Graveyard Keeper

My biggest complaint is that GK assumes more gametime = better game. GK has taken a fun concept and diluted it into a swimming pool of medium. "Look at all that game!" it says. "Get playing!" it chimes blithely, aiming a gun at your head. # TIME - Weeks are 6 days long. For each day, there is a corresponding NPC that is present at some location for about half of the day. - Days last about 8 minutes. You do not need to sleep (kinda). - Time pauses when you are in a menu/engaged in conversation/etc. - You can skip time by sleeping, but only if you have an energy/health deficit. Otherwise, you can skip time by meditating. Either way, time moves about 10x faster. The astronomer is at the other end of the map, 1 day of the week. We know this ahead of time, so we can get in to position before he's there and wait. If he needs something (which he certainly will, since basically all quests are fetch quests), you'll need to go to your home to get it, which is across the map. If you don't walk immediately there and back, you will miss the window and need to wait a whole week. No big deal, you say - just meditate. Ok. Meditating through a whole day takes 45s. Meditating 5 days is roughly *4 minutes*. This game can't run in the background, and if miss the window you have to wait another 4 minutes, so really all there is to do is wait for 4 minutes. Thrilling gameplay. You would think you could just do other stuff in the game in the meantime, but due to the surprising linearity of the gameplay, you really can't. "You're being dramatic" you cry, "there's a teleporter". And you're right. The teleporter allows you to get to SOME locations around the map instantly*. Unfortunately, this game doesn't want you to have fun too fast: there's a cooldown. I can't think of a practical reason for this: it just feels like the developers thought that everything good must have a price. This sucks in a couple ways: 1. Most of your quests are fetch quests, meaning you have to go see what the person wants, then go home to at least get started on it. Do you remember how I said how time doesn't progress in dialogues? Even though it feels like you've spent time asking about the quest, the teleport stone thinks you've only been there for approximately 1s, and it has a cooldown of about 30s. Measuring this was actually tricky, since when you go to check on the cooldown progress, *time stops because you're in the menu*. So while the cooldown is 30s of 'game world time', it might be a little longer in 'your world time' if you check the menu. You'd THINK you'd be able to keep this item in your hotbar, but no, you can't. The teleport stone costs the thing its saving you: time. This makes for an odd paradox. You want to go home, but it would be a waste of time to walk. However, you can't teleport, because you're waiting for a cooldown. And you can't do anything in the meantime, because most things you need to do are back at home. So you just stand there. For 30s. That you can't even directly monitor. 2. The teleport stone doesn't take you everywhere you need. There's a witch in a swamp that for reasons I cannot determine does not have a teleport location. # UI/UX The UI isn't visually offensive, but using it is grating, and something you have to do a *lot*. Some of it feels like a temporary solution that just sat there so long that the developers became blind to it. Some of it feels like it was tested for functionality only, rather than ergonomics. Honestly, some of it just felt like they were bumping up against the limits of their codebase. I have a document with no fewer than 40 points of UI/UX oddities (because I am insane). None of them are game breaking, but in total they wear on you, making the entire process a bit like moving through sludge. Sometimes the come together to create synergistic, emergent issues which would be quite beautiful if they weren't conspiring for evil. Examples: - The game is obsessed with modal popup windows. It's like if every time you wanted to plant something in Stardew Valley a big window came up that was like "What would you like to plant?". - You can only sell or buy 6 items at a time per transaction. You can buy more, it just requires another transaction. The limit on this is baffling. - You get body pallets that can hold two bodies - let's call them X and Y. X always fills first. If you add another body, Y gets filled. If you take the body from X, the body in Y moves to X. This is *incredibly confusing* if you are trying to, say, look at the body in X and then the body in Y, because to do this properly, you'll want to extract the same position in the modal window twice. It's going to feel like you're taking the same body twice. Also, bodies have very little distinguishing features. It's a mess. - The 'menu' button on the controller will open to the last open menu tab. If I need to access the map, I can get used to quickly opening the menu and pressing a shoulder button a couple times. However, if it always opens to the last open menu, I don't have any kind of muscle memory for that. I need to open the menu, figure out where I am, figure out how I get to the map from there, and then do it. Seems like a little thing, but it honestly sucks. - In alchemy, liquid + powder is not the same thing as powder + liquid - You can see the effects embalming agents have in the tech tree when you unlock them, but not when you're trying to craft/use them. There are many, many others I cut for word count limits # GAMEPLAY At no point in the gameplay did I feel like "ah, finally - now X will be so much easier". Furthermore, completion of the quests never felt like they were rewarded - they felt more like ever-increasing benchmarks. Furthermore, there was nothing to live for *outside* of these quests - no charming dialogue with the villagers, no real decoration to speak of - nothing. It felt like chores. It was often challenging to figure out how to even progress. The game presents itself as having many different questlines, but they're really only one quest line - a linear series of chores given by different NPCs. You might progress in one questline for a certain amount of time to have it all of the sudden abruptly stop for reasons you aren't sure why. It's likely because you need to progress some other character's quest line instead. Another reason is that there isn't any kind of completed quest line, or maybe it's in the DLC. Because there's no reason to need to progress outside of the quests, quests always feel a bit like they're leading you by the nose. You're never *already* doing something. A quest tells you it needs something and you do it, because what else are you going to do? And then there's often the question of HOW are you going to do that thing? You might posit that this is a game about exploration, but this exploration is often expensive and unrewarding (alchemy, for instance). I feel like an in-game wiki would work wonders. I got tired of writing stuff. I just want to play a different game now.

