Once, i suffered a severe psychosis, and got prescribed major medications that put me in a dream-like state for a while before I could adjust. And, when I took my first dose, for, like, 3 days straight, I played this game. I woke up in the morning, I'd start it, I'd play it till midnight without a break, go to bed, repeat. Felt like I was this little blob guy. It was fun, this game kinda saved my mind and helped me through the toughest time of my life
"Just like in real life if you work yourself through starvation your character self cannibalizes a heart's worth of health for about half of your total energy bar"
That does technically happen in the human body. Once we reach reach a certain threshold we start expending stored glucose and fatty cells [calories, exercise, and stuff]. Past that it does get to the point where the stomach eats away at itself resulting in you slowly and painfully dying.
@@PatFagan Worry not! Joe has announced on his Patreon page earlier, the Witcher video should be out within two months. Even if it delays a bit, it is unlikely to be six months long. Plus, he has an unpublished video in making about My Time at Portia.
"I didn't like it. Yet I still found myself glued to the progression loop." I am extremely catious about every single game that I would describe like that. If that happens, I know that Im just scratching the completion itch, and actually not enjoying the game. Im wasting time with it and I know I should choose some other game to spend my time with. Im not a kid anymore and gaming time is more precious to me now. Even if I wanted to scratch that itch, and I do sometimes, there are games that do not feel like junk food. With a gameplay that supplements the experience by a progression loop, and does not focus just on the loop itself. When its just about the progression loop, it feels like the developers put in milestones in progression just to stretch the gameplay time. Good progression uses the time between each loop to space out introduction of new mechanics in order for the player to become acquainted with them, or to let the gameplay feel seep into you, before giving it a twist to make it fresh again. There is a difference between a game like this and classic Diablos for example, they dont do JUST the progression loop right, there is so much more. The gameplay itself has memorable, worthwile moments. Id rather eye that new DLC for Titan Quest than this. Thanks for the video.
@@1996Pinocchio true. I guess self imposed limits are important here. For me if I know there's no "end" to a game but I enjoy playing it I limit sessions to 20-30 mins... Hard because those games r usually addictive. If I don't really like it but wanna see more of what it has then I give an limit on total playtime, like let's say 5-10 hours.
*shows a hallow knight costume* "Not enough soul." Anyways, great video as usual. Your videos are always interesting to watch even though I haven't or will never play half of the games you talk about, that's just how interesting they are.
I'm so proud that someone for my country made a game that has been recognized by important companies and journalist all over the word. It gives me hope that we can always do better
Got super excited for a sec thinking it might be an epic length review/analysis.. but y'know what, short and sweet videos are pretty great sometimes haha
Sato i was thinking the same lol That huge Witcher series critique is going to be enormous though and that’s what i’m waiting for. These short/filler vids will do for now.
Part of the fun I had late game was using lighthouses to make litteral trillions of dollars by stacking boosts, not really useful but it was kinda cool figuring out how to do it, good review tho, definitely earned a sub
I've been interested in this game for quite a while, mostly because it's developed in GameMaker, which I've personally been using for some time to attempt to make games. I picked it up on Friday and "finished" it within 19 hours. So much of what you've said is spot on. I used the keyboard and mouse, which may have improved my experience to a degree, but I was still unable to move things around the inventory (a minor annoyance). While I enjoyed the game a great deal, it did get to a point where I was just making things to be able to make more things. After a certain point (very early) there is almost no challenge. Certain items, like the skeleton skull that makes them ignore you, just completely trivialize large parts of the game. This would be fine if there was some other, more daunting, threat that needed your attention, but there isn't. The biggest problem I see is that the game very much needs an antagonist. A big bad boss that you're working towards fighting. It needs a reason to get to the insane levels of power that you end up gaining. I was entirely expecting the final dungeon to unlock some final boss. Instead, I was given another level up orb, and nothing happened. Eventually I just ran out of things to do and stopped playing. This left me feeling like I had accomplished nothing.
Dude you are what I've been looking for your content has been constantly appealing your voice is calm enough to keep me chill when I'm playing games and human enough to not make me zone out your content isn't like 10 min and I can just put on a longer review and use it as I would a podcast I'm very glad that I've discovered you and I'm very surprised you don't have way more subs
I think it was intended as an idle clicker you only pay for ONCE. It works pretty damn well with this in mind. Or it's just that mobile Elder Scrolls traumatised me.
My problem is that it's $20. With Hollow Knight being 15, Terraria being 10, and Factorio being 20 when I bought it, there's just better stuff to spend your money on.
@@afriendofafriend5766 Hmm, I'd rather say HK is criminally underpriced, but yeah, I'd also agree Forager would feel better at 10-15$. Still, get on a sale and it's a solid game.
Thank you so much for making real reviews, so I don't have to waste money and time on games that I'd hate. It's refreshing, to say the least, with a reviewer who focuses on the core gameplay loops and not the aesthetics and details. I often put down a game thinking "Why do people like this?", and then it's always comforting to come here and confirm my sanity :))
I had a lot of fun in this game my 2nd time around. I did a small island challenge where I made a world with only 1 island purchase (reloaded to get the costumes) and then created a small town with decorations and pathing and made it real pretty and I had a WONDERFUL time unlocking everything on my island where my only means of getting money was trading at the shops.
I own it, both my wife and I love it. I'd say $20 is a bit high but not by an amazingly large amount for what the game does. 20 hours is about right, however I found it an extremely engaging 20 hours, and it's worth mentioning I personally have a hatred of "incremental" games. You also have to consider there are going to be post release updates to expand on the parts they "dabbled" in, and the fact that this whole game was created by one guy. You should consider reconsidering.
As a student with no disposable income, 20 dollars is INSANE. I buy most of my games from Humble Bundle, usually at "pay what you want" level (AKA 1 dollar) or the "average price" ~6 dollar level. The only ever exception to this for me was Minecraft, which I bought in beta for 15$, but only AFTER playing the game for hundreds and hundreds of hours on a pirated version.
Great review, really liked how you were upfront about it early on. You made a great case and great example, helped me to decide to get this or not on sell, full price, or skip all together. I'll check out your other videos, to see if I'll subscribe or not, but so far so good!
