My Time at Portia

Now I generally only really review games that I have enough hours in to know how it works, it's mechanics etc so that it can be as honest as possible. Please note that I have marked this as recommended, however, I do have a LOT of issues with it so please remember that not only is this my opinion but my experience as well. This review also CONTAINS SPOILERS!
So, let's start with the good stuff
- It's not just a farming game. It doesn't compare to the likes of Stardew, Animal Crossing, nothing like that. Farming is not something you need to do, it's a choice. I've gone through 80+ hours of gameplay and not once had a farm or farm animal set up. Never needed to.
-It has an interesting storyline that also gives you a break. So you'll have days where you'll have no missions to do. The day is yours. This was also a negative for me as it got to the point where I HAD nothing to do so I would end up sleeping an entire day away.
- It's a pretty simple game. It's relaxing. For the most part, you can play it at your own pace. Some missions have an expiry time but they're not too bad.
- The game time is adjustable. At default 1 real time second = 1 in game minute, meaning days can pass by super quick, however, there is an option to slow the game time down to half that, which I SUPER appreciated when I had a lot of tasks to do.
- This is more of an amusing point than a positive about the game but... Arlo is probably my favourite Portia resident, however, in some situations, such as playing on the swings etc, his constant bored expression is hilarious. Even if you marry him, he just looks bored! Would've been nice for characters to have some facial expression to make them seem more human but then if they had, this wouldn't have been comical for me
Let's move on to the neutrals
- Weapons... I've managed to get the Obsidian Edge sword, which isn't the most powerful but it's up there. Yet, it still takes me 5 minutes of spam clicking to kill one enemy? Doesn't seem right to me. Unless I'm doing something wrong, the balance is off. Frustrating but I can deal with it.
- Commissions... Why are they always the same every day? I seem to get the same requests from the same people everyday. Again, annoying but it got to the point where I stopped doing them.
- Storage. It's great that you have a lot of inventory slots (though expensive to unlock) however, storage boxes? Whole different story... Barely any space in them, considering how many items you end up collecting... I ended up installing a mod to extend the amount of storage capacity I had and even still, I have about 20 storage boxes taking up a room... That may just be my OCD needing a separate box for every type of item though
Now for the bad stuff... Hold on to your hats...
- Certain missions asking for items that you couldn't craft yet... I had a couple of missions that I failed because I couldn't make the item the person wanted as I hadn't unlocked the recipe or diagram to do so which seems extremely unfair because once you've failed a mission, there's no way you'd be able to do it again without replaying the game
- The museum... There's multiple spaces in the museum that are empty. Example, I have an empty small relic space but nothing to put there. There's a giant steel framework stand as soon as you enter the museum which is clearly supposed to be placeholder for something but you can't interact with it or anything. I've done extensive research to find a lot of people saying there are items that go there but they're not available in the game without a mod... What's the point in that?! Which leads me to my next point:
-It's not complete, meaning this game is not complete, despite what Pathea/Team 17 say. It's more like they gave up on Portia in favour of Sandrock.
- The Deepest Ruin... Every time I come out of that place, the game gives me a fatal error and crashes, meaning I then lose an entire day of stuff and trust me, it's not my PC.
- Residents have no sense of personality. Every one is the pretty much the same. Their dialogue is the same. You could speak to someone 3-4 times a day and they will just repeat the same dialogue, unless a significant event has happened, in which case, they'll say their piece, then go back to repeating their standard dialogue. They have no facial expression, nothing.
- Leading on to the voice acting... It's... Not great. Sorry. You can tell that the characters have been voiced by the same 3 people and it just doesn't work. It severely breaks the immersion for me so I have it turned off at all times. Arlo, again, is the worst one. His voice does not suit him at all and he just repeats the same word in the same tone when you speak to him. It's... Gross lol
- Pathfinding... Awful. Characters get stuck on things and then end up teleporting to the ether. They sometimes have no sense of direction at all, especially Ack. I've caught him stuck, running in circles, even in t-pose in the middle of the street. I have also removed his Lara model from my farm (it looked horrible...) and yet, he still comes by to where it was and stands there as though the model is still there.
- Glitchy animations. When entering a building, usually either The Round Table or the Church, everyone in there will stand up, glitch around a bit and then sit back down. Same with people on horseback. They're constantly glitching on and off their horses.
- Some of the mini games/season events are... Not good. The snowball fight is the WORST! You can aim to hit people and the game doesn't count it unless you get it EXACTLY where the hitbox is and good luck with that cause you ain't gonna find it!
Don't get me wrong, this game is fine. However, I don't believe it's as complete as Team 17 and Pathea claim it to be and it's pretty obvious. It still needs some work/updating but if you can look passed all that, then of course I recommend it, despite that the bad definitely outweighs the good for me.

