rabgon 最近的评测

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Magical Greenhouse caught my eye with its overly cute pastel colors palette and accessible price. Two characteristics you’ll find again in other MGGT Studios indie games! I've got the game after I gave the demo a try.

This is a pocket-sized shop management sim with the following gameplay loop:

1. Taking NPCs potion requests across the lil’ world map.
   
2. Buying and growing plants which give ingredients for potions.
   
3. Creating potions and buying potion recipes (or figuring out recipes from the ingredients you own at the moment).
   
4. Decorating the shop for perks. Decor and plants locations are set.
   
5. Completing NPCs' requests or selling the potions for gold in the shop. Fulfilling requests improves friendship with the NPCs, you can also talk to them.

No big stakes or anything. The game works with an in-game day-passing mechanic with short seasons; and some potions you can make and hand over depend on the current season. All actions use energy, a bit like in mobile games. The energy can be improved by buying decor. The art style reminds me of kawaii illustration trends on Instagram from some years ago, and I’m all for it!

It’s cute and simple to get the hang of it. However, it’s a bit slow at the beginning, and maybe a tad overwhelming since you’re hit with loads of requests at once every day; requests you won’t be always able to complete in the current season, or even the current year.

I don’t have many cons to list here; those are more of lil’ annoyances than anything. I found the game a bit “static”; I was surprised by how “point’n’clicky” it was. There weren’t really animations or small physics effects attached to interactivity, it was really “click on this, that will pop”, but not really in an immersive way. Nevertheless, I know this is a small indie game and the game works perfectly as it is despite that! Just that it makes more sense in Trinket Bag Maker, created by the same devs, in Magical Greenhouse I felt it was a bit “stiff”.

The dialogues with NPCs weren’t really deep, but I didn’t expect them to be. Talking to them will give friendship points, but the dialogues aren’t changing.

I usually don’t care about achievements, but it’s still a bit frustrating to have just a couple left because they require lots of grind after unlocking everything the game has to offer, so there’s no real sense nor incentive to keep going just to reach… 1M coins, for example. There’s also one that doesn’t seem to have triggered (60 potions experiment fail). Well, maybe I’ll try to complete them while watching something on the side… maybe (maybe I may start to care for achievements lol).

As for playtime, it took me more or less 4 hours and a half to complete all requests, unlock all plants, unlock all recipes, and buy all shop decorations, plus some achievements.

---

Magical Greenhouse is a very sweet Sunday afternoon treat I recommend to all cozy gamers wishing for something relaxing, with zero stress, and lots of pastel colors! It’s important to say that the dev, Celia, is really sweet, and that I’m looking forward to their other games! The game is priced 100% fairly for the offered experience and playtime.

Disclaimer: I write all my reviews by myself. If something may sound weird, that’s because English isn’t my native language. I don’t use any AI to write; I use my own experiences and ways of expression.

Played the demo, bought the game, then refund it minutes later…

I hate to thumb down indie games, and I very rarely refund games, but this Early Access release is literally a slightly extended version of the demo. There’s only two stages… So, after 104 minutes of playtime, including the first stage already included in the demo, I was already done with everything the game has to offer so far as there wasn’t anything else. Clearly the game has other stages planned, but as it is this is not enough to put it on the market.

I was excited to discover more after the demo, there’s lot of potential here, but there isn’t much enough so far to justify that price.

🚧 In addition to that, same as in the demo, there’s plenty of stuff marked with a “WIP” icon (bad idea imho, this is just… messy), including… the music… and the sound mixing setting (the background music slide is “WIP“ wth). I’ve honestly never saw that in a game before, not having music mixing/settings yet!? Wether it was an early access, alpha or beta. Anyways, I put some Spotify to fill the total lack of music and background sound.

So yeah, as this EA is just an updated version of the demo, far for a full game, I refunded it. Given the nature of the game, it doesn't even seem to need an EA in the first place (linear game with stages/levels), I'm tired of games going EA for the sake of it. Clearly, the dev didn't go as far as planned internally but released the EA anyways (lack of funds?).
I’m happy to support development of indie games when the Early Access has sufficient content, but I won’t pay for a demo nor accept to be met with pedantic snark when I simply ask a polite question about it.

FYI: Early Access doesn't mean buying a game in which 80% of the content isn't implemented yet based on "concepts", making the players waiting for all updates to drop all the missing content through months or even years. An Early Access is a game with sufficient content while other updates are planned to add more. Sufficient content to keep players busy and entertained while waiting for fix, more content, QoLs, etc. (just look at Fields of Mistria or Starsand Island). Here the two stages were perfectly playable, but it looks to me that the dev team didn't have enough money and/or time to do the rest, hence the feeling this is a paid demo more than an EA game.