I know you probably won't see this but thank you for your honest videos, i like how you give these games a chance. I super appreciate how you don't give a "this is a 5/10" not worth a buy or a an opinion that discourages buyers but simply lays out what you view as objective flaws or things that could be improved on. I remember watching your hollow knight critique for the first time and deciding to buy the game myself (thank you btw) and i tuned into your twitch around the time of persona 5 and danganronpa. I had a pretty biased opinion on what Danganronpa would be as a game but i genuinely enjoyed watching you experience it and even nitpick over plot points and characters being a little too oblivious for story points. I just wanted to say i really enjoy your format for these videos and thank you for your content.
i love incremental games. I seriously dont know why, but its extremely satisfying to get to the max set of gold, or the highest level, or have the biggest factory, or the most cookies, whatever. Once you get to a point where you know you cant grow anymore it feels like you've made it. The second you said "its like an incremental game" i went to steam and bought it. After work today im probably going to be up until early in the morning, and i honestly cant wait
I absolutely agree with your review/assessment of this game. I bought the game and played it till the "end" (all islands acquired, tools upgraded), yet I can surely say that I did not like playing it almost at all. Out of those 10 hours spent with it, two or three were kinda enjoyable (dungeons, solving riddles, getting something game-changing for the first time) - the rest felt like eating chips does after a while. You just keep going, not really knowing why, keeping yourself occupated, yet somewhere deep inside resides the unpleasant feeling, a little voice telling you that this is really a big waste of time and you should kinda stop. Not to mention that the amount of content does not justify the exaggerated price tag (e.g. Stardew Valley or Terraria offer ten times more for half the money). Glad I am not the only one.
"This is the only way to level mid game" You could just roll the sacrificial altar for the giant 3 levels for 1 heart instead, I got about 12 levels towards the end that way, sure I spent a few more hearts on useless rolls but it still ended up being quicker. Also the aiming isn't much better with KB&M; the hitboxes for certain things like the wooden planks that let you walk on water were especially hard to destroy, mainly because I found out its easier to hit things that are below your character instead of above, for some reason. Increasing the range at which you can hit individual things with your pick would have been a good QoL upgrade.
Coming here after recently buying Forager myself and the meal analogy is pretty spot on. I'm enjoying the game quite a bit but it's because I bought it with the sole intent of it being what I like to call a "junk food game." Something I can just zone out with for a few hours after dinner while listening to a podcast or watching a stream vod. Sometimes that sort of junk food can just really hit the spot.
Thank you! I've been kind of iffy about buying this game and I'm glad to see you have made a review of it! I'll wait for it to be like $5 at most if it ever gets that low
Awesome review man thanks, it was super useful also this is the 1st time seeing a video of your and new to the channel. So guess i'll look at your other video's see if anything catches my eye. :D
Hey, here's how you get tons of exp and cas 1. Take the observatory skill, the exp when selling skill and the enhanced range skill (all of them are in economy) 2. Place in an area as many observatorys as possible 3. Dig thousands of sand 4. Sell the sand for money and exp
I want to thank you Joe, with all of my heart, for your work and effort you put into your materials. As someone with severe depression, I barely do anything in my life that doesn't revolve around wanting to commit suicide. But staying at home and watching your videos for the past few months has really helped me in ways I can't even describe, I just feel them. Thank you sir.
I know what you mean, same here. Things like this and certain podcasts I listen to make such a massive difference, more than any medication I've ever had.
I love the food comparison you made, i just sorta finished eating a cake i got for christmas. It was sort of tasty but after i ate the last bite i felt not so good and i dont feel like eating the rest of it ever
I'd like to see you expand on your opinion about the idle game genre, now that you have set some ideas on this video. I'm looking forward to watch this topic more...explored
I had no problem with gold. Farmed xp by building fish nets and tearing them down (then switched to torches), got all the coin skills, markets, mining lasers and mining upgrades, upgraded my coin purse and the thing that increases resources per mining to half way, got a blessing of doubling coin gains (or a potion, don't remember), then I just sold all my wood, stone and got like 250k+ coin and bought all the isles. Maybe I misremember, but stacking coin gains and selling is how got insane amount of gold easy.
Mr. Anderson, you did it. I hope you're happy, because I am proud. I know you've been struggling with making shorter scripts because how how in depth you go into games, and I know this game was just and indie game with a high price, but I know you could have easily made this 20+ minutes with how many examples you wanted to prove your point with. You cut this down to what was needed, entertaining, and kept you sane. If you can keep this efficiency, I think both you and your community would still love your work, and probably love it more. Again, great job.
Great analysis Joseph, the demo that was available through Humble Monthly started really well and made me want to buy it, but the price tag left me wondering if it was worth that much.
I am a big fan of idle/incremental games, cookie clicker is always running in my browser. But complexity is key and I usually skip any outright if there's no prestige system, if you want to see just how complex they can get check out anti-idle on kongregate. But this one sounds simple to the point of tedium. Maybe updates will change that.
"The goal of Forager is to not have to play Forager anymore" is really a good summary of how I felt about the game with the exception of the unique stuff (puzzles/dungeons). It's funny, because automation in games isn't always like that. In Factorio, the goal of the game is to automate science, but it's also to automate science faster and faster, which means there's always more for you as the player to do, even as your factory continues to do more and more without your intervention. But Forager isn't really like that, because there's a limited amount of stuff to really do. Honestly there are pretty much two main fun things to do in the overworld part of the game: buying land and upgrading gear. And buying land is pretty broken as the speedrunners have already shown.
Something to note is that you can VERY easily stumble onto a relic that *forces* you to make a choice (at least, I couldn't not make a choice) pretty early on that can give you a FREE DROID and 10 EMP grenades (worth about 100K). I had this happen twice to me pretty quickly into the game and it completely broke any kind of progression I might have had.
This video was the best way to finish my run at this game, i knew exactly wat i was getting into, and still threw 2 days at this game, but hearing someone echo my exact feelling about this game out loud was de push i needed to just quits this game before it consumed my soul... 10/10 time killer/waster, would definitly not recommend
I agree with everything you said. A couple hours into the game I found myself staring gormlessly at a forge working to make gold bars so I could mint coins so I could actually have more content because the banks were too slow to purchase new islands regularly, which I needed so I could find the other resources I needed to build things (BONES IM LOOKING AT YOU) so I could progress. Cute game at the start, but it utterly lost me at that point where I was no longer madly scrambling to get things done and instead sitting and waiting because none of the other gameplay was compelling enough to engage in.
