Graveyard Keeper is a medieval Graveyard management sim with RPG traits. Playing it in 2022 - this is my Graveyard Keeper review in 2022! #graveyardkeeper #roymccoy #indiegaming
I love Graveyard Keeper - What other indie games do you recommend I take a closer look at? And here's my take on Slime Rancher that I mentioned in the video: th-cam.com/video/VQbHnKNkdeI/w-d-xo.html
so you're afraid of death and all that it comes with death. A process that is a natural part of life? That you try to avoid at all cause? You gotta confront that fear, dude! It's ok to be afraid but not to the point that you avoid thigs about death and its normal process.
2:10 agree with u on that point , both are good in their own way 😂💯 plus I'm a Stardew Valley player but I never say that Graveyard keeper are bad... I find it more interesting and much more mechanic too it
A bit late to this particular video and commenting, but going to do it all the same. If you liked Stardew Valley and really enjoy this sort of life sim day to day plenty to do type of game, I can wholeheartedly recommend Rune Factory 4. And, to a much lesser extent, Rune Factory 5, though maybe only pick that one up if 4 really tickles your fancy on PC. 5 is...insanely poorly optimized on Switch so skip for PC there. It's more or less the predecessor to Stardew Valley, and frankly, having played both...Rune Factory 4 is the deeper of the two by a mile and the reason I simply can't get into Stardew Valley. Definitely my top game of all time, I've replayed it at least 3 times, and I never replay games. Very, very much an "anime" type of game in the farm sim world, but the combat is fun, the crafting system is bonkers deep once you start engaging with it-may need the wiki on that one-the monster taming is addictive as can be, the characters are all super lovable. It's not indie, but it's not well known either, but those of us that do? We love it to bits.
Yeah, this one's a real gem, which I used to replay every year when a new DLC got released. Sadly, no new DLC this year, but it's apparently still being developed; the developers just had to skip this year because they had to flee Russia and redeploy their studio in Europe.
yeah the russia ukraine war realy put a damper on things right when alot of rusian game devs started making better games. Alot of those guys now had to spend their time fleeying and relocating somewhere else if they did'nt want to get pulled into the war by daddy putin.
@@patrickpol6156 I honestly doubt that. The more likely explanation is that weather or not they actually agree with Putin's policy on ukrainian question is irrelevant, they don't really HAVE a choice to stay in Russia because they simply won't be able to stay in business due to sanctions. They simply won't get their revenue. So it's either leave or go out of business. Pretty shitty situation all around.
@@xeox4280 Not in my opinion. Not all games need a fail option, or punishment for doing so. Sometimes it is great to simply create and build something. Being pushed back by loss gives the game nothing
@@xeox4280 Oh no, not the point: Dying is okay in this game and no problem. The great thing is that you do not get punished on death, unlike Stardew Valley for example in which you lose items
Actually I love that GK is way more complicated than others. Making money is not really easy and the tech tree is so entangled that it is really challenging to complete it. I am tired of seeing good games turned too easy just for the sake of pleasing a broader audience. I like to struggle a bit. To feel to have achieved something. Otherwise it is just a matter of farming stuff, like on mobile phone apps.
@@meunomeeeste1441 i love that you can find an easy ways to make money, and then the game cuts it from you so you have to adapt, like when you lose access to the church for a while, it prevents optimizing the fun out of the game and when you optimize something it adds fun to the game
i disagree. i had way more fun when it was just the farm and the graveyard stuff. this game adds way too much crap to the point it becomes kind of stressful and unfun. even with zombies doing some of the resource gathering later on, it still feels like there's far too much busy work and shit you need to manage personally that it stops being enjoyable. i wouldn't say it's challenging at all, just stressful due to a lot of busy work that needs to be done manually by the player. the fact that in order to create one item you need to process like three different resources using several different work benches and shit becomes tedious
if i'm being honest, besides the writting tech tree if you "improve/complete/unlock" them all in parallel you won't have that much of an issue. most of my problems come from the fact i play the game with a controller (on pc) but if i check the tech tree with mouse instead, i see a description that says where it should be crafted and so i can research that one crafting station first. (except for the ones that say it works on lvl 1 and 2 and in reality it works on lvl 2's only)
I played around 50 hours of GK and loved it. I guess the only reason I stopped was because I had no more incentives to continue playing the game after a certain stage. But I still keep coming back sometimes just to have that odd experience of living in that medieval village, tending corpses and whatnot. The game really has a very specific vibe and that's something really cool that not all games are able to achieve.
dude i got over 300 hours in on this game alone and i keep coming back for more whenever im having a stardew burnout and ive currently got 2 more games like this on my steam wishlist because i just love these kind of games
I started playing after work today and I was enthralled. I sat down and played for hours without a care in the world, something I haven’t done in years. It was fresh and fun, and mind-bendingly deep, and I can see myself wasting a ridiculous amount of time playing this game.
@@RoyMcCoy I'm more into simulation games like My time at Portia, stardew valley, prison architect, foundation and cities skyline that's why I instantly love this GK!
For the stained glass window, damasc sword, and many recipes in general when you unlock those one of the things is that you dont need to make every element of themselves yourself. For the benches you of course have to buy parts from the merchant, but you can also buy gold jewlery from the merchant and I highly recommend doing so. The gold crafting is more a way for you to burn excess gold ore rather than a way for you to build up components as most games have trained you to do. Things you cannot buy are much more simple to get, for instance glass and glass bits. They're very easy to make on your own and cannot be bought. The game has some odd tricks, like the dungeon should be unlocked before you begin planting. The vinyard is basically the key to money and limitless energy/HP. I think your review is very spot on, and the game is SIGNIFICANTLY different and better than on release. I've completed it 4x now, and it's a solidly enjoyable game with it's own personality.
I saw this review on steam and it pretty much perfectly summed up my grievances with the 100ish hours i had with the game *Lackluster tutorial and directions:* Too bad if you forget what to do in quests, the game doesn't bother to tell you. I had to consult the wiki extensively for basic things like throwing a body into river to continue one of the first quests, because I didn't realize it was something I could even do. *Overwhelming:* The awful idea to have all the important NPCs only available at certain days makes sure that you are constantly under pressure, having to manage your activities with daily routines, even though there is no time limit, the threat of you wasting time, because you have to wait a whole week if you miss certain NPC's day, just feels awful. They fixed this dimwitted decision in DLCs, but the main game remains rotten. *You literally get stuck on anything:* This game isn't necessarily designed to have clear paths, it's designed to look pretty first, practical second, so I was getting stuck all time time, on everything. *Integration of the DLC rewards:* The DLCs themselves are seriously good, but the rewards you will get would be super helpful if you got them in the first third of the game, but realistically, you will get them in the last third or so of the already very long game! You will finally get super useful items like storage bags, and you will get all the alchemy recipes - too little too late, and nothing indicates that you should be doing that. *Botched progression:* Very early on in the game, you get couple of quests, like giving a skull a wine, or giving a guy a pen and paper - you will get to these things like 15 hours later! Also, it's much more convenient to buy items necessary to progress, as the way to learn to make them often take a lot, lot more time - but at the same time, money is precious and you will be starved for money all the time, trying to save enough for other things to progress - so it's like the game is constantly teasing you, because it really doesn't feel that rewarding finally learning how to do things on your own. *Micromanagement hell:* Farming for example is just annoying. Unlike in stardew, you can't just put seeds in hand, you have to manually click to a field, then in your inventory, then you can finally be done with it. This is done so many times in crafting and other cases. You will get sick of doing these things over and over, wasting a lot of time extensively clicking around. *Impractical crafting:* You will constantly need to build/craft things all around the world, but you can only check the requirements at the place you're about to build or make something! Good luck remembering what you need for your church, as you constantly go back and forth. You will run into this issue the whole game, anywhere you are - just show me recipes and requirements in the inventory itself. *Bad UI:* In general, many technologies or abilities you unlock lack basic explanations how they function, because it's not often self-explanatory! Some important storylines only progress when you repeat certain action enough times - there is zero indication that it ever leads to anything! After doing the second witch burning, You'll figure out it isn't worth your time - little would you know that a storyline only progresses after you do the third one, with absolutely no indication. *Time wasting:* You are constantly required to product stuff over and over, to finish the game, you will be standing behind your crafting devices for hours of real time. This is the "hold E simulator" on steroids. Some tedious tasks can be transferred to zombies, but it's way too little, and aside from mining and wood, the rest is just impractical - it doesn't feel rewarding. Oh, and you can't rotate around most of the buildings, so tough luck trying to position something the way you want to, and when you place a building, you can't then move it around - like a moron, you have to break it (you don't get the resources back) and build another one! If you read all that, wow first of all. I still really enjoyed the game and havent really played any other games quite like it, i just wish, among the things listed above, it had more to do once you reach the late game as most of the systems like church quality and the trading station, hit a quality limit and show no reason to improve upon further once you hit that upper limit.
Heyy! Yes I read everything. I absolutely agree with every one of your points. A lot of those topics appeared on my mind as I was watching the video. I really enjoyed playing GK, but those (big) little things just threw me off. Especially after spending way too much time on reddit looking for key words on long posts about stuff in-game i hadn't reached yet, trying to find that one piece of information that would answer my very specific question 💀 I'm thinking about replaying it from the start to see if I can manage the gameplay better; last time after a week or so playing (real time) it became overwhelming by the amount of tasks i had to do. I even kept pen and paper besides me to keep record of little pieces of info the game gives you once and never again (e g on dialogue). Maybe this time around it'll be more clear.
