Graveyard Keeper

I was always hesitant to pick up this game due to multiple reviews describing it as "grindy", however I do not regret my choice at all. I find it is "grindy" in the sense that, yes, certain tasks require a long time of holding the action key, and some tasks could be described as tedious; however I have always found this game to be therapeutic in its nature due to the lack of deadlines, the gorgeous pixel art, and the charming music and dialogue.
If you want a game that fully requires your attention, this is most definitely not it. But if you're someone who likes a casual game to relax, unwind, and zone out during a few action mechanics accompanied by charming scenery, then this game might just suit you perfectly.

I like the art and feel of this game, but there are some areas for improvement that the devs should consider:
1. The zombie alchemy decomposer can only go in one place. That's fine but don't let me build expensive stations there....
2. ....which leads me to; Let us re-locate work stations. We can move graves, why can't we move a dumb table?
3. Everything should be sell-able. I have so much stuff that I have to throw away. Let me sell it to one of the people (swords,
armor)
4. Farming should have more star mobility. It's too easy to get to gold and stay there. Let there be more range at harvest and have
the seeds determine probability.
5. Add a clean-up porter to the main hut. He can slowly gather rocks and logs that are left all over the map.
6. Include an endgame level way to tie all your craft areas together from a storage stand-point. Maybe an under-vault with
expensive porter stations. There is too much pointless walking between areas right now. That's not a game. That's a chore.

Did I enjoy this game? I honestly have no idea. I kept playing it until I finished the main quest, but I'm not sure if I was enjoying myself or if I was just going through the motions.
I liked:
The concept
The farming
Managing zombies
Improving the church
Unlocking the skill tree
I disliked:
The slow walk movement
Teasing inaccessible locations
The grind to upgrade things
The restrictiveness of placing items in the yard and church
The grind in general
I liked the game, but I wish I could like it more. If you get this on sale then give it a go I say.

First - I'm a generally negative person so i'm going to cover the negative.
There is a lot of grinding. if you are not a fan of gathering ridiculous amounts of resources for incremental improvements to get more resources to learn more things so you can get better resources blah blah blah - if you are not a fan of the grind, this game will get painful. There are ways to minimize it, but there is no way around it if you want to max out the tech tree and experience everything that there is. If you want to make due with what you get and what you unlock, then the grind is much less difficult. I found the grind pleasant but for the kind of game this is, it is excessive.
Inventory management will be difficult. You will need many different storage areas to keep all the different resources and projects you are working on both organized and out of your inventory. There are never enough inventory slots. you can access any inventory that is in the local area, but that does not change that there are 7 separate places that stuff is needed to be stored, and some of them overlap. be prepared to leave stuff on the ground and have to come back for it later as well as needing to pick things up and transfer them between areas until you have your process sorted out.
The timing system in this game is problematic. Each story important character only appears in town once a week and only for a certain period of time. It is never convenient to progress in a quest line because of it usually leading to at least 3 or 4 hours (in game) being killed while waiting for someone or making a mad dash to hopefully get there at the last second. if you miss that second, you have to wait another in game week.
The last thing that gets repetitive is the refining of resources from one form to another. this is less of an issue after a spoiler, but the early game suffers from the monotony of tree and stone cutting, then refining into the usable resources because your character can only grab a single large chunk at a time that refines.
All these negatives require thought and planning to not become frustrating
I'm not much of a planner in most video games so there are many times where i had quests completed for a week or two but because i was quarrying a specific amount of stone, wood, marble, cooking or whatever i was doing that i needs just one more minute to complete and that was one minute too many.
But I loved this game. It is fun, it is funny, it doesn't take itself too seriously and there is always a billion things that can be done. I rarely replay games because some of them don't have enough story/fun for me to desire it, but as the DLC approaches, i'm remembering how much i enjoyed this game.
Frankly, i'm a fan of resource grinds so gathering is fun for me and I quickly memorized all the movements of the townsfolk. If i hadn't artificially stunted my own progress to skip the midgame, i think things would have been much smoother for me.
Is this game for you? If the tech tree is an achievement list, then this may not be your thing unless you will enjoy hours of fetching and refining to get the necessary points for the last few bits, then probably not.
If you need to have the best stuff everywhere and won't be happy until everything is maximized, but don't enjoy the amount of time it will take to get there? the probably not.
Will you laugh at a joke made at the player's expense?
I find this game endlessly charming and worth every second I put into it. I'm about to start up a second playthrough and take it a little easier this time. Instead of needing everything to be perfect, i might can settle for everything to be good and enjoy my time. I am deliberately leaving this part short because the best part about this game is the story and there is no way to describe any part of it without spoilers. looking at the various intricacies of it after writing this review has left me thinking much more fondly about this game so i'm going to start that playthrough.
keep your eye on the clock and don't take yourself too seriously and this game is well worth a purchase.
Edit: The Stranger Sins DLC has made money so much easier to get that the limiting reagent happens to be time and focus. The game is made less grindy, easier, and using money is less of an issue. There is still inventory management, but you can just put down one more trunk

Addicting. Certainly not for everyone (but definitely for me). In my first 20 hours of play I finally found that feeling again of playing Stardew Valley for the first time. I continued to enjoy my next 45 hours in this capitalist purgatory and expect to continue twiddling away.
On the negative side, this seems like a corporation's response to Stardew Valley. It seems partially thought-out, has scope creep, and is missing some heart. It is clear when so many little things are off - inventory management problems (many glaring but also batch-moves are inconsistent), translation, pause, inconsistent animations (why does the Bishop still use the mirror he gave me?), and annoying crafting inconsistencies.
There was a nice effort in putting this game together and it has even more potential, along with these and other several issues. There are a decent number of funny moments but I feel like there could have been more too.
Additional Details

Operating System
Ubuntu Linux 18.04 x64


CPU
Ryzen 5 1500x


GPU
GTX 1050, nvidia-440.100


Game Saves
Automatically when you wake from sleep


Notes
Did Steve Breslin (credited) get paid for the English proofreading? If so, where can I apply for his job?


Technical Notes
Unity game engine, no problems

I enjoyed this game a great deal. At this time, I have 359 hours in it, much of it trying to learn all the interesting lore.,
Its quirky, odd, has strange humor, fun at times, frantic at times, and all about managing your grind.
I enjoyed the grind here, far more than Stardew valley.
There is so much to do, its ridiculous, I hope for more content tho.

Highly recommend Graveyard Keepers if you enjoy games of this genre, i personally enjoy this more than stardew valley but its early on haha. Several of the negative reviews could be solved if they had a decent tutorial for very early game basics. I thankfully found a very helpful video that helped ease me into the mechanics of early gameplay. Watch "An Idiots Guide To Getting Started In Graveyard Keeper" on youtube by dangerouslyfunny.