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cover-Travellers Rest

Saturday, March 9, 2024 10:50:39 PM

Travellers Rest Review (ellasunshine32)


Shows lots of promise!

As an avid fan of Stardew Valley, seeing a game in a similar style/objective was super fun! There's a lot of good aspects of the game, and then there's also a few that might need improvement
The Good
First off, I love the time period. This seems to be a sort of medieval/old British tavern, with your light sources being candles, lanterns, and the like. The tavern itself feels really cozy, and the ambiance is great! I play with the music off so I can listen to video essays in the background, but the music (when I have it on) is really calming and fits the vibe. There are also music stings when something goes wrong (eg. your tavern gets dirty or cold), which is helpful if I'm not looking at the screen in that moment. This might not be a finished game yet, but I think that as it stands right now, there's a good amount of content to keep you busy! You can decorate the tavern, design guest rooms, start a farm, raise animals, etc. It looks like the devs are also planning on adding relationships with the NPCs, which would be awesome! As it stands, talking to the NPCs right now gives you three dialogue options, and after that, you can't really say anything else.
Possible Improvements
With every game, there's always things that can be improved. I think this game is a bit too similar to Stardew Valley in some aspects - it's essentially just Stardew Valley if you ran a tavern and not a farm. I hope that going forward the developers branch away from that and make their own identity, and I'm sure they will! This game is still in Early Access, so the story isn't fleshed out yet, which is why I'm hopeful.
Another thing that's a bit bothersome is how hard it can be to earn the technology tree points - specifically the blue ones. The tavern reputation can also be hard to gain, but it makes sense that the amount of XP required to level up your reputation increases with each level.
I'm hoping for more furniture variety as well, and maybe some more direction in the main questline. The first order I took, I couldn't figure out how to complete, and was stuck trying to find a tutorial in the "Encyclopedia" section of the game. Luckily, there's no time deadline on the orders (I do like this, it allows you to relax without stressing), so after some trial and error I managed to complete it.
Suggestions
I have a few suggestions for the game! Nothing major - it's pretty polished as is, just things I'd like to see going forward.

Bar fights between customers
It was a little disappointing to find out your customers don't fight. There are angry customers, but they just sort of get up and walk around. Personally, I think it'd be fun to have a fight every once in a while that you have to break up. There could also be security / bouncers that throw out clients when they get too rowdy.


Increased drunkeness
The NPCs show no signs of being more drunk when they have alcohol, which is something that would be cool to see added. The more they drink, the more fatigued / incoherent they become and that could increase the frequency of bar fights between customers. Granted, I'm only serving water and a weak ale right now, but still.


Event hosting
Bars and taverns today are known for hosting live entertainment, parties, or wedding receptions. It'd be interesting if you could receive requests to rent out the tavern, where the interested NPC pays a down payment. You could also profit from the drinks they buy. Hosting live music could also attract more customers, increasing amount of money your tavern makes.


Ability to extinguish candles
It'd be great if I could put out the candles in my tavern during the day so I don't waste the wax. I could just pick them all up and put them back down when it gets dark, but that's a little tedious.

Final Thoughts
Overall, I think this game is really good! It's more polished than I expected it to be, and I haven't encountered any bugs thus far. I'm having a great time running my tavern and making new recipes for my customers. Looking forward to see what else this game has to offer!