Picontier
Released: March 31, 2022
Game Length: 42 Hours
Grade: B+
Introduction
What is it?: Stardew Valley is widely-known as the cornerstone of the farming sim genre. It is nearly perfect in every way with fishing, combat, mining, creating relationships, and setting up a farm. It has been added onto for years without increasing the price. Some might say that no other game comes near it, but what if people actually give these smaller titles a chance to shine? Very much like Graveyard Keeper and Littlewood, one such game has finally come out of Early Access. The game might look robust with its simplistic bit art-style, but as the description dictates - there is much more under the surface. It is also very different to the point where those who don't adapt will find it extremely annoying. For my review, I'm going to be covering what I did throughout my playthrough and cover (1) weird mechanics, (2) odd pacing, and (3) the unusual endgame.
Mechanics
Controls: If you browse through the Steam Community page, the very first thing you are going to find is the question about changing the controls. I honestly do not know how the game functions with the keyboard and mouse. I instinctively started the game with my Xbox gamepad. The thing is that the controls go contrary to what you normally think of how the 'A-button' is to accept, 'B-button' to cancel, and 'Y-button' to interact. Instead, 'A-button' is to dash, 'B-button' is to accept, and 'X-button' is to interact. Most people will hate this setup, but I found it to be an interesting challenge. After about 5-hours, I found myself quickly adapting to the new setup and understanding why the developer chose to do things differently. However, this no way excuses the exclusion of adjusting the control scheme through the menu. I don't know if the developer decided to force this upon people, like how Fromsoft doesn't include an easier difficulty setting in their games, but it will be a hurdle to overcome for anyone looking for an excuse to not continue playing.
Interface: Generally when you are playing a game, you want to have a fluid way of accessing all the different sub-menus. Picontier, for some reason, decided not to utilize the start button. You can still choose where to save your game after every day and manually save it at your bed at any time, but there isn't really a way to leave the game. It's there - as you can see whenever you turn your controller off - but pressing good ol' Alt + F4 became my standard exiting practice. Most of the information is there at your fingertips. You can check on your relationship status, what they like or dislike, if they received a gift, if they have a quest, what quests are currently available, the chat log from each quest, what items you unlocked, how much the items sell for from the vendor and into the deposit box, how many hours you played, how much money you have, how many monsters you've killed, and where monsters spawn and drop as reward. Not only that, but the map shows you where your friends are at any given moment. The user-interface also shows you your health and stamina, how many items you have in your bags, the current time, and the number of days that have passed. Most of these things can be accessed using the directional pad on controller with small icons in the corner of the screen as small reminders.
Gameplay: Now comes the hard part - understanding how everything works. The game no doubt has many safeguards in place if you make a mistake. Crops don't simply die if you forget to water them. They will merely stop growing and begin to wither. Perform enough actions to drain everything you have and your character will instead express an exhaustion emote. "Dying" just has you lose 4 hours and brought back to your bed (this happened once in my playthrough when touching a pink fireball that I thought was friendly). There is an option to rest in your bed for 4 hours to get a little bit of your stamina back and move time forward if you want to progress to the evening shift. Inventory is your main concern. Everything has a set amount of storage from your bags, house, and shipment box. Increasing that load so you can hold more things is going to cost you everything. Crops can be turned into shrines for more stamina, cooked (losing value) for relationship and quests, cooked (higher value) to sell, or sold independently. Since each crop has a different growth rate and the recipes are obtained periodically through your adventure, you'll need to keep an eye on what each item costs and how much they sell for. There is a purpose for everything and a way to collect those items in some fashion that doesn't require you purchasing them from the vendors, but it might take awhile to get to those points. It might also be important to tell you that you cannot sell things to the vendor. The only way to gain currency is to throw items into the shipment box and wait until 8am the next day.
Flexibility: Although much has to do with gameplay, I wanted to make a separate category for this. Just because your barn only holds a number of animals does not mean it is permanent. You have the option to let the animals go in exchange for ones you might need and capture them again when you have more room. Just because your bags are full doesn't mean you are losing items. Whatever items you dispose of, up to 20 items, will be safely stored in the trash can by your house. Time stops when you are inside structures and talking with people. Time does not stop when you are fishing or running around your farm. Attacking does not use stamina, but instead uses durability. Although weapons have a certain number of uses before they expire, like your standard tools, they do not deplete your stamina. So if you feel like crafting 8 weapons and killing everything in sight, you may do so while running full speed (requires at least 30 stamina) the entire time. Everything resets daily. Destroy all the barrels and pots to your heart's content!
Pacing
Unlocks: After awhile, you are going to get antsy in finding more stuff to do. 10 real-life hours and 20 in-game days later, I still had no idea how to mine, smelt, create alchemy, or a bunch of other things I assumed the game had in store for me. There was a broken bridge that needed fixing, a locked orchard, three stone walls blocking another pathway, and giant spheres keeping me from venturing further in multiple areas. This is the game telling you that there is more out there! However, this is where the game also tells you to be patient. Most of these areas will eventually unlock through the story. The thing to realize is that the story and the mechanics aren't exactly connected. It is entirely possible to advance the storylines without learning how to create the things that are required for them by just merely finding them in the world. There is both a silver and gold spawn point you can get the pickaxes, swords, and hoes. This can be used to break down things that were not so easily torn down before. You will need to build up your relationships, even if it means buying the material, before you can learn how to craft certain items. One important thing to note is that Dagon gives you a raft after completing his 4th request. This will give you access to areas out on the water and the merchant that exchanges recipes for gems you can get from mining ore.