Also, it seems that a couple of early reviews were flagged. Reviews from accounts with only 1 review (for this game). Fake/bot reviews? Hmm… 🤔

Anyways, I'll see in a few months/years how the (full) game will turn out, because, again, it does has potential.

💻 Note for people on MacOS: the demo is, for some reason, capped at 120 FPS with no setting to manually reduce it (the EA version has), and it was basically setting my GPU on fire at 95°C, fans making more noise that a rocket launch, while games like Baldur’s Gates, Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky let it purr slightly at 70°C, heck I can export hours long 4K videos, it stays silent. So if you have a older/lower end Mac, beware of the demo…

EDIT: I just saw that the game was promoted by Rogue Duck Interactive Relaxing Event, things make more sense now knowing Rogue Duck's reputation…

I love this game so, so much. Clearly one of my favorites of this year. It’s been a huge comfort during hard times, so it has a special place in my heart.
Despite the multiple cuts to the story (some aspects have been changed multiple time during development), this game is the closest I’ve ever played to scratch that Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and Happy Home Paradise itch. In short, there isn’t much story, nor the amount of clients or requests like in ACHHD/HHP, but this is exactly the same gameplay loop: responding to a house decoration request based on a theme, with a couple of mandatory elements to include in the room design; with a mystery twist that’s unfortunately quite… underwhelming.
Despite the lack of story, I love the game for the creative freedom it offers. For a lil’ indie game, the decoration content is HUGE! As I pixel art/sprite lover, I’m over the moon a game like this finally exists (yeah, there have been games like Habbo Hotel and other similar cash grabs, but here you’ve got a full game for a small price with no cosmetic DLCs or anything).

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3558232551

• Gorgeous pixel art.
  
• Lots of decorative content: furniture, wall decoration, little props… there’s like thousands of them! For an indie game, it’s enormous! Especially in pixel sprites, which takes more time to do than 3D assets.
  
• Like in Animal Crossing, several items are interactive and/or animated.
  
• Some of the main characters you do requests for are linked to each other; there’s a follow-up.
  
• You’d think you’re done with a place, but coming back to it may show there’s more, new things there to do.
  
• No pressure at all. In-game time is passing without consequences.
  
• Globally, super chill ambiance. The music loops, but it’s as chill as the gameplay.
  
• This is the kind of game you feel the love the devs have poured into, and that’s the kind of devs I want to support!
  
• Works perfectly on MacOS. Thanks devs for thinking about us… heretics!

• Not that you see it much, but you can’t customize your playable character’s looks.
  
• Some items are frustratingly not customizable (colors) or can’t be rotated in 4 angles, which reduces creative freedom and the themes you can do. I put this as a neutral, as constraints tend to develop creativity, and that it’s already great some stuff has 4-angles rotation at all, but still, it’s a bit limiting and disappointing.
  
• If you haven’t played the demo, it may go over your head, but… no more un-cozy creepy dark twists. Plenty of early fans were complaining about the removal of that, but honestly, I’m quite glad there isn’t such stuff in a cozy game that has nothing else truly creepy in it in general; this isn’t the vibe it wants to give. And by creepy and dark, I’m not talking about superficial scary things, but triggery stuff for some people. I don’t get why the second change has been… changed as well though. In my humble opinion, devs should have either embraced that to the fullest, I have nothing against cozy games having dark undertones as long as they’re upfront about it, or not included any at all.

• Very hard to read most of the text and use controls on Steam Deck, to the point I ended up playing on my MacBook (which I rarely do, especially for those comfy games you want to play under a thick warm plaid in bed).
  
• The mystery aspects are deeply underwhelming. While I’m happy there isn’t any creepy stuff as said above, the “glitch” thingies aren’t enough to capture all the mystery potential the game could have had. As of now, this is just strange stuff that appeals to younger players wondering what the heck on socials, looks kind of an excuse to create achievements.
  
• Underused of good and original story mechanics such as time travelling. Again, something that has been removed in the full game. You only use that mechanic once, while in the demo, you could “fix” a story that went wrong. The game would have been way more original if that aspect was part of the whole gameplay loop in addition to the decoration: decorating a house based on a request → see the next day what would happen → do changes in accordance.
  
• Overall, it’s quite short… You quickly finish the core/main requests in a kind of abrupt way asking yourself “wait, that’s it?”; then it’s sandbox time with the exact same couple requests again and again (very reminescent of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on 3DS where villagers would give the exact same requests in loop, but here it’s worst, there’s like 8? It seems to have improved after the Holidays update though, but still not much).

