This game is a delight to play. The character's personalities and dialog are gold. The gameplay loop is addicting. And the story is unique. The game feels fresh from beginning to end. This game has 2 main gameplay modes (2d hack-n-slash and 3D mini-farm simulator). The 2D sections are levels where you defeat enemies and collect materials for daily meals, building new gear, and compost for your rice crop. The 3D section is in your home camp where you have a rice crop that you must care for (tilling, plant, harvest). You also have a group of supporting characters that help with building new gear, preparing meals, farming, and collecting materials.
The farming simulation is one of the best I've seen. It doesn't feel like a shore or tacked-in as game fluff, it is an integral part of the game progression and story. The world's time progression is quite fast-paced. Each season is a 3 days cycle. Each day cycle is about 15 minutes in real-time (day/night). You care for your crop by fertilizing it with compost, maintaining the needed water level during each growth phase, and keeping pests and weeds in control. How well you do on each of these affects the rice yield and buffs you get from the year's harvest.
Combat is hack-n-slash and it feels very fluid. You have regular attacks, power attacks, and a slew of special attacks. Each level has a number of objectives to complete during daytime and nighttime. Completing these helps to unlock new levels. Enemies are considerably harder to defeat at night which adds replayability to each level. It is also worth mentioning that time still progresses while in levels.
The art style, graphics, and music are all excellent.
The story is good and I don't want to spoil it. You can have the CPU take care of the farming if that's not your thing!
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