It turns out the fastest way to progress is to stack lighthouses, as each one multiplicatively increases drops in a radius. With a high level shovel and a dozen or so lighthouses, you'll get millions of items, which you can sell on the market for loads a money - and with the xp for sales perk you'll reach max level in no time. If you want to get really silly, a small island surrounded by a screenful of lighthouses will get you quadrillions or quintillions of loot.
Hey Joseph, long time fan here. I always enjoy your content but i am curious for one thing, there are so many famous mainstream games that people would like to hear your opinion about them, like for example Nioh, Days gone, Resident evil 2 remake, Red redemption 2 and many others but instead you choose some indie games that most people dont even know about. I am not complaining, its free content and its your channel after all you run it like you want ,not the fans. But i am just curious about the way you choose your games for reviewing. Thanks for the free content and for the great work as always.
Great Vid Joseph! I wonder if you have played Factorio lately since it's 3years since you first reviewed it. Maybe a review on how they changed? I'm pretty sure Factorio Dev's are doing it right on a lot of things
Blood Altars break the progression. I had 5 droids before I even began factory crafting because I had so many spare hearts I just chucked them into the altar. The EMP grenades sold for enough gold to also buy out all the islands.
I would love to play an incremental game that grows each time. Like Spore with the cells, organism, town and civilzation but incremental. A Katamari Damacy/Forager/Factorio/Spore game.
I stuck with the gamepad too for it as, like you said, the game inadvertently encourages it from the start. Bad move but i was too stubborn to switch to keyboard after starting with gamepad. And with this control scheme the hitboxes and aiming are very janky. Its a game I remember enjoying at the time, but cant bring myself to go back to (and even somewhat regret buying at this point, despite the developers charming story - theres plenty of people where he used to be, its hard to be as ecstatic about his game being as popular as he is). That all said I do appreciate that you progression in game does unlock little bonuses on the games menu such as comic strips and concept art. Featuring (good) fan-art on the front screen is a good move too. I imagine fans get a real kick out of it and its nice to see a developer support the efforts of the following they've created.
I've been waiting for witcher for so long, but now I've dived deep into from software and hollow knight, thanks to Joseph. So much so i just want the sekiro analysis and super dont care about witcher 3. I dont like witcher 3, I'm sure Joseph and I will relate to what's wrong but also appreciate what's done right. I'm now just excited to see the inevitable sekiro video, I won't lie Joseph I'll be shocked if you aren't planning one Edit: .....I still want the witcher vid tho.....I need to feel validated that I'm not the only one with big issues with the game, and Joseph will be more articulate than I
Kinda interested to hear your thoughts on Factorio. It is def a game that can scale a lot more into being big, and can be played without AFKing and still having plenty to do. I think this is fundmentally because rigging together 30 or 60 items is pretty cheap for the early game, and your production capacity easily gets more than than the cost per set-up for everything besides fancy modules.
I finished the game without capitalism, banks or vaults. My first playthrough was a tedious affair of deciding what items to discard in order to progress. I had no idea that you could have items automatically sort and store in vaults, as I completely avoided economy until completing foraging and mining
I found ways to get around actually needing to Idle for just about all the end game resources to the point that I ultimately didn't feel the need for banks, would likely skip them in subsequent playthroughts. The game also has some very creative ways of leveling, but once you get all the islands, I pretty much agree with everything in this video. The loop gets a little stale as you are upgrading just to be more efficient. I will say this... I could see some appeal in trying to speed run the thing of sort. Trying to clear all the islands in as little real game time possible.
The game is really great, just pure mechanics and 'style', fast and fun. And yeah, it would greatly benefit from some kind of ending/credits screen goal.
You should do more short reviews like this. It would be nice to see some reviews of games that don't need like 30 minutes of review time for story and gameplay each.
Hey! I just found you channel today through this video. While I do agree with the vast majority of what you said, especially it being 20 dollars, I do think you might've missed some stuff. This is pretty long so I'm sorry. To be fair, I've only played the game for 20 hours in one save file, but here's my experience with the game; First, I didn't think leveling up was a problem at any point, though that might be because it wasn't my central focus. I never used a spirit orb to level up, but I did use another method that I'll touch on in a bit. As far as I can tell, you felt the level requirement skyrocket at around lvl 40. I went full "red" path (I guess you could could it smiting but yeah), and at that point, the factory producing stuff made me cruise through levels. Once I found the crafting experience pillar, it got to a point in which making a single electronics would fill a fourth of my xp bar. By the time I wasn't gaining levels as fast, I had already gotten everything useful out of the skill tree. Funnily enough, I didn't mess with scrolls or potions at all until very late game, and when I was 2 levels away from max, I found out Sage Scrolls gave a really good bit of xp. I used like 3 to get the 2 remaining levels, and still had around 40 on my vault, so I suppose that's another way to gain good amounts of experience. Leading off this last point, I find it kind of sad you didn't mention any of the magic stuff. Sure, it can be very lacking and underwhelming when you leave it off till lategame like I did, but I think if I had used scrolls a lot earlier, it would've made the play experience a lot smoother. Finally, another way I found of leveling up: the sacrificial... table(?) in the hell biome. I'm sure you experimented with it at least once, and probably were discouraged by the options, since some of them are really bad, and the price was extremely high. However, some perks are insanely good, which I guess also makes it really unbalanced. Once I discovered the table, I mostly used my spirit orbs for health and would sacrifice them later, ideally aiming for "Termination", which gave you a droid and a 10 EMPs (another kinda disappointing part of the game, since by the time I got it it didn't really matter, I was one shotting mobs anyway), or... Insanity I think was the name of it, which leveled you up *3 times*. There was also a perk that gave you a bunch of potions, a bunch of scrolls, money and gems, and a permanent damage up, that at the very least was exchanging the health upgrade for a damage upgrade. I can see that you mostly went full, uh, "green" path, which probably makes the play through really different. More on this, I think our playstyles were very different. At no point where my islands so cluttered, but that is because I didn't have many to begin with. I held off for the most part on getting that many, and focused on managing the resources I already had, building stuff over all of the forest tiles and a 1 or 2 of