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3564872638
Whisper of the House may not have much story, but not every game needs to. Everything else in the game offers a great chill, relaxing, laid-back experience in which I just had fun decorating cute pixel houses, while watching some movie or listening to music, or just vibing to the calm in-game music. Playing this after getting back from work for an hour here and there has been a huge help for my mental health, and I can’t recommend it enough! If you’re looking for a stress-free cute game in which you can be creative without using much brain power, to me, it’s a perfect choice!

💻 Controls and performance: 9/10 – I’ve played on Macbook (M2 Pro 16GB ). You only have to use the arrowskeys to move (or QZSD on AZERTY keyboards) plus E or right-click to confirm. I remove half a point for a freeze I got after trying to keybind. There’s also a weird glitch that makes the game think I’ve started to play… today. I do not recommend the game on Steam Deck though; everything is way too small to read, the controls are clunky, and parts UI don’t go away as they should sometimes.
🎨 Art style: 9/10 – As a lover of pixel art and pixel sprites, this game is really beautiful to me. I, however, remove one point because of some items that don’t seem to match the art direction of the rest; it’s not… consistent. This is also a bit disappointing that some customizable items don’t have the same color as the next one if you pick the same color (it’s either way too bright or too desaturated).
🎵 Music: 8/10 – Matches the overall chill vibe of the game; it didn’t get on my nerves despite the loop.
👾 Gameplay: 8/10 – For people who love to decorate in games, this is pure pleasure. Just disappointing that the requests board is full of the same repeating requests.
⏳ Length: 7/10 – If it wasn’t for the abrupt end of the main “storyline”, it’d be a 10/10 for sure. The game can’t be played as long as what it got inspiration from because of the lack of variety in the sandbox requests. You can, of course, do as you please and not follow perfectly the requests (it’d be considered correct anyway as long as the mandatory items are placed).
🏷️ MSRP worth: 10/10 – The base price isn’t already high, and for the experience I’ve gotten out of it, it’s worth every penny to me!

Disclaimer: I write all my reviews by myself. If something may sound weird, that’s because English isn’t my native language. I don’t use any AI to write; I use my own experiences and ways of expression.

I held off a lot before getting Luna’s Fishing Garden, as I knew it was quite short with no replayability, and I’m glad I’ve finally taken the plunge and got it.

Indeed, it’s quite short (± 2h30), but it was a satisfying experience from start to finish, including the very end (while other short games kind of made me a tiny bit frustrated once I realized I reached the end, such as with Unpacking). And I think it would have somehow ruined the charm if it was longer than it was.

They are completely different from each other, but this game reminded me a bit of Spiritfarer with the side-scrolling aspects and the spirit animals. It also has a subtle Ghibli vibe to me.

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• Travelling by side-scrolling left and right across multiple small islands. More will unlock over time.
  
• Doing quests for different spirit animals standing on these islands in order to help “Gaia.”
  
• Fishing, foraging (water plants and fruit trees), and collecting wood. Surprisingly, this isn’t the fishing I did the most in the game.

• Engaging gameplay loop right from the beginning.
  
• Accessibility options (easy fishing, for example). I don’t understand reviews saying it’s harder than in Stardew.
  
• In-game accessibility. You’ll unlock mechanics quite fast that make stuff less tedious. When you think something is gonna get boring real quick, something is introduced to make it easier and faster.
  
• Vibrant, cute pixel graphics (I’m a sucker for everything pixel art).
  
• Cute music matching the game, although one is a bit too “upbeat” for me given the relaxing and chill atmosphere the game has (it’s a bit like it comes up to keep you awake lol).
  
• Easy achievement completion: no second run required, no missable, etc.

• It can be a bit of an “idle” game at some point, as you need to collect multiple of the same stuff, and the only way is just to wait for them to be available.
  
• The character walk speed is quite slow. It’s only really annoying from the very beginning, though.

• Horrendous grind. I saw it coming and, fortunately, planned ahead; otherwise, I would have let my computer run with the game idling more. For example, you’ll have to collect 100 pieces of wood at first, then THOUSANDS! I won’t say how you get them to avoid any spoilers, but as I said, I saw it coming and made sure to have enough by the time NPCs will ask for more and more again (they did). That’s the biggest issue in the game; the gameplay consists of collecting more and more of the same stuff. That’s also why I think the length is good as it is.
  
• Lots of typos and grammar errors in the French localization. Can’t speak for English.
  
• Not sure, but there kinda is no point in upgrading the fishing rod? I didn’t feel any difference between upgrading and after (and there’s no achievement for upgrading it fully).

