Thanks for the thoughtful review! As someone who loved Wytchwood, this game is actually exactly what I wanted - I don't mind the "grind" at all! I was searching for a good game with cute graphics that would give me quests, some level of customization, and lots of crafting, and luckily this game fits what I wanted exactly. I can understand how it isn't what some people were expecting though, and I'm sorry they are disappointed! It isn't for everyone.
I know people are quite disappointed in this game since it's very convoluted so I'll focus on ONE detail that I love with any game, and that is whatever item you equip, is also reflected on your character! (particularly that Mage's cap 5:25) Not every game does that and I appreciate the art direction of this game! Same as you, I have little knowledge with LoL so it's good to hear that it's playable even without familiarity with the franchise! Thank you Josh for the awesome work and for showing us an in-depth review of Bandle Tale! 💚💚💚
I'm trying it on a PC where you can change the game resolution; increasing it expands the portion of the world you see, and that issue you mentioned about difficulty walking in the world is not as noticeable because you have a broader overview.
Josh you were right about this game and I should have listened to you. I bought the deluxe version on Steam and regret it. Trying to finish it though and I'm at 25 hours of play...near the end but the grind is real. Thanks for your honesty.
For those who dont follow league of legends lore, Yordles are whimsical creatures made of magic, their realm is not in one place, you can only access it through random spiritual portals that always change location on the world and if youre not one of them its practically not something youll find in a lifetime, so of course the maps would be confusing and enfatize this quality. In fact multiple characters lore is that they are looking for someone through universes or they got lost and magic made them lose track of time until they noticed and thousands of years passed. Thats the escence of yordles and bandle city.
I had some of the same feelings you've expressed. I was so excited for this game - been counting down the days. It's so cute, and I enjoyed the beginning. But as I played more, I got frustrated. There were a lot of things I couldn't figure out how to do. I'm not a gamer. I've only recently started playing games other than Animal Crossing. I figured most of my trouble with the game was because of that. Just inexperience. I'm glad to know it wasn't just me. I do plan to play more. I'm hoping as I learn how more of the things work, I'll enjoy it more. We'll see! Thanks so much for your honest review! :)
I'd definitely categorize myself as a gamer, but I did find as you some difficulty figuring out how to do things. There's help text/guides before some things, but I found that they don't answer the questions I'm asking. I had a hard time figuring out how to set up the food sale and wasted so many dishes because my hands were full with the food but for some reason you can't put it in your inventory, and can't interact with anything else (like the stove if it isn't lit) so you have to trash it and start over.
THIS! The food stand thing was so hard! I finally got the food stand set up, but then I still had trouble with the cooking mechanic, so I didn't get anyone the food they wanted. This is where I stopped for the night. I got a really bad headache from the frustration. I'm watching videos today to see if anyone explains the cooking. I just want to get the food stand figured out, dang it!@@fuzzypumpkin7743
I'll give them points for trying something outside of their comfort zone, and also for not just doing a completely cookie-cutter standard looter/crafter game. I'll probably pick this up later, though: I don't feel like I'm in a hurry for it at the moment.
What do you mean? The developers of this game have already a game under their belt which is 10x times worse when it comes to grinding and overall wasting the players time by usless tasks. RIOT just published it.
@@MasonStoijck Yeah I feel like people just misunderstood this game so much, even Josh said he expected so much more from LOL as it is so huge. Riot have practically nothing to do with it. The devs of this game were definitely in their 'comfort zone' making this lol. This is a cute graveyard keeper.
that was my problem with graveyard keeper, as game progress everything seeemed too tedious, and felt like unnecessaryy chore so stopped playing around half way.
I didn't even make it that far. I got utterly stuck on the skill tree and just burned out within a few hours. Realizing it is the same makers means I probably won't get it. Too complicated, too grindy.
@@josephinerobertson2946 Too grindy is lightly said. In the beggning the game was great, but after a day of playing, the only reason i finished it was to see the story, which was DISSAPOINTING, but god was i sick of the grind and repeative gameplay
I do agree Graveyard Keeper was extremely grindy. I ended up playing most of it with the DLCs because I thoroughly enjoyed the story and uniqueness of it. I don't regret buying it because there was a lot of automation you could unlock, but it could've used a lot of simple QOL changes.
the grind is insane. 9.2 hours of gameplay and it only seems to get worse. i was so frustrated when i had to run back to an island AGAIN for a pos aura i had to quit and check if it was just me feeling like this game was just a neverending grind. the visuals and the fact that it's about yordles carries it for me, because the gameplay gets annoying REAL quick.