I loved this game and have been looking for another comparable game ever since..

what if instead of stardew valley it was called FREAKY valley and instead of planting crops and fishing you desecrated corpses and talked to a communist donkey

I dont know this game teach player to be great footballer, you know why ? You must dribbling the resource (rock, log etc) cuz you just can carry 1 resource, wanna save time then go dribbling those resource. Physisc that you can push or be pushed by resource make you crazy when you mining, wanna mining with just 1 button ? sorry you got pushed by rss so you must move a little, its over and over again like that. You forget you just build that facility yesterday ? Sorry we can't inform which facility you already had, so now you had 2 sawhorse. Did i tell you, you must move back and forth from "Building table" to build or remove facility so you need that little space for trunk? first go to building table then choose remove facility then walk to that facility to remove it then go back again to building table to choose your thrunk then walk again to that location to build that thrunk. Simple right Whoa what a vast land, must be cool to build many kind of facility. Nope, we give you just these tiny plot and be grateful for it and dont forget road to that facility so you can use it, if got blocked ? relax there is remove facility You wanna build facility in the quarry ? Must remember ALL rss for you after check it in building table at quarry, you dont remmber exact number just bring ALL of those plank or nails etc in your tiny backpack. When you check the control setting , you see all of it use keyboard and you be like "cool just rest my hand at keyboard" not so easy my boy. You MUST use mouse to confirm inventory,build facility,sale stuff etc. So i can just change the control from mouse to keyboard or keyboard to mouse right ? Noooo, you cant even change it to anybutton in your normal mouse or mouse gaming, so you must be glad that you use mouse when to confirm some things The top principle of this game is "Freedom" so you can do any quest anytime you want, but why i must go to this guy first before complete the quest the second guy ? Sory my boy, you can do anytime you want but that guy and the guy that you must meet for his quest and other guy is important too. So multiple quest, fun right We know when we play game time feel passes faster right ? You can feel it most at this game, you go out in the morning for trimming wood when you finish its already dark. Fast right, even your game remind you that time passes faster

God I wish these graphics could be deployed in a game that's actually fun to play.

Chill game with plenty to do. If you like Stardew Valley and like this more macabre theme, pick it up.

Fun way to pass time. It can be a bit tiresome until you get automation and also when waiting for random drops. But it's entertaining and kept me locked in for hours.

An amazing game with a good sound track, a great way to pass the time and enjoy another 10/10 from Lazy Bear Games!