the other biomes'. I do think I might've wasted time, delaying the progression, but at the same time, I built shrines early mid game and discovered the colonialist buff, which cuts land's prices in half. Then again, I didn't use my shrines the moment they went off CD, and probably wasted a lot of time just doing resource gathering, or just messing around, trying to figure out a cute way to organize my stuff. The moment I found out about this game, I figured it would be right up my alley. Because of currency exchange and whatnot, the game is around 10 US for me, so I decided to buy it and try it out. I had a lot of fun with it. As I mentioned before, I clocked 20 hours into my save file, and got all achievements on it, as well as developed other (I'd like to say) cool things around the world, like filling every tile with dirt, made a tile of "uber" shrines (like 20 shrines all in the range of 4 nuclear power plants, making the CD like 5 minutes), same with fishing and pretty much all of my crafting stations, though I always went for a good looking design rather than an effective one. Finally, I would like to touch on the energy problem. You probably noticed how I didn't mention using any spirit orbs to increase it. Well, I did use 1 or 2, but thats because I didn't really find myself with energy problems. Again, kind of a my playthrough thing, but the one potion I did mess with in the early stages was Ana's Delight (the pink one), which greatly increased both animal spawnrate and their drops, so once I finished going around my islands spamming e on chickens and the buff ran out, I had 300 eggs to fuel me for most of the early mid game. Eventually I got Revitalize, and killing a single demon would fill my energy bar completely, so even food was pointless. So yeah, I agree with your points, since I can see most of the issues you had on the video clearly, and while having different experiences because of the different paths is a neat feature, you having to go through all that boring constant clearing and having to wait on your banks is really bad design. Personally I never left the game running afk, and it's a shame you were forced to. Plus, the controller experience, as far as I can tell, being trashy compared to keyboard and mouse is just... bleh. Anyway, this is really long as is. For my money's worth, I'd say it was a pretty good deal on my case, and with the upcoming stuff being added, I'm happy with the future the game has. Waiting until more stuff is added and/or the game is on discount as you said is the best bet probably. Uh so yeah, thanks for reading all of that. Really liked the vid. As a side note, did you check out the Extras tab in the menu? It shouldn't really change one's objective opinion about the game but it's still a very wholesome story, heh.
I agree with everything. Its endgame is really an idle resource collection game. I loved the islands and their puzzles, the parks, the quests and the vanity items... but I don't like how they were handled when it boils down to the aforementioned endgame.
@@cornpop2630 I mean you don't really have a choice in some cases. It is actually quite inspiring how he made a game that decent just by himself at the start
This fairly negative review actually made me intrigued by the game. Downloaded an illegitimate copy to try it, got super absorbed into it for 3 hours and decided to buy it right there. 20 hours of gameplay later and I'm just hitting the last few feats (achievements) to unlock. Totally worth the money and I had a lot of fun with it. I'm not even really sure why there were so many complaints about this game... Aside from trying to play it with a controller. I have no idea why you'd do that though and also force yourself to suffer that way, rather than simply switching to a fuckin keyboard and mouse if you hated the controls lol I still enjoyed watching the video though, like always. I enjoyed the mindless grinding of this game. It was something relaxing to play while watching a season of a tv show.
Oh wow, how embarrassing, he forgot to upload the remaining 105 minutes of the review
He did not even care with this one lol
they'll get added in updates dude. its like you didnt even read the content roadmap
He’s just phoned this one in
Gart gotta buy it from the atom shop.
@@fnorddiscord Like the devs phoned it in making the game.
Once, i suffered a severe psychosis, and got prescribed major medications that put me in a dream-like state for a while before I could adjust. And, when I took my first dose, for, like, 3 days straight, I played this game. I woke up in the morning, I'd start it, I'd play it till midnight without a break, go to bed, repeat. Felt like I was this little blob guy. It was fun, this game kinda saved my mind and helped me through the toughest time of my life
"Just like in real life if you work yourself through starvation your character self cannibalizes a heart's worth of health for about half of your total energy bar"
Yeah, I hate when that happens
Brand new sentence
That does technically happen in the human body. Once we reach reach a certain threshold we start expending stored glucose and fatty cells [calories, exercise, and stuff].
Past that it does get to the point where the stomach eats away at itself resulting in you slowly and painfully dying.
@@madmaster0015 so your eatin yourself from the inside out? Cool.
@@basherblast You basically eat your fat before starting to eat the rest.
Is this a 5 day gap between Joseph Anderson videos? That's practically unheard of...
I like it.
Now we wait 6 months until the next one!
We are in the endgame now
@@PatFagan Worry not! Joe has announced on his Patreon page earlier, the Witcher video should be out within two months. Even if it delays a bit, it is unlikely to be six months long. Plus, he has an unpublished video in making about My Time at Portia.
This comment didnt age well
Not well at all
6:16 the spirit of Yusuke took over Joseph there for a split second
Very well, I will go along with this.
"I didn't like it. Yet I still found myself glued to the progression loop." I am extremely catious about every single game that I would describe like that. If that happens, I know that Im just scratching the completion itch, and actually not enjoying the game. Im wasting time with it and I know I should choose some other game to spend my time with. Im not a kid anymore and gaming time is more precious to me now. Even if I wanted to scratch that itch, and I do sometimes, there are games that do not feel like junk food. With a gameplay that supplements the experience by a progression loop, and does not focus just on the loop itself. When its just about the progression loop, it feels like the developers put in milestones in progression just to stretch the gameplay time. Good progression uses the time between each loop to space out introduction of new mechanics in order for the player to become acquainted with them, or to let the gameplay feel seep into you, before giving it a twist to make it fresh again. There is a difference between a game like this and classic Diablos for example, they dont do JUST the progression loop right, there is so much more. The gameplay itself has memorable, worthwile moments. Id rather eye that new DLC for Titan Quest than this. Thanks for the video.
To be fair, the first time you play the game, it is about exploring the world.
@@1996Pinocchio true. I guess self imposed limits are important here. For me if I know there's no "end" to a game but I enjoy playing it I limit sessions to 20-30 mins... Hard because those games r usually addictive. If I don't really like it but wanna see more of what it has then I give an limit on total playtime, like let's say 5-10 hours.
far cry new dawn.
