Info about Towers of Aghasba:

Official game description:
Decades after the Shimu people were forced to flee their homeland due to the invasion of a mysterious force known as the Withered, the Shimu have returned to reclaim their rightful home: the fantastical island of AGHASBA. As junior architect, it’s your job to rebuild the villages of your once-mighty civilization as well as nurse Aghasba’s once-thriving ecosystems back to life.
EXPLORE THE ISLAND OF AGHASBA  
Traverse varied terrain, scale colossal mountains and gaze out upon jaw-dropping vistas, all brought to life in a vibrant, high-fidelity art style. Befriend strange and memorable creatures, learn the storied history of the Shimu people and uncover the dark origins of the Withered.
REBUILD THE SHIMU CIVILIZATION
Build sprawling settlements and watch them come alive as they’re inhabited by members of the Shimu tribe. Lose yourself in a rich creative sandbox as you decorate and construct your villages in a way that’s uniquely _you._
RESTORE AGHASBA’S ECOSYSTEMS
Restore life to a devastated land by nurturing the growth of beautifully bizarre ecosystems. Grow plant life, attract & feed animals, and work with the gods of Aghasba to revitalize the island.
BRAVE THE WITHERED LANDS
Much of Aghasba is still infested with the Withered, a dark force that absorbs the life from all it touches. Craft weapons, armor and elixirs before venturing into the Withered Lands and battle bloodthirsty Withered monsters, gradually ridding the island of the Withered plague.
EXPLORE
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_Travel across a diverse, living landscape!_  
Climb epic mountains and glide across grand valleys in a beautiful open world.
BUILD
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_Construct sprawling villages!_  
Plan and build towns however you'd like, then express yourself with decorations.
GROW
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_Nurture a fertile land back to life!_  
Oversee the growth of ecosystems full of wonderfully bizarre flora and fauna.
TOGETHER
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_Experience Aghasba with your friends!_  
Go explore, build, decorate, collect items, or simply show off your island in a co-op multiplayer experience with up to 4 players total.
KEY FEATURES OF MULTIPLAYER
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Team up with friends, and together, breathe life back into Aghasba! Each player has a unique island, their own personal world to decorate, cultivate thriving ecosystems, and restore from the blight of the Withered. In co-op multiplayer, players can team up to breathe new life into each other’s islands.  
_  
Please note that multiplayer is currently in a prototype stage._
*   **Cooperative Gameplay:** Join forces with up to three friends (4 total, including the host) to explore and revitalize the island. Engage in activities such as decorating, building, combating the Withered, planting diverse ecosystems, and gathering resources.
    *   _ToA MP focuses solely on cooperative play, with no player-versus-player elements._
*   **Personalized Islands:** Every player maintains their own distinct island, reflecting their creative vision and efforts in healing the land. While islands remain individual and do not transfer between players, the collaborative experience allows for shared exploration and mutual assistance.
*   **Shared Progress:** Items and amity acquired during multiplayer sessions seamlessly transfer back to your personal island. This ensures that cooperative endeavors contribute meaningfully to your individual progress and development.
    *   _Players cannot progress the main quest line in co-op. Dreamlit is currently working on making this possible in a future patch!_

Release date: 19 Nov, 2024

Categories: Base Building, Open-World Exploration, Cooperative Multiplayer, Crafting, Resource Management, Environmental Simulation, Real-time Combat, Single-player Story