192 hours here _(quit 1st playthrough due bug with Rosa not dropping item)_ and now at the 2nd attempt many months later I've just run in to another massive bug. Zombies at the Quarry didn't stop mining Stone and Marble even when the stockpiles were full. The whole area was carpeted with Stones. Now I get a very unpleasant 10fps due to all items being persistent in the game. Many stones are inaccessible (out of bounds) and now after cleaning up best I can, I get a less than ideal 35/40 fps. Frames have always been choppy around the Farmers field but now I have to look away if I'm walking past, so choppy.
@@mikerochburns4104 you know, I also play stardew valley and I've seen that people fix some bugs directly on the code of the game. Maybe you could contact the creators, or look on Discord, to see if you can fix it that way? I don't know how accesible the code of GK is, but it could be a solution to your problem!
i 100% agree with every single one of these points. the funny thing is, i started playing stardew valley recently, which is the clear inspiration of this game, and a lot of the issues i had with GK already had solutions in stardew valley ( for example accessing crafting recipes from your inventory) so it's like the devs of GK went out of their way to add these issues in.
When I first got it years ago, I played maybe 20 minutes and put it away for like a year. It was hard to get into. but after I got back into trying it, I was absolutely addicted. The grind is real, for sure, but it's also really rewarding.
Similar experience for me. I got bored/annoyed and stopped playing the first time, then years later I randomly tried it again after seeing it in my library and got the ending that same week.
The portal stone was in the base game, but it had a longer cooldown, so it was barely ever used. A lot of things was trial and error, such as the Alchemy, what makes what, and such, but the wiki helps a ton with that. And somethings can be bought from the vendors. Like the Jewellery for the Stained Glass for the church, you can get from the merchant. The Stone Mason in the village sells copper quality marble statues. But it takes time to unlock the relevant tier of the shops. Certain shops are also locked behind the NPC quests, like the Astrologer selling books and paper, is locked behind the story quests with him.
Yeaph the alchemy is the hard part, without the wiki it's gonna be hard to make any recipe. The only way you can get a recipe for alchemy is from Clotho which she only sell 1/day which means if you want to unlock all the recipe you're gonna need to visit her each day to unlock it 1 by 1. It would be a lot of help if Clotho is part of the Teleportstone.
but for what are you going to do all that stuf if you can finish the game a weeek early just buying the stuff?, why make jeweldry or update your church, so much items for so little utility..nothing can punish you, you can't do anything wrong, you can't fail, except maybe in dungeons...
The game is hilariously good. 😂 And the game just giving you a VERY brief skim through the mechanics and just basically throws you to play the game blind, discovering new things is satisfying and most of the time accompanied by a fit of laughs on how ridiculous it is. 😂
I literally just bought the game and started playing it a few days ago, like a few days before New Years, and I have not been able to stop playing it 😂
I picked up the game and all 3 dlc (largely based on this review) in the Jan. 2023 steam sale… sum total of around £14 I’ve put in about 30 hours of gameplay so far and I’m nowhere near completion and am still absolutely loving it… I agree that some aspects of the game can be confusing and the in-game guides really barely scratch the surface of explanation but as mentioned there’s a wealth of info online now if you really find yourself stuck, and the times when you figure stuff out for yourself give you a genuine sense of achievement! If you like Stardew and just can’t wait for The Haunted Chocolatier, you have to give this a go… though it might put you off burgers for life!! 😉
I’ve been wanting to give it another shot. It may seem ridiculous but I stopped playing because there were no rain sounds. It killed the atmosphere for me. They finally added it though.
The game is amazing. There is so much content packed into it that it's overwhelming. This game has so much to offer in terms of game mechanics (it has one of the coolest and funniest automation mechanics I've seen namely zombies that you can create to do you chores!), tech tree, main story as well as additional side quests, NPCs, types resources, crafting possibilities, buildings, activities and locations. The humour is top notch and there is a lot of political and religious topics here that will definitely make you giggle and sometimes laugh out loud. I cannot recommend this game enough!
I bought this when it first came out perhaps even in early access(?), while coming off the stardew valley high. I enjoyed it and never felt it was too Grindy. That being said if you weren’t able or didn’t want to invest effort into maximizing efficiency it would’ve been grindy. Personally, I just game hop and very games catch my attention for a full play through, I plan on playing this again after watching this vid.
They need to have a discovered recipes tab that includes when you find a bridge or broken thing and need to bring supplies. I get so frustrated trying to manage my inventory, recipes, etc when all the machines are so far apart and travel takes forever even in the cellar or with the teeny amount of fast traveling they added in. There's just so many tiny quality of life things that don't break the game or progression that would make me not tap out of the game after 45 minutes each time I fire it up.
I was familiar with Stardew for years. Never looked into it though because I don't like games with this camera angle but one day I decided to give it a shot and I actually fell in love with it. Eyeing GK next
the tech tree thing seems frustrating until you realize all you really need is money, you eventually can make jewels, but until then you can buy then from the merchant, to make dinners you need gold star food, but instead of cultivating crops and improving them with fertilizer you can buy the gold star food at the bar, at a certain point the time you spend to make bread can be cut by using the mill instead
Dunno why but I don't really find the tech tree frustrating. Starting the games couple days ago and find the tech tree the least thing I'm frustrated about. Red is the one you'll always have a surplus. Green is easily farmable by digging clays or river sands (clay is faster). Blue you can farm early on once you start having access to stone cutter I, which then you can make stone grave fence to get 5 blue/red tech points or polishing stone (1 tech point all color). I haven't opened a single wiki at this point till the frustrating part of alchemy. I guess "playing at your own pace" really does wonder for this game, because I actually just trying everything in the game and not paying attention to the quest that much (except Bishop's) and starting to pay more attention till around 60-80 days in the game.
This game is one of those hidden gems. I got it since release on PC and I’ll probably get it for my Switch now since it’s currently on sale with all the DLCs
I hate when people refer to games like this as a "Stardew Valley Clone" in a negative context when Stardew Valley itself is a Harvest Moon clone. People tend to forget that. Stardew Valley is more similar and clone-ish to Harvest Moon that most other games of that genre are to Stardew. That's why it's silly to judge a game negatively because it's similar to another. That doesn't make it bad or wrong, or lazy. I enjoy all games of a certain genre regardless of how similar or different they are.
Thank you so much for the review! I really needed to know what the game was about and if it was worth it. Too many incomplete sim games out there. Good to know this is worth it!
I just really love how it was challenging and made me think of the tech tree to strategize which one goes first to progress. Overall, I've been addicted and I just played it this year 🙌
I just started playing today and I love it! I saw it was on sale on the Switch and had to get it since I recently started working as a funeral director haha.
Saw this one randomly in a PS Livestream and i was instantly hooked, thanks alot for this in depth review. Im going to support the Devs and buy the Collectors Edition with all Dlcs for 40 bucks. I dont know if you covered this Game already but i would recommend you playing 9th Dawn 3. Its a 2.5D Action Rpg with Crafting, manage a Monster Team, Cooking Minigame, ingame Card Game, Fishing, Couch Co-Op and your Class is determined by Skill Points and Gear. Def. a hidden Gem for only 15$ it was developed by only 1 person.
i like to go watching other's impressions of GK. i love it since the release date, most of those 6-7's are from people that did not reach that far in the game. it's not an easy game, and half of the issues come from not paying much attention (such as unlocking something that's made out in a crafting table that you don't own yet. if i play with mouse i can click on a tech i don't own and i see a description that says where to craft it and usually works, except for when it says it can be made in a lvl1 AND level 2 workbench but it requires specifically a lvl2, that's a big oversight) the zombies are game changers too but depending on how you use them they can be detrimental for your tech points. also, if you have too many corpses, a lvl2 pallet stops the rotting process (they are refrigerated) the lvl2 autopsy table does the same. if your morgue is full you won't get more corpses either.. and by full i mean "there are corpses lying around anywhere in the game" the ones that aren't in the morgue also count.
2024 Review here: This is my first Steam Deck game so kind of a big deal for me since I've never had a gaming PC or real Console. I picked it because I wanted something that would be memorable and I could think back on and this looked weird and quirky enough to accomplish that. This was a month ago so the winter sale was very generous. I got the full package, DLC included for a steal. This is absolutely something I would have never played otherwise and I'm completely in love with it and glad I gave it a chance. Your review is spot on, I had many of the same opinions about what I am experiencing. The game has a massive flaw though that you should have mentioned. It seems to affect the flow of time in the real world. I keep looking at the clock and seeing that hours passed and my hands are glued to the device, this was problably a serious oversite. All jokes asside, I'm so addicted, that had to make a rule that I have to try other games in between sessions of Graveyard Keeper. Also from a Steam Deck user perspective, the game runs flawlessly and because of the Deck's sleep feature it feels extreamly natural on it. I problably couldn't have picked a better first experiance.
I have played almost 97 hours and am still nowhere enar halfway through all the content, but that is mostly because I take my time getting all my ducks in a row. I could rush through the story quests, but I find it much more relaxing and pleasing to focus on my farming, until i have a lot of stock, then focus on my pub, then back to farming, doing a bit of graveyard keeping, stock up for the Merchant's shop, always hoping to get a corpse that is valuable enough to create a better zombie... The story questing is an afterthought for me, but when I go for the story, I drink it all in. I love the lore that is revealed in the tavern dlc, how the curse started, what the ancient contract is. I look forward to the next dlc
So much better than stardew valley in my opinion. In graveyard keeper every item has a purpose and leads to something new, in contrast to Stardew Valley's box-ticking.