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While Luna’s Fishing Garden wasn’t a groundbreaking game in terms of gameplay, it still was a nice experience to unwind and chill for an afternoon. 100% stress-free and cute, I recommend it on sale!

💻 Controls and performance: 9.5/10 – I’ve played on Macbook (M2 Pro 16GB ). You only have to use the left and right arrows (or Q and D on AZERTY keyboards) plus space to confirm. The hitbox is sometimes way too close to another one, so a few mistakes here and there. Not a big a deal given the game length.
🎨 Art style: 9/10 – Very good and cute pixel sprites.
🎵 Music: 8/10 – Overall as chill and relaxing as the gameplay loop, except for one that’s a bit too energetic compared to the rest.
👾 Gameplay: 7/10 – Engaging and relaxing right from the beginning. It started to be extremely grindy quite fast. Nothing groundbreaking but pleasant enough.
⏳ Length: 10/10 – For what it has to offer, to me it’s a perfect length. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon. It would have been longer; it’d just have been too tedious. It’d have been shorter; it would have been a bit… scammy.
🏷️ MSRP worth: 6/10 – I can’t rate this part without comparing the game to other games as short as it is, especially those priced at €20. For a bit more than 2 hours, €8 is steep imho. For what I got it for, €4.79, it’s still a teensy bit too much but it doesn’t get discounted lower than that, so that’s OK.

Disclaimer: I write all my reviews by myself. If something may sound weird, that’s because English isn’t my native language. I don’t use any AI to write; I use my own experiences and ways of expression.

100% completion after 1 hour and a half (I let the game idle to unlock point shop items).
Cute, simple hidden object game that's all about finding cats without being frustrating (there's a hint option).

● There are 5 main levels (thematic scenes) + 2 secrets at the end. Hundreds of cats to find in total, plus some special ones.
● I really appreciate that each scene has a colorful background instead of a blasting, retina-burning white one! (Love ya, but lookin' at ya Hidden Folk 😅)
● Works great on the Steam Deck right out of the box, with the right trackpad as a mouse, and left joystick as left/right camera. Very low battery consumption (I let the game idle for 2 hours and dropped like 5% with WiFi on and all).
● Easy achievements completion (in only one playthrough, no missable or anything).

● I know it's intended for bigger screens, but some cats are very, very tiny on the Steam Deck screen, like 1 mm size (using the Steam Deck magnifying glass isn't good enough, so it'd be nice to add a feature to do it in-game in the future! 🤗).
● Sometimes clicking somewhere doesn't register at all unless you use the hint.

I got it for €1.36 and feel it was perfectly fair for chilling after a long day, when you don't have the energy to get into deeper games!
I'll happily give a shot at other Devcats games! ✨

⏱️ Length
◎ (0) No story
► For a Sunday afternoon
◎ Short
◎ Average
◎ Long
◎ Very long
◎ To infinity and beyond

📖 Story
◎ There's no story
► Basic context to set the world/universe/goal
◎ It's there for people who want it
◎ Well written
◎ Leading to more in-depth researches/thoughts
◎ A model to get inspired by

🎵 Music
◎ Transcending whispers of a forgotten world
◎ Memorable
► Good and/or fitting the game's artistic ambiance/style
◎ OK
◎ Just filling noises/no music

🏞️ Graphics/Art Direction
◎ MS Paint
◎ Bad
◎ Meh
◎ Normal
◎ Very Good
► Original artistic direction
► Beautiful
◎ Masterpiece

🤯 Difficulty
◎ My grandma could play it
► Easy
◎ Normal
◎ Hard
◎ Difficulty spike out of nowhere
◎ A challenge to be reckoned


💭 Expectations
► Masterpiece, no patch or feature has to be added
◎ Better than expected and/or announced
◎ Matches the steam page description
◎ Not entirely what I expected from promotional contents
◎ This game is a scam
◎ A scam, it's a completely different game

🤩 Enjoyment
◎ You will remember it long after
► Sticking out of the pack
◎ A good moment
◎ Repetitive and/or uninspired
◎ Hard to enjoy
◎ I would rather watch paint dry

🦫 Grind/Repetitiveness
► (Almost) No grind
◎ (Almost) No repetitiveness
◎ Well to perfectly balanced
► It's part of the charm of the game
◎ Watch YouTube on the side
◎ Groundhog day

🔄 Replayability
◎ A one-time experience
► For achievements
◎ Limited
◎ Definitely
◎ Infinitely replayable


🎮 Steam Deck
► Runs perfectly right off the bat, no tinkering
◎ Just some annoying stuff, maybe some tinkering
◎ OK-ish experience, average tinkering
◎ Lots of tinkering for not much results
◎ Spent more time trying and make it work than playing with it
◎ Valve logo on a black screen