After you learn what you are doing the game is really fun and full of stuff to get done. Only downside is quest lines that require people on different days takes a while and the one day people puts a lot of breaks on it. Lots of fetch quests too, like its half the game I feel like. But if you enjoy fetch quests and have patience to learn the way things work I highly recommend

Pros: +Great art. I have no issues looking at this game at all, and I can be sensitive to that kind of thing. +Funny characters and dialogue. A few jokes made me laugh out loud. +Feels cozy somehow, even with the macabre theme. +Very well-balanced. +I genuinely enjoy my time playing it. +Not combat-heavy. I'd even consider it to be rare in this game. You can easily avoid most combat unless you're entering the dungeon, and the enemies I've encountered so far have been weak. Gives me less to worry about, which I like a lot. +Can be modded! Cons: -Incredibly grindy. It's practically a crafting simulator, in which you need y thing for z, but wait, you need x thing for y, but wait, you need w thing for x... yeah, something that you think will take 30 minutes can take 3 hours or more. -Not intuitive. There's no tutorial at the beginning of the game, which I can certainly appreciate, but if you think you're getting through this game without the wiki... honey, you've got a big storm comin'. No quest tab, no hand-holding. You had better remember the dialogue! -Lacks customization options. No character creator, can't decorate much... heck, you can't even see your armor on your character when you put it on. As a creative, I'd love more options all around. -The Town is currently completely inaccessible. Any attempts to go are a waste of time and effort. Despite my qualms, I do love this game, and will absolutely be recommending it to friends and family. I wish I made more progress with the time that I invest into it, but I still enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn't be playing it. I'd like to see it get even better. 4 stars.

I love games like harvest moon and stardew valley. I love grinding in those games to make my stuff better and feel a sense of progression. On paper I should love this game. However I don't. Its made artificially grindy purely for the sake of it and 10 hours in I am already over it. Not going to bother playing a game that clearly doesn't respect my time.

Taking care of a graveyard is fun, getting small red, green, and blue dots is fun, learning by spending those dots is fun, and overall it is just a great game. There were a few things I wasn't too fond of like a body always showing up at the worst time, but I played it to completion and liked everything except fishing. I just don't like fishing in games so it is nothing on this game, just the way things work. It is pretty unique that you can do some rather dark things in this game as well like feeding people human flesh and stuff, which is somewhat messed up, but catching all those frogs for meat is far worse as fishing is the worst. Also, late game gets somewhat tedious when you are carving statues and you have an 80% chance of getting a gold and then pull three silvers in a row. Still, if you like a game like Stardew Valley then this is similar. The end goals are really fun to achieve as well. I do hope they make more, but looking at it the developers seem to be done with it. I may try modding next if I can find one that lengthens the story or something as the mechanics are great with very few wants for improvement. I wish I could remember how que things forever for my zombies though, I forgot and it is bothering me if anybody knows how just post a reply. I guess I'll just look it up online sometime, should have done that a while ago, 20 20 hindsight.

Literally the most boring farmville/stardew valley clone with a graveyard veneer I've ever played.

I want to like this game. But the progression is so unclear Ive spent multiple game days just trying to fibd the place where to craft something and it just gets very frystrating. The menu to see quests doesnt tell you the certain day when someone is available to talk to, you just have to memorize the day (represented as a symbol) and hope you dont forget. It coyld be good but the quests and progression system make is more frustrating than an enjoyable structured game.

I did not expect to get hooked on this one as hard as I did. It really nails the "one more thing" mentality that kept me playing late into the night. Great fun.

Everything you do costs energy that can only be replenished with sleeping or eating, including just swinging a sword. Time in the game never stops, even when you're in menus or suffering NPC's horrible dialogs.

I want to like this game I really do, I've tried on multiple occasions. And I see the love that was put into it. But the games not for me. Something about it is too complex and slow paced for me. I see why some people love this game, but its not for me.

Game is unplayable crashes when I add new graves and crashes when I save. Its probably not going to be fixed at any point as the devs have gone radio silent so don't buy unless you want to risk spending money on a game that doesn't work.

The game repeats itself at many points, even at the very beginning. You don't know what to do, you don't know which of the many tasks you need to do in which order. It's not nice that it's so challenging and boring at the beginning. Even though I tried to force myself to continue, unfortunately it wasn't possible.

Great game! It's like a mash up of Stardew Valley, Runescape, cult of the lamb and Elder Scrolls games. If you want to get more friendship with certain characters you have to buy the DLC's. The DLC's are pretty good aswell. Wish certain NPC's and Gerry had more storyline in the main story but the DLC make up for some of them. One thing that made me kick myself was missing NPC days for quests. You get 1day limit with the main NPC's and have to wait alot of in game days to continue their questlines. I skipped the dialogue at first but learnt pretty quick that you need to read it. The quest adjectives in the NPC Tab can be vague so reading the dialogue is a must. Overall a cool concept and storylines! I played it mainly for the storyline and didn't really farm or make my graveyard look nice. I think the game would benefit with having more quests that make you use the farm/upgrade graves etc.

