izigame.me

English Version at the bottom
> Czech <
Není to špatná hra, ale jsou tu nějaká ALE, která zážitek opravdu znepříjemňují.
Hra se tváří jako odpočinková, a není to daleko od pravdy, jenže v pozdější fázi se odpočinek promění ve frustraci a stres, jakmile pochopíte, co jak funguje (a co nefunguje).
Za mě příšerné:
Postavy opustí pracoviště, protože mají hlad nebo jsou unavené. V tom není problém, ALE i v případě, že ještě nejsou ani na hranici, kdy se s nimi něco děje. Jednou mi dokonce šel postava jíst, i když měla únavu prakticky na nule. Do postele jsem ji poslat nemohl, PROTOŽE měla v ruce jídlo. Takže musela nejdřív dojíst, a teprve pak se mohla jít vyspat. S jídlem v ruce ji nemůžete poslat ani pracovat, protože má plné ruce. (Respektive můžete ji tam poslat, ale bude jen stát a koukat.) Hrát na vyšší rychlost je utrpení – přijmete zakázky a pak sledujete, jak ten, kdo je má splnit, je zrovna na půli cesty jinam, a než se vrátí, už nic nestihne.
Po spánku se postavy vrátí na své pracoviště, odkud odešly, ale po jídle ne.
Každou chvíli kamera někam skočí, jako by vás chtěla upozornit na krajinu v pozadí.
Získané traity jsou tak náhodné, že to nedává smysl. Nutí vás je resetovat a zkoušet „nové“. Člověk ani netuší, co všechno může získat.
Mechanika doučování technologií je zajímavý nápad, ale u každé objednávky vyskočí hláška, že zaměstnanec není schopen danou věc vyrobit. Jenže nejde o toho, kdo to vyrábí, ale o toho, koho máte právě vybraného. Takže zbytečné klikání navíc.
Reputace – to je další kapitola. Zní to dobře, ale funguje příšerně. Standardně, když splníte zakázku, dostanete +1 (většinou) k frakci, pro kterou pracujete, nebo získáte +1 u jedné frakce a ztratíte 1 u konkurenční. Jednoduché, že? Jenže pokud u vás stojí někdo z opačné frakce (a je jedno, jestli jste nabídku přijali nebo ne), při splnění vaší objednávky se jeho nabídka zruší a vy přijdete o 10 reputace u protější frakce. Ok, tak stačí odmítat, aby u vás nestáli? Ne tak snadné! Někteří vám prostě řeknou, že nemají peníze a že vám je vrátí později – a už během této konverzace se to počítá jako „přítomnost“. Ani to nemůžete přeskočit, nevíte, co chtějí, ale naštvou se a vaše reputace jde do háje.
Za mě zážitek tak 6/10 na začátku, ale v polovině hry už jen 2/10. Už ani nemám chuť pokračovat. Možná někdy jindy.
> English Version <
It’s not a bad game, but there are some HOWEVERs that really ruin the experience.
The game presents itself as a relaxing experience, and it’s not far from the truth, but in the later stages, relaxation turns into frustration and stress once you figure out how things work (and what doesn’t).
What’s terrible in my opinion:
Characters leave their workplace because they’re hungry or tired. That itself isn’t a problem, BUT it happens even when they’re nowhere near the threshold of being affected. Once, a character went to eat even though their fatigue was practically at zero. I couldn’t send them to bed BECAUSE they were holding food. So they had to finish eating first, and only then could they go to sleep. You can’t even send them to work with food in their hands because their hands are full. (Well, you can send them, but they’ll just stand there staring.) Playing at higher speed is torture – you accept some orders and then watch as the assigned character is halfway somewhere else, and by the time they return, it’s already too late.
After sleeping, characters return to their workplace, but not after eating.
The camera keeps jumping around randomly, as if it wants to draw your attention to the background scenery.
The traits you unlock are so random it makes no sense. It forces you to reset them and try "new" ones. You don’t even know what you might get.
The mechanic for teaching technologies is an interesting idea, but with every order, a message pops up saying the employee can’t produce the item. Except it’s not about the one actually making it – it’s about the one you currently have selected. So it’s just unnecessary extra clicking.
Reputation – now that’s another story. It sounds good but works horribly. Normally, when you complete an order, you get +1 (usually) with the faction you’re working for, or you gain +1 with one faction and lose 1 with a rival one. Simple, right? Well, if someone from the opposite faction is standing near you (regardless of whether you’ve accepted their offer or not), completing your order will cancel theirs, and you’ll lose 10 reputation with the opposing faction. Okay, so just reject them so they don’t linger? Not that easy! Some will just tell you they don’t have money and will pay you back later – and just this conversation counts as "presence." You can’t even skip it, you don’t know what they want, but they get angry, and your reputation goes down the drain.
For me, the experience was 6/10 at the start, but by the mid-game, it was more like 2/10. I don’t even feel like continuing anymore. Maybe some other time.

