Graveyard Keeper

This is a slightly tough one to recommend. I can't deny playing it somewhat obsessively, but I don't know that I can say I have a ton of fond memories for playing it. Short of the very end of the game, when some automation starts taking off, there is just always so, so, so much that needs to be getting done at any moment. And it's not in the Stardew Valley way, where you'll get to it tomorrow. It's just always piling up, more and more to do, and some of it has to happen on certain days of the in game week, and it's just a lot to keep track of and do. It doesn't encourage healthy gameplay.

The game is also very bleak. From helping burn witches, to helping neighbors do bad things to each other because they hate each other, you'll be forced into doing a lot of bad things if you want to progress the plot. Not even bad for the greater good, but just being rotten.

It's not the break I was looking for from a sometimes bleak and overworked life. I hoped it would paid off, but it really didn't.

But the gameplay is fairly solid, so I'm sure it's the right game for some people. Complements to the devs for making your basic tools not take up valuable inventory slots, and for using the E and F keys to "do" rather than endlessly having to switch between the right tools.

The depth of the trees for upgrading what you can do is really good, and the barriers to getting to the next part of it seem really well thought out. It's a pain to work around, but one that's pushes that Fun button every time you figure out how to get the points you need.

Crafting is really neat, and the ability to automate it later is a huge boon.

The fact that they block you from getting too rich too fast could be annoying, but I think is a good mechanic in the end. It keeps prices from having to ascend into the millions of gold pieces to keep up with what you're bringing in.

While I complain about the schedule with some people only being available once a week, it does keep the town fresh, with specific things that you can only do that day.

It's a good game, with solid design and a lot of plot in it. It wasn't really for me, but I think it's worth a try.

The biggest rabbit hole I have ever played. ADHD on max, even Zelda can't compare with amount of distraction you get while playing this game, you collect the farm, boom corpse arrived, you done with corpse, damn it's a day when you can buy stuff from Astro guy, you do that oh hell nah it's church day need to pray. 12/10 Surgeon's Mistake would recommend 110%

I like the crafty aspect of this game, it certainly has a learning curve in the end. It is certainly rough around the edges, and the developers left a few bits that should have been removed from the build, but hey, I played it for over 130 hours, so it was entertaining enough.

Don't forget that when the game character shows that he's sleepy, it's not about your energy level, it's the way the game tells you to sleep (save) before it crashes, and, considering the amount of work you put in in the beginning, you'll want to do that often to avoid having to do the whole day over.

If you're a new player, get the teleportation stone from the tavern as soon as you can to avoid walking between the graveyard and the village.

The best source of energy is honey in the early game, so it's worth it to get the bees from the beekeeper, some sticks, and paper early on to build the hives. When you need more points, don't forget to use the honey, fruits, and pastry dough to make the cake, it will be useful to get those precious extra tech points when you begin.

Collect blood, skulls, and skin often in the early game, store them somewhere, you'll thank me later.

When you have coins, speed potions from the witch, after you start walking faster, you won't wan't to come back.

In the mid game, try your best to write a gold quality book to make a split prayer, that will give you tons of faith points.

Anyway, lots of small details I could go on and on. The ending of the game is underwhelming, and you'll play this feeling like it could be so much more. But it is certainly fun.

I really, really adore this game and its charm.
It is chill game with cute art and music, close to Stardew valley while you manage local cemetery.. But you are not just Graveyard keeper - in short time you discover many areas the game has - so you also became Garden Keeper, Priest, Surgeon, Miner, Lumberjack, crafter, Jewelry maker, Fisherman.. also Museum keeper, you have own pub to manage... and this all with many local characters and their little stories and interests you fulfill to complete the story. All this is adorable but also has lot of grind inside.. unless you learn how make things bit easier. And also the voiceacting is one of the best around.
As disclaimer here I liked the game already soon after release before any DLC and powerful tools how reduce grind were included, but because the game imho still suffer from poor tutorial I offer few tips to new players:
- use telportstone as often as you want. Hard to believe but I overlooked it for long time in first playthrough. It has quite short cooldown and can transport you to most key locations all over game map in no time.
- Once you get possibility make zombies, do not hesitate even though you delay your research by spending faith - each zombie make significant progress in jobs automation and even with just 2-3 you can just move them around and continuously removing tasks from own pipeline (mostly harvesting and hauling basic resources or farming) - if you focus on it you can make most production (almost) automated
- Sleep is for weak. Dont waste time on sleep (just go in bed for brief moment to remove fatigue debuff and autosave) - from very beginning is worthy to forage and cook for replenish energy instead rely on sleeping
- once you unlock alchemy, use speed potions - they are easy to make and improve game experience overall a lot
- use bodies as any other resource, carrots are easy to make and once you harvest form bodies what you need (eg blood and fat) you can just burn it - no need to consider bodies as something scarce, they are unlimited.
- take your pace, no reason to rush. You are never penalized for taking time and you really do not need to do all jobs and attend everything 100% time. If you spend full week just by farming or making wine it is totally ok, all quests and npcs wait for you,
- it is good to deal with cellar dungeon rather sooner than later. It is good source of important items and resources. Be sure you keep blood nails for Snake (maybe only way how fail the game?) rest can be cleaned and used freely.
- blue research points are in general most valuable - research of body parts and gravestones is most efficcient way how get most of those until you get better overview of all options.
- kinda intuitive but better church quality significantly increase faith gain (even for low tier prayer) while cemetery quality the money reward for each sermon - long term those 2 should be major focus.
- commercial prayer reward allow progress trader tiers if you want progress some trader for reach his best goods it is by far fastest and easiest way
And to DLCs if you own those:
- Refugees are worthy to invest and prioritize their quests, beside many lucrative rewards needed for late game quests you get access to bags expanding inventory and they also became source of unlimited cooked food in huge amounts.
- the storyline of own pub is good source of money over time and also bring lot of free alchemy recipes - good if you do not want search internet for those (though you maybe still do for alchemy components sources:p
- I found remote control of workstations via souls not very efficient but maybe it is jsut habit I came to this feature too late and I rather teleport around and do stuff personallyy

Graveyard Keeper, a game that's less about tending to the dearly departed and more about embracing the futility of existence. You're thrust into the rotting boots of a medieval cemetery manager, tasked with the Sisyphean challenge of keeping the dead... organized. But don't let the cute pixel art fool you, this game is a digital representation of your inevitable descent into nihilism.