It’s odd bc sometimes they give you an arrow of the direction you have to go… but a lot of the time you’re stuck either running around trying to find your way or having to hit 2-3 buttons just to access the map which doesn’t really help much either. I might refund the game since I bought it on steam. It plays nice on the steamdeck though
Thanks a lot Josh for this great review. I was already going to wait for sale but also knowing there will be no updates with QOL and just possible bug fixes, given what you said about movement and orientation, I may not buy it after all. A proper map with a proper guiding mechanic is key in games with huge areas.
Every point you made is true and I agree, except that I would still recommend the game as long as you go in knowing the gameplay is simplistic, and at times, you can kind of tell some things were left unfinished (eg tutorials, textless characters after finishing their quests). The one thing I didn't hear you mention is how big the UI is! That is so distracting for me.. I do not need my quests to take up 1/3 of the screen in this beautiful little game.
Thank you for the review! The art style looks cute, but the game doesn't seem my style. I can play some rpg games like Rune Factory and Harvestella but this one might be a stretch for me. Looking forward to seeing more gameplay in the live stream soon though!!
Glad for your honesty bc I like life sim/farm sim but I like having a lot of variety of things to do, and a lot of different options. I have these specifics standards and it's my fav genre but I also get bored easily LOL so games like sandrock were perfect
Thanks for the review. It looks fun to me so I'll probably buy it and try it out for myself. I enjoyed playing Foamstars when there are a lot of videos on youtube saying the game is bad, so I might like this too.
Gret review - I played LoL for years and realy enjoyed it and I had never heard of this game! I love the look of it and it seems like a game to play in short spurts... I would buy it, but I'm not a fan of grindy/fetch quest games so I''m on the fence about it.
Thanks so much for your insight and in depth review! I was so looking forward to this game, but now I’m not too sure. Awe! I don’t like being lost in a game (and I get lost easily lol) All your struggles with the gameplay, like moving your house all over, the excessive back and forth and the confusing map to name a few. All tedious it seems. I’m thinking I’ll wait until they patch it up a bit and some time passes before deciding to get it. The art style is a 10/10 for me, so it’s hard for me to pass this one up.
Awww I was so excited for this one! Guess I’ll give it a pass for now and see if any quality of life improvements are patched in? Thank you for the great review! I always check here first for my favorite cozy game reviews 🌟
Thank you for the honest review. I really wanted the game but I think I will pass on this one for now and get it on sale. It's not what I was expecting.
I'll probably pass on this game even though it looks cute! Also! Have you heard of a game called Secrets of Grindea? it's been in early access for a loooong time, but it's finally got a release date of 2/29! It's very cute and I'd definitely consider it to be a cozy game!
Good review. I was potentially interested in this, but I will be giving it a pass. I'll say that all of these problems you've mentioned makes ABSOLUTE sense to me, having learned that they were the devs behind Graveyard Keeper, which also was a game with a great central idea that was brought down by a plethora of honestly fairly similar issues. Hope they'll learn for the next game.
Thanks so much for saving me some $, Josh! I love the art style, but as someone who gets lost easily in games (and irl!), I would be so annoyed. And the weird mechanic of picking your house up… Disappointing verdict, but your early review is greatly appreciated!
I bought the deluxe version of this game. The graphics this are excellent and the gameplay is fine. But there’s something about this that made me want to quit ASAP. As I have to throw 2 parties in this game, I ran into multiple roadblocks. The second party, I didn’t had enough cards to host it, there’s a dance floor which requires a lump of sand to make it and the tool to get sand requires an ingredient that I can’t find in my homeland, some other necessities require a blank blueprint which I don’t know where to find one, and alot of blocked passageways what requires an untangling tool which I didn’t unlock yet. Even with merchant, you don’t have the ability to get rid of stuff you have too much of. They could’ve just sell you those required ingredients there or even have those tools in the first place. And the tutorials don’t have much sense to them. All in all, I’d give this game a mere 1.5/10. If it weren’t for those roadblocks, my rating would be higher but that point is just there for the graphics.
Man I was so looking forward to this cos the art is a 10. The gameplay is a 4, but the easiest thing that stopped me from buying is that it's $30 LOL. Nah. 👎
Nope. It won't be chill as Stardew Valley. Most of collecting RPG game from Lazy bear require you to grind till end of the game, with many unclear instruction and boring gameplay. The mission is required too much of many small goals that could easily set you off. And although it's already an improvement toward Graveyard Keeper, the boredom and grinding till passing out still stay the same
I like games like this but not for $30. I can go on my phone and play games for free just like this so idk seems way too expensive with not much gameplay other than crafting and gathering. Who knows maybe they will add a dlc or something if everyone complains about it.