Anvil Saga is not a perfect game, and although I have quite a few issues with it, ultimately I believe (hesitantly) it is a game worth the play through if you want a cozy game about running your own smithy with light local politics.
What I enjoyed:
Overall, I thought the story was enjoyable. It was fun to see the tug of war of the rival factions as they vied for control over the Province. I enjoyed the angle of having this rival who has the same love as you but also acts as a "boss" at the end of every act or chapter that you have to face off against. I felt that the Fair that occurred at the end of the Chapter really pushes you to focus on what roles you want your apprentices to fill, what equipment to use, what books to read, etc. You feel like you really need to adequately prepare for each competition even if you are going in semi-blind between the 3. I also enjoyed the diverging paths in the story where depending on where your current relationship with each faction in-game really pushed the narrative of the story, and the scenery in your village would reflect that as well. It felt like I was leaving some impact on the world to a degree. I also thought the hire system was kinda fun as well as the cameos that occurred throughout the story. Finally, I thought the game play loop was satisfactory. It was fun and kept me entertained for my 18 hour play through (might be quicker on easier difficulties).
Neutral Thought(s):
Mostly, I thought the game was just a tad too easy. I played it on the hardest difficulty possible, and although it had a learning curve in the beginning with all of the different factions and how they worked when they stood in queue for your shop, once you understood this it was fairly easy to pick up. Once you picked up the game play loop and what needed to be done to your shop, it was just a matter of doing it all. Managing the relationships with the different factions was also fairly simple, and overall once you got in the "groove" of things, the game wasn't very difficult. That said, I know this is a cozier game, and can be picked up by just about anybody, so I'm not going to outright hold that against Anvil Saga, but I felt it was at the very least worth mentioning.
What I didn't care for:
I hope I don't contradict myself too hard. I really did enjoy the game or else I wouldn't have completed it, and even though I liked a particular aspect of the game throughout it's majority, I felt by act three that even it's best qualities were getting old. So, by that, I mean the game overstayed it's welcome a bit (for me at least). By act/chapter 3, I essentially had my forge fully upgraded, and my house expanded completely. Every room was fully upgraded, everyone had the best equipment for their role, I had a full staff of apprentices, I was at 100% or near 100% with nearly every single faction, and I also had my father's house fixed with someone in it (the guy who gets logs, I cannot remember his job atm and I'm too lazy to google it). With that well oiled of a machine, the game play loop got stale pretty fast, and it was already nearing that by the end of the second act. I know that the game does have story and environmental elements that help keep things fresh, but I found myself not really affected too harshly at that point in the game by negative environmental/societal forces. I also felt that aspects of the game were also forgettable at that point (see comment about "log man" above). When you've gotten along with the bandits or the witches for so long that you haven't paid your employees or taxes properly for a good 2/3 of the game, it made choosing who lived in your parent's old house significantly easier, and even then, once I chose the job of the person who lived there, I kinda forgot about that particular aspect as well. I said earlier that I liked the hire/fire element to the game, but I never really used the firing aspect. Everyone I hired I kept on. Why? Because they've been doing their job for days, why would I fire them -- especially when they essentially work for free due to the witches/bandits -- when the skill they have now is higher than anyone else on the perspective job market? It really didn't seem necessary to me at least. On the topic of paying employees, I kinda wonder what the point of payment is at all? Like, why do we pay them? Of course, it's because they are learning from us as the smith and we need to be provided a wage or else they will get upset and leave, but like there isn't much more to the game play than just "pay them or they will leave". It's not like the employees themselves used the wage I paid them for anything. They live, work, and eat under the same roof and never leave the shop unless I send them on a quest with one of the cameo characters. They really don't do anything with the money outside of affecting their overall mood and work ethic (I guess that answers the question I just posed, but hear me out). I think, personally, that it would have been a much more fun mechanic to have them work on "shifts". Maybe they still stay at the house, etc, but additionally, they might go out in the village to spend their paycheck and have a percentage chance of something happening to them:
- it can be a good thing such as a new business venture or cameo character
- it can be a bad thing like they get into a fight at the local tavern and now Arthur/We are faced with a dilemma of either
firing our apprentice and saving face with the faction that they got into an altercation with at the expense of
potentially upsetting other apprentices, or defending our apprentice at the cost of paying a fine and/or losing
reputation points with upset/offended faction
I think something like what I have above at least gives a more interesting way to interact with the village whilst also giving another in-game reason to why we pay the apprentices versus what is currently implemented in the game. I feel like the game play loop does feel mobile game-esque in regard to some other comments made in other reviews here, and although that didn't bother me too much; it did hurt the game in the third act when the game play loop was getting old. Finally, the bugs. I know every bad review talks about the bugs in this game, and although I didn't encounter too many through out my first run, the ones I did encounter were fairly annoying and did bump the difficulty spike briefly; whether it be me assisting a customer of a faction that didn't like me just to not get any points added despite me seeing the +1 or +2 above their head, or me completing an order correctly in a fair competition to still lose points. Regardless, instances like those were fairly frustrating but they were rare compared to other folks' reviews.
TL;DR
Anvil Saga does have some issues and is far from a perfect game; however, if you enjoy cozy games, you don't mind putting up with some quirks, or you think being a black smith sounds fun, then Anvil Saga is a game that you will have a good time with! I do recommend buying this on sale (unless you got some cash burning a hole in your pocket) as I believe $20 is a bit too steep of a price for the content, imo.

Anvil Saga has an addictive management system and fun art style. Encountering tons of Easter Eggs throughout the story is enjoyable. If you like medieval settings or games where your choices affect the outcome, I think its a good game. There appears to be quite a few ending so you have replayability as well.
The game can be a bit buggy, I had to relaunch or reload saves numerous times to get around bugs, thankfully the game launches very fast and I did not lose much time playing on max speed.
My biggest grip with this game is actually the endings and outcomes previously mentioned. You often have no clues as to what you should do to get the ending you want. Everything will be going perfectly and shaping up for the story you desire and then at the end everything falls apart to things out of your control. There are troll surprise endings you will not enjoy.
*SPOILERS*
I absolutely hate how taking the fun humorous options seriously punishes you and the story sometimes. Vlad dying from helping the plague conspiracy guy was too far and almost feels politically charged. Despite your actions actually saving the village from the plague later in the story you are given no credit for it in the last scene because of this.
If the developers want to make another similar game in the future, I would like that. I would reccomend that they do not tie progress to aesthetic elements in the game. Having to spend money upgrading the looks of the smithy in order to upgrade the forge itself is not fun because it takes away from the players freedom to customize how they would like.