i feel awful for the original developers, crytivo should be ashamed of themselves. the original artstyle was so cute and charming. i would feel like total crap if my art got replaced with AI garbage. hidden tower is clearly no good both as developers and for business, crytivo should just drop them already.
The orignal devs aren't any better tho? They clearly abandoned their project and tossed it at the first offer. This game was never made with passion or love.
This is so disappointing. I backed this on kickstarter because of how cute the art style was. The fact that the original developers weren't able to continue with their game makes me sad. I really hope Crytivo gets their act together and fixes this mess.
The art style was the main reason I backed too. I would totally accept this mess of a game if it looked the way it did in the Kickstarter promotional material. I stopped backing games on Kickstarter after this.
Lesson learned: this is why don't back stuff on kickstarter. Everything starts out looking amazing, it's a lure to attract followers. You can pay a decent artist as a lure and then hire a much cheaper one to finish the job, that's business. Then you have the other scam game devs pull, that "finish" a game, you've paid a decent amount for an unfinished game and its entertaining for a couple of hours before you've completed it, when other developers put their heart and soul into a game and charge half of that.
Games like this are one of the reasons I don't support games on Kickstarter anymore. I was burned really badly by 1 company, never again!! (still waiting on my Re:Legend plushies...)
The dark skinned portraits are so horribly done.... It's obv they just slapped on a black multiply layer and lowered the opacity over a light skin drawing, then erased out the eyes.... You can literally see it on Kelly's where her eyelids are white from where they erased 🤦♀🤦♀ What, their AI generator couldn't generate dark skinned chibis? haha
I think Kelly may have changed but I did mention it in their feedback to change it. It is either BAD or meant to be covered in coal, but ooff...I hope it gets adjusted.
I have seen some Chinese AI generators that simply could not make dark skinned characters no matter what. You can imagine the backlash, tho to be fair the program was meant for China not other countries. Maybe they used something similar. I think they should just avoid AI altogether because all characters end up looking the same with the same face.
9:04 if you look at his irises, they look weirdly painted in a way that human brushstrokes wouldn’t do. I’ve tried nijijourney out of curiosity and this is DEFINITELY how irises generated by it look. This is definitely AI generated.
Survival Horror Farming Sim. The NPCs are all eerily similar and look somewhat... off. They react to you as if they're meeting you for the first time, every time. They follow rigid schedules with no deviation, if they move at all. Their houses are all exactly the same. You may encounter an event with an NPC out in the field, where they have genuine and realistic (if somewhat strained and wary) interactions with you, they look normal... and they're far away from town. There would be no possible way for the NPC to reach town before you, no matter how quickly they travel. _They are already there, as if they had never left, and they look... off._ Eventually, with enough exploration, you discover a cave system with ramshackle houses in it, and all of the far more convincing NPCs living there. They are... happy to see you. Even happier to get gifts. In fact, a neutral reaction is the absolute worst you can get from any gift. There are no disliked or hated gifts. *You come to learn you are trapped in your role as a farmer in a location where the townsfolk have been replaced by fakes, and the real ones must survive out in the wilderness.* Imagine if it were a real game lol
9:09 Michael's eyes are also asymmetrical. Look at the texture on the irises; one of them looks like it's broken glass, and other has an extra highlight.
I backed this project in the kickstarter and me and several other backers never got any of our keys so I would stay away from this. Literally thought it was dead.
What a shame Crytivio couldn't tell the Devs was using Ai and shame on the Devs not disclosing it either. Unfortunate situation! I hope they hire an artist to draw their portraits or do it their own, turning into Ai is lazy and not disclosing it is dishonest. I hope they can improve the game during the time it's in EA! Thanks for the review as usual!
At first I thought this was a Harvest Moon mobile cash-grab with lazy AI art, but after watching I came to find out it's an indie cash-grab with lazy AI art.
@@dynogamergurlWhy? Harvest Moon is Natsume's project. Story of Seasons is still owned by the original company. Their relatively recent remake of A Wonderful Life is actually really good.