Bro lazybear games completey whiffed graveyard keeper. Possible the worst ending of a game i have seen in a while, story good till a point, then it gets lackinf, and overall is just a grinding simulator. Every upgrade needs a quest, every quest in turn needs another set of quests completed, and those quests need resources, more quests and TIME...overall disappointed, and bandle tale seems the same Also you mentioned the walking back n forth. Same issue graveyard keeper had. Eventually running those silly errands felt so time consuming it wasnt enjoyable anymore. I remember the amount of grind you needed to do to get the church decoration and statues maxed out, and ugh..so upsetting
I didn't like it, I refunded it. Just too convoluted and padded with artificial blocks in the crafting process. The UI is clunky too. Ymmv of course. What's funny is I did like graveyard keeper and finished it, this just left me feeling meh about it. I'm not a LOL player so keep that in mind.The pixel art is really nice like GK and that's good. But in the end I just didn't feel this one.
Thanks for the thoughtful review! As someone who loved Wytchwood, this game is actually exactly what I wanted - I don't mind the "grind" at all! I was searching for a good game with cute graphics that would give me quests, some level of customization, and lots of crafting, and luckily this game fits what I wanted exactly. I can understand how it isn't what some people were expecting though, and I'm sorry they are disappointed! It isn't for everyone.
It looks cute but I can see how the daily grind can get really old after awhile. Thanks for always sharing honest reviews!!
so glad you were able to get this out on release day, I have enough games in my backlog so glad I can happily wait :)
I know people are quite disappointed in this game since it's very convoluted so I'll focus on ONE detail that I love with any game, and that is whatever item you equip, is also reflected on your character! (particularly that Mage's cap 5:25) Not every game does that and I appreciate the art direction of this game!
Same as you, I have little knowledge with LoL so it's good to hear that it's playable even without familiarity with the franchise! Thank you Josh for the awesome work and for showing us an in-depth review of Bandle Tale! 💚💚💚
I'm trying it on a PC where you can change the game resolution; increasing it expands the portion of the world you see, and that issue you mentioned about difficulty walking in the world is not as noticeable because you have a broader overview.
Woo hoo! I'm glad you were able to get this done on release day. Let's grow this channel! I hope the video does really well.
Josh you were right about this game and I should have listened to you. I bought the deluxe version on Steam and regret it. Trying to finish it though and I'm at 25 hours of play...near the end but the grind is real. Thanks for your honesty.
For those who dont follow league of legends lore, Yordles are whimsical creatures made of magic, their realm is not in one place, you can only access it through random spiritual portals that always change location on the world and if youre not one of them its practically not something youll find in a lifetime, so of course the maps would be confusing and enfatize this quality. In fact multiple characters lore is that they are looking for someone through universes or they got lost and magic made them lose track of time until they noticed and thousands of years passed. Thats the escence of yordles and bandle city.
I found it to be fun. I waited till 1am for its release in malaysia and started playing immediately. It intrigued my mind to find out wat to do next.
I had some of the same feelings you've expressed. I was so excited for this game - been counting down the days. It's so cute, and I enjoyed the beginning. But as I played more, I got frustrated. There were a lot of things I couldn't figure out how to do. I'm not a gamer. I've only recently started playing games other than Animal Crossing. I figured most of my trouble with the game was because of that. Just inexperience. I'm glad to know it wasn't just me.
I do plan to play more. I'm hoping as I learn how more of the things work, I'll enjoy it more. We'll see!
Thanks so much for your honest review! :)
I'd definitely categorize myself as a gamer, but I did find as you some difficulty figuring out how to do things. There's help text/guides before some things, but I found that they don't answer the questions I'm asking. I had a hard time figuring out how to set up the food sale and wasted so many dishes because my hands were full with the food but for some reason you can't put it in your inventory, and can't interact with anything else (like the stove if it isn't lit) so you have to trash it and start over.
THIS! The food stand thing was so hard! I finally got the food stand set up, but then I still had trouble with the cooking mechanic, so I didn't get anyone the food they wanted. This is where I stopped for the night. I got a really bad headache from the frustration. I'm watching videos today to see if anyone explains the cooking. I just want to get the food stand figured out, dang it!@@fuzzypumpkin7743
I'll give them points for trying something outside of their comfort zone, and also for not just doing a completely cookie-cutter standard looter/crafter game. I'll probably pick this up later, though: I don't feel like I'm in a hurry for it at the moment.
What do you mean? The developers of this game have already a game under their belt which is 10x times worse when it comes to grinding and overall wasting the players time by usless tasks. RIOT just published it.