🐞 Bugs
► Never heard of
◎ Minor bugs
◎ Can get annoying
◎ Impacts the player's experience badly
◎ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

⚙️ Requirements
◎ You can run it on a microwave
► Low
► Steam Deck
◎ Average
◎ High
◎ NASA computer


💶 MSRP
◎ Free
◎ Underpriced
◎ Perfect Price
► Could be cheaper
◎ Overpriced
◎ Complete waste of money

🛒 Worth Buying?
◎ Yes
► Wait for a sale
◎ Wait for the lowest price
◎ If you have nothing else to play
◎ No


8.5/10 ★★★★★★★★☆☆

⏱️ Length
◎ (0) No story
◎ For a Sunday afternoon
◎ Short
► Average
◎ Long
◎ Very long
◎ To infinity and beyond

📖 Story
◎ There's no story
► Basic context to set the world/universe/goal
◎ It's there for people who want it
◎ Well written
◎ Leading to more in-depth researches/thoughts
◎ A model to get inspired by

🎵 Music
◎ Transcending whispers of a forgotten world
◎ Memorable
► Good and/or fitting the game's artistic ambiance/style
◎ OK
◎ Just filling noises/no music

🏞️ Graphics/Art Direction
◎ MS Paint
◎ Bad
◎ Meh
► Normal
◎ Very Good
► Original artistic direction
◎ Beautiful
◎ Masterpiece

🤯 Difficulty
◎ My grandma could play it
► Easy
► Normal
◎ Hard
◎ Difficulty spike out of nowhere
◎ A challenge to be reckoned


💭 Expectations
◎ Masterpiece, no patch or feature has to be added
◎ Better than expected
► Matches the steam page description
► Not entirely what I expected from promotional contents
◎ A scam, it's a completely different game

🤩 Enjoyment
◎ You will remember it long after
◎ Sticking out of the pack
◎ A good moment
► Repetitive and/or uninspired
◎ Hard to enjoy
◎ I would rather watch paint dry

🦫 Grind/Repetitiveness
◎ (Almost) No grind
◎ (Almost) No repetitiveness
◎ Well to perfectly balanced
◎ It's part of the charm of the game
► Watch YouTube on the side
► Groundhog day

🔄 Replayability
◎ A one-time experience
◎ For achievements
► Limited
◎ Definitely
◎ Infinitely replayable


🎮 Steam Deck
◎ Runs perfectly right off the bat, no tinkering
► Just some annoying stuff, maybe some tinkering
◎ OK-ish experience, average tinkering
◎ Lots of tinkering for not much results
◎ Spent more time trying and make it work than playing with it
◎ Valve logo on a black screen

🐞 Bugs
► Never heard of
◎ Minor bugs
◎ Can get annoying
◎ Impacts the player's experience badly
◎ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

⚙️ Requirements
◎ You can run it on a microwave
► Low
► Steam Deck
◎ Average
◎ High
◎ NASA computer


💶 MSRP
◎ Free
◎ Underpriced
◎ Perfect Price
► Could be cheaper
◎ Overpriced
◎ Complete waste of money

🛒 Worth Buying?
◎ Yes
◎ Wait for a sale
► Wait for the lowest price
◎ If you have nothing else to play
◎ No


5/10 ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

I do in fact recommend the game as it has a good gameplay loop and progress, and let's be honest: we need more dress up games!
But I write this thumb down review as a PSA more than anything, hoping this will have more visibility and that the devs will take that in consideration in the future.

It's a carbon-copy port of the Nintendo Switch version, so still no medium/dark skin tones options!

OK it's a Japanese game, OK it's a niche game, but it's 2025 and not having inclusive skin tones in these types of game is just not acceptable anymore. Having the game localised for the West, in French even, is already good and highly appreciated since majority of Japanese dress-up games are exclusive to Japan, only in Japanese, but making it more inclusive by adding more than 9 light skin tones would have been the bare minimum to be recognized by a boarder audience, an audience feeling more accepted and represented as well… Especially in a game all about customising your character. Come on, there's like 40 eyes styles options but only white skins… It has been a major complain ever since the initial launch last year, but they've never updated the game. I naively expected they would at least add that in the PC launch, but nope.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3565155991

If you already got the game on Nintendo Switch and still play that console, again, it's a straight up port. No additional content, no QoL, no graphic settings options at all, etc. If you wish for inclusive body types as well, note that there's only one based on Japanese standards (so very skinny).