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Rewarding world restoration gameplay (weight 0.96): A core element of the game involves restoring a desolate world, transforming barren landscapes into thriving ecosystems. This mechanic is consistently praised as satisfying and rewarding, providing a sense of accomplishment as players witness the visual transformation of the environment and the return of life.
- Unique ecosystem balance mechanic (weight 0.88): The game emphasizes a unique ecosystem mechanic where players balance resource gathering with environmental care. This system, often involving 'Amity' points, encourages mindful interaction with the world, rewarding players for nurturing nature and penalizing destructive actions. This focus on ecological balance sets the game apart from typical survival crafting titles.
- Relaxing and unique gameplay (weight 0.88): The game distinguishes itself within the survival genre by offering a relaxing and engaging experience. It often removes common survival stressors like hunger or thirst, and features unique, quirky elements. This creates a chill and enjoyable atmosphere, appealing to players seeking a more casual and less demanding experience.
- Varied gameplay: explore, build, craft (weight 0.87): The game offers a blend of open-world exploration, town-building, and crafting, providing players with a variety of activities and goals. Reviewers appreciate the freedom to explore, build settlements, and shape the world according to their preferences. This combination of elements contributes to an engaging and replayable experience.
- Stunning visuals and unique art (weight 0.86): The game boasts stunning visuals, a unique art style reminiscent of Ghibli films, and imaginative creature designs. Reviewers consistently praise the graphics, world design, and overall aesthetic, highlighting the immersive and beautiful environments. The game's visual presentation is a major draw, contributing significantly to its appeal and charm.
- Engaging characters and storyline (weight 0.82): The game features memorable and well-developed characters with unique personalities and engaging dialogue. Reviewers appreciate the character interactions and the overall storyline, which adds depth and charm to the game world. The quality of the characters enhances the immersive experience.
- Unique and appealing creature designs (weight 0.79): The game features unique and appealing creature designs that add to the charm and visual interest of the world. Reviewers consistently praise the creativity and detail of the creatures, highlighting them as a major positive aspect of the game's overall aesthetic.
- Enjoyable and intuitive quests (weight 0.68): The game features enjoyable and intuitive quests that are easy to track and provide a satisfying sense of progression. Reviewers appreciate the variety and quality of the quests, which contribute to the overall engaging gameplay experience.
- Responsive and active developers (weight 0.19): The developers are highly responsive and actively engage with the community, addressing bugs and implementing feedback through frequent updates and patches. This dedication to improving the game and listening to players is a significant positive, fostering trust and demonstrating a commitment to the game's development.
- Satisfying and balanced progression (weight 0.15): The game provides a satisfying sense of progression, with a well-balanced pace of unlocking new content and discovering new areas. Reviewers find the gameplay loop addictive and appreciate the constant stream of new activities and rewards. This keeps players engaged and motivated to continue exploring and developing their world.
- Multiplayer mode in development (weight 0.03): The developers are actively working on improving the multiplayer mode, with plans to implement it earlier in the game. While currently in a later phase, the promise of a rich co-op experience with friends is a highly anticipated feature, as indicated by the roadmap.

Common complaints:
- Broken/Limited multiplayer functionality (weight 0.58): Multiplayer functionality is severely limited or broken, with issues such as login problems, lack of shared progression, and limited cooperative activities. Many reviewers feel the game's co-op tag is misleading, as the multiplayer mode is often inaccessible or offers little meaningful interaction.
- Numerous bugs and performance issues (weight 0.5): The game suffers from numerous bugs, glitches, crashes, and performance issues, including long loading times, rendering problems, and freezes. Many reviewers feel the game needed more polish before release, with some experiencing game-breaking bugs and save corruption. Some reviewers noted that the game feels like an early access title.
- Lacks depth and polish (weight 0.31): The game lacks depth, polish, and clear direction, leading to a repetitive and unengaging experience. Reviewers feel the game fails to deliver on its promises and lacks a compelling reason to keep playing, with some describing it as a generic open-world chore simulator.
- Tedious inventory management (weight 0.28): The game suffers from poor inventory management due to limited space, small stack sizes, and cumbersome UI. Reviewers frequently mention the need for constant trips back to storage, disrupting exploration and progress. Some also note the lack of quality-of-life features like item sorting and stacking.
- Clunky movement and climbing (weight 0.12): Climbing and movement mechanics are clunky and poorly implemented, leading to frustration and difficulty traversing the game world. Reviewers report getting stuck on objects, experiencing inconsistent movement speeds, and struggling with the stamina system.
- Clunky controls and UI (weight 0.11): The game's controls and UI are clunky and unintuitive, with a lack of key rebinding options and a design that feels primarily optimized for controllers. Reviewers also note the absence of essential quality-of-life features and inadequate tutorials.
- Limited character customization/content (weight 0.1): The game lacks character customization options and has limited content, leading to a disappointing and incomplete experience. Some reviewers also found the character design unappealing and the game too childish.
- Restrictive building mechanics (weight 0.1): The building system is restrictive and lacks creative freedom, with players limited to placing pre-designed structures that cannot be moved or deleted. This leads to frustrating placement issues and a lack of control over the visual appeal of the landscape.
- Poor camera implementation (weight 0.05): The camera is poorly implemented, with a close field of view, excessive shaking, and limited customization options. This can lead to motion sickness and difficulty navigating the game world.
- Excessive grinding and repetition (weight 0.04): The game involves a significant amount of grinding and repetitive tasks, making the experience tedious and slow-paced. Some reviewers found the quest structure uninspired and the early game particularly challenging due to resource scarcity.
- Unengaging NPC interactions (weight 0.04): NPC interactions are awkward and unengaging, with characters lacking personality and depth. Reviewers also note issues with dialogue windows and the overall responsiveness of NPCs.