The graphics and animations are nice. This is the biggest and probably the only advantage of this title. The gameplay, the dialogues, the humor - everything seems as if it was introduced on the fly while working without much thought.
Have you tried the game Aground ? It's an amazing game its similar to terraria in that its side scroller pixel art game and you have to dig up resources to craft things but the game has far more depth to it that you would expect, it has magic and advanced tech, it has you go to space and to other planets. It's really awesome I recommend giving it a try.
Hey there! I totally hadn’t heard of this… and I’ve just seen it… and it looks special! That is an amazing suggestion and looks exactly like something I’d get hooked on! Thanks!!
I rarely look at big time review sites tbh. Most of the time they're bloated for "AAA" games and tend to nitpick with indie titles especially with games like this, Stardew and other sim/survival games. They're hard to pinpoint with reviews since not everyone likes the grind and monotony of them. Just saw it while scrolling on the Switch back in 2020 and the visuals drew me in first and foremost. I don't trust visuals on many big studios but if an indie dev puts forth the effort on gorgeous sprite work I trust the effort put into the rest of the content. So I was confident buying it on a whim without the refund safety net that Steam has. Put in a ton of playtime and like most games I end up enjoying got it again on Steam not too long ago to commit to further playthroughs. The complexity though is a non issue for me, I already keep a wiki open at all times with sim and survival games (Stardew, Subnautica, Raft 7DTD, etc). Not sure how it was on release but the water bucket in your inventory tells you to use it to get water.
Literally my favorite 2018 game! I know it's weird considering gow and marvel Spider-Man coming out but something about this game caught my attention, got into the game again recently and I'm enjoying it! The thing about it is that although it has a main goal which is getting back home, I still enjoy every day wandering around the village and the beautiful people!
Only 2 things I wished for this game, the inquisitor glitch breaking progress to be fixed, I'll be finding out if it was soon, and for the game to be even darker
Its now 2023 (obviously) i gotta get back into this game. I had a lot of fun but i just stopped and played other stuff and didnt come back. But i really enjoyed it.
really helpful and wholesome review thank u very much! still a bit on a fence abt this game but its climbing a few spots on my steam wishlist :) the sense of freedom is very appealing to me bc im mainly a sims player
I never liked to play stardew valley alone. It’s just for me it feels like I never have much to do. Friends fixed that problem for me but that was ages later. Graveyard keeper is the complete opposite for me. I am overwhelmed with things to do and never get bored. Would I like to play with friends? Yes. But there is so much to do I’m not sad it dosnt have multiplayer.
Being a fan of the games you are I'm really shocked to you had any reservations about playing this game. As somebody who bought it the day it came out and was waiting for it I absolutely love this game.
Good review but i will add few things from a person who completed this game. Inventory management in this game is very troublesome, prepare pen and paper and write everything down what you need to do or you will simply forget about stuff because there is a lot of stuff to do constantly, TRUST ME WATCH tips video on youtube before you start playing, GAME IS VERY GRINDY, buy dlc's all of them, they help with progression in game and add cool content, prepare 80-180 hours for base game + all dlc's
My only real complaints are that the dialog can be a bit clunky, and that it's nearly impossible to keep track of which items produce which alchemy ingredients.
Today is May 23rd 2024 - and Graveyard Keeper is £3.35 and DLC 99p / £1.70 - I have Travellers Rest and saw this game - I have not played StarView Valley yet - But I found your channel today - and I just have to say you have done one of the best reviews of this game - To be honest with you even though it is cheap as I type this - i was still not sure about it - Thanks to your review I have now bought it - I am sub you now too - super job Roy - oh just noticed you not done any videos for a long while - what ashame - hope you are ok ?
I remember abandoning it because it felt like devs had the idea and developed the game without testing what works and what doesn't. Like crafting was really detailed, yes, but with time it became too tedious having to write down all the components I need to craft anything. And the quests, oh god... most were given at the moment when you have no chance of completing it and it just hangs in the log 'until later'. And now I see tons of new DLCs, but I'm really not sure if I want to give this game another chance. Just an opinion. P. S. I love the visual style of the game. It's really atmospheric
Just found out about this game and read so much reviews that didn't sound very good, so I went looking for a newer one and I am so happy I did! Thank you for a great video!!
The comparison to Stardew always seems unfair to me because it doesn't even feel like the same genre. Related, yes, but not everything that is pixel art and has a farming element is Stardew/one of the earlier Harvest Moon games. Nobody would call Zelda "like Stardew!" because it has fishing either. For one, Stardew is a farming sim. It's about the whole farming and village aesthetic and that doesn't change whether other games in the genre have a darker tone or combine it with fantasy and adventure elements (Rune Factory) or put it in the future or any other fictional or real setting. But most importantly, the gameplay focus is not the same. You can easily take Graveyard Keeper and remove the whole graveyard aspect, and replace it with, let's say, managing an athletic career. You can remove the morbid humour and replace it with 80s pop culture references and drop the whole farming thing completely. And call the game "Punchclub." Seriously, if you play Punchclub, you'd not think "Oh, like Stardew!" but you'd definitely think "Wait, that's like Graveyard Keeper!" That's because those two games are actually in the same genre and share important mechanics: The 3-way levelling system, the skill tree, the repetitive tasks you have to do to earn certain skill points to eventually unluck the next skill you need to progress. Aside from the tone and setting, both games also have free time management in common. Punchclub's gameplay is more simplified, though, and you gain experience and unlock your skills to eventually push the story along. GK adds the element of crafting and intense inventory management, making it more complex but the story is more like a bonus. There's at least one third game, Travellers Rest, that's in the middle - again, the three different types of experience, a more limited map (like Punchclub), lots of inventory management and crafting/cooking, but (so far) no plot. All three games strongly focus on aesthetics and pixel art. Not that SV doesn't, it's meant to have a certain charm but it's more of a tool to aid the game, less part of the experience. If someone played two of those games and asked for a recommendation "Just like those!", nobody would recommend SV or HM instead of the third. And it should be the same the other way around. Because those three games (there are probably more, but GK, Punchclub, and Travellers Rest are the ones I happen to know) aren't farming sims. They are skillpoint- and inventory management sims with a strong focus on atmospheric pixel art. Or, anecdotal, as a kid, I went into the only local game store and said I wanted something like A Link to the Past and was given Final Fantasy VI. No regrets, this is how I got to play the best game ever made. But just because there are adventures and swords they are definitely not the same games. And if someone told me to write a Zelda review based on FFVI since they're "the same", ALTTP would not get a high rating - lack of gameplay complexity, lacklustre story compared to FFVI, just one character, just three different weapons, all the same type. Fun to play, nice graphics, great if you aren't into turn-based combat but all in all, if you want something like FFVI, that's not your pick. That would be an unfair review, wouldn't it? It would not do either game justice simply because they are not the same genre. There are similarities but the focus and gameplay are completely different. To get to the point: I think this is what happened when GK got mediocre reviews in 2018. GK is not a super great game if you look for a Stardew experience - not just because of the farm setting but also because of the type of gameplay. Well, and the whole socialising, dating, and getting married thing, a sentence that might feel like it just got randomly tagged on, because it is, I forgot to mention it earlier and now it doesn't fit and I'm too lazy to rewrite anything. Simply but, the whole Harvest Moon-inspired genre is in addition to farming also a friendship- and (simple) dating sim and people love it for that (GK and PC have NPCs but they're plot props). This aspect is completely missing from games like Graveyard Keeper. So, if you sit down to play and review GK in 2018 and look at SV as the baseline, it's simply something that's not there and if you write this review based on the big question "Is this a worthy SV successor?" the answer is - no. It's a grinder that will stress you out if you don't take a deep breath and take a couple of in-game days to sort out your inventory management. So, basically, if I need a break from SV and want to fill my free time with something like SV, I will not start Graveyard Keeper, Travellers Rest, or Punchclub. Maybe Portia, Worlds Dawn, or good old Harvest Moon. If I want "doesn't have to be SV but still a mind-numbing grinder with sweet pixel art and great atmosphere", then I'd pick GK and if the thought was "Something like GK but less morbid for a change", I'd not pick SV but Punchclub (if in the mood for a grinder and 80s pop culture simulator) or TR (if grinder but something cosier). TLDR: SV and GK cannot be compared because the similarities are superficial at best and they are different genres.
Been playing around with modded on my stream channel. There are only a handful but they are fun to mess with breaking out of some of the restrictions of the main game to add some replay.
Slight correction - the first DLC was indeed a paid for DLC at first, then switched to free. I paid for it and while I'm glad the money helped the developers I was a bit "wait, rude" when they swapped it to free. The other "wait, rude" is how they didn't have another DLC, I rather enjoy how it changes the tone of things but I guess they didn't have another bad pun from a TV show to use? (odds are they just moved on to other games)
I love graveyard keeper. I have over a 1000 hours in that one. I still dust it from time to time and check in on Gerry. A couple indie games i am enjoying the heck out of right now to are Timberborn and Captain of Industry. Timberborn you build a city with beavers (as opposed to people) and your objective to survive the dry seasons that get longer and longer and more frequent. Pretty fun and interesting. Captain of industry you are stranded on an island with 90 people and a boat and you use trucks and automation to build up and launch a rocket into space. You start knowing only how to build a few buildings and make a few things. You unlock the rest by research which is done in a lab and fueled by ther resources your trucks gather. Kind of a factorio style game but it is its own thing. Like how graveyard keeper is.
