izigame.me

This wound up being wordier than expected, so in summary: This game tries hard to do something cool and new, but drops the ball constantly by discarding so many of the design choices of its forefathers. Often small things, but things that made sure everything else worked.
This game is beautifully sprited and echoes Minish Cap in a way that I've missed. But it's hollow. Very, very hollow. I'd kinda hoped the hollowness of the demo was due to it just being a demo. Nope its... pretty much the same in full release. Most games of its genre understood that if the player has to walk through the town centre, it makes the player feel a bit more anchored and more inclined to talk to the townsfolk - something i never appreciated until now. It leaves you feeling detached from the town with how easily you can just... fly off in the other direction. In fact its usually more convenient to avoid the town entirely. You can even just... put your house on other islands - convenient and cool! But alienating. Perhaps this would have worked better if there were other communities about.
Speaking of the townsfolk - they have the cutest little animations for their hobbies and... not much else. The talk/joke/flirt system is a nice attempt at innovation, but I feel it maybe needed more commitment to become something more than choosing your success percentage. My lack of attachment is also rooted perhaps in how everyone has a half-chibi style that really doesn't appeal to me - but that's a me issue and not the game.
There IS a plot, but its pretty unengaging. A man made of talismans and cards shows up randomly on an island you're on and this guy is the centre of the plot - you have to find his 30 memory shards in 30 dungeons. The demo on the first island is a perfect little baby's-first-dungeon affair - gentle yet engaging puzzles and a neat little boss. And then the next dungeon is the same boss. and the next. There are multiple rooms that offer nothing of interest, and most of the dungeons I've done so far have shared rooms - particularly a big room of corridors with a chest in it and nothing else. Where are the enemies? Additionally, the start of each dungeon had a big glowing guardian wake up. Its gone when you leave the room and go back. I figured this was an odd bug at first, but I THINK its moving to the end of the dungeon to serve as the boss? This would be clearer and perhaps cooler if they got even a little boss room and perhaps, out of combat, still used their big sprite. Instead, its in the overworld with a battle sprite and is unceremoniously shoved at the end of the corridor every time. Did I mention theres 30 of them?
You also have seasonal temples, requiring offerings to move through. When I saw how GRAND the first temple was on the outside MAN was i excited! No its... just a straight line. You fight a wooden log with a face occasionally. Make a few more offerings. Grow some plant-ladders with your new growing-staff. Perhaps this is just the lobby and is branches (heh) out later? perhaps has a cool end? Right now... doesn't feel worth the effort to go in, beat up a log, realise I don't have the right item, go find it, come back, repeat.. Would be nice if the quest log tracked the offerings you need.
Each new game, the game randomly generates its world - it even has a nice splash for it while it generates. But, the treasure maps each have (beautiful!) custom art to show you were treasure is (which i don't actually know how to dig up :( ). So, the islands are just randomly generated for location as I figure it? To which i say...
Why???????
I don't think it works for this kind of game, especially where i find myself yearning for structure to work with. Go to an island, find the dungeon, clear it out (and then get a little peeved that there always seems to be a chest i cant find- but i wouldn't say I have the energy to hit every wall with a hammer to see if i'm being darksouls'd). Don't dig up the treasure because i'm not sure what'd being asked of me, go to the next, suddenly get bodied by spirits that get the jump on me and somehow always Dizzy the spirit that drew all the good cards so I can't do anything. That last part is suddenly happening a lot, even on low-level islands with a well-levelled team. With each dungeon being less interesting than the first.. it does feel a bit pointless.
The spirits themselves are... fine? I like Sheemp. I have a Fluffox and a Gemlin. I also have a quest tame a level 5 spirit, which unlocks the barn. Until then, it doesn't appear i can remove spirits from my team without getting rid of them. So, at some point, I'll need to take one of my little guys behind the shed and pop them i suppose. Can't do that to Sheemp, They do too much damage and were my starter. Can't do that to Gemlin b/c they're my MVP. Don't really want to do that to Fluffox. So I'm... stuck. They're clear above lvl 5 so it don't get why I can't just use my current guys to fulfil that quest.
I've been hyping this game to my friends. I'm a little glad none of them bought it yet. I'll continue to try and find the good in it (and I was really rooting for it!! I even bought deluxe just to give the devs more money b/c their product seemed neat!!), but so far I feel deflated.
Also don't sell *all* your gems the description and the dev's lied- they're used in crafting. Mostly decorations but their tweet/the item description is misleading. They pop up often enough but... maybe make that clearer if you read this far? Pretty please?