Gameplay feedback:
- Simple and accessible combat (weight 0.08): The game features simple combat mechanics with basic attacks and dodging. Combat is generally easy and avoidable in the early stages, becoming more prominent later on. The focus is not on complex combat systems but rather on exploration and resource management.
- Animal Crossing-style multiplayer (weight 0.04): Multiplayer is unlocked later in the game and is similar to Animal Crossing, focusing on collaborative building and exploration. Players can visit other players' worlds and contribute to their projects, but cannot progress the host's main storyline quests. The multiplayer experience is more about social interaction and shared creativity than cooperative gameplay.
- Pre-fabricated village structures (weight 0.02): Village building involves placing pre-fabricated structures rather than constructing them brick-by-brick. This limits player control over individual building elements and customization options. Many buildings are purely decorative and cannot be entered, although they contribute to culture points needed for story progression.
- Repetitive fetch and build quests (weight 0.02): The game features basic fetch, build, and craft quests that often require traversing large distances. These quests are the primary means of progression, unlocking new areas and resources. Some reviewers found the quests repetitive and lacking in depth.
- Unique weapon selection system (weight 0.01): The game uses a unique system for selecting weapons and tools, involving a drag-and-drop interface or a weapon wheel. This system requires pre-assignment of items and may not be as intuitive as traditional number key selection. The game features a wide variety of materials and equipment.
- Unique combination of mechanics (weight 0.01): Reviewers noted that the game combines existing mechanics in a way that creates a unique feel. The game features interesting and new biome mechanics, as well as a unique eco balancing mechanic. This contributes to the game's overall appeal and sets it apart from other titles in the genre.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent visual quality/performance (weight 0.07): Some reviewers mention blurry graphics, a hazy filter, and texture pop-in, even on high-end systems. Others note clumsy animations and jittery movement. The visual quality and performance seem inconsistent, with some finding the graphics appealing while others are underwhelmed.
- Epic login/multiplayer issues (weight 0.02): Some players have encountered issues with Epic Games login and online multiplayer functionality. Patches and hotfixes have been released to address these problems, but some users continue to experience difficulties connecting to their Epic Games accounts.
- Variable CPU usage reports (weight 0.01): Some users have reported that the game causes their CPU usage to spike significantly, leading to increased fan noise. Other users report the opposite, that the game runs quietly.
- High RAM/page file usage (weight 0.01): The game requires a significant amount of RAM and a large Windows page file, likely due to its open-world design and use of Unreal Engine. This can impact performance, especially on systems with limited RAM.
- Black screen issues reported (weight 0.01): Some players have encountered a black screen issue, particularly when launching the game through the Epic Games launcher. This can prevent players from seeing animated cutscenes or accessing the game at all.
- Menu screen shaking/high FPS (weight 0.01): A small number of reviewers have reported screen shaking when opening menus and computers running at high FPS in the main menu. These issues are not widespread, but can be disruptive.