Abilities: Because the game was available for Early Access, the developer chose to "lock" progression in a series of 4 major updates. As hinted above, these areas allow you to collect more, talk to more people, gather more items, and the important part - have access to new abilities. The problem is that these functions come later... much later than what you hoped for. It took me 20 hours of gameplay before I could expand my house, barn, and silo. This allows you to cook items directly out of your home storage, as well as your inventory. The extended barn will allow you to have more animals without the need of freeing them. It will take you roughly 30 hours of gameplay before you see the option of manipulating monsters and smelting ore. Sadly, there isn't a forge you stand in front to place the ore like you would in any other standard sim. Instead, you choose one type of ore per battery use per day and have a machine automatically convert them for you similar to how the Seed Maker converts your food into seeds.
Routine: When you first start playing the game, there isn't much available to you. There's fishing, setting up relationships, and a small plot of land to grow things. Interesting enough, you can sleep at any time you want to finish the day. You might get your assistant a little worked up, but there is no penalty for doing so moments after just waking up if you feel like it. That said, the days are long. Shipment comes in at 8am. Shopkeepers are available from 10am to 6pm. Certain things only become available at night. I'm not quite sure how long you can stay up, but clearly you could be out and about past midnight. The more areas you open up, the less time you have available for you to do it all. I recall one day I was taking care of my crops until 1pm! You have the option to pixel-decorate, but it will require you to use a farming slot. Things like fishing or monster-killing can also take a good chunk of your time. So don't worry too much about the time factor.
Endgame
Relationships: What is required to complete the game is to build each of your friends up to 2-hearts. To gain access to certain activities, you will need to get them up to at least 4-hearts. The problem comes when you are continually gaining more friends as you unlock new areas. What's just as bad is finding out what gifts make that little yellow bar go up more. There is only room for 3-exclusive "like" items. They do not cover a particular type. So if someone says they like fruit, you need to figure out which one specifically. Another might say they like the color blue, but will only accept a blue bouquet (not a single blue flower). The little boy kept telling me that he liked monster-slaying, but the only thing he approved of was monster bones (not a weapon). The flip-side is that there are only 3-exclusive "dislike" items. Amusingly, this means you can give them trash if you feel like it. Though, I must warn you that the penalty for gifting something they don't like can be quite devastating to your (real) heart. At least the information is there to refer to whenever you are allowed to provide someone a gift.
Progression: Increasing the size of your buildings once is good enough to keep you going until the final showdown. Creating a second extension is going to cost you an arm and a leg. If you get to that point where you are swimming in currency for the 3 million price tag, you might have to contend with the material cost of over 200 stone & wood. I hope you have been saving up your material, because you can't buy stone and logs at the store. There is also going to be a certain activity available that I won't spoil that will require you to perform a simple task every day each week for a total of about 100 days in-game to complete. This feature doesn't become available until you are 80% of the way into the main questline. I completed the game in 36 hours and 64 in-game days with 4 copper rings and 3 crystal swords that I created with store-bought material. At least a certain element of the game changes - or at least becomes available - after you complete the final quest. If by some chance you do complete all the relationships, there's supposed to be some sort of extended scene you can watch.
Story: There isn't much to learn other than what was shown in the introduction. Someone comes to an island and talks about a mysterious element. You wake-up one day to find an established town and a farm to call home. There are weird monsters, a black fog, and townsfolk that don't appear as normal as you hoped. Much of what you encounter is going to have some sort of meta-reaction to it. Plot Spoilers: The purple goo that is coming down the river is actually coming from a giant wine barrel with a tiny hole in it. The huge number of coins that is contained inside the Mayor's vault are actually worthless coins he collected from the beach. The aliens that appear are really robots that maintain sections of the island. Learning about these things can be enjoyable, but it takes far too long to piece the information together. I think I would have preferred story arcs where you focus on one mystery at a time instead all at once. In any case, I found the "logic" behind the island to be a fascinating one to explore.
Summary
Review: Picontier is a game that tries to do something different with the standard farming sim genre we've all become accustomed to with Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. By introducing inventory management and tool durability, the game becomes very interesting to explore. The fact that the main questline can be completed without extending yourself too far into any of the auxiliary activities is an interesting twist as well. Slaying monsters does not consume stamina and managing your time can get rather complex the more you unlock. Yet, the subversion of the genre can also be the main fault of the game. Controls, interface, and progression are all quite foreign for your standard player. The $25 price tag can also be a bit much to ask for when there is only just enough story-telling to keep you entertained to the end. I'd say try it when it goes on sale if you are looking for something that isn't mainstream.
5-5-2022