Sometimes I enjoy junk foods xD
Lol slipped into yusuke for a sec there 6:16
came down here to say the same thing :)
Joe REALLY needs help.
..urameshi?
@@smugshrug No, the Yusuke from Persona 5, not the Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho.
@@Paltheos But damn it should be the Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho :)
*shows a hallow knight costume*
"Not enough soul."
Anyways, great video as usual. Your videos are always interesting to watch even though I haven't or will never play half of the games you talk about, that's just how interesting they are.
Great way to describe that game lol
its hollow knight
Yay my favourite persona 5 channel just uploaded
No, that's the left facing dragon.
Ya done?
...no.. just no
I'm so proud that someone for my country made a game that has been recognized by important companies and journalist all over the word. It gives me hope that we can always do better
yet another new video from dangaronpa super fan joseph anderson
WEEB STREAMER
Ok, 2 Joseph Anderson videos in 5 days? That's what I call over the range.
i understood that reference
I saw a green background then misread the title as Frogger, I'm slightly disappointed.
You’re not alone lol
Got super excited for a sec thinking it might be an epic length review/analysis.. but y'know what, short and sweet videos are pretty great sometimes haha
Sato i was thinking the same lol That huge Witcher series critique is going to be enormous though and that’s what i’m waiting for. These short/filler vids will do for now.
You are in denial. WE ALL SEE THROUGH YOUR SMILING FACADE
@@indavalucazo3277 denial?
Part of the fun I had late game was using lighthouses to make litteral trillions of dollars by stacking boosts, not really useful but it was kinda cool figuring out how to do it, good review tho, definitely earned a sub
I've been interested in this game for quite a while, mostly because it's developed in GameMaker, which I've personally been using for some time to attempt to make games. I picked it up on Friday and "finished" it within 19 hours. So much of what you've said is spot on. I used the keyboard and mouse, which may have improved my experience to a degree, but I was still unable to move things around the inventory (a minor annoyance). While I enjoyed the game a great deal, it did get to a point where I was just making things to be able to make more things. After a certain point (very early) there is almost no challenge. Certain items, like the skeleton skull that makes them ignore you, just completely trivialize large parts of the game. This would be fine if there was some other, more daunting, threat that needed your attention, but there isn't. The biggest problem I see is that the game very much needs an antagonist. A big bad boss that you're working towards fighting. It needs a reason to get to the insane levels of power that you end up gaining. I was entirely expecting the final dungeon to unlock some final boss. Instead, I was given another level up orb, and nothing happened. Eventually I just ran out of things to do and stopped playing. This left me feeling like I had accomplished nothing.
Brave of Joe to talk about his crack addiction so openly on his channel
I am so happy that useless has stayed a running joke
Dude you are what I've been looking for your content has been constantly appealing your voice is calm enough to keep me chill when I'm playing games and human enough to not make me zone out your content isn't like 10 min and I can just put on a longer review and use it as I would a podcast I'm very glad that I've discovered you and I'm very surprised you don't have way more subs
Really glad you decided to upload this shorter one! I really enjoy your reviews on indie stuff as well as the mainstream stuff. Thank you!
I think it was intended as an idle clicker you only pay for ONCE. It works pretty damn well with this in mind. Or it's just that mobile Elder Scrolls traumatised me.
My problem is that it's $20. With Hollow Knight being 15, Terraria being 10, and Factorio being 20 when I bought it, there's just better stuff to spend your money on.
@@afriendofafriend5766 Hmm, I'd rather say HK is criminally underpriced, but yeah, I'd also agree Forager would feel better at 10-15$. Still, get on a sale and it's a solid game.
it isn't a clicker game
Thank you so much for making real reviews, so I don't have to waste money and time on games that I'd hate. It's refreshing, to say the least, with a reviewer who focuses on the core gameplay loops and not the aesthetics and details. I often put down a game thinking "Why do people like this?", and then it's always comforting to come here and confirm my sanity :))
This game is actually really great.
@@brnk2 Yeah but it feels incomplete
You sound like a doomer
Holy buckets you actually managed to do a short review!
I really like these shorter videos. Hope Lily is doing okay! Good luck with the baby!
I had a lot of fun in this game my 2nd time around. I did a small island challenge where I made a world with only 1 island purchase (reloaded to get the costumes) and then created a small town with decorations and pathing and made it real pretty and I had a WONDERFUL time unlocking everything on my island where my only means of getting money was trading at the shops.
they could do so much with a remake of the game just allowing players to set parameters like that. make it a costumizable moddable experience lol
"I left the game running when I went to bed one night"
*me, getting so hooked on this game that I finished the entire thing in one setting (22hrs)*
I played this game entirely and now when I think of it I kinda want that time back.
Sounds like my type of game if it weren't as expensive.
I own it, both my wife and I love it. I'd say $20 is a bit high but not by an amazingly large amount for what the game does. 20 hours is about right, however I found it an extremely engaging 20 hours, and it's worth mentioning I personally have a hatred of "incremental" games. You also have to consider there are going to be post release updates to expand on the parts they "dabbled" in, and the fact that this whole game was created by one guy. You should consider reconsidering.
@@XTYRMIN8Z "consider reconsidering" do you mean, " you should reconsider "
As a student with no disposable income, 20 dollars is INSANE. I buy most of my games from Humble Bundle, usually at "pay what you want" level (AKA 1 dollar) or the "average price" ~6 dollar level.
The only ever exception to this for me was Minecraft, which I bought in beta for 15$, but only AFTER playing the game for hundreds and hundreds of hours on a pirated version.
The Xbox gamepass has it :)
Boba if you have a job, thats three hours work if you have a good enough one, so working three hours for a game you’ll play for hundreds evens out
Great review, really liked how you were upfront about it early on. You made a great case and great example, helped me to decide to get this or not on sell, full price, or skip all together. I'll check out your other videos, to see if I'll subscribe or not, but so far so good!
Forager sounds like exactly the sort of game teenage me would've loved because teenage me hated having fun.
I know you probably won't see this but thank you for your honest videos, i like how you give these games a chance. I super appreciate how you don't give a "this is a 5/10" not worth a buy or a an opinion that discourages buyers but simply lays out what you view as objective flaws or things that could be improved on.