Recommendations:
- Wait for future updates/fixes (weight 0.79): Many reviewers suggest waiting before purchasing due to the game's early access state, bugs, lack of polish, and missing features. They recommend wishlisting the game and checking back later for updates, sales, or the full release. Some reviewers are torn between refunding and waiting for improvements.
- High hopes for future development (weight 0.6): Reviewers express optimism and excitement for the game's future, citing its potential and the developers' commitment. They look forward to future content, updates, and improvements, hoping the game will evolve into something special. Some reviewers are already enjoying the game despite its flaws.
- Needs more polish and bug fixes (weight 0.59): Many reviewers mention bugs, glitches, and a lack of polish as significant issues affecting the gameplay experience. Some find the game unplayable or not worth the current price due to these problems. Reviewers suggest that the game needs more optimization, UI improvements, and overall polishing.
- Recommended for specific player preferences (weight 0.09): The game is recommended for players who enjoy specific genres or elements, such as exploration, crafting, survival, base-building, relaxing gameplay, or unique aesthetics. Some reviewers compare the game favorably to other titles like Animal Crossing, Valheim, or Wildmender, while emphasizing its unique qualities.
- Suggestions for specific improvements (weight 0.03): Reviewers suggest specific improvements to the game, such as increasing inventory size, adding more varied quests, improving city building mechanics, and enhancing NPC interactions. They hope the developers will address these issues to create a more engaging and rewarding experience.
- Support the developers (weight 0.02): Reviewers encourage supporting the developers, praising their responsiveness to feedback and dedication to the game. They believe that purchasing the game, even in its current state, can help fund further development and improvements. Some reviewers prefer to support this game over AAA titles.
- Better as a solo experience (weight 0.01): Some reviewers suggest that the game is better suited for solo play than co-op, citing issues with the multiplayer mode. They recommend the game primarily as a single-player experience or advise waiting for co-op fixes before trying it with friends.
- Negative experiences, refund requests (weight 0.01): Some reviewers express strong negative opinions, with some requesting refunds due to performance issues, excessive grinding, or disappointment with the game's state. These points may show signs of review bombing, so the importance score has been reduced.

Other player notes:
- Game in early access/alpha (weight 0.14): The game is in early access/alpha, which is explicitly stated by the developers. Players should anticipate bugs, unfinished features, and frequent updates. The developers are actively working on the game and responsive to player feedback, with a roadmap outlining future development plans.
- Active developer feedback/updates (weight 0.11): The developers are actively engaged with the community, especially on Discord and Twitch. They are responsive to feedback, bug reports, and suggestions, and are actively patching issues. Some reviewers suggest prioritizing bug fixes over new features.
- Requires Epic Games account (weight 0.03): The game requires linking to an Epic Games account for multiplayer, even when purchased on Steam. Single-player mode is available without an Epic Games account. The game's description should clearly state the Epic Games requirement.
- Distinct, Ghibli-inspired art style (weight 0.03): The game features a distinct art style, often compared to Studio Ghibli films. The visuals are created using Unreal Engine 5.4, with dynamic visual mechanics. Reviewers appreciate the artistic effort put into the game.
- Unique, divisive in-game language (weight 0.01): The game features a unique language that some find annoying, while others find it amusing. The translation quality can be inconsistent, alternating between formal and informal speech. Some find the game's name and animal names difficult to pronounce.
- Resource management and cultivation (weight 0.01): The game balances resource gathering and cultivation. Resources are not shared between villages, requiring players to transport materials between locations.
- Co-op unlocks through story (weight 0.01): Multiplayer co-op is not immediately available and must be unlocked by progressing through the story to the mainland. This may not be clear to players at the start.
- Repeating quest dialogue (weight 0.01): Quest givers repeat dialogue from cutscenes within the quests themselves. Players may get stuck if they miss information in the dialogues, but they can ask NPCs again.

Emotions:
No emotions}