I dunno, I thought Winds of Anthos was pretty great. I stuck to it for way longer than the AWL remake, anyway. I hope they keep up with the open-world stuff to keep it different from Marv’s games. Then between the two companies, I can have a big open-world adventure and a small, comfy, cozy village life. 😌
The way you cooked them in the most subtle way made me chuckle more than once haha It does look like the artstyle had a downgrade and a lot of the disappointments just add up to a huge pile of sadness.
I’m starting to see a pattern with most of not all “cozy” gamer on Kickstarter being scams or taking advantage of people. Puffpals is becoming a HUGE second with their pattern of handling stuff after like 3+ years in limbo and still in alpha. Oh but obviously they can still sell dlc and plushies for the game before release!!! They did this with a 15 dollar autumn dlc last year, said a big f u to the backers with a crap apology then was like, “or but we want the money so we’re still giving the people who bought it the stuff instead of refunding them” which really soured me on my purchase. I can’t even get a refund and their “NDA” can make you lose access to it all with no refund. The nda is a check box in a discord server whcih personally shouldn’t be legal. I spent too much money to care anymore tbh. :/
oh yeah, that art is defo ai. See how the details melt together? The eyes are major clues, they vary so much between characters. even in other games that make different eyes for their characters (like genshin), the style stays the same.
What a shame - the original trailer with the original team looked amazing. Of course their health is far more important than a game! But it's a shame that the new workers don't seem to have even kept the spirit of the idea alive here.
Seeing more about this game makes me think there’s *heavy* inspiration from My Time at Portia. A bus that goes around town, animals roaming all over, and having to place soil to grow crops. But Portia is a much higher quality product than this game. I’m honestly so sad to see this game compared to how it looked originally. This game honestly looks like an alpha build rather than what usual early access games look like. I’m glad the original devs are looking after their health but for what the game’s become, it’s so disappointing. But there’s one positive, that “Yaa!” Really got me 🤣
I was thinking the same thing 😂 Maybe they should've made this as alpha build rather than early release. This game nowhere near ready for 'early release'.
When devs don't have real artists in the projects that have a real say.. we get things like this. Taking shortcuts and all these bugs are not acceptable. It does have potential but still a lot of work needed. 😅 great feedback
It is shocking how many times I've heard of indie devs not caring at all about the art aspects of their games. I'm not obsessed with graphics, but I do expect some standard of presentation.
It's such a shame to see game dev team using AI and buying premade assets when there's so many artists looking for a job, or at least a side project to add to their Portfolio...
thank you so much for this discussing the ai art was very concerning, as an artist it was very disappointing. It looks like it WAS ai generated. I've heard from people on other serves now. As a placeholder, even as much as I hate to say it. But a game--for sale? There is also no emote variations just still portraits. Thanks, okay, had to pause and check that part out first xD watching the rest of the video now!
It definitely is concerning. Even they removed them (mostly because they got caught) and they're no longer in the game, it says a lot about the development team...
also I can tell they tossed a multiply layer over the top of darker skinned characters which is why the coloring on characters that are supposed to be black and dark skinned it looks greyish because they didn't even know how to edit it properly...LOL...
When I first saw this on Kickstarter, I had serious doubts. It turns out, I was right. Now, I'm also skeptical about Ova magica, Puffpals, and Sugardew Island. The reason why I doubt is simply because they haven't shown actual gameplay.
There is gameplay out there for Ova Magica! I played an early build a few years ago and it was actually really fun! But I agree overall though, and I'm also skeptical for Puffpals and Sugardew
It just feels like one of those soulless “cozy games” that come out lately… and im so sad to see it because it clearly had a lot of love and direction in the beginning, so it’s sad that the original creators couldn’t continue but hope they are doing alright. And that the developers can straighten themselves out and make sure to create an actually good game, cuz the base is there and im sure that in the hands of the right people it can potentially be pretty alright
Those kind of games should never be made early access. It changes so much, you've got to restart so many times that by the time the game is complete, you don't feel like playing anymore. So most people that buy it during early access just don't end up having the will to play it once it's 1.0, unfortunatelly.
yeah I liked the original art style too. I guess it was too hard to maintain so they just bought a bunch of models and tried to match that art style instead...
