Craftopia

First things first: this game is NOT abandoned. Scroll up to the top of the store page and look in the top right corner. As of writing this it says: "SUMMER UPDATE 2025". So anyone who is saying that and not reading the news is blind.
Second: "This Game has been early access for 5 years!". Yes and no.
I've been playing this game since November 2024; from what I could gather, the original game that's called "Legacy" was worked on until the "Seamless update" which is now being worked on since about a year ago. This was put to a vote to the player base and they wanted seamless; so EA was extended. The legacy version is no longer being worked on. So EA has only been for about a year (June 2024, I believe) atm and this game's world is being remade from the ground up and new items are being introduced.
So essentially apart from the assets, the devs had to start over.
Now then:
I have only played this in single player on survival difficulty and not in Co op; which I heard is bit unstable. I also have not played on the newly released flat empty island either.
This game has optimisation issues and that other people have reported this too. It's still needs to be worked on in this aspect. I have an old a** CPU, but for the life of me I can't get this game to run more than 45 FPS even with all the graphics turned down. There are various things like enchanting that the game did not explain well and I really wished I knew earlier on in my playthrough.
The game on survival difficulty might be a bit too easy. If you're looking for a bit more of challenge then play it on a higher difficulty which can be changed and customized mid playthrough.
One thing that that this game lacks is landscaping like you can do Valheim. But I don't think the devs can do it fundamentally on the way the game is designed. Shame.
But I do find this game fun and I can see a great co op game here and the fact you can potentially play as any character ever using the native Vroid support only adds to the fun. Want to play as Megumin from Konasuba or Senator Armstrong from MGR? You can. There are QoL additions and features here that really make this game's experience more enjoyable. I find the combat fun but it might be a bit too casual for some except for maybe using the katana which I main and it's a pretty technical weapon in this game.
I can't wait for this game to come out of EA which I believe is soon. All I can say is watch this space.
If you're still ambivalent on buying this game, then maybe get it in a bundle with Palworld while it's on sale like I did.

Craftopia is like breath of the wild and minecraft had baby, the best part about the game ive found so far is being able to basically kidnap goblins from there families and force them to work for the rest of the lives just to power my stuff

This was fun for the 209 hours I put in. It probably would've been longer had we not gotten flying mounts and kept exploring the map. I suggest you avoid flying mounts until you're at the last hell biome since it takes fun off of exploration. Ended up skipping 4 biomes but that's not the games fault I guess.

I came in with no expectations and ended up no-lifing the game for 200 hours.

this game has potential and is the prior child of a company that released a hit game, hopefully more content will arrive soon and this game gets some major bug fixes

I love the game. It focuses on character instead of collecting pals. Would love to see this game and palworld merged.

I am someone who has been following Craftopia Early Access since pretty much it came out, and I have to say, the point they reached in 5 years is not amazing. The game is still not optimized, has a lot of bugs etc. like any alpha game.
But trust me that there is a good reason for all of this.
Before the game's current version, the map was split into 100 island maps that were very similar to each other, but were getting progressively harder as you moved on and explored further. They completely nuked this game and started anew with the scraps. IMO, this was the right move as the previous versions were super repetitive and uninteresting. But this also means that they had to start from scratch and had to piss off some of the players who expected more from a game that was 4 years into the early access (back when they changed everything, and they did piss off so many people).
But what they got right and what makes you play this game is definitely the good amount of variation of builds in the game, with each weapon and build having their own animations and play styles. The vehicles in my opinion are garbage and are way too buggy to use, but they are fun when they work. The dungeons are not bad but can be repetitive after a while (kind of like in Palworld). The new open world is super cool with nice treasure hunting, fun bosses to kill, puzzles to solve etc. Yes it is a clone of Breath of the Wild but that was the original selling point of this game anyways.
There is so much more to talk about this game that you can see from other reviews, and I know that people are saying "because Palworld came, the devs have ignored this game, its abondonware" etc. but this is factually not true as this game is still receiving monthly updates with new content and bug fixes. This game was always made by like 5-6 people and it still is being made that way, and the game's scale is enormous. It is one of the games you need patience with.
If you want to support the devs you can get it at its asking price which isnt a lot (25 usd) or better in a sale. If you don't care, then simply play Palworld as that game has much more content and is better polished. Just remember that this game's scope is bigger than Palworld's and it has a unique taste to it that Palworld does not give you.

It is a great game. It is the predecessor for Palworld, but I feel there is much more content in Craftopia. You don't need to rely on pals to craft and play the game, thus providing the player with freedom to explore the world, and develop its skills and upgrade gear, which for me, is the part I most focus my efforts on.
Other than Palworld, there is an obvious element of Genshin Impact/BOTW in the art style and gameplay, which I interpret as a good thing. The world is massive, exploration is rewarding and definitely gets better along the way to the end game. For once, I've tamed the griffon boss, allowing me to fly across the map. But there's plenty of teleport points, so no matter what your game stage is, you will never feel limited in that regard.
Enchanting is a thing, and is pretty much required to progress through your gear. Feels like grinding artifacts in GI, with the domains and everything, minus the energy system. It gets grindy, because you need to obtain multiple copies of said enchant to apply to your gear, which for me, is a positive and I enjoy it. May or may not be your thing.
Crafting gets crazy fast. You can automate everything, and if you care about efficiency as much as I do, be prepared to waste hours on that.
There is Vroid support, which is huge. You will never need to waste a dime on cosmetics, something that is rare to hear about in today game industy.
About the 5 years in EA, I get it. But is a great game nonetheless, I'm 38 hours in, and I still haven't scratched the surface really. I feel like its there is a good mix of crafting/survival/gear progression in this game that appealed to me more than any other game in its genre. I would recommend trying for sure and maybe wait for a sale if you're no sure, but keep in mind the game is not abandoned as other may say and Pocketpair is still pushing updates and bug fixes.