The gameplay is a grim, relentless slog through the mundane. Plant crops, craft goods, cut down trees, and bury bodies with the same enthusiasm you'd reserve for brushing your teeth before bed - because you know tomorrow will bring more of the same. The days blur into a never-ending cycle of decay and commerce, a metaphor for the repetitive nature of life itself.

As you toil away, the villagers, who are as charming as a plague-ridden rat, demand your services with the kindness of a tax collector. They're all too eager to offer you quests that feel as meaningless as the lives they lead. The dialogue is darkly humorous, but it only serves to highlight the bleakness of your existence as you juggle the morbid economy and their petty desires.

The crafting system is a labyrinth of despair, with recipes that seem to mock your very existence. Combine a skull with some flowers? Sure, why not add a dash of irony to your crafting concoction. The only thing growing here is your sense of dread as you realize that no matter how many bodies you bury or how many potions you brew, you're just delaying the inevitable decay of everything around you.

The game's story is a macabre tapestry of choices that lead to the same dour conclusion. It's like playing a game of chess with Death, where every move you make is met with a knowing smirk from the Grim Reaper, who's already planning his victory dance. You'll uncover secrets that make you question the very fabric of your digital being, but in the end, you're just rearranging the headstones in a graveyard that's destined to swallow you whole.

In a world where the only constants are death and taxes, "Graveyard Keeper" captures the essence of an existential crisis with unsettling accuracy. It's a game that whispers sweet nothings of despair into your ear while you play, making you wonder if you're truly in control of anything at all. Or if you're just a pawn in a cosmic game of corpse Tetris.

So, if you're in the mood to feel small, insignificant, and utterly consumed by the void, pick up your shovel and dive into Graveyard Keeper. Just remember, every day is a good day to dig your own grave and fucking die.

I enjoyed it, but it's one of those games that takes over your life for a while. There is so much to do that it can feel overwhelming. It can also be a bit tedious before unlocking some automation. It's not a game that respects your time.
Fair warning: The game features some pretty dark themes like cannibalism, witch burning and creating zombies out of dead people (to name a few). These topics are not really treated with care, but rather as business opportunities. If that sounds off-putting, this might not be the game for you.

Simply put, this is the most tedious game I've ever played and this is the only game where I'd say a wiki is required to not lose your mind, I was ready to stop playing entirely before seeing other people recommend using one.

Problem #1 - You move so slow, the game is completely unbearable without the teleport stone, there are a lot of dumb things that you can't walk around or remove, like fences that are constantly in your way.

Problem #2 - Building things can be incredibly tedious, 1-5 steps for each item you need, many workbenches and objects can't be rotated, and worst of all nothing can be moved. If you need to move something you have to destroy and rebuild it, you also lose a good portion of the resources when you do this, making it especially punishing.

Problem #3 - Maybe the biggest problem and why you need a wiki, most aspects of this game are exceedingly complicated, that's not inherently a bad thing. The issue is the tool tips, they are basically non-existent, the tech tree is massive and when/after unlocking blueprints it won't tell you what resources it takes to make the things you've unlocked, you can only see that at the building station and your resources probably aren't stored near that table, so you need to remember what is required on your slow trek back to where your resources are stored. Also you'll often spend hard earned points to unlock tech that requires other tech to work and you'll have no idea until after it's unlocked, so much isn't explained in this game

It would be a massive quality of life improvement if all storage connected to all building stations, to prevent constant backtracking, but instead only the chests in a designated area connect to those workbenches, it makes sense, but it's not fun in the least and it adds hours of boring/annoying slow @$$ walking.

On the other hand sermons are only described in the tech tree, but not when you go to make them, so you have to reference the tree to be sure it's what you wanted to make, also it just doesn't fully describe what each sermon does, you'll need a wiki for that, not a huge inconvenience, but a completely unnecessary one.

Problem #4 - There are true failure states where you could brick your playthrough and have to restart the entire game if you destroy/modify certain items like the bloody nails which the game allows, also if you deconstruct the wood stockpile before building the saw or before cutting enough posts, you'll have to reload your day, because you can't build a new stockpile without posts and you can't cut any wood without it being in a stockpile.

Problem #5 - The quest system is annoying, giving you very little information, it also shows everyone you've ever met and doesn't sort them by if they have a quest or not, so you have to scroll through the whole list to see what needs to be done. Text is also small, doesn't wait for a click to progress, and can't be paused, so if you get distracted and miss something important, too bad, better go check the wiki again.

Overall I obviously have a bunch of criticisms, so why do I still recommend the game? Because it's hard to say this is an irredeemable experience, I can honestly say I've never felt like a "hustler" in a game before, where you're scrounging up money from so many different sources, it's like a "get rich by any means necessary simulator" that has you juggling 10 different side hustles at once. This game really feels like Stardew Valley's weird, over complicated, morally bankrupt brother, but it just misses the mark in some important ways, that if you can get past, there is fun to be had.