I never expected to get this enthralled by a game about corpses. I usually want my farming sims to be as cute as possible. But this one knocks it out of the park and is just so satisfying to play.

Loved this game, and have been searching for something similar after completing the main story and DLC's

Bugged game, Donkey Stops coming. I did everything but he never shows up again.

it is absolutely, extremely, exceedingly, exceptionally, tremendously, extraordinarily fun!!!

Gosh, I love this game. I tried all these open-world-farming-crap before (e.g. SV) but this one is the one that stole my heart. Nice cementery climate, you work mostly with introverts, her ghost in the fog, I have to give it 5/5.

Played the tutorial a bit, closed the game because of a mouse UI Cursor bug making it disappear, once I restarted the game there was no autosave due the room temperature IQ of the developers, try not to fall asleep challenge of a game

really great game, super cozy with a little bit of a dark vibe, npc's have lots of personality to them which makes it even more enjoyable to play. only gripes i have with this game are that there is no 'to-do list' unless you look at the 'known characters' tab which can make it a little harder to remember what you've got to do next, and also the inventory space is a bit limited. otherwise, great game to play!!!

1st thing 1st is that i would give this game a thumbs up but will say that it is one of the most frustrating oddly designed games when it comes to how you progress and quality of life things like ui and how they designed questing which is used to progress mostly everything. but STILL I enjoyed my whole 90 hours in the game. just make sure you have a wiki n nearby b because it will be your best thing. just be patient.

This game wants you to do a lot of things, luckily it also provides you with an army of zombies to do almost all it wants from you for you. I love it.

9.5/10 I'm not finished playing this game but so far I really enjoy the game mechanics and story. It's not too hard to figure out what to do but it would be nice if there were arrows or symbols on the map to indicate where your quests are and where people are.

I liked this one. Somehow, these little town building games get me sucked in and this one, by the trailer and humor, I thought id like. A shame I took awhile to play it (backlog problems) but im glad I finally did. The story wasn't bad, the world was interesting and I enjoyed my time as a graveyard keeper. Fair warning, as with other games of this type, it can be a bit grindy amd slow at the start. Its mostly intuitive if you play this style but I did have to look a few things up here and there (mostly recipes) you can go in blind though and enjoy your time. Just stick with it and if ya get stuck, theres definitely plenty of help out there or info in the wiki. Overall, I recommend this game and recently even got a friend hooked into it as well. The dlc...I actually enjoyed all the bits of them, still have a few things to do but they werent bad. Better save soul is probably the one I least interacted with. The game of crones isnt a bad one to run mid game as finishing that track can help you some (no spoilers, but its worth it if you get it). I played just over 60 hours kinda doing it all at my pace but finally finished the main story today so thought it was review time. I'd say its worth a buy and certainly if on sale, definitely worth it no doubt

This is one of those games that does not have instructions or tutorials to tell you how to play the game. Figuring it out against a steep learning curve is part o fit. I hate it.

Played on mac, and repeatedly ran into a bug where my zombie who was initially at 15% efficiency suddenly decreased to 2% efficiency while working on the big tree. Then when I tried to take him off the workstation and then put him back on, the zombie turned into a stone. I exited the game and then reloaded, but got the same exact bug again. Very frustrating.

There's so many bodies and so much to do. Time to spend the rest of my life playing this game.

The game isn't bad but if you are a new player you will have to refrain yourself from requesting a refund. You're just dropped into a story, the npcs in the game give you quests to complete but you don't even know where to start. When I started playing this game I was wondering if I was even doing anything right because the first quest I've received from most npcs took almost 10hrs to actually get to (not using the wiki ) but maybe it's just a skill issue. Something else that really bothered me whilst playing this game is how even as I progressed through the story it never really seemed to get easier there are no ways to really transport anything. It would make sense to have a wheelbarrow or something but no. If you have a kink for games that don't value your time this is for you! (I do 😏). But it still is an amazing game overall

buy it, play it, enjoy, its awesome. needs some better map and locations of npcs, but otherwise. 9/10