My reviews are never seen. Just know that this game is positive from me and move along

My Time at Portia has all the charm and game play many of us love about other cozy games: crafting, relationship building, missions that advance a story, lovely scenery, and the opportunity for extended game play over many hours. I love that the NPCs are more fleshed out and real than in my all time favorite, Stardew Valley. Have you ever been playing SDV and just wishing you could plan REAL dates with Haley or a real friend play date with Sam? You can do that in My Time at Portia. The focus on crafting vs farming is refreshing. I have gotten used to rotating the camera, though I love that you can make it somewhat autofocus for you in settings. I admit, I had to lean heavily on the wiki to figure out the controls. Using the dpad to access the quick inventory bar still gets me. And I dislike that you can't quickly rotate through your inventory on the quick bar without opening the whole darn window. It's really the only thing that really bugs me about this game, though. I do think I'm so much of a cozy gamer that learning actual battle (not easy SDV battle) will be interesting, but I'm up for the challenge! I don't take to new games this fiercely EVER and LOVE having a new game to obsess over. Highly recommend to all my cozy gamers out there, we can overcome the boss battles together to live in Portia like queens and kings!

My only complaint is that I chose an extremely annoying voice for my character, and I don't see an option to change it. I'm cursed to sound like this forever now.

First of all this makes me almost forgive them for Planet Explorers. Almost...
It's really weird because it feels like a huge mobile (or FB style) game... I just keep waiting for "do you want to pay x irl money to get more x?" to pop up - which never does thank gosh.
I always write these super serious "reviews" with the only question in mind "would I recommend this game"... and once again it depends on the person because while the game is super cute, chill and mostly harmless... it's also full of that tedious grind that makes most people insane. Not me though, I'm not right in the brain.
Are you? Do you love tedious grinding for materials? Do you tolerate it because the thrill of completing a project is worth it? You're not right in the brain and should absolutely get this game. You will love it, trust me. It's everything we wrong brained people want.
If you're normal, just skip it. You can get a wife/husband in this game but you won't survive the repetitive grind. Just stick to that in irl (where I can't handle it).

If you like games like Stardew Valley where you can farm, mine, combat, make relationships, craft etc then this is a definite recommendation. Thought similar to Stardew it has enough dissimilarities to make it not feel like a clone at all. Firstly it focuses on building/carting rather than farming, Although there is farming but it's not the focus. Also there is a main story-line and bosses that need to be defeated in order to progress the story
Main cons include lack of voice acting in some parts and some minor bugs/glitches..

So I only bought the game about 3 days ago and I'm completely devoted now!
As an autistic person with little to nothing to do during the day, I really need purpose in my life to feel productive and useful, and Portia's constant commissions and quests and a storyline to uncover really caught my attention!
I've really enjoyed getting to meet the characters and discover more of the world as I play. The whole vibe of a generally very pretty lighthearted post-apocalypse kinda thing really intrigued me too!
It reminds me of games I've played in the past like Harvest Moon and Slime Rancher but with less of an emphasis on farming alone and more on exploration, discovery and even combat! (I love games with combat mechanics!)
Overall, for a game I discovered incredibly recently and owned for less than a week, I give it a stellar review! I mean, I've played it for over a full day despite owning it for such a short amount of time! And I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to games, take from that what you will lol
There are some minor issues I've noticed, voiced lines are sparse throughout the game (sometimes they have them, sometimes they don't) and they aren't always consistent with the text boxes on screen. Though that's mostly nitpicking, I'm just happy to hear voiced lines full stop haha.
There's also the occasional glitch or two, but I won't hold it against them, given how massive the game seems to be. Every game has glitches and problems and I would be truly petty to get annoyed. Usually I just quit and restart the day. (I also love that mechanic. Sure it's a little annoying to need to end the day to save and quit sometimes, but it's so much better to start off on a fresh day, I can't count the amount of times that, while playing harvest moon, I would open it up only to find myself in the middle of a day with no idea what I was doing or what I've already done so far. Portia doesn't really have that problem, and I love it! It seems minor, but trust me, it really helps!)
Anyway I'll stop rambling. If you're anything like me and need a purpose, love a farming sim from time to time, want something to grab your attention and love getting to know new characters in an interesting world? My Time at Portia sounds like a perfect fit!