So you are telling me that it takes the bad parts from stardew away and actually lets me enjoy the game rather doing what the game tells me to. So it is better
I pirated this, then bought it twice on steam (had an old email address/steam issue) and once recently on my phone, I tried the other games mentioned and couldn't stand them yet with this I fell into it swiftly, restarted 3 times in the first week to get my build order right 8D
For me it is hard to finsh a game, I get bored or distructed sooner or later. But not the GK. I got the whole game through once, just a month before the zombie DLC was issued. So, I played the it once more with the zombies and smarter management. And finally after cople of years I started it again with refugees (80% done). 127 hours played, no regrets, I love this game. And yes, SW is ridiculously stressful :)
i recently earnt the platinum, I loved the game, and I don't normally play theese types of games, great characters, great music and just loved every second of it. only real negative opinion I have is that the dlc destabilised an otherwise perfect game with some bugs and crashes etc, well worth playing though.
I actually played this game before i played stardew valley and since i was an early access player i played through the core game rather fast and i was like, is this it? It just seemed to small/short but then they started adding content and now there was more to do in the game and i loved it. I recommend this game if you want to play something with a bit more dark humor in contrast to stardew valley.
I love its dark humor that is exactly what I was missing in stardew valley. Stardew valley is too PC the fact that in farming game you can’t not kill your animals and make food from it is really disappointing for me. It could make really good quests but instead of I am looking for mushrooms with my pig
I was always dubious about Stardew Valley, because it's so fluffy and contrived and idyllic. I think i like Grave-dew Valley much better, turns out i always wanted to be a medieval monk burying corpses, preaching on sundays and having church cellar dedicated to winemaking and occultism.
I think you get the best content combination. The first two (paid) DLC are great, even limiting it to mechanics, rewards from refuge camp significally reduce the grind in early midgame (in the base game getting to the trade licence - best renewable income source - was problematic, especially for new players), and the tawern is even better then vegetable crates source of stable income, at the same time being a sink for alcohol, underutilized in the base game (on the other hand, no one bothers with food). On the other hand, BSS, while being OK on its own, has balance/pacing issues. Firs, the main BSS quest gives you one gold - a very high monetary reward very early. For me it seems too much or too early. But this is just opinion, obiectivle, it just make the early-ish game easier. The second is worse. It introduce cheap, and very strong grave decorations (markers, fences). Thay can be unlocked before top tier of stone decorations (they are in the new tech tree, so the progress is not connected) and allow player to practically ignore the whole dacoration tree (the Undertaker from GoC introduced a similar problem, but to much lesser degree). Now top tier, fully balsamed corpses can be fully utilized on the graveyard without investing in expensive marble tech subtree.
complete edition with all dlcs is 75% off right now on xbox, deciding if i want to get it or put the $12 towards robocop lol thing is robocop is like $50 for a game thats like 10 to 15 hours to 100% and graveyard is 12.50 and probably 100 hours or more
I need to pick this game up again. I played through up until the Zombies and I got overwhelmed as I kinda sped through everything. Yes I unlocked and used it, but I was just going so fast that I never let myself breath. Next play though I think I’ll slow down, take my time and maybe by the time I get the zombies I’ll be more ready for them.
Discover that game last week through the Ps Plus Premium Gamescatalog. So good and fullfilling gameplay with a nice twist to the Farm Simulation Genre. Just alchemy is way to complex, had to use a wiki for that.
Я прошёл игру 2 раза, и просто в восторге от неё.. Но есть один момент, который до сих пор не даёт мне покоя.. Смотритель регулярно приносит мясо в таверну, делает бургеры из него, и всё такое... Но неужели ни у одного человека не возник вопрос, какое и откуда мясо приносит парень с кладбища, который работает с трупами? И что, а точнее кого, они едят??? 😳
I'm sorry if you would have bothered reading when you first pick up water it tells you to click a button in your inventory I'm sorry that you can't be bothered to actually go through and read the tutorials to figure out what you need to do to with a game. It's in the game files you just be bothered to look and jump to Google.
I have the same opinion as yours, just started to play this game last week, i cant stop.. i know this game years before.. but somehow i dont give it a try.... LOL
I love graveyard keeper I've been playing it since it came out on console on ps4 and start a new run wen each dlc comes out just to start over and enjoy it from start with the new content, I even bought it again on switch to play it on the go.
@@GiBMan70 Los dlc le agregan varias horas de diversión extra, además de que es divertido pasárselo con calma una vez que ya te pasaste el juego, así que si lo vale
@@GiBMan70 the first and 2nd dlc are definitely worth it, the 3rd one is really cool and alot more to do and alot of stuff that makes things easier like teleport items and extended back packs.
This one was interesting, it can be quite the grind but personally i found the game a bit too loose and unfocused. I do quite like it, much more than Portia for example, but the lack of focus, the break neck time scale. Even with Zombies there's still a fair bit of manual grind that has to be done. I found myself frequently forgetting what i was doing or having important days pass me by because i was too busy getting resources around for one small errand.
Love the game, it's rather interesting even though I play fast pace fighting apocalyptic video games. It helped ignite my curiosity in the realms of theology, architecture, occultism, farming, and etc.
I keep watching videos of this game, others playing it is very relaxing, but I've also been wondering if I should give it a whirl, and this review might've pushed me closer to the Buy Now button. I'm 100% not a gamer, a very casual gamer at best, and only very specific games catch my attention (often for a very short amount of time). So phrases like "play at your own pace" and "no punishment" definitely pique my interest. For someone who has never played Stardew Valley, or any kind of similar game, is this a good game to jump in on as a total noob?
i would recommend stardew valley over this. Tl,dr stardew valley is more casual and relaxing than GK and does some things much better this game is fun but it gets very stressful fairly quickly due to all the micromanaging required. in stardew valley, as you progress you gain access to stuff like sprinklers which water your crops so you won't have to do it manually and other quality of life tools which make the more tedious aspects, more automatic, graveyard keeper does add zombies later on which gather wood and stone resources for you, but it also adds a bunch of new mechanics like alchemy which are extremely tedious imo and end up feeling like busy work. also while stardew has some things you might need to google( for example figuring out where and when you can catch certain types of fish), in this game i had to google things much, much more frequently because the game doesn't do a great job at explaining things to you. GK also handles timed events kinda shitty. certain NPC only appear on a specific day of the week and they will give you quests, generally obtaining certain items for them, more often than not you will have no idea how to obtain that item in the first place and you might not even be able to obtain them in the first place because you don't have the proper research completed in order to craft them. so if you want to progress with the story you will get stressed out, grinding for research points to learn how to craft the item, then obtaining the resources needed to craft the items and actually crafting the items. a lot of times you won't be able to obtain all the items you need before the day the character comes back so the next week feels like you're just wasting your time until the character comes back again. stardew valley also has timed events, it has 4 season, each season has 28 days and generally 2 special events( for example in winter there's a fishing competition and totally-not-christmass) but they are entirely optional and have nothing to do with the story.
This game really surprised me as well when I bought it a few weeks ago. I play it on switch and it is a little buggy - about once every five minutes the game freezes for a few seconds. Definitely an overlookable bug considering how good the rest of it is. Also, GNU Sir Terry Pratchett! I can definitely see the Donkey and Reg Shoe becoming friends.
I love Graveyard Keeper - What other indie games do you recommend I take a closer look at? And here's my take on Slime Rancher that I mentioned in the video: th-cam.com/video/VQbHnKNkdeI/w-d-xo.html
so you're afraid of death and all that it comes with death. A process that is a natural part of life? That you try to avoid at all cause? You gotta confront that fear, dude! It's ok to be afraid but not to the point that you avoid thigs about death and its normal process.
you should try "dyson sphere program" next, factorio on steroids.
Thank you for showing the mine aswell.. it makes a massive difference once you discover it
2:10 agree with u on that point , both are good in their own way 😂💯 plus I'm a Stardew Valley player but I never say that Graveyard keeper are bad... I find it more interesting and much more mechanic too it
A bit late to this particular video and commenting, but going to do it all the same. If you liked Stardew Valley and really enjoy this sort of life sim day to day plenty to do type of game, I can wholeheartedly recommend Rune Factory 4. And, to a much lesser extent, Rune Factory 5, though maybe only pick that one up if 4 really tickles your fancy on PC. 5 is...insanely poorly optimized on Switch so skip for PC there. It's more or less the predecessor to Stardew Valley, and frankly, having played both...Rune Factory 4 is the deeper of the two by a mile and the reason I simply can't get into Stardew Valley. Definitely my top game of all time, I've replayed it at least 3 times, and I never replay games. Very, very much an "anime" type of game in the farm sim world, but the combat is fun, the crafting system is bonkers deep once you start engaging with it-may need the wiki on that one-the monster taming is addictive as can be, the characters are all super lovable. It's not indie, but it's not well known either, but those of us that do? We love it to bits.
Yeah, this one's a real gem, which I used to replay every year when a new DLC got released. Sadly, no new DLC this year, but it's apparently still being developed; the developers just had to skip this year because they had to flee Russia and redeploy their studio in Europe.
it looks so good, im going to buy it.
Oh, thank you for saying this!
New dlc is coming? Can't wait, finishing game right now with all dlc's and game is a blast.
yeah the russia ukraine war realy put a damper on things right when alot of rusian game devs started making better games. Alot of those guys now had to spend their time fleeying and relocating somewhere else if they did'nt want to get pulled into the war by daddy putin.