O jogo é divertido e tem uma vibe cativante no início porém do meio pro final tem uma "barriga" grande. Ele não é infinito e a única coisa que muda de jogador para jogador é quanto tempo você demora para chegar ao fim. É bem linear. As DLCs são basicamente mini-histórias e mecânicas para tornar a experiência mais interessante porem não obrigatorias, mesmo contendo algumas das minhas quests favoritas. Depois de certo ponto, você só está realizando certas ações por fazer vira rotina e perde a magia. Ainda assim, recomendo, principalmente pelo valor de quando está em promoção. Se você é fã de "cozy games", esse aqui vale a jogada.

Graveyard Keeper is a frenetic drug of a game. Its similarities to Stardew Valley are obvious, but there are a few crucial differences, the primary being that you sleep whenever you need and can stay up all night doing... various things, including questionable ones with the bodies of the deceased. The main iceberg here for a lot of people (beyond ethical quandary) will be that there is just SO MUCH TO DO. Manage the graveyard, inter the dead, manage the church, conduct its services, conduct experiments, gather resources, manage your garden crops, create stuff in your workyard, cook stuff in your kitchen, age and ferment stuff in your cellar... and that's all before the DLCs which each add other places and productions to manage. It really makes you feel like you've dropped into another life per the story, because there's so much going on and then the game will introduce another mechanic while your head is still spinning. Days and nights blend together in frantic sprints around the map trying to keep in mind a string of coherent objectives in a sea of grind tasks, mission objectives, long term goals and the ever present, ever recurring bell that tolls, signaling a new body (and therefore a new precious resource) has arrived on your slab. Is it all good? Definitely not. It's more grindingly frustrating and way more overwhelming than SD. But it's definitely addictive if, like me, you like multitasking life sims and incremental progression in your management schemas. The dark humor is decently well done, not too corny or on the nose but enough that it makes everything more fun. Ultimately the whole package is fun enough for a recommend, but be careful of how time slips by when playing this one.

Nice and chill game with some fun and unconventional elements. I like playing it to keep my mind off things.

Its fun - once or twice. I've played this through a few times and its fun each time they release DLC- (except this last time. Better Save Soul should have been a mod.) Replay is weakened by the linear story on rails, limited sandbox, and pruned tech trees that you have to wait to unlock with the same story elements each time. Also the walking - endless walking! Teleport stone helps, but the 5th time you have to trudge to Clotho in the swamp the farmer, or the miller, you really wish for a sprint key or a spot on the teleport stone. Speed potions? Forget about it until mid game when you unlock the tech to build the bench to make them - then WALK to gather ingredients if you didn't turn your limited sandbox into an episode of hoarders. The game is well made, Fun and entertaining, but don't expect to find much if you aren't into mindless repetition.

Its funny and just enough to do to keep you busy for a couple of days of play you get the dlc on sale right now for and the game for like 10 dollars or so total

Not very fun. Slow gameplay with almost zero explanation. Feels like an unfinished game tbh.

Wiki needed for 90% of the game is sort of ridiculous. I love a convoluted game but not to the extent that im breaking away from the game to focus on how to do something in it...

The game itself is fun, don’t get me wrong I loved playing it. That is until my save file simply vanished, and despite doing EVERY FIX it simply just didn’t exist. Not even in steam’s remote storage. Good luck if you play, and hopefully your hours of gameplay don’t simply vanish.

I'd recommend this game because it has more ups than downs. I'm not that fond of how little the game is involved in any direction because it does get a tad bit overwhelming, but I can imagine the freedom to do what you want to do at any time with little consequence is desirable for some. Just not for me. There were certainly times when I'd just pause and think, "...so what now?" while waiting for certain days to come just so I can progress. Aside from these, the game is beautiful and has a lot to give that you can explore at your own pace. The story is fun and unique too, and I hope it gets better as I go along.

