the ability to order a certain kind of food instead of just having to take whatever the merchant randomly offers you. Of course the farming that later gets added to the game can help with specifically making the ingredients I want, but for that... you need to get further into your scienes-stuff and that takes time yet again - getting the farming itself already takes AGES. So... you do need some patience for this game. Once again... its not totally annoying, but sometimes you feel tired out from these kind of things. I honestly wish there would be an option to automate the processes for a while, even if it would cost me some In-Game-Currency and would be time-limited.

You can of course always close your hospital for a little while if you feel overwhelmed or just want to take a little bit of time to make some changes, gather some materials or just need a break from clicking on ever bed so that the sheets were changed, to then click again to get the sheets washed and then click again to get the dried up sheed recollected again XD

I don't want to spoil too much about the story, because I think it is lovely but its hard to explain some things without saying anything about the character. Overall your someone special who helps someone not normal in a world full of Alien-Species-Beeings to rebuild is old hotel that fell to ruin at some point. You have 3 permanent stuff-members already in your team and you can add more as long as you give all of them a cozy place to sleep. At some point, there was soo much to do that my Stuff-Members never managed to take the time to gather some wood, stone and so on to build a new guest-room, so keep an eye on how much your stuff has to do so you can add a new stuff-member before it gets hard to build a new stuff-room and beds for it. At the end, I had enough staff that some people didn't have much to do. Might not be reasonable but I liked it better that way.

So far, there is no real way to lose the game. In comparison to other Hotel-Building and Managing-Games, this one (as of the current EA-Situation, that can, of course, change eventually) is not one that puts you into debt. Somehow you don't pay your stuff members aside from when you acquire them, it seems. As the Money I get usually only vanishes when I use it to buy new ingredients. Should they ever change that, they better come up with a good system, because it is their fault for adding the farm so late and thus forcing me to constantly buy new ingredients, which I need a lot of money for. HOWEVER (once again, so far) you do not need money for anything else but some quests. So this is one of the games where Money is hardly an issue, which is also the reason why closing your Hotel for pure comfort reasons is also not really an issue here. I think this is the most cozy aspect of the game, aside from the fact that you have all the time in the world to finish the quests or get things done. Managing the Hotel is also fairly simple. Despite the fact that every process seems to be an extra click. (For example, to get an arcade room, you have to first research it in some sort of skills tree. After you've done that you need to have the materials to build it, which you might need to collect or even make first. Then, wen you have built the room you need to add the furniture needed and you obviously have to build said furniture yourself, but first you need to build the materials for it but first you need to gather the ingredients to do that.) It certainly stands to reason that the fact that you give orders is also the reason why everything runs so smoothly. Automation often leads to issues, like instead of cooking for the guests, the stuff suddenly finds it more important to cut the grass for fiber or whatever. So I guess it is a blessing in disguise. Still would love a "accept every order" or "clean all dirty sheets" kind of button tho.

I am honestly a bit worried about what they want to add to the game to justify an even higher price when the game leave these early access phase, because right now, so far, the game seems to be like almost complete and there is hardly anything of interest to add in my eyes - I could obviously be wrong tho, of course. However, obviously that speaks for the game beeing worth its money, even in early access.

Now, there was a lot of whining in this review, but playing this game was fun and cozy. The story so far was interesting and the inconveniences in the end are minor and make sure that you do not get bored on the long run if the hotel runs itself and all you gotta do is wait for the materials to finish the next story quest. I would not recommend this game for people who like to play a hard-mod Hotel-Management-Simulation because that is not what this game aimes to be. HOWEVER I can really recommend it, if you do like this kind of light management and building-game and don't mind a less realistic (or pixilated XD) art-style for your cozy games. Especially if you like your cozy game to have a nice interesting and motivating story, then this game is for you. The story and the mechanics (while on first look rather complicated tho) of the games are easy enough that I think returning to this game after a long pause won't be much of a problem.

By the way, I found little to no bugs in this game. The few ones I found that I assumed were bugs, were small and not much of an issue and certainly not game-breaking.