@@patrickpol6156 I honestly doubt that. The more likely explanation is that weather or not they actually agree with Putin's policy on ukrainian question is irrelevant, they don't really HAVE a choice to stay in Russia because they simply won't be able to stay in business due to sanctions. They simply won't get their revenue. So it's either leave or go out of business. Pretty shitty situation all around.
"if you die, you wake up in your bed with all your stuff. No punishment."
That was the point when I stopped the video and bought the game.
Right here too !
But thats boring
@@xeox4280 Not in my opinion. Not all games need a fail option, or punishment for doing so. Sometimes it is great to simply create and build something. Being pushed back by loss gives the game nothing
@@fsmcas but why would you care about if you die or not? It doesnt really matter
@@xeox4280 Oh no, not the point: Dying is okay in this game and no problem. The great thing is that you do not get punished on death, unlike Stardew Valley for example in which you lose items
Actually I love that GK is way more complicated than others. Making money is not really easy and the tech tree is so entangled that it is really challenging to complete it.
I am tired of seeing good games turned too easy just for the sake of pleasing a broader audience.
I like to struggle a bit. To feel to have achieved something.
Otherwise it is just a matter of farming stuff, like on mobile phone apps.
its actually kind of easy to get money....
I just wont say it because it WILL spoil the game
Also, I dont think its complicated...
At least not as complicated as games like Stardew Valley and My Time in Portia
@@meunomeeeste1441 i love that you can find an easy ways to make money, and then the game cuts it from you so you have to adapt, like when you lose access to the church for a while, it prevents optimizing the fun out of the game and when you optimize something it adds fun to the game
i disagree. i had way more fun when it was just the farm and the graveyard stuff. this game adds way too much crap to the point it becomes kind of stressful and unfun. even with zombies doing some of the resource gathering later on, it still feels like there's far too much busy work and shit you need to manage personally that it stops being enjoyable. i wouldn't say it's challenging at all, just stressful due to a lot of busy work that needs to be done manually by the player. the fact that in order to create one item you need to process like three different resources using several different work benches and shit becomes tedious
if i'm being honest, besides the writting tech tree if you "improve/complete/unlock" them all in parallel you won't have that much of an issue. most of my problems come from the fact i play the game with a controller (on pc) but if i check the tech tree with mouse instead, i see a description that says where it should be crafted and so i can research that one crafting station first. (except for the ones that say it works on lvl 1 and 2 and in reality it works on lvl 2's only)
I played around 50 hours of GK and loved it. I guess the only reason I stopped was because I had no more incentives to continue playing the game after a certain stage. But I still keep coming back sometimes just to have that odd experience of living in that medieval village, tending corpses and whatnot. The game really has a very specific vibe and that's something really cool that not all games are able to achieve.
dude i got over 300 hours in on this game alone and i keep coming back for more whenever im having a stardew burnout and ive currently got 2 more games like this on my steam wishlist because i just love these kind of games
I started playing after work today and I was enthralled. I sat down and played for hours without a care in the world, something I haven’t done in years. It was fresh and fun, and mind-bendingly deep, and I can see myself wasting a ridiculous amount of time playing this game.
If you enjoy it, it's now a waste of time.
@JadedVibes One person's opion doesn't need to ruin it everybody else.
I just discoved this gem this Jan 2022 and I really enjoyed it! I agree with you by playing it on your on pace! Cheers for more autopsy
You’re very welcome! It’s an incredibly involving game that has much more going on than first appears. Which other indie games do you love? :)
@@RoyMcCoy I'm more into simulation games like My time at Portia, stardew valley, prison architect, foundation and cities skyline that's why I instantly love this GK!
For the stained glass window, damasc sword, and many recipes in general when you unlock those one of the things is that you dont need to make every element of themselves yourself. For the benches you of course have to buy parts from the merchant, but you can also buy gold jewlery from the merchant and I highly recommend doing so. The gold crafting is more a way for you to burn excess gold ore rather than a way for you to build up components as most games have trained you to do.
Things you cannot buy are much more simple to get, for instance glass and glass bits. They're very easy to make on your own and cannot be bought. The game has some odd tricks, like the dungeon should be unlocked before you begin planting. The vinyard is basically the key to money and limitless energy/HP. I think your review is very spot on, and the game is SIGNIFICANTLY different and better than on release. I've completed it 4x now, and it's a solidly enjoyable game with it's own personality.
I saw this review on steam and it pretty much perfectly summed up my grievances with the 100ish hours i had with the game
*Lackluster tutorial and directions:* Too bad if you forget what to do in quests, the game doesn't bother to tell you. I had to consult the wiki extensively for basic things like throwing a body into river to continue one of the first quests, because I didn't realize it was something I could even do.
*Overwhelming:* The awful idea to have all the important NPCs only available at certain days makes sure that you are constantly under pressure, having to manage your activities with daily routines, even though there is no time limit, the threat of you wasting time, because you have to wait a whole week if you miss certain NPC's day, just feels awful. They fixed this dimwitted decision in DLCs, but the main game remains rotten.
*You literally get stuck on anything:* This game isn't necessarily designed to have clear paths, it's designed to look pretty first, practical second, so I was getting stuck all time time, on everything.
*Integration of the DLC rewards:* The DLCs themselves are seriously good, but the rewards you will get would be super helpful if you got them in the first third of the game, but realistically, you will get them in the last third or so of the already very long game! You will finally get super useful items like storage bags, and you will get all the alchemy recipes - too little too late, and nothing indicates that you should be doing that.
*Botched progression:* Very early on in the game, you get couple of quests, like giving a skull a wine, or giving a guy a pen and paper - you will get to these things like 15 hours later! Also, it's much more convenient to buy items necessary to progress, as the way to learn to make them often take a lot, lot more time - but at the same time, money is precious and you will be starved for money all the time, trying to save enough for other things to progress - so it's like the game is constantly teasing you, because it really doesn't feel that rewarding finally learning how to do things on your own.
*Micromanagement hell:* Farming for example is just annoying. Unlike in stardew, you can't just put seeds in hand, you have to manually click to a field, then in your inventory, then you can finally be done with it. This is done so many times in crafting and other cases. You will get sick of doing these things over and over, wasting a lot of time extensively clicking around.
*Impractical crafting:* You will constantly need to build/craft things all around the world, but you can only check the requirements at the place you're about to build or make something! Good luck remembering what you need for your church, as you constantly go back and forth. You will run into this issue the whole game, anywhere you are - just show me recipes and requirements in the inventory itself.
*Bad UI:* In general, many technologies or abilities you unlock lack basic explanations how they function, because it's not often self-explanatory! Some important storylines only progress when you repeat certain action enough times - there is zero indication that it ever leads to anything! After doing the second witch burning, You'll figure out it isn't worth your time - little would you know that a storyline only progresses after you do the third one, with absolutely no indication.
*Time wasting:* You are constantly required to product stuff over and over, to finish the game, you will be standing behind your crafting devices for hours of real time. This is the "hold E simulator" on steroids. Some tedious tasks can be transferred to zombies, but it's way too little, and aside from mining and wood, the rest is just impractical - it doesn't feel rewarding. Oh, and you can't rotate around most of the buildings, so tough luck trying to position something the way you want to, and when you place a building, you can't then move it around - like a moron, you have to break it (you don't get the resources back) and build another one!
If you read all that, wow first of all. I still really enjoyed the game and havent really played any other games quite like it, i just wish, among the things listed above, it had more to do once you reach the late game as most of the systems like church quality and the trading station, hit a quality limit and show no reason to improve upon further once you hit that upper limit.
Heyy! Yes I read everything. I absolutely agree with every one of your points. A lot of those topics appeared on my mind as I was watching the video.
I really enjoyed playing GK, but those (big) little things just threw me off. Especially after spending way too much time on reddit looking for key words on long posts about stuff in-game i hadn't reached yet, trying to find that one piece of information that would answer my very specific question 💀
I'm thinking about replaying it from the start to see if I can manage the gameplay better; last time after a week or so playing (real time) it became overwhelming by the amount of tasks i had to do. I even kept pen and paper besides me to keep record of little pieces of info the game gives you once and never again (e g on dialogue).
Maybe this time around it'll be more clear.
192 hours here _(quit 1st playthrough due bug with Rosa not dropping item)_ and now at the 2nd attempt many months later I've just run in to another massive bug.
Zombies at the Quarry didn't stop mining Stone and Marble even when the stockpiles were full. The whole area was carpeted with Stones. Now I get a very unpleasant 10fps due to all items being persistent in the game. Many stones are inaccessible (out of bounds) and now after cleaning up best I can, I get a less than ideal 35/40 fps. Frames have always been choppy around the Farmers field but now I have to look away if I'm walking past, so choppy.
@@mikerochburns4104 you know, I also play stardew valley and I've seen that people fix some bugs directly on the code of the game. Maybe you could contact the creators, or look on Discord, to see if you can fix it that way? I don't know how accesible the code of GK is, but it could be a solution to your problem!
i 100% agree with every single one of these points. the funny thing is, i started playing stardew valley recently, which is the clear inspiration of this game, and a lot of the issues i had with GK already had solutions in stardew valley ( for example accessing crafting recipes from your inventory) so it's like the devs of GK went out of their way to add these issues in.
When I first got it years ago, I played maybe 20 minutes and put it away for like a year. It was hard to get into. but after I got back into trying it, I was absolutely addicted. The grind is real, for sure, but it's also really rewarding.