I remember watching your hollow knight critique for the first time and deciding to buy the game myself (thank you btw) and i tuned into your twitch around the time of persona 5 and danganronpa. I had a pretty biased opinion on what Danganronpa would be as a game but i genuinely enjoyed watching you experience it and even nitpick over plot points and characters being a little too oblivious for story points. I just wanted to say i really enjoy your format for these videos and thank you for your content.
As of 2022 this game hasn’t changed much. There’s been bug fixes and some minor additions but it’s still the same deal. Fun game I enjoyed it
i love incremental games. I seriously dont know why, but its extremely satisfying to get to the max set of gold, or the highest level, or have the biggest factory, or the most cookies, whatever. Once you get to a point where you know you cant grow anymore it feels like you've made it. The second you said "its like an incremental game" i went to steam and bought it. After work today im probably going to be up until early in the morning, and i honestly cant wait
I absolutely agree with your review/assessment of this game. I bought the game and played it till the "end" (all islands acquired, tools upgraded), yet I can surely say that I did not like playing it almost at all. Out of those 10 hours spent with it, two or three were kinda enjoyable (dungeons, solving riddles, getting something game-changing for the first time) - the rest felt like eating chips does after a while. You just keep going, not really knowing why, keeping yourself occupated, yet somewhere deep inside resides the unpleasant feeling, a little voice telling you that this is really a big waste of time and you should kinda stop. Not to mention that the amount of content does not justify the exaggerated price tag (e.g. Stardew Valley or Terraria offer ten times more for half the money). Glad I am not the only one.
11 minutes? Are you okay mr. Dragon?
Ok only a few days before the last upload? Your spoiling us, and I love it
"This is the only way to level mid game"
You could just roll the sacrificial altar for the giant 3 levels for 1 heart instead, I got about 12 levels towards the end that way, sure I spent a few more hearts on useless rolls but it still ended up being quicker.
Also the aiming isn't much better with KB&M; the hitboxes for certain things like the wooden planks that let you walk on water were especially hard to destroy, mainly because I found out its easier to hit things that are below your character instead of above, for some reason. Increasing the range at which you can hit individual things with your pick would have been a good QoL upgrade.
2:37 Discord notification? Great video, Mr. Anderson. Keep up the good work!
It's a soundeffect from the game, not a discord notification
Crazy, I played this game in the jam and it has gone totally off the rails. So strange to see the direction it went!
I missed your voice my man, everyone stay healthy hope to see you at the streams.
I really like the smaller reviews in between the movies. Thanks Joseph!!
Joke at 2:15 is subtle and amazing. Good job!
Szymon Jackiewicz
Wait...
USELESS!?!??
I wish Joseph Anderson did more videos of this length.
I love your videos. I know this will most likely get buried but you produce some of the best content on this site. please keep doing your thing
Coming here after recently buying Forager myself and the meal analogy is pretty spot on. I'm enjoying the game quite a bit but it's because I bought it with the sole intent of it being what I like to call a "junk food game." Something I can just zone out with for a few hours after dinner while listening to a podcast or watching a stream vod. Sometimes that sort of junk food can just really hit the spot.
Thank you! I've been kind of iffy about buying this game and I'm glad to see you have made a review of it!
I'll wait for it to be like $5 at most if it ever gets that low
Awesome review man thanks, it was super useful also this is the 1st time seeing a video of your and new to the channel. So guess i'll look at your other video's see if anything catches my eye. :D
Hey, here's how you get tons of exp and cas
1. Take the observatory skill, the exp when selling skill and the enhanced range skill (all of them are in economy)
2. Place in an area as many observatorys as possible
3. Dig thousands of sand
4. Sell the sand for money and exp
You have an amazing ability to put thoughts into words
As always love your videos, was an interesting watch
I want to thank you Joe, with all of my heart, for your work and effort you put into your materials. As someone with severe depression, I barely do anything in my life that doesn't revolve around wanting to commit suicide. But staying at home and watching your videos for the past few months has really helped me in ways I can't even describe, I just feel them. Thank you sir.
I know what you mean, same here. Things like this and certain podcasts I listen to make such a massive difference, more than any medication I've ever had.
If you don’t mind me asking of course what podcast would you recommend?
6:15 So this is the heart of a man ... It is ugly... yet beautiful as well. That duality is what makes humanity such an interesting subject...
"Video game equivalent of a meal that's a little tasty but leaves you a bit sick afterwords." Joseph really out here roasting Taco Bell
I love the food comparison you made, i just sorta finished eating a cake i got for christmas. It was sort of tasty but after i ate the last bite i felt not so good and i dont feel like eating the rest of it ever
7:33 this was the most interesting part of this.
was keen to pick this up, think ill wait for info after further updates. nice review
I'd like to see you expand on your opinion about the idle game genre, now that you have set some ideas on this video.
I'm looking forward to watch this topic more...explored
2 videos in one week 😍😍😍 thank you lord dadapon
I had no problem with gold. Farmed xp by building fish nets and tearing them down (then switched to torches), got all the coin skills, markets, mining lasers and mining upgrades, upgraded my coin purse and the thing that increases resources per mining to half way, got a blessing of doubling coin gains (or a potion, don't remember), then I just sold all my wood, stone and got like 250k+ coin and bought all the isles. Maybe I misremember, but stacking coin gains and selling is how got insane amount of gold easy.
Mr. Anderson, you did it. I hope you're happy, because I am proud. I know you've been struggling with making shorter scripts because how how in depth you go into games, and I know this game was just and indie game with a high price, but I know you could have easily made this 20+ minutes with how many examples you wanted to prove your point with. You cut this down to what was needed, entertaining, and kept you sane. If you can keep this efficiency, I think both you and your community would still love your work, and probably love it more. Again, great job.
Nice. I had totally forgotten this Channel even existed.
Amazing review. Can't wait to see more!
Great analysis Joseph, the demo that was available through Humble Monthly started really well and made me want to buy it, but the price tag left me wondering if it was worth that much.
Only joseph could make an 11 minute video feel like a six hour deep-dive
This game had me hooked but idk if I could recommend it to people. I did enjoy my time with it
Great content as usual. Just wondering, are you still planning on doing a Witcher 3 video?