I'll still play the game since I've already played it and enjoyed it (but not finished it) despite what I've said above, and my Switch is gathering dust. I doubt the game will ever get any updates to address this, as I said, it's a port with no difference, and they haven't marketed the Steam launch much, but let's hope future games like this will have the bare minimum of inclusivity.

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The gameplay loop is: doing one modelling job, having a day off, doing one modelling job, having a day off, and so on. You're not actually moving around a map in third-person view like in the Savvy series; you select buildings on a map, a bit of point-and-clicky but 100% controller supported. The goal is to be the best Nicola model by reaching the S rank of followers within 3 in-game years (a month is 8 days, so 4 working days, 4 days off). You gain money and followers each time you do modelling jobs.

During days off, you can either socialise with NPCs (there'll be a short dialogue) or improve your skills (it's just going into a building then you gain one point in charm, social, etc.; those points help to get better jobs depending of the skill, so better money, better followers gain).

The content is quite rich, but it's more on the kawaii side of things, so keep that in mind. I've been able to make rock/grunge looks, still the majority of the clothing pieces and accessories are still quite girly. I personally don't mind. You either use the studio clothing selection or yours during modelling jobs; it depends on the jobs, so it's crucial to keep money in case a job requires certain types of clothing and tags/keywords (feminine, elegant, girly…). The keyword system is great.

The whole interface is overly pinky kawaii and everything is adorable à la Japanese, but it might be too much for some people. NPCs conversations are pretty basic and only upbeat. There's no bullying or stuff like that if I remember correctly, it's quite "wholesome", everyone is nice and friendly.

Except for the core game goal, there's no pressure, you can take all the time you need to dress up and all.

• Nice and easy gameplay loop.
  
• Everything is cute and adorable.
  
• Very large selection of clothing and accessories (especially cute and girly ones).
  
• Lots of creative freedom to layout the styles you just created (like a magazine cover), nothing is locked.
  
• Unexpected but highly appreciated French localization (a good one in addition to that).
  
• Runs perfectly on Steam Deck, but not 16:10 resolution possible at all.

• Only 9 light skin tones.
  
• No body types.
  
• Everything is unnecessarily overly explained (it really took ONE hour to be able to finally manually save and quit the game).
  
• No graphics options at all. Stuck with black bars on Steam Deck, can't imagine on gamer PCs.
  
• More of a neutral opinion since I don't care about relationships in video games: superficial dialogues.

---

Model Debut Nicola #3 is a nice introduction to dress up games with more than just dressing up in loop with no goal. The goal isn't deep of course, but the gameplay is engaging enough to not get bored as fast as in Fashion Dreamer for example. It's a shame that the company behind the game didn't improve anything since the initial 2024 launch, but I hope more games like this, with more inclusivity options, will come to PC/Steam/MacOS as there's really, really not much of them in the West unfortunately.

🎮 Steam Deck performance: 9/10. Working great so far but no graphic options at all, so impossible to get the game to fill the screen.
🎨 Art style: 8/10. Aside from the skin tones issue, if you like overly cute Japanese stuff, you're in for a treat.
🎵 Sound design: 6/10. The music is OK, but the sound design of the UI can be quite irritating, fortunately you can turn that down.
👾 Gameplay: 7/10. It’s what you'd expect. Repetitive game loop of course. Bland NPCs.
🏷️ Worth full price? 4/10 – It's way too expensive for what it is, even at 20% off, especially when it's just a copy/paste of the Switch version.

❗️ Update (August 20th): Unfortunately the latest update wiped multiple people' save file including mine (tried every troubleshootings I could find). This is a major issue, not "some bug".
The Discord invite isn't working as I'm writing this; and no way to contact the dev, which is sketchy, so no possibility to get any help.
I haven't played much yet, fortunately, but no time to replay the same stuff worrying it may happen again; and with no guarantee it won't happen again for upcoming updates, I turn this review to "not recommend" for now… maybe it'll give visibility to both issues (the bug and lack of contact options).

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After finishing the 1st in-game year in approximately 4 hours, I can already share my opinion on this lil' life sim. The game is exactly what it advertises itself to be: a chill, small farm sim with no pressure. Exactly what I was looking for: something way more laid-back that doesn’t require much brain power, to unwind after a long day.

This is really a basic farm sim where you do the usual activities such as farming, fishing, etc.

• The map = Firefly Village where only 7 other characters live (5 can be friends with, or more).
  
• 1 full day (from 8AM to 2AM) lasts 7 real-time minutes in standard mode, 12:30 in relaxed mode. It seems fast-paced but it’s not at all; you have plenty of time to do everything.
  
• One season lasts 7 in-game days. One year lasts ± 4 real-time hour.

I’ve played other “smaller” farm sims such a Bit Orchard and Sprout Valley, and Firefly Village is quite richer and polished (especially at launch) in my humble opinion.