Similar experience for me. I got bored/annoyed and stopped playing the first time, then years later I randomly tried it again after seeing it in my library and got the ending that same week.
The portal stone was in the base game, but it had a longer cooldown, so it was barely ever used.
A lot of things was trial and error, such as the Alchemy, what makes what, and such, but the wiki helps a ton with that.
And somethings can be bought from the vendors. Like the Jewellery for the Stained Glass for the church, you can get from the merchant.
The Stone Mason in the village sells copper quality marble statues. But it takes time to unlock the relevant tier of the shops.
Certain shops are also locked behind the NPC quests, like the Astrologer selling books and paper, is locked behind the story quests with him.
Yeaph the alchemy is the hard part, without the wiki it's gonna be hard to make any recipe. The only way you can get a recipe for alchemy is from Clotho which she only sell 1/day which means if you want to unlock all the recipe you're gonna need to visit her each day to unlock it 1 by 1. It would be a lot of help if Clotho is part of the Teleportstone.
but for what are you going to do all that stuf if you can finish the game a weeek early just buying the stuff?, why make jeweldry or update your church, so much items for so little utility..nothing can punish you, you can't do anything wrong, you can't fail, except maybe in dungeons...
The game is hilariously good. 😂
And the game just giving you a VERY brief skim through the mechanics and just basically throws you to play the game blind, discovering new things is satisfying and most of the time accompanied by a fit of laughs on how ridiculous it is. 😂
I really didn’t expect to like this game, I went into it figuring it would be beat but it really surprised me and I’ve been playing it for years
I love Stardew, but this makes it all better because the day and night cycle is too short, and makes the game stressful. I really love this game
I only now found out about this game and it's already become an amazing experience for me
I literally just bought the game and started playing it a few days ago, like a few days before New Years, and I have not been able to stop playing it 😂
I picked up the game and all 3 dlc (largely based on this review) in the Jan. 2023 steam sale… sum total of around £14
I’ve put in about 30 hours of gameplay so far and I’m nowhere near completion and am still absolutely loving it… I agree that some aspects of the game can be confusing and the in-game guides really barely scratch the surface of explanation but as mentioned there’s a wealth of info online now if you really find yourself stuck, and the times when you figure stuff out for yourself give you a genuine sense of achievement!
If you like Stardew and just can’t wait for The Haunted Chocolatier, you have to give this a go… though it might put you off burgers for life!! 😉
I’ve been wanting to give it another shot. It may seem ridiculous but I stopped playing because there were no rain sounds. It killed the atmosphere for me. They finally added it though.
The game is amazing. There is so much content packed into it that it's overwhelming. This game has so much to offer in terms of game mechanics (it has one of the coolest and funniest automation mechanics I've seen namely zombies that you can create to do you chores!), tech tree, main story as well as additional side quests, NPCs, types resources, crafting possibilities, buildings, activities and locations. The humour is top notch and there is a lot of political and religious topics here that will definitely make you giggle and sometimes laugh out loud.
I cannot recommend this game enough!
I bought this when it first came out perhaps even in early access(?), while coming off the stardew valley high. I enjoyed it and never felt it was too Grindy. That being said if you weren’t able or didn’t want to invest effort into maximizing efficiency it would’ve been grindy.
Personally, I just game hop and very games catch my attention for a full play through, I plan on playing this again after watching this vid.
This… is a really good review! Well written, well edited. Keep ‘‘em coming, please!
They need to have a discovered recipes tab that includes when you find a bridge or broken thing and need to bring supplies. I get so frustrated trying to manage my inventory, recipes, etc when all the machines are so far apart and travel takes forever even in the cellar or with the teeny amount of fast traveling they added in. There's just so many tiny quality of life things that don't break the game or progression that would make me not tap out of the game after 45 minutes each time I fire it up.
I was familiar with Stardew for years. Never looked into it though because I don't like games with this camera angle but one day I decided to give it a shot and I actually fell in love with it. Eyeing GK next
the tech tree thing seems frustrating until you realize all you really need is money, you eventually can make jewels, but until then you can buy then from the merchant, to make dinners you need gold star food, but instead of cultivating crops and improving them with fertilizer you can buy the gold star food at the bar, at a certain point the time you spend to make bread can be cut by using the mill instead
Dunno why but I don't really find the tech tree frustrating. Starting the games couple days ago and find the tech tree the least thing I'm frustrated about. Red is the one you'll always have a surplus. Green is easily farmable by digging clays or river sands (clay is faster). Blue you can farm early on once you start having access to stone cutter I, which then you can make stone grave fence to get 5 blue/red tech points or polishing stone (1 tech point all color). I haven't opened a single wiki at this point till the frustrating part of alchemy.
I guess "playing at your own pace" really does wonder for this game, because I actually just trying everything in the game and not paying attention to the quest that much (except Bishop's) and starting to pay more attention till around 60-80 days in the game.
This game is one of those hidden gems. I got it since release on PC and I’ll probably get it for my Switch now since it’s currently on sale with all the DLCs
I hate when people refer to games like this as a "Stardew Valley Clone" in a negative context when Stardew Valley itself is a Harvest Moon clone. People tend to forget that. Stardew Valley is more similar and clone-ish to Harvest Moon that most other games of that genre are to Stardew. That's why it's silly to judge a game negatively because it's similar to another. That doesn't make it bad or wrong, or lazy. I enjoy all games of a certain genre regardless of how similar or different they are.
Looks like it's my turn to turn to play this 3 years later :D
Thank you so much for the review! I really needed to know what the game was about and if it was worth it. Too many incomplete sim games out there. Good to know this is worth it!
I just really love how it was challenging and made me think of the tech tree to strategize which one goes first to progress. Overall, I've been addicted and I just played it this year 🙌
I just started playing today and I love it! I saw it was on sale on the Switch and had to get it since I recently started working as a funeral director haha.
I'm pretty addicted to this game...I didn't think it would have THIS much content...Plus there's DLC
Saw this one randomly in a PS Livestream and i was instantly hooked, thanks alot for this in depth review. Im going to support the Devs and buy the Collectors Edition with all Dlcs for 40 bucks.
I dont know if you covered this Game already but i would recommend you playing 9th Dawn 3.
Its a 2.5D Action Rpg with Crafting, manage a Monster Team, Cooking Minigame, ingame Card Game, Fishing, Couch Co-Op and your Class is determined by Skill Points and Gear.
Def. a hidden Gem for only 15$ it was developed by only 1 person.
I had never heard of it!!! I'm going to check it out now! Sounds like fun!
i like to go watching other's impressions of GK. i love it since the release date, most of those 6-7's are from people that did not reach that far in the game. it's not an easy game, and half of the issues come from not paying much attention (such as unlocking something that's made out in a crafting table that you don't own yet. if i play with mouse i can click on a tech i don't own and i see a description that says where to craft it and usually works, except for when it says it can be made in a lvl1 AND level 2 workbench but it requires specifically a lvl2, that's a big oversight)
the zombies are game changers too but depending on how you use them they can be detrimental for your tech points. also, if you have too many corpses, a lvl2 pallet stops the rotting process (they are refrigerated) the lvl2 autopsy table does the same. if your morgue is full you won't get more corpses either.. and by full i mean "there are corpses lying around anywhere in the game" the ones that aren't in the morgue also count.
I have been wondering if I would enjoy this game ever since it came out. Your review gave me enough info to help me decide. Thanks mate!
2024 Review here: This is my first Steam Deck game so kind of a big deal for me since I've never had a gaming PC or real Console. I picked it because I wanted something that would be memorable and I could think back on and this looked weird and quirky enough to accomplish that. This was a month ago so the winter sale was very generous. I got the full package, DLC included for a steal. This is absolutely something I would have never played otherwise and I'm completely in love with it and glad I gave it a chance. Your review is spot on, I had many of the same opinions about what I am experiencing. The game has a massive flaw though that you should have mentioned. It seems to affect the flow of time in the real world. I keep looking at the clock and seeing that hours passed and my hands are glued to the device, this was problably a serious oversite. All jokes asside, I'm so addicted, that had to make a rule that I have to try other games in between sessions of Graveyard Keeper. Also from a Steam Deck user perspective, the game runs flawlessly and because of the Deck's sleep feature it feels extreamly natural on it. I problably couldn't have picked a better first experiance.
“The name and the description put me off a bit” LOOK at the art style it’s not what you think
I have played almost 97 hours and am still nowhere enar halfway through all the content, but that is mostly because I take my time getting all my ducks in a row. I could rush through the story quests, but I find it much more relaxing and pleasing to focus on my farming, until i have a lot of stock, then focus on my pub, then back to farming, doing a bit of graveyard keeping, stock up for the Merchant's shop, always hoping to get a corpse that is valuable enough to create a better zombie... The story questing is an afterthought for me, but when I go for the story, I drink it all in. I love the lore that is revealed in the tavern dlc, how the curse started, what the ancient contract is. I look forward to the next dlc
So much better than stardew valley in my opinion.
In graveyard keeper every item has a purpose and leads to something new, in contrast to Stardew Valley's box-ticking.
The graphics and animations are nice. This is the biggest and probably the only advantage of this title. The gameplay, the dialogues, the humor - everything seems as if it was introduced on the fly while working without much thought.
Have you tried the game Aground ? It's an amazing game its similar to terraria in that its side scroller pixel art game and you have to dig up resources to craft things but the game has far more depth to it that you would expect, it has magic and advanced tech, it has you go to space and to other planets. It's really awesome I recommend giving it a try.