@@MasonStoijck Yeah I feel like people just misunderstood this game so much, even Josh said he expected so much more from LOL as it is so huge. Riot have practically nothing to do with it. The devs of this game were definitely in their 'comfort zone' making this lol. This is a cute graveyard keeper.
that was my problem with graveyard keeper, as game progress everything seeemed too tedious, and felt like unnecessaryy chore so stopped playing around half way.
I didn't even make it that far. I got utterly stuck on the skill tree and just burned out within a few hours. Realizing it is the same makers means I probably won't get it. Too complicated, too grindy.
@@josephinerobertson2946 Too grindy is lightly said. In the beggning the game was great, but after a day of playing, the only reason i finished it was to see the story, which was DISSAPOINTING, but god was i sick of the grind and repeative gameplay
I do agree Graveyard Keeper was extremely grindy. I ended up playing most of it with the DLCs because I thoroughly enjoyed the story and uniqueness of it. I don't regret buying it because there was a lot of automation you could unlock, but it could've used a lot of simple QOL changes.
The grind reminds me of Portia and Littlewood.
the grind is insane. 9.2 hours of gameplay and it only seems to get worse. i was so frustrated when i had to run back to an island AGAIN for a pos aura i had to quit and check if it was just me feeling like this game was just a neverending grind. the visuals and the fact that it's about yordles carries it for me, because the gameplay gets annoying REAL quick.
I love all your reviews, I think this one was a little too harsh, but thank you for your honesty
It’s odd bc sometimes they give you an arrow of the direction you have to go… but a lot of the time you’re stuck either running around trying to find your way or having to hit 2-3 buttons just to access the map which doesn’t really help much either. I might refund the game since I bought it on steam. It plays nice on the steamdeck though
Thanks a lot Josh for this great review. I was already going to wait for sale but also knowing there will be no updates with QOL and just possible bug fixes, given what you said about movement and orientation, I may not buy it after all. A proper map with a proper guiding mechanic is key in games with huge areas.
I was so excited for this...but...after ur review and switch corners...i will grab it on a good sale. No rush sadly to play now.
Every point you made is true and I agree, except that I would still recommend the game as long as you go in knowing the gameplay is simplistic, and at times, you can kind of tell some things were left unfinished (eg tutorials, textless characters after finishing their quests). The one thing I didn't hear you mention is how big the UI is! That is so distracting for me.. I do not need my quests to take up 1/3 of the screen in this beautiful little game.
They describe the game as a Crafting RPG not sure what we are missing here.
Ah, similar thoughts to Nintendo Life. I recall their review saying they thought it was cute, but unnecessarily tedious.
Thank you for the review!
The art style looks cute, but the game doesn't seem my style. I can play some rpg games like Rune Factory and Harvestella but this one might be a stretch for me. Looking forward to seeing more gameplay in the live stream soon though!!
Glad for your honesty bc I like life sim/farm sim but I like having a lot of variety of things to do, and a lot of different options. I have these specifics standards and it's my fav genre but I also get bored easily LOL so games like sandrock were perfect
Thanks for the review. It looks fun to me so I'll probably buy it and try it out for myself. I enjoyed playing Foamstars when there are a lot of videos on youtube saying the game is bad, so I might like this too.
If they make this game free to play and online multiplayer with friends, Relax after play LoL this game will popular
I had high hopes for this game, maybe ill wait for it to go onsale or them to possibly add some changes.. Thanks for the Sneak peak Josh!!
Ahh.. well, I already pre-ordered it because it looked so pretty...... I guess I should have waited.
The branch that made these l.o.l. spin off games was shutdown....so this is probably the last spin off game .
This wasnt made by RIOT. Published by then and developed fully by the same devs that made Graveyard keeper(another tidious and grindy game
It looks like it has the exact same problems I had with Graveyard Keeper, I’m glad I know it’s been made the same person so I can avoid this game
Thanks glad I didn't pre order might try it if it goes on sale.
Gret review - I played LoL for years and realy enjoyed it and I had never heard of this game! I love the look of it and it seems like a game to play in short spurts... I would buy it, but I'm not a fan of grindy/fetch quest games so I''m on the fence about it.
Thanks so much for your insight and in depth review! I was so looking forward to this game, but now I’m not too sure. Awe! I don’t like being lost in a game (and I get lost easily lol) All your struggles with the gameplay, like moving your house all over, the excessive back and forth and the confusing map to name a few. All tedious it seems. I’m thinking I’ll wait until they patch it up a bit and some time passes before deciding to get it. The art style is a 10/10 for me, so it’s hard for me to pass this one up.