TLDR; If you enjoy games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon, this is your kind of game. But beware, the story and progression take a bit to get used to. Would recommend you only get this game when it is on sale. Since there were a lot of things I either liked or disliked about the game, I'm going to break them up into different sections. I apologize if I compare it to other games like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley a lot, but when you have a game that specializes in a farming life, I'm afraid those are the competitors. OVERALL; 5.5/10 STORY; 5/10 I'm a little disappointed in the overall story of the game. It feels lackluster; you know your goal, your motivations, and what you're willing to get there. Your main character doesn't show much interest in other peoples lives unless it concerns how he can use it to his advantage. I mean, I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, but you aren't given any choice in how the characters interact. In order to get the fullest picture of the story, you'll have to invest in the DLC. However, despite its flaws, the most charming thing about the story is the twisted dark humor. The uncanny pauses in moments where something rather awkward happened, or how they give you the impression they notice the look on your characters face, or even the whole gag with the Donkey literally... plopping... in the middle of the road because he hates capitalism? Yeah, I won't lie and say there weren't moments that earned a chuckle out of me. GAMEPLAY; 6/10 It's a bit hard to understand what you have to do when you initially start. It is /highly/ recommended you either have a wiki page open on the side, or you watch a couple of videos. The game doesn't exactly do a great job in informing you what you should do, how you should retrieve things, or any kind of progression. Unfortunately, the pacing is incredibly slow and it'll take half a day to get to the town and find the person you need to talk to, do quests for, or whatever. There are a lot of fetch quests, and a lot of waiting around for the right time of the week to even interact with said character. You gain no mount or faster mode of transportation despite what the front page art will imply. Mechanically wise, it's a bit messy. You follow a tree of recipes you can earn after earning enough green, blue, or red points. While it is a cool concept, it's nothing like Stardew Valley where you learn the recipe, what station will help you get said item, and what it could make. There is automation, but it's not recommended until you've built up your church for faith as it's vital to creating the "perfect" zombie to help you do your chores. WOULD YOU RECOMMEND? Hmm... I guess I would say yes, but certainly NOT AT FULL PRICE. Get this game on sale and its DLC (especially if you're one of those 100%ers). I did have fun with the game even though there were moments I was getting cranky because I'd have to tab out of the game, go to the wiki to find out who did what, how to get items - stuff the game should really either tell you, or at LEAST give you a hint of where to go.

I like the "Techtree Valley" vibe but it gets really clunky having to figure out -and remember- crafting recipes. Travel can be annoying, and having NPCs or events locked to certain "days" of the week takes away some of the agency in exploration. Don't be mislead by the game art, you don't get a mount. This game definitely came from the era of "wiki required". I wouldn't mind a sequel or remake, because the game setting is interesting and kept me motivated initially.

great game, hard to understand at first, it gets easier as you progressed

TL;DR - A unique take on a farming simulator that does a lot of things right. I'd recommend this to any farming sim fans who aren't afraid of complexity. The world this game immerses you in is full of interesting characters, gorgeous pixel art and a pretty decent OST to boot. The gameplay itself is very addicting once you get the hang of it, I especially like the very involved crafting and processing of resources into a final product. I think my only problem with the game is that there's a lot of what I feel is unnecessary complexity that the game does a very poor job of explaining, I can imagine this being especially frustrating for more casual gamers, but even I sometimes found myself dumbfounded. At the very start of the game the player is bombarded with so much information so quickly it can be a little hard to process. You can often inadvertently "soft lock" yourself. The game gives you rewards for certain quests and then doesn't tell you that you need them for a very specific thing to not halt your progress. When you do anything else with those resources, well good luck since you probably haven't really unlocked all that you need to get them again, so you either gotta make enough money and buy them from someone, or spend a lot of time unlocking the technology so you get them. There's also a lot of things that make me constantly question, why can't I do this? I can build a trunk for storage pretty much anywhere but not in the church basement and morgue, why? I can sell most crops to the farmer but suddenly the higher level crops I can't, why? It's moments like these where I just assume things will work and they don't that really pull me out of the experience, and have me searching the wiki wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Also if you like to play farm games for customization then skip this, as the amount of decorative choices you make is an absolute minimum. Sure there's "decorative" stuff, but not really, as what little is there is not really a choice but usually a better progression of what you already have. Even if you play this game on multiple saves and try your best to make different choices, your graveyard by the end will end up looking pretty much the same. I also don't recommend the DLCs unless you're a diehard fan, and even then buy them on sale. They don't add a whole lot of content and from what I've read from other reviews they are very buggy.

The little sub quests are very enjoyable and the fishing mechanics are satisfying.