Hey there! I totally hadn’t heard of this… and I’ve just seen it… and it looks special! That is an amazing suggestion and looks exactly like something I’d get hooked on! Thanks!!
I played that Game years ago when only was a beta
I watched some 100 days of this game and caved and bought it on switch with all the dlc since it was on sale. No regrets and chill to play
I rarely look at big time review sites tbh. Most of the time they're bloated for "AAA" games and tend to nitpick with indie titles especially with games like this, Stardew and other sim/survival games. They're hard to pinpoint with reviews since not everyone likes the grind and monotony of them.
Just saw it while scrolling on the Switch back in 2020 and the visuals drew me in first and foremost. I don't trust visuals on many big studios but if an indie dev puts forth the effort on gorgeous sprite work I trust the effort put into the rest of the content. So I was confident buying it on a whim without the refund safety net that Steam has. Put in a ton of playtime and like most games I end up enjoying got it again on Steam not too long ago to commit to further playthroughs.
The complexity though is a non issue for me, I already keep a wiki open at all times with sim and survival games (Stardew, Subnautica, Raft 7DTD, etc). Not sure how it was on release but the water bucket in your inventory tells you to use it to get water.
Literally my favorite 2018 game! I know it's weird considering gow and marvel Spider-Man coming out but something about this game caught my attention, got into the game again recently and I'm enjoying it! The thing about it is that although it has a main goal which is getting back home, I still enjoy every day wandering around the village and the beautiful people!
for me it's one of those games where "I'm gonna play for 2 hours after work" then realize it's 4am
Only 2 things I wished for this game, the inquisitor glitch breaking progress to be fixed, I'll be finding out if it was soon, and for the game to be even darker
I just found this game on Steam. Thank you so much for your in depth review. I'll pick this up on sale or maybe before. It looks fun.
Its now 2023 (obviously) i gotta get back into this game. I had a lot of fun but i just stopped and played other stuff and didnt come back. But i really enjoyed it.
Thanks for this. Great review!
really helpful and wholesome review thank u very much! still a bit on a fence abt this game but its climbing a few spots on my steam wishlist :) the sense of freedom is very appealing to me bc im mainly a sims player
I never liked to play stardew valley alone. It’s just for me it feels like I never have much to do. Friends fixed that problem for me but that was ages later. Graveyard keeper is the complete opposite for me. I am overwhelmed with things to do and never get bored. Would I like to play with friends? Yes. But there is so much to do I’m not sad it dosnt have multiplayer.
The thing I like about the game is money is always valued as you can’t sell anything and every thing you craft / mine / harvest
Being a fan of the games you are I'm really shocked to you had any reservations about playing this game. As somebody who bought it the day it came out and was waiting for it I absolutely love this game.
Good review but i will add few things from a person who completed this game.
Inventory management in this game is very troublesome, prepare pen and paper and write everything down what you need to do or you will simply forget about stuff because there is a lot of stuff to do constantly, TRUST ME WATCH tips video on youtube before you start playing, GAME IS VERY GRINDY, buy dlc's all of them, they help with progression in game and add cool content, prepare 80-180 hours for base game + all dlc's
My only real complaints are that the dialog can be a bit clunky, and that it's nearly impossible to keep track of which items produce which alchemy ingredients.
Today is May 23rd 2024 - and Graveyard Keeper is £3.35 and DLC 99p / £1.70 - I have Travellers Rest and saw this game - I have not played StarView Valley yet - But I found your channel today - and I just have to say you have done one of the best reviews of this game - To be honest with you even though it is cheap as I type this - i was still not sure about it - Thanks to your review I have now bought it - I am sub you now too - super job Roy - oh just noticed you not done any videos for a long while - what ashame - hope you are ok ?
I remember abandoning it because it felt like devs had the idea and developed the game without testing what works and what doesn't. Like crafting was really detailed, yes, but with time it became too tedious having to write down all the components I need to craft anything. And the quests, oh god... most were given at the moment when you have no chance of completing it and it just hangs in the log 'until later'. And now I see tons of new DLCs, but I'm really not sure if I want to give this game another chance. Just an opinion.
P. S. I love the visual style of the game. It's really atmospheric
"I need to get this to at least 10 minutes for better monetization" narrative lol
Just found out about this game and read so much reviews that didn't sound very good, so I went looking for a newer one and I am so happy I did! Thank you for a great video!!
The comparison to Stardew always seems unfair to me because it doesn't even feel like the same genre. Related, yes, but not everything that is pixel art and has a farming element is Stardew/one of the earlier Harvest Moon games. Nobody would call Zelda "like Stardew!" because it has fishing either.
For one, Stardew is a farming sim. It's about the whole farming and village aesthetic and that doesn't change whether other games in the genre have a darker tone or combine it with fantasy and adventure elements (Rune Factory) or put it in the future or any other fictional or real setting. But most importantly, the gameplay focus is not the same.
You can easily take Graveyard Keeper and remove the whole graveyard aspect, and replace it with, let's say, managing an athletic career. You can remove the morbid humour and replace it with 80s pop culture references and drop the whole farming thing completely. And call the game "Punchclub."
Seriously, if you play Punchclub, you'd not think "Oh, like Stardew!" but you'd definitely think "Wait, that's like Graveyard Keeper!"
That's because those two games are actually in the same genre and share important mechanics: The 3-way levelling system, the skill tree, the repetitive tasks you have to do to earn certain skill points to eventually unluck the next skill you need to progress. Aside from the tone and setting, both games also have free time management in common. Punchclub's gameplay is more simplified, though, and you gain experience and unlock your skills to eventually push the story along. GK adds the element of crafting and intense inventory management, making it more complex but the story is more like a bonus. There's at least one third game, Travellers Rest, that's in the middle - again, the three different types of experience, a more limited map (like Punchclub), lots of inventory management and crafting/cooking, but (so far) no plot. All three games strongly focus on aesthetics and pixel art. Not that SV doesn't, it's meant to have a certain charm but it's more of a tool to aid the game, less part of the experience.
If someone played two of those games and asked for a recommendation "Just like those!", nobody would recommend SV or HM instead of the third. And it should be the same the other way around. Because those three games (there are probably more, but GK, Punchclub, and Travellers Rest are the ones I happen to know) aren't farming sims. They are skillpoint- and inventory management sims with a strong focus on atmospheric pixel art.
Or, anecdotal, as a kid, I went into the only local game store and said I wanted something like A Link to the Past and was given Final Fantasy VI. No regrets, this is how I got to play the best game ever made. But just because there are adventures and swords they are definitely not the same games. And if someone told me to write a Zelda review based on FFVI since they're "the same", ALTTP would not get a high rating - lack of gameplay complexity, lacklustre story compared to FFVI, just one character, just three different weapons, all the same type. Fun to play, nice graphics, great if you aren't into turn-based combat but all in all, if you want something like FFVI, that's not your pick. That would be an unfair review, wouldn't it? It would not do either game justice simply because they are not the same genre. There are similarities but the focus and gameplay are completely different.
To get to the point: I think this is what happened when GK got mediocre reviews in 2018. GK is not a super great game if you look for a Stardew experience - not just because of the farm setting but also because of the type of gameplay. Well, and the whole socialising, dating, and getting married thing, a sentence that might feel like it just got randomly tagged on, because it is, I forgot to mention it earlier and now it doesn't fit and I'm too lazy to rewrite anything. Simply but, the whole Harvest Moon-inspired genre is in addition to farming also a friendship- and (simple) dating sim and people love it for that (GK and PC have NPCs but they're plot props). This aspect is completely missing from games like Graveyard Keeper. So, if you sit down to play and review GK in 2018 and look at SV as the baseline, it's simply something that's not there and if you write this review based on the big question "Is this a worthy SV successor?" the answer is - no. It's a grinder that will stress you out if you don't take a deep breath and take a couple of in-game days to sort out your inventory management.
So, basically, if I need a break from SV and want to fill my free time with something like SV, I will not start Graveyard Keeper, Travellers Rest, or Punchclub. Maybe Portia, Worlds Dawn, or good old Harvest Moon. If I want "doesn't have to be SV but still a mind-numbing grinder with sweet pixel art and great atmosphere", then I'd pick GK and if the thought was "Something like GK but less morbid for a change", I'd not pick SV but Punchclub (if in the mood for a grinder and 80s pop culture simulator) or TR (if grinder but something cosier).
TLDR: SV and GK cannot be compared because the similarities are superficial at best and they are different genres.
Been playing around with modded on my stream channel. There are only a handful but they are fun to mess with breaking out of some of the restrictions of the main game to add some replay.
bothers me that the staple is now "stardew valley" back in my day it was "harvest moon" damn kids and your 8 track tapes.
Slight correction - the first DLC was indeed a paid for DLC at first, then switched to free. I paid for it and while I'm glad the money helped the developers I was a bit "wait, rude" when they swapped it to free.
The other "wait, rude" is how they didn't have another DLC, I rather enjoy how it changes the tone of things but I guess they didn't have another bad pun from a TV show to use?
(odds are they just moved on to other games)
I love graveyard keeper. I have over a 1000 hours in that one. I still dust it from time to time and check in on Gerry. A couple indie games i am enjoying the heck out of right now to are Timberborn and Captain of Industry. Timberborn you build a city with beavers (as opposed to people) and your objective to survive the dry seasons that get longer and longer and more frequent. Pretty fun and interesting. Captain of industry you are stranded on an island with 90 people and a boat and you use trucks and automation to build up and launch a rocket into space. You start knowing only how to build a few buildings and make a few things. You unlock the rest by research which is done in a lab and fueled by ther resources your trucks gather. Kind of a factorio style game but it is its own thing. Like how graveyard keeper is.