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For once a game can be really compared to Stardew Valley, I’m gonna list what I like in this game in comparison:

1. No stamina.
   
2. No unnecessary tedious mechanics (planting, watering seeds…). All bags of crop seeds plant 9 seeds at once. For watering and gathering them, you don’t have to do it one by one, but press one button while moving. They don’t spoil when seasons are changing (except for winter).
   
3. Quick progression (for once I reach the winter season in one of these games…).
   
4. I was able to take part in all the events within the very first year (except the last one requiring better relationship level with NPCs). There are only 4 though.
   
5. Fast relationship progression. Relation level doesn’t drop if you forget to gift/talk to someone.
   
6. Way easier to find whatever item is the favorite of each NPC since there’s not a lot of stuff to remember.
   
7. Extremely easy fishing, bug catching, woodcutting, and mining. It’s literally one press of a button!
   
8. Low maintenance animals. Just pet them and they’ll give you eggs and milk every day.
   
9. No penalty when you’re out too late (until 2AM). You don’t faint nor lose any item/money. The next day just starts.
   
10. No stressful elements nor pressure. There are only slimes in the mines, and when they touch you, you’re teleported at the entry with a “Slime hugged you” message lol.
    
11. Runs great on Steam Deck except for the native resolution.
    
12. The cherry on top: no need to have a freaking wiki open on the side at all time lol. I’m even working on my own little guide even though the game doesn’t really require any.

By no means do I imply Stardew Valley is a bad game, on the contrary; like for many other people, it’s just not for me no matter how much I tried to enjoy it, whether with mods or not. Please don’t hit me, Stardew fans!

Note that the game is fairly new and the dev looks to be active in providing updates in a timely manner.

• For some reason, the game intro starts in Chinese. But the rest of the game was in English (with some typos and a bit of weird phrasing, but nothing huge).
  
• Limited movements: You can only move ⬆️➡️⬇️⬅️, not in diagonal or however you want, so I play with the D-pad (not found of that), it’s not ideal at all with the joystick.
  
• Extremely small map: There’re basically 3 main areas in the same town (plus 2 mines with no deeper levels). I guess it’s normal given the pocket-sized aspect of the game, hence why I don’t put this as a con, but you quickly start to run in circles. I’m not sure if the dev plans to expand it…
  
• Controller support improvement: So far, it’s working well enough (I hate when controls are janky, it’s not that bad here), but it’s weird that the button to confirm is also the one to cancel. Tried to manually change that in the Deck settings, in vain, since there’s no in-game controller keybinding, only for keyboard.
  
• Not much to do during winter.
  
• Weird passing of time: The afternoon lasts a few seconds starting at… 7PM? I expect it to last at least from 5PM to 7PM, but not from 7PM to 8PM which is a couple of IRL seconds. The evening is just lowered brightness which looks like an oversight.
  
• Weird pixel sizes and gaps on the roads and some character design which gives off AI vibes…
  
• Can’t hit the slime in the mines. Not that big of a deal since you can’t die or anything, but why add a somewhat stressful element in what is otherwise a very chill game?
  
• No map nor relationship tracker. Again, maybe this game doesn’t really require any but it’d be a nice addition.
  
• No native resolution on Steam Deck (black bars at the top and bottom). More of a personal nitpick. I put the game in window mode (in the game settings), used “stretch” for scaling and “pixel” (in the quick settings) and it does the job. You don’t notice it’s stretched out, and I’m quite sensible to things like that.

• Achievements not working. Edit: The 20/08/25 patch supposedly fix it but wiped people saves.
  
• Backpack and home inventory size. This is ridiculously small (11 slots for the backpack, 6 for the inventory), requiring emptying them all the time. So far, it doesn’t seem to have any way to increase their size, which became a source of frustration…
  
• Similar items don’t stack! If you gather 6 tomatoes, they’ll take 6 inventory slots… Requiring to go back and forth to the shipment bin all the time.
  
• Impossible to retrieve items put in the shipping bin. If you put items to sell in the shipping bin by mistake, they’re gone forever.
  
• Extremely easy to quit the game by mistake and lose all-day progression! The “Quit” button is right below “Settings”, and there’s no pop-up telling you: “Are you sure you wanna quit?”… And of course, this game saves only when you go to bed.

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Firefly Village is exactly what it promises: a stress-free, easier experience you can play at your own pace. Despite some things to improve, it launched in a playable state and was very enjoyable to play on a Sunday afternoon.