''It's in Early Access'' Some games stay in the Early Access Hell for their entire life cycle. It's no longer an excuse in my book. And from what the comments are saying, there was also a Kickstarter for it. They can and should do better.
i"m in paperless 2d animation, which thankfully isn't something ai can manage yet, I still don't like this. It's ONE thing to use it to finish a bit of rendering or maybe use flow frames for really slow movement, but using straight up for full commercial work inevitably means you stole someone else's work. Of course it's really down to customers and audiences to reject finished work that uses AI artwork, we'll see if they do enough, but honestly I don't think enough people will care T__T.
Farming games have become such slop lately. Farming worked better than this on the SNES in 1996. With the high competition they really need to do better than this. If you can't even provide your own art and using AI maybe just stop. I think I'll be sticking to the upcoming 2D games that don't make everything so slow and generic looking.
Is anyone else put off by the fact we have deer, pandas, pigeons, and zebras all in the same environment? Pigeons tend to live in cities, deer and rabbits live in woodland areas, pandas live exclusively in a particular forested part of China, and zebra can only be found in the hot plains of Africa. Aside from that, a LOT of the complaints I'm hearing have everything to do with it being an alpha/early release. The townsfolk look the same because it's early release and those models haven't been made yet due to not being vital to the game. You can't get inside because it's early release and those areas aren't available yet. The dialogue is boring and repetitious because it's early release and the story mode hasn't been introduced yet. You even say that yourself in the first few minutes that the story hasn't been added yet, so there's no way to have meaningful dialogue without spoiling the story. You "won't be too harsh on the balancing because the game just came out early access", but you'll be harsh about placeholder models and restricted dialogue?
I was going to say that maybe it was a bit overkill to say it was outright suspicious that the portraits were removed or explain signs they weren't AI, but then I say Erin at 8:51. AI isn't the greatest with hair or symmetry. If you look at their portrait in particular, their earrings are a bit off and asymmetrical, and their hair is weirdly blurry around the ends. Most of their portraits don't look *bad*, just a tad generic, so I think there was probably some cleanup involved. One of the characters has a sweater with pretty good repetition, which AI struggles with. It's very possible they modified them enough to feel they didn't need to disclose the AI usage. I think removing them was probably their best bet here, though. I don't honestly think the style of the portraits even fits the game.
Those character portraits were definitely AI generated. In addition to the details you pointed out, AI tends to have a racial bias and fails to correctly depict melanated skin. That Oscar guy was greenish gray.
9:14 also the reflections in his eyes are just a bunch of weird shapes instead of being similar like real eyes?? like, what And looking at his bangs… some parts just don’t connect, not in the human error way where you just draw the lines wrong, but like, it definitely looks like an ai mashed shapes together for the bangs so yeah I see it
It's honestly disappointing the direction this game went in, it honestly feels like this game knew the basics of what a farming sim needed, but didn't flesh it out enough to make the game feel enjoyable. The AI art for the character portraits doesn't help the devs' case, especially since they never disclosed it and even removed the character portraits. As an artist, I could tell that the moment I saw the character portraits, something felt off about them. I wish the people in Crytivo recover for their mental help and wish the best for them. On a bit of a lighter note, Josh, you caught me so off guard at 6:29 with the overpopulation comment
Laughed so hard over the comment about the bus taking care of the animal overpopulation problem.😂 I wasn't expecting a lot, but I did expect more than this. It's a shame they tried to sell...a Unity Template and not a game. smh
Crytivo is now associated with multiple controversies with the games theyre publishing, including this one. Super Zoo story looked extremely similar to stardew valley, many people thought it was a mod, the people behind it were weird towards replies, got so far even Concerend ape had to say, hey maybe tone the likeness down. Then Roots of Pacha was removed from steam temporairily because Cryvito (who were the ones to take it down iirc) had a Rights dispute between the developer, they did come to an agreement and parted ways. And most recently, Farm Folks came under fire for making a weird tweet about, asking about different levels of breast physics, a lot of fans were like hey thats a little weird and not something we're super into, the community manager had basically a meltdown in the discord server and rudely dismisses anyone who shared their thought. And it also resulted in a lot of outsiders, who arent exactly the target demographic, come in and be defensive and weird about it (think of the type of people complaining women in videogames dont look "women enough"). Now not everything is caused by Cryvito directly, and yet i cant ignore how often it happens with their games. So although they are not directly related to some of these controversies, its enough for me to say, be wary of recent games published by them, or at least make sure to look into it beyond the store page.