I am a big fan of idle/incremental games, cookie clicker is always running in my browser.
But complexity is key and I usually skip any outright if there's no prestige system, if you want to see just how complex they can get check out anti-idle on kongregate.
But this one sounds simple to the point of tedium. Maybe updates will change that.
"The goal of Forager is to not have to play Forager anymore" is really a good summary of how I felt about the game with the exception of the unique stuff (puzzles/dungeons). It's funny, because automation in games isn't always like that. In Factorio, the goal of the game is to automate science, but it's also to automate science faster and faster, which means there's always more for you as the player to do, even as your factory continues to do more and more without your intervention. But Forager isn't really like that, because there's a limited amount of stuff to really do.
Honestly there are pretty much two main fun things to do in the overworld part of the game: buying land and upgrading gear. And buying land is pretty broken as the speedrunners have already shown.
This game was made in argentina... there is so few pc games made here that i feel i littlw happy that you review this =)
Something to note is that you can VERY easily stumble onto a relic that *forces* you to make a choice (at least, I couldn't not make a choice) pretty early on that can give you a FREE DROID and 10 EMP grenades (worth about 100K). I had this happen twice to me pretty quickly into the game and it completely broke any kind of progression I might have had.
I was on the fence until you said it "really makes you question how you spend your free time" and that hit home for me so I decided against it lol
This video was the best way to finish my run at this game, i knew exactly wat i was getting into, and still threw 2 days at this game, but hearing someone echo my exact feelling about this game out loud was de push i needed to just quits this game before it consumed my soul...
10/10 time killer/waster, would definitly not recommend
Unrelated but I'm very excited to hear your thoughts on Sekiro when / if that video gets made. Sorry, the spirit orbs reminded me
I agree with everything you said.
A couple hours into the game I found myself staring gormlessly at a forge working to make gold bars so I could mint coins so I could actually have more content because the banks were too slow to purchase new islands regularly, which I needed so I could find the other resources I needed to build things (BONES IM LOOKING AT YOU) so I could progress.
Cute game at the start, but it utterly lost me at that point where I was no longer madly scrambling to get things done and instead sitting and waiting because none of the other gameplay was compelling enough to engage in.
Sage Scrolls are also a way to level up. You can get them from altars and crafting.
It turns out the fastest way to progress is to stack lighthouses, as each one multiplicatively increases drops in a radius. With a high level shovel and a dozen or so lighthouses, you'll get millions of items, which you can sell on the market for loads a money - and with the xp for sales perk you'll reach max level in no time. If you want to get really silly, a small island surrounded by a screenful of lighthouses will get you quadrillions or quintillions of loot.
It's addictive.
In essence, it's like an idle game with a bit of action on your part.
Hey Joseph, long time fan here. I always enjoy your content but i am curious for one thing, there are so many famous mainstream games that people would like to hear your opinion about them, like for example Nioh, Days gone, Resident evil 2 remake, Red redemption 2 and many others but instead you choose some indie games that most people dont even know about. I am not complaining, its free content and its your channel after all you run it like you want ,not the fans. But i am just curious about the way you choose your games for reviewing. Thanks for the free content and for the great work as always.
Have you played a game called Baba is You? If so, what are your thoughts about it?
Would personally love to know as well.
Great Vid Joseph!
I wonder if you have played Factorio lately since it's 3years since you first reviewed it. Maybe a review on how they changed? I'm pretty sure Factorio Dev's are doing it right on a lot of things
Blood Altars break the progression. I had 5 droids before I even began factory crafting because I had so many spare hearts I just chucked them into the altar. The EMP grenades sold for enough gold to also buy out all the islands.
I would love to play an incremental game that grows each time. Like Spore with the cells, organism, town and civilzation but incremental.
A Katamari Damacy/Forager/Factorio/Spore game.
I stuck with the gamepad too for it as, like you said, the game inadvertently encourages it from the start. Bad move but i was too stubborn to switch to keyboard after starting with gamepad. And with this control scheme the hitboxes and aiming are very janky. Its a game I remember enjoying at the time, but cant bring myself to go back to (and even somewhat regret buying at this point, despite the developers charming story - theres plenty of people where he used to be, its hard to be as ecstatic about his game being as popular as he is). That all said I do appreciate that you progression in game does unlock little bonuses on the games menu such as comic strips and concept art. Featuring (good) fan-art on the front screen is a good move too. I imagine fans get a real kick out of it and its nice to see a developer support the efforts of the following they've created.
I've been waiting for witcher for so long, but now I've dived deep into from software and hollow knight, thanks to Joseph. So much so i just want the sekiro analysis and super dont care about witcher 3.
I dont like witcher 3, I'm sure Joseph and I will relate to what's wrong but also appreciate what's done right. I'm now just excited to see the inevitable sekiro video, I won't lie Joseph I'll be shocked if you aren't planning one
Edit: .....I still want the witcher vid tho.....I need to feel validated that I'm not the only one with big issues with the game, and Joseph will be more articulate than I
Love the vid Joseph :)
Hope to see you cover Celeste someday!
Hope everything is going well. I hope to see you return to streaming soon. Regardless great video as always.
You should try Universal Paperclips, it will consume your life.
Or don‘t, I still want to get new videos.
Antimatter Dimensions as well...
Kinda interested to hear your thoughts on Factorio.
It is def a game that can scale a lot more into being big, and can be played without AFKing and still having plenty to do.
I think this is fundmentally because rigging together 30 or 60 items is pretty cheap for the early game, and your production capacity easily gets more than than the cost per set-up for everything besides fancy modules.
Now I really want you to talk about "A dark room"
Thanks for review, I will try this game sometime soon
Only 15 min. long?! How am I supposed to fall asleep to this?! I need 2 hr. in-depth analysis.
I finished the game without capitalism, banks or vaults.
My first playthrough was a tedious affair of deciding what items to discard in order to progress.
I had no idea that you could have items automatically sort and store in vaults, as I completely avoided economy until completing foraging and mining
I found ways to get around actually needing to Idle for just about all the end game resources to the point that I ultimately didn't feel the need for banks, would likely skip them in subsequent playthroughts. The game also has some very creative ways of leveling, but once you get all the islands, I pretty much agree with everything in this video. The loop gets a little stale as you are upgrading just to be more efficient.
