izigame.me

(I'm ESL) Played the 1.1 version now for 168hrs and after getting almost all the achievements, seeing all the endgame content and getting into a Union with a kid, I wanted to share my thoughts about Roots of Pacha.

Getting into the game was easy for me (playing on PC + with keyboard and mouse) the tutorial was funny and helpful so I never got stuck. You could toggle the tutorial off but I wouldn't recommend it for the first playthrough.
The first hour was a little overwhelming because there are so many NPCs to get to know and the daytime is somewhat short (15min). You can change that in the menu before you start a save (I figured this out bc of the Discord Channel and 20min daytime feel so much more relaxed for me now). You can literally look up everything in your notes, which was nice when I mixed up the names or quest givers.
I spent a little too much time with the crops each day (quality of life hint for new players: don't sow all your seeds, trust me, you don't have enough stamina or time to care for all of the sprouts anyway and miss out on the fun parts of the game) and fishing, animals or friendship did fall short for me (only had two small shacks with some boars and ostriches).
I then decided to let the crops be crops and explored the caves because I love riddles and puzzles and had the best time with this decision. But I needed more food to keep the exhaustion at bay so I was back at the crop 'problem' (foraging for food didn't work for me - all I found was medicine or seeds and that doesn't help with stamina; I didn't think about meat (trapping) or fish (fishing) at that time and was too blind to see the wild fruit in the world that I could have used to cook juice) and luckily the game threw a solution at me right then bc you get a much better bronce watering can for 3x3 fields, and an invention that helps you even more with the watering problem. And I finally found the tree sprouts that your grandpa sells you - they are hidden away in a diffrent tab in his 'seed shop' and I just planted all the trees I could get my hand on.
So back to the mines after ~20hrs playtime I had constantly shortage of building materials bc the quests from the Npcs got harder. And you have to upgrade your tools to unlock the rooms - luckily for me, I guess. So it got a little grindy, but not too much. After 7 ingame days and with better tools everything felt much smoother (maybe I pressured clearing of the quests too fast, idk) and I enjoyed exploring on my own again.
I had a hard time figuring out some mechanics of the game (and still do, to be honest). Friendship is hard - keeping it up especially. Because it decreases when you don't talk to the NPCs. (there is an item that helps with this in the endgame - but it means giving up 1 of 3 accessoire slots).
Same with the accessoires for extra stats that need 'bonding' time and then if you unequip them loose the bond after a while. This frustrated me pretty much because there was just nothing I could do to reverse it. (and I still don't like it bc it feels unbalanced).
Fishing is confusing for me, I looked up a lot of tutorials for it and some say the fish reacts to your movement, or where you place your cursor; other say you should only fish with buffs and the best accessoiries... I still don't get the hang of it and think I never will get that achievement for "all the fish".
Finding legendary or rare animals is actually locked - until you catch/tame a certain amount of this type of animal. I didn't know this and just had my huge herd at home (breeding by yourself is very rewarding) and that is something I thought was not intuitive. Why shouldn't I see a golden boar when I have 50 boars at home, you know?
The tool bar: I always had an empty seed bag (so 0 seeds in it) in my 'free' hand so I wouldn't accidentaly swing my axe at someones face or gift away stuff I really needed. I didn't find an actual button to "unequip" everything and that is lacking imho.
The romances: Well. You can actually date everyone at once which was confusing for me but an interesting mechanic choice. I gifted everyone of the singles at the same time, when I finished the mines and wanted to have a look at the romance of the game. What was really strange were the days when I just had one event after the other - especially the day when I just agreed to be in a union with Jag (literally marrying the guy) and then his 'brother' took me out stargazing 5min later on the same night. And proposed, too. I married Jag. And still date Garrek. Nobody cares. x,D But sometimes I wonder if Garrek would just have proposed 10min earlier, would my kid have spinach green hair?
So yes, the union itself was sweet but after that the romance has a problem that most games have: I had the feeling after the wedding my spouse felt not as well written as before. Talking to him feels much more repetetive. And it was frustrating to see him leaving the house at 7am and return at 9pm... no dates. And in 1 year of marriage I only got one wild sunflower from this guy. (while the others are keeping sending me gifts in the mail ... confusing) I mean, why move in my hut at all if all you do is work, Jag?
And getting the kid was... the wrong decision for me. You have to care for it on your own for ~10 ingame days (it screams at 3pm everyday so you have to look after it and stick around the house for so long) and then you could have a baby sitter - but those guys often didn't show up for me. Guess they don't like rain/snow/my kid, idk. So I kept looking after the kid by myself mostly. Sometimes a babysitter does show up for some time, sits in my living room and I try to keep track of the kid outside where sabertooth cats roam. There is room for improvement here, yes.
At the moment Jillian (my daughter) is 2 months old and even bossier than my pet wolf (and he gives her wet kisses - while I can't even hug my own daughter. sigh.). I regret my life decisions even ingame, now.
Why I still love to keep playing it: The decoration options are just mindblowing. You can literally place stuff all over the world and this is so much fun for me. And you can paint some items by yourself - so become a pixel artist today. Yay.
Achievement hunting, too, the "all crop knowledge to 5" is kind of difficult. And I am trying to max out my accessoires and that is a lot of work because the gems are pretty rare or hidden in the mines. Taming and breeding animals. The mini games - racing and bones are really fun!
I think it also has a lot of replaying potential. There are so many dialogues that I missed bc I was working on my fields in the first save alot. So I am glad I started another playthrough with the longer daysetting and a more relaxed playstyle.

There was only one real 'problem' with the game I had and that was the windowed game kept crashing for me. But in fullscreen all is well.

So the game is clearly a work in progress, which shows more in some parts of the game than others. But it already has so much content that it is worth the full price (25€ at the moment) imho. I would tell everyone that has a weak spot for pixel art or farming games to try this one out. More content should be coming up.
The Discord Server is very helpful, the Wiki is okay and useful for gifting. There is a lot of potential here in the community, too and I really hope more people play "Roots of Pacha" and fall in love with it.