Im reviewing Luma Island Vanilla, not the upcoming Pirate update (yet? we'll see)

It's my first game within this genre, I expected like 30 maybe 40 hours of content out of this game, but I sank SO MUCH time into it, it do be crazy. The first things I noticed which is amazing, how immersive the game is, the sound design especially. little things, people don't pay attention to often. Like when you harvest a dead tree, you see how little worms crawl away, since you just killed their home. Or if it is raining and you go into the house, you still hear the rain. different sound of course, since you are inside now, but that was so mindblowing to me. many such details are in this game. really cool. The game gives you a brief guide at the start but for the most part it lets you discover the stuff yourself, which I find is pretty cool. I was not used to having to explore. I was not used to things not being marked on my minimap, but having to actually look around. this was such a unique and exciting experience for me, which I didn't have in a long time. It really helped me appreciate more of the world in other games too. After you go through the different jobs and all the cute lore in the game and are basically done with it, there is an endgame grind to get the last 2 achievements. which makes you grind A LOT of money and A LOT of materials. I thought its a very neat approach to have the game itself a rather straight forward design and then have a massive grind in the end, felt really rewarding to finish it, especially because you are very free in how you do it. doing it with planting stuff? the mine? fishing? the hole escaping traps for archeology was insanely fun to discover btw. But whatever you prefered the most. So in general: Really really good game to sink a lot of time into with quite a lot of freedom too! That being said, there are a few little critiques I have:

- the camera position is very top down, this makes finding a certain point within the mine very frustrating if you dislike the mine
- If you talk to towns folk, you can not screenshot the dialog, as the game registers any (!) key you press to continue with the dialoge.
- you cant befriend the fox :(
- the farm is very.. not flat. and for that it is very limiting very you can settle down and put your castle. (this will change in the pirates update so take it with a grain of salt)
- you can build "decorative" items. these items are not all decorative. the game doesnt tell you that, but should imo. some DO have a function.
- if you come out of the mine and have like 5000 stones in your bag, there is no way of adding more materials into your crafting stations. that way you sometimes sit there for like 10+ Minutes doing nothing but holding your leftclick to add items for it. there should be a way of making it faster.

Thats all I have to critize, which is on a quite high lvl, I admit. So Right now I would rate Luma Island Vanilla 8/10. Doesnt need much for a 10/10 honestly. If they adress some of the issues I have then its an EASY 10/10 game. I had a lot of fun with it. Love the game <3

El mejor juego de granjas-crafting-de chill que he probado... Si notas que te vuelves demasiado amable o relajado... nada que no se pueda solucionar con un rato al Space Marine 2, los Doom...
Es como la antítesis, así se regulan los niveles de testosterona. Hablando como médico, no bromeo (que no te cambia de orientación! Pero sí te ablanda tras... cientas de horas, porque ya el juego vanilla tenía más contenido, tiempo jugable que cualquier AAA. No me esperaba una mega-update como ésta. 10 xa los devs.
El juego es suuuper entretenido... recomiendo jugarlo sin miedo a progresar, q yo pierdo más horas en el huerto...
Además, para el género de juego que es es PRECIOSO gráficamente... Lo acompaña la música, ambiente, progresión... Volveré a echarle un ojo por la update.

Very cute game! Chill, relaxing. Love the emphasis on exploration, and it feels very polished. The story could maybe use more depth, with maybe a little more to do in the city than just repair things, but overall the game's still very fun. Good to play solo or with friends! :)