I will say this... I could see some appeal in trying to speed run the thing of sort. Trying to clear all the islands in as little real game time possible.
The game is really great, just pure mechanics and 'style', fast and fun. And yeah, it would greatly benefit from some kind of ending/credits screen goal.
You should do more short reviews like this. It would be nice to see some reviews of games that don't need like 30 minutes of review time for story and gameplay each.
Hey!
I just found you channel today through this video. While I do agree with the vast majority of what you said, especially it being 20 dollars, I do think you might've missed some stuff. This is pretty long so I'm sorry.
To be fair, I've only played the game for 20 hours in one save file, but here's my experience with the game;
First, I didn't think leveling up was a problem at any point, though that might be because it wasn't my central focus. I never used a spirit orb to level up, but I did use another method that I'll touch on in a bit. As far as I can tell, you felt the level requirement skyrocket at around lvl 40. I went full "red" path (I guess you could could it smiting but yeah), and at that point, the factory producing stuff made me cruise through levels. Once I found the crafting experience pillar, it got to a point in which making a single electronics would fill a fourth of my xp bar. By the time I wasn't gaining levels as fast, I had already gotten everything useful out of the skill tree. Funnily enough, I didn't mess with scrolls or potions at all until very late game, and when I was 2 levels away from max, I found out Sage Scrolls gave a really good bit of xp. I used like 3 to get the 2 remaining levels, and still had around 40 on my vault, so I suppose that's another way to gain good amounts of experience.
Leading off this last point, I find it kind of sad you didn't mention any of the magic stuff. Sure, it can be very lacking and underwhelming when you leave it off till lategame like I did, but I think if I had used scrolls a lot earlier, it would've made the play experience a lot smoother.
Finally, another way I found of leveling up: the sacrificial... table(?) in the hell biome. I'm sure you experimented with it at least once, and probably were discouraged by the options, since some of them are really bad, and the price was extremely high. However, some perks are insanely good, which I guess also makes it really unbalanced. Once I discovered the table, I mostly used my spirit orbs for health and would sacrifice them later, ideally aiming for "Termination", which gave you a droid and a 10 EMPs (another kinda disappointing part of the game, since by the time I got it it didn't really matter, I was one shotting mobs anyway), or... Insanity I think was the name of it, which leveled you up *3 times*. There was also a perk that gave you a bunch of potions, a bunch of scrolls, money and gems, and a permanent damage up, that at the very least was exchanging the health upgrade for a damage upgrade.
I can see that you mostly went full, uh, "green" path, which probably makes the play through really different. More on this, I think our playstyles were very different. At no point where my islands so cluttered, but that is because I didn't have many to begin with. I held off for the most part on getting that many, and focused on managing the resources I already had, building stuff over all of the forest tiles and a 1 or 2 of the other biomes'. I do think I might've wasted time, delaying the progression, but at the same time, I built shrines early mid game and discovered the colonialist buff, which cuts land's prices in half. Then again, I didn't use my shrines the moment they went off CD, and probably wasted a lot of time just doing resource gathering, or just messing around, trying to figure out a cute way to organize my stuff.
The moment I found out about this game, I figured it would be right up my alley. Because of currency exchange and whatnot, the game is around 10 US for me, so I decided to buy it and try it out. I had a lot of fun with it. As I mentioned before, I clocked 20 hours into my save file, and got all achievements on it, as well as developed other (I'd like to say) cool things around the world, like filling every tile with dirt, made a tile of "uber" shrines (like 20 shrines all in the range of 4 nuclear power plants, making the CD like 5 minutes), same with fishing and pretty much all of my crafting stations, though I always went for a good looking design rather than an effective one.
Finally, I would like to touch on the energy problem. You probably noticed how I didn't mention using any spirit orbs to increase it. Well, I did use 1 or 2, but thats because I didn't really find myself with energy problems. Again, kind of a my playthrough thing, but the one potion I did mess with in the early stages was Ana's Delight (the pink one), which greatly increased both animal spawnrate and their drops, so once I finished going around my islands spamming e on chickens and the buff ran out, I had 300 eggs to fuel me for most of the early mid game. Eventually I got Revitalize, and killing a single demon would fill my energy bar completely, so even food was pointless.
So yeah, I agree with your points, since I can see most of the issues you had on the video clearly, and while having different experiences because of the different paths is a neat feature, you having to go through all that boring constant clearing and having to wait on your banks is really bad design. Personally I never left the game running afk, and it's a shame you were forced to. Plus, the controller experience, as far as I can tell, being trashy compared to keyboard and mouse is just... bleh.
Anyway, this is really long as is. For my money's worth, I'd say it was a pretty good deal on my case, and with the upcoming stuff being added, I'm happy with the future the game has. Waiting until more stuff is added and/or the game is on discount as you said is the best bet probably.
Uh so yeah, thanks for reading all of that. Really liked the vid.
As a side note, did you check out the Extras tab in the menu? It shouldn't really change one's objective opinion about the game but it's still a very wholesome story, heh.
I absolutely love your subtle humor
I love your content. Please keep doing what you do.
I agree with everything. Its endgame is really an idle resource collection game. I loved the islands and their puzzles, the parks, the quests and the vanity items... but I don't like how they were handled when it boils down to the aforementioned endgame.
This game was made by 1 person. I’m sure that the maker will upgrade the game a lot
How not to make a game 101
@@cornpop2630 I mean you don't really have a choice in some cases. It is actually quite inspiring how he made a game that decent just by himself at the start
This fairly negative review actually made me intrigued by the game. Downloaded an illegitimate copy to try it, got super absorbed into it for 3 hours and decided to buy it right there. 20 hours of gameplay later and I'm just hitting the last few feats (achievements) to unlock. Totally worth the money and I had a lot of fun with it. I'm not even really sure why there were so many complaints about this game... Aside from trying to play it with a controller. I have no idea why you'd do that though and also force yourself to suffer that way, rather than simply switching to a fuckin keyboard and mouse if you hated the controls lol
I still enjoyed watching the video though, like always. I enjoyed the mindless grinding of this game. It was something relaxing to play while watching a season of a tv show.