🎮 Steam Deck performance: 7/10. It’s running great out of the box. I’ll change that to 10 when in-game controller keybinding and native resolution (1280x800) will be added.
🎨 Art style: 7/10. I’m a sucker for pixel sprites, especially those with lots of care and details, but this one is charming as it is with its minimalist style. There are still incomprehensible pixel sizes and gaps that bother me. No a fan of the NPCs portraits.
🎵 Sound design: 9/10. Matches perfectly the chill tone, and every season.
👾 Gameplay: 8/10. It’s exactly what I expected it to be, minus some frustration.
🏷️ Worth full price?10/10 – This is a pocket-sized game richer than I expected and already priced very low. For me it’s worth the MSRP.

This game put a smile on my face all the time I’ve played it, to the point it became the first game I’ve completed all the achievements of. Despite being marked as lasting approximately 6 hours to 100% it on How Long To Beat, I happily took my sweet, sweet time to admire the art style and all its quirks. It took me a bit less than 10 hours at a leisurely pace (counting some idle time) to finish it all, including all the achievements, which is big for me since I usually really couldn’t care less about achievements in video games. But in this game? I loved it so much that I wanted it to last the longest possible. Nothing is missable or locked behind an unnecessary second run or stuff like that. I have no shame in saying that I needed to look online for some quests and achievements.

This game gave me a very specific nostalgic feeling like no other game ever did. I experienced it like I used to enjoy looking at comics when I was a young kid who couldn’t read much back then. I was looking at everything with sparkles in my eyes, taking the time to admire the artwork the team has done. Of course, it hit me a bit in the feels given my late grandpa introduced me to analog photography when I was a kid (the character here is sent off to adventure with their grandma’s camera; nothing is made to be emotional or sad, not at all, it just made me nostalgic).

The gameplay was richer than I expected! You don’t only take pictures. The more you progress, the more you unlock new funny mechanics to interact with the environnement such as honking (making different dumb funny sounds which make me soundly laugh each time). You can even unlock filters for your camera! There’s a limit of 256 pictures, and let’s say I had to tidy the album up quite fast lol.

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• Absolutely gorgeous art direction. Sometimes extremely cute, sometimes funny as hell, and most of the time: both. I enjoyed so much looking at how everything was illustrated and how the artists’ creativity unfolded through representing with such lil’ details different animals, characters, decor elements, and so on. Discovering each new area was so exciting.
  
• Easy and accessible without disrespecting your intelligence.
  
• Multiple fun mechanics outside of taking pictures.
  
• Beautiful music.
  
• Laughable sound design and dialogues I didn’t get tired of.
  
• No missables or achievements locked behind an unnecessary second run.
  
• No unexpected stressful/frustrating element at all!
  
• Very good French localization.
  
• And the cherry on top: to thank the players, the devs have added after the main “story” a full additional area with plenty of additional quests, characters, and approaches to progress with new mechanics and a day/night system. All that for free! It’s us that should thank you guys!

To be honest, in my humble opinion, there aren’t any real negative aspects in this game. Hence why I put “nitpicks” instead of “cons” (I’d feel it would be unfair otherwise):

• No hints at all: some quests are a bit obscure in terms of wording. Achievements as well. Requiring online guides to figure some stuff out.
  
• NPC voices are a bit too loud in comparision to the rest (no setting for that, that’s a me problem since I have hypersensitivity to certain sounds, doesn’t make the game any less good).
  
• I can’t adopt any of the tato guys IRL and this is so saddening (joking 😛).

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🎮 Steam Deck performance: 10/10 – Runs perfectly out of the box. No tweaks or bugs at all.
🎨 Art style: 10/10 – Very original, cute, and funny. It looks so good in grayscale.
🎵 Music: 9/10 – Accentuates so well the overall chill vibe of the game; majority of them are as relaxing as the gameplay. Just a bit strange that sometimes it just turns off, then back on randomly.
👾 Gameplay: 10/10 – For what I expected the game had to offer, it was way richer than expected. Fun from top to bottom, and very engaging.
⏳ Length: 9/10 – For what I’ve played (± 10 hours), it was perfect. Way longer than expected but not too long either.
🏷️ Worth full price? 9/10 – Still a short game, but given the excellent experience I’ve got out of it, it worth its MSRP in my opinion, to the point I’m honestly ashamed I got it for so cheap during sales (€3,90).

TOEM is a very charming game with no stressful or frustrating elements in which you’ll feel the love and care the devs team have poured into it. It’s a 100% chill, relaxing experience with quirky humor and a very cute and orginal art style. I recommend it to both cozy gamers looking for something totally laid-back and to people looking for something perfect to unwind and evade after a long day.

Thanks you so very much Something We've Made for this little gem of a game you've created!