Exactly my thoughts😬 I’ve been waiting for months now and I really want to get it but now I’m stuck and can’t decide what to do
@@zeliha8113 I hate decisions lol Maybe a couple months wait is the best bet. See how things pan out ☺️
@@chelseabighetty4722 I’ve actually just bought the game and I like it so far😅 but figuring out the map is seriously annoying
Awww I was so excited for this one! Guess I’ll give it a pass for now and see if any quality of life improvements are patched in? Thank you for the great review! I always check here first for my favorite cozy game reviews 🌟
The stuttering you were experiencing on walking definitely isn't there on PC.
Thank you for the honest review. I really wanted the game but I think I will pass on this one for now and get it on sale. It's not what I was expecting.
I'll probably pass on this game even though it looks cute! Also! Have you heard of a game called Secrets of Grindea? it's been in early access for a loooong time, but it's finally got a release date of 2/29! It's very cute and I'd definitely consider it to be a cozy game!
This was such a frustrating experience. I'm so sad to see that I wasn't the only one not enjoying it as much as I hoped 😢
great review; thanks
Good review. I was potentially interested in this, but I will be giving it a pass. I'll say that all of these problems you've mentioned makes ABSOLUTE sense to me, having learned that they were the devs behind Graveyard Keeper, which also was a game with a great central idea that was brought down by a plethora of honestly fairly similar issues. Hope they'll learn for the next game.
captain teemo on duty!!!!
Thanks so much for saving me some $, Josh! I love the art style, but as someone who gets lost easily in games (and irl!), I would be so annoyed. And the weird mechanic of picking your house up… Disappointing verdict, but your early review is greatly appreciated!
I bought the deluxe version of this game. The graphics this are excellent and the gameplay is fine. But there’s something about this that made me want to quit ASAP. As I have to throw 2 parties in this game, I ran into multiple roadblocks. The second party, I didn’t had enough cards to host it, there’s a dance floor which requires a lump of sand to make it and the tool to get sand requires an ingredient that I can’t find in my homeland, some other necessities require a blank blueprint which I don’t know where to find one, and alot of blocked passageways what requires an untangling tool which I didn’t unlock yet. Even with merchant, you don’t have the ability to get rid of stuff you have too much of. They could’ve just sell you those required ingredients there or even have those tools in the first place. And the tutorials don’t have much sense to them.
All in all, I’d give this game a mere 1.5/10. If it weren’t for those roadblocks, my rating would be higher but that point is just there for the graphics.
For 30bucks ill wait for a sale
Man I was so looking forward to this cos the art is a 10. The gameplay is a 4, but the easiest thing that stopped me from buying is that it's $30 LOL. Nah. 👎
This game can be better if dev allows you to create an army of zombies
Bad performance on switch and camera is to zoomed in comparing to pc release. This is disapointing for pixelart game to stutter this much
Is it better than stardew valley?
Nope. It won't be chill as Stardew Valley. Most of collecting RPG game from Lazy bear require you to grind till end of the game, with many unclear instruction and boring gameplay. The mission is required too much of many small goals that could easily set you off. And although it's already an improvement toward Graveyard Keeper, the boredom and grinding till passing out still stay the same
The constant house moving, not so good I'm afraid
Is this pc game?
It's on both PC and Switch, but the specific version I played for this review is the Switch one!
ok is it mostely a farming game or no?
If it's just minigames, gathering and life sim, a chore game, i can't buy.
I like games like this but not for $30. I can go on my phone and play games for free just like this so idk seems way too expensive with not much gameplay other than crafting and gathering. Who knows maybe they will add a dlc or something if everyone complains about it.
30 hours? game hasn't been out that long since you posted
I received a review copy a week in advance to make this video.
yay😊
Bro lazybear games completey whiffed graveyard keeper.
Possible the worst ending of a game i have seen in a while, story good till a point, then it gets lackinf, and overall is just a grinding simulator. Every upgrade needs a quest, every quest in turn needs another set of quests completed, and those quests need resources, more quests and TIME...overall disappointed, and bandle tale seems the same
Also you mentioned the walking back n forth. Same issue graveyard keeper had. Eventually running those silly errands felt so time consuming it wasnt enjoyable anymore. I remember the amount of grind you needed to do to get the church decoration and statues maxed out, and ugh..so upsetting
I didn't like it, I refunded it. Just too convoluted and padded with artificial blocks in the crafting process. The UI is clunky too. Ymmv of course. What's funny is I did like graveyard keeper and finished it, this just left me feeling meh about it. I'm not a LOL player so keep that in mind.The pixel art is really nice like GK and that's good. But in the end I just didn't feel this one.