I backed this on Kickstarter, the Japanese style and art direction had me drawn in. The positive thing I can say, at least something released...but at what costs. -- The Steam page has still not been updated, despite people in Discord telling the team to do so. -- I personally was a very late addition to do pre-release testing (4 days prior release). I want to stress others had more time in testing, not sure how many people and for how long though. -- And when I played for an hour I did question when they want to release it because there was not really a word of it in their Discord. -- The game feels very early Alpha not ready for release, even into early access. And all the points you raised are very valid and true.
It's as if the 2nd dev only continue for the sake of continue it. Chance the new dev is only only 1-2 guy seeing how messy it is, and the 1st dev just leave without oversee it any further. Just using the assets the 1st dev made and barely add their own, which explain the chaotic 3d size The main obvious point is how they use the AI as it is, without any retouching. Bet they are strapped for cash and couldn't hire any artist, even the cheap one. Bcs if they do, they at least would understand how important in game art is, especially for character portrait.
6:23 If that hill was any steeper, the bus would have just grinded to a halt and the driver would have indicated "end of the line, please disembark." Player: But this isn't even the stop. Driver: I said Get Off!
"I never played a good farming game that had bad farming" I rarely find any with any good farming! (aka something more interesting than just plant, water daily, harvest)
You know a game studio like Hidden Tower is a scam when their games have logos that look like they came from a “reference image from the web” bot’s portfolio on twitter 😂 IE Spirit of the Blade. Also let’s not forget Crypto- I mean Crytivo
I was somewhat interested in this game, but for some reason, wasn't that excited for it, I see why. Also, I'm really glad you take the time to do an HONEST review and give details about what you do/don't like about a game. Other YTbers, will just gloss over issues and just say something is "not fso good" and move on, not sure if they are afraid of backlash from the devs or it affecting sponsorships or what. I appreciate the honesty.
Hi! I have been on this channel for more than three years now! This channel is so amazing and I don't regret clicking on the video at all! Yaaaaaah!! 🎣
@@JoshGamingGarden Haha, I am practicing my AI skills! All jokes aside, thank you for sharing your first thoughts! Part of me is hopeful that the game will get fixed. The ideas are great but it's just not up to par yet with other games.
...This looks like a play test. You know, something you'd see when they first start programming things and need to see if there's anything that need adjusting before alpha... As a complete game, it looks likes an unfinished mess...
i'm certainly not the first person to mention it but WOW the designs of those dark-skinned characters look awful. even if they just edited the skin tones on light-skinned portraits you could get a better skin color than that. the straight, blonde hair and the gray skin feel random and incohesive. even just giving them dark hair would fix a lot, but it would still be lazy and uninspired. they REALLY aren't helping the accusations of ai-generated images.
10:33 Look right above the eyelashes on Kelly. I assumed since the generative software they used probably doesn't have enough data on dark skinned characters, that's why it looked bad. But no, clearly not. My new theory is that they had it spit out a bunch of light skinned characters, took the ones they wanted changed, used the select tool on the face (missed a couple spots lol) and TINT SHIFTED the area. I don't know how else they could've ended up with a color that bad. That is hilarious!