So you are telling me that it takes the bad parts from stardew away and actually lets me enjoy the game rather doing what the game tells me to. So it is better
You did an awesome job on this review, thank you!
Been watching this one a while.
It's free now on ps essentials.
Just started it. Great fun.
lol that moment when everything a person does not like is exactly what you're looking for xD
I pirated this, then bought it twice on steam (had an old email address/steam issue) and once recently on my phone, I tried the other games mentioned and couldn't stand them yet with this I fell into it swiftly, restarted 3 times in the first week to get my build order right 8D
I also went from pirating it to buying it and starting all over.
Dont even care. the devs deserve the money
For me it is hard to finsh a game, I get bored or distructed sooner or later. But not the GK. I got the whole game through once, just a month before the zombie DLC was issued. So, I played the it once more with the zombies and smarter management. And finally after cople of years I started it again with refugees (80% done). 127 hours played, no regrets, I love this game.
And yes, SW is ridiculously stressful :)
I just bought the base game and all the dlcs based off your review,thank you I will gave subscribe.
Hi thanks for introducing the game. TH-cam really needs more quality content that’s not about games everybody already knows keep it up 👍
i recently earnt the platinum, I loved the game, and I don't normally play theese types of games, great characters, great music and just loved every second of it. only real negative opinion I have is that the dlc destabilised an otherwise perfect game with some bugs and crashes etc, well worth playing though.
I actually played this game before i played stardew valley and since i was an early access player i played through the core game rather fast and i was like, is this it? It just seemed to small/short but then they started adding content and now there was more to do in the game and i loved it. I recommend this game if you want to play something with a bit more dark humor in contrast to stardew valley.
I love its dark humor that is exactly what I was missing in stardew valley. Stardew valley is too PC the fact that in farming game you can’t not kill your animals and make food from it is really disappointing for me. It could make really good quests but instead of I am looking for mushrooms with my pig
I was always dubious about Stardew Valley, because it's so fluffy and contrived and idyllic. I think i like Grave-dew Valley much better, turns out i always wanted to be a medieval monk burying corpses, preaching on sundays and having church cellar dedicated to winemaking and occultism.
I think you get the best content combination. The first two (paid) DLC are great, even limiting it to mechanics, rewards from refuge camp significally reduce the grind in early midgame (in the base game getting to the trade licence - best renewable income source - was problematic, especially for new players), and the tawern is even better then vegetable crates source of stable income, at the same time being a sink for alcohol, underutilized in the base game (on the other hand, no one bothers with food).
On the other hand, BSS, while being OK on its own, has balance/pacing issues. Firs, the main BSS quest gives you one gold - a very high monetary reward very early. For me it seems too much or too early. But this is just opinion, obiectivle, it just make the early-ish game easier. The second is worse. It introduce cheap, and very strong grave decorations (markers, fences). Thay can be unlocked before top tier of stone decorations (they are in the new tech tree, so the progress is not connected) and allow player to practically ignore the whole dacoration tree (the Undertaker from GoC introduced a similar problem, but to much lesser degree). Now top tier, fully balsamed corpses can be fully utilized on the graveyard without investing in expensive marble tech subtree.
complete edition with all dlcs is 75% off right now on xbox, deciding if i want to get it or put the $12 towards robocop lol
thing is robocop is like $50 for a game thats like 10 to 15 hours to 100% and graveyard is 12.50 and probably 100 hours or more
I almost died because of how and where you put 'tongue in cheek'
I need to pick this game up again. I played through up until the Zombies and I got overwhelmed as I kinda sped through everything. Yes I unlocked and used it, but I was just going so fast that I never let myself breath. Next play though I think I’ll slow down, take my time and maybe by the time I get the zombies I’ll be more ready for them.
It's just fucking good. Shouldn't be as good as it is. Perfect combination of cozy game with grindy.
First thing I do every playthrough is pretty much turn it into wine simulator. That red wine is over priced.
First thing I did was right click on the bucket of water when making bread.. it's an old game thing now I guess?
Discover that game last week through the Ps Plus Premium Gamescatalog.
So good and fullfilling gameplay with a nice twist to the Farm Simulation Genre.
Just alchemy is way to complex, had to use a wiki for that.
Probably the most Underrated game in my opinion is Cortex Command. Unfinished but it's gold. The mods are really bringing out what could it be.
"It still has a metacritic score of 69"
How is that a problem, seems nice to me
Great video, I love this game and I still wanted to watch. Found you looking at StarDew videos!
Thanks, Roy! Just saw this as a download on PS Plus, and think I'll give it a go. 👍🏻
Я прошёл игру 2 раза, и просто в восторге от неё.. Но есть один момент, который до сих пор не даёт мне покоя.. Смотритель регулярно приносит мясо в таверну, делает бургеры из него, и всё такое... Но неужели ни у одного человека не возник вопрос, какое и откуда мясо приносит парень с кладбища, который работает с трупами? И что, а точнее кого, они едят??? 😳
I'm sorry if you would have bothered reading when you first pick up water it tells you to click a button in your inventory I'm sorry that you can't be bothered to actually go through and read the tutorials to figure out what you need to do to with a game. It's in the game files you just be bothered to look and jump to Google.
Dlc is so important for some games though. Couldn't imagine fallout 4 or skyrim without it.
I have the same opinion as yours, just started to play this game last week, i cant stop.. i know this game years before.. but somehow i dont give it a try.... LOL
Have you played Serin Fate??? It seems like the sort of thing you might like, though it is a bit old fashioned in it's 'no hand holding' style...
I love graveyard keeper I've been playing it since it came out on console on ps4 and start a new run wen each dlc comes out just to start over and enjoy it from start with the new content, I even bought it again on switch to play it on the go.
Are the DLCs worth it, or necessary? It's quite cheap on PS4 on sale but not when you add the 3 dlc.on top!
Looks my kind of game though
@@GiBMan70 Los dlc le agregan varias horas de diversión extra, además de que es divertido pasárselo con calma una vez que ya te pasaste el juego, así que si lo vale
@@GiBMan70 the first and 2nd dlc are definitely worth it, the 3rd one is really cool and alot more to do and alot of stuff that makes things easier like teleport items and extended back packs.
This one was interesting, it can be quite the grind but personally i found the game a bit too loose and unfocused. I do quite like it, much more than Portia for example, but the lack of focus, the break neck time scale. Even with Zombies there's still a fair bit of manual grind that has to be done. I found myself frequently forgetting what i was doing or having important days pass me by because i was too busy getting resources around for one small errand.
Love the game, it's rather interesting even though I play fast pace fighting apocalyptic video games. It helped ignite my curiosity in the realms of theology, architecture, occultism, farming, and etc.
Bought it on Steam a few days ago and already put 50 hours in.. great game!
I keep watching videos of this game, others playing it is very relaxing, but I've also been wondering if I should give it a whirl, and this review might've pushed me closer to the Buy Now button. I'm 100% not a gamer, a very casual gamer at best, and only very specific games catch my attention (often for a very short amount of time). So phrases like "play at your own pace" and "no punishment" definitely pique my interest. For someone who has never played Stardew Valley, or any kind of similar game, is this a good game to jump in on as a total noob?
i would recommend stardew valley over this.
Tl,dr stardew valley is more casual and relaxing than GK and does some things much better
this game is fun but it gets very stressful fairly quickly due to all the micromanaging required. in stardew valley, as you progress you gain access to stuff like sprinklers which water your crops so you won't have to do it manually and other quality of life tools which make the more tedious aspects, more automatic, graveyard keeper does add zombies later on which gather wood and stone resources for you, but it also adds a bunch of new mechanics like alchemy which are extremely tedious imo and end up feeling like busy work. also while stardew has some things you might need to google( for example figuring out where and when you can catch certain types of fish), in this game i had to google things much, much more frequently because the game doesn't do a great job at explaining things to you.
GK also handles timed events kinda shitty. certain NPC only appear on a specific day of the week and they will give you quests, generally obtaining certain items for them, more often than not you will have no idea how to obtain that item in the first place and you might not even be able to obtain them in the first place because you don't have the proper research completed in order to craft them. so if you want to progress with the story you will get stressed out, grinding for research points to learn how to craft the item, then obtaining the resources needed to craft the items and actually crafting the items. a lot of times you won't be able to obtain all the items you need before the day the character comes back so the next week feels like you're just wasting your time until the character comes back again. stardew valley also has timed events, it has 4 season, each season has 28 days and generally 2 special events( for example in winter there's a fishing competition and totally-not-christmass) but they are entirely optional and have nothing to do with the story.
This game really surprised me as well when I bought it a few weeks ago. I play it on switch and it is a little buggy - about once every five minutes the game freezes for a few seconds. Definitely an overlookable bug considering how good the rest of it is.
Also, GNU Sir Terry Pratchett! I can definitely see the Donkey and Reg Shoe becoming friends.
its 2023 its the first time im hearing of it
It's an amazing game - and you should totally check it out.
Just wish the town was actually available
this game is great but imo game pacing is little bit slow so ill just install mod that make progressing faster.
I’ve been on the fence about Graveyard Keeper since release. I think this video may have finally swayed me ☺️
Same thoughts! I literally just bought it after watching this video.
I havent had as much fun as i have when i played all off graveyard keeper and dlcs!