"portraits are allegedly ai generated" > portraits with the most common ai art style, tons of inconsistencies even on this small of a space .....right.... allegedly. 🤣🤣
The comment of a dystopian idea where everyone is forced to have the same house, looks and constantly say how happy they are sounds like the horror shit you hear former North Koreans had gone through.
from the comments, this is making crytivo look more and more like a worse publishing company. i thought they were pretty reputable and then crazy stuff happened when Roots of Pacha came out that had me confused why that great game had issues with the publisher and now this is what they're publishing?
This just seems completely unacceptable so far... Shady art practice and incompetence out the gate (or before even stepping out of the gate, given early access).
Literally got stuck right at the beginning. Couldn’t figure out how to put the soil down. There was too much to read on one screen and just was confusing 😢
oh, those are defo ai portraits - look at the one with the star shaped earrings, stuff in the iris being unidentifiable junk, clothes, and ones with the flower on the head doesnt even have correct one on the portrait, not to mention the discrepancy between the portraits and the models in general
I understand the game is early access...but I don't think it should even be early access yet judging by the state of it... And not disclosing that they used ai seems kind of scummy and lazy. I feel like you should at least have a general idea of what you want as a game before putting it out to the public. Early access or not. This game just feels empty and thoughtless... My opinion on what they could improve and make it playable to a person like me would be:: 1. Hire an actual artist to make portraits with different emotions 2. Flesh out the characters more. A lot more. More dialogue more backstory etc. A big reason a lot of players love games like stardew valley is because of the characters, they add life to the game. 3. Add stories, challenges, events, etc. Those are the most important to me personally but as you pointed out in your video. There is a lot that can also be improved on.
There are a lot of things in this game that, on their own, could be overlooked/excused or chalked up to it being in early access. But all of it added together? Gives the EXTREMELY strong impression that no real passion or effort is being put into it at all and that it's likely just an attempt to cash in on farming/cozy games' recent rise in popularity. It's sad to see but I suppose it's just one of the natural pitfalls of a genre gaining popularity.
i feel awful for the original developers, crytivo should be ashamed of themselves. the original artstyle was so cute and charming. i would feel like total crap if my art got replaced with AI garbage. hidden tower is clearly no good both as developers and for business, crytivo should just drop them already.
The original developers abandoned the project.
the original developers are scammers.... why are you so naive?
The orignal devs aren't any better tho? They clearly abandoned their project and tossed it at the first offer. This game was never made with passion or love.
This is so disappointing. I backed this on kickstarter because of how cute the art style was. The fact that the original developers weren't able to continue with their game makes me sad. I really hope Crytivo gets their act together and fixes this mess.
The art style was the main reason I backed too. I would totally accept this mess of a game if it looked the way it did in the Kickstarter promotional material. I stopped backing games on Kickstarter after this.
Lesson learned: this is why don't back stuff on kickstarter.
Everything starts out looking amazing, it's a lure to attract followers. You can pay a decent artist as a lure and then hire a much cheaper one to finish the job, that's business.
Then you have the other scam game devs pull, that "finish" a game, you've paid a decent amount for an unfinished game and its entertaining for a couple of hours before you've completed it, when other developers put their heart and soul into a game and charge half of that.
Games like this are one of the reasons I don't support games on Kickstarter anymore. I was burned really badly by 1 company, never again!! (still waiting on my Re:Legend plushies...)
@@Sang15Mitang I got burned by them too. They never fixed their janky controls -.-
i never backed something but if the project fails (doesnt raise enough money) dont u get it back?
The dark skinned portraits are so horribly done.... It's obv they just slapped on a black multiply layer and lowered the opacity over a light skin drawing, then erased out the eyes.... You can literally see it on Kelly's where her eyelids are white from where they erased 🤦♀🤦♀ What, their AI generator couldn't generate dark skinned chibis? haha
I know 😭 At least the portraits are removed now, but how come no one on their team questioned that gray skin tone. 🤦♂️
They look so ashy. 😭 like, I’m not usually one to say that but that’s the first thing that popped up in my mind.
I think Kelly may have changed but I did mention it in their feedback to change it. It is either BAD or meant to be covered in coal, but ooff...I hope it gets adjusted.
I have seen some Chinese AI generators that simply could not make dark skinned characters no matter what. You can imagine the backlash, tho to be fair the program was meant for China not other countries. Maybe they used something similar. I think they should just avoid AI altogether because all characters end up looking the same with the same face.
@@InazumaDash yea makes sense, as far as I remember, even our character creator looks off for darker skin tone. I used a little tanned one.
"Every day they do the same introduction... which makes sense because they are extremely forgettable" LMAO
9:04 if you look at his irises, they look weirdly painted in a way that human brushstrokes wouldn’t do. I’ve tried nijijourney out of curiosity and this is DEFINITELY how irises generated by it look. This is definitely AI generated.
The lady with star earrings also has an earring completely melted 😅
Also his left eyebrow, it's bit blended into the skin.
Survival Horror Farming Sim. The NPCs are all eerily similar and look somewhat... off. They react to you as if they're meeting you for the first time, every time. They follow rigid schedules with no deviation, if they move at all. Their houses are all exactly the same.
You may encounter an event with an NPC out in the field, where they have genuine and realistic (if somewhat strained and wary) interactions with you, they look normal... and they're far away from town.
There would be no possible way for the NPC to reach town before you, no matter how quickly they travel. _They are already there, as if they had never left, and they look... off._
Eventually, with enough exploration, you discover a cave system with ramshackle houses in it, and all of the far more convincing NPCs living there. They are... happy to see you. Even happier to get gifts. In fact, a neutral reaction is the absolute worst you can get from any gift. There are no disliked or hated gifts.
*You come to learn you are trapped in your role as a farmer in a location where the townsfolk have been replaced by fakes, and the real ones must survive out in the wilderness.*
Imagine if it were a real game lol
I’d love to play something like this!
I’d love that
What if you find a way to end all of it? It’s not easy and pretty tho
Would be cool as an rpgmaker game 👀
splendid idea
9:09 Michael's eyes are also asymmetrical. Look at the texture on the irises; one of them looks like it's broken glass, and other has an extra highlight.
I backed this project in the kickstarter and me and several other backers never got any of our keys so I would stay away from this. Literally thought it was dead.
I was also a backer on Kickstarter and never got the key either with no update. I thought it was dead until I happened to see it on Steam.
What a shame Crytivio couldn't tell the Devs was using Ai and shame on the Devs not disclosing it either. Unfortunate situation! I hope they hire an artist to draw their portraits or do it their own, turning into Ai is lazy and not disclosing it is dishonest. I hope they can improve the game during the time it's in EA! Thanks for the review as usual!
At first I thought this was a Harvest Moon mobile cash-grab with lazy AI art, but after watching I came to find out it's an indie cash-grab with lazy AI art.
So this is the cozy game for AI bros.
Congrats, devs, you've made Natsume's recent attempts to knock off Story of Seasons and Stardew look *competent*
That takes a lot of 'work'
Not it doesn’t…it takes very little work actually lol
@@BelBelle468 hence the sarcastic 'airquotes'
Ha! Lmao, story of seasons has been dead to me for a while, so to see a game like this make them look good is certainly impressive in a bad way
@@dynogamergurlWhy? Harvest Moon is Natsume's project. Story of Seasons is still owned by the original company. Their relatively recent remake of A Wonderful Life is actually really good.
I dunno, I thought Winds of Anthos was pretty great. I stuck to it for way longer than the AWL remake, anyway. I hope they keep up with the open-world stuff to keep it different from Marv’s games. Then between the two companies, I can have a big open-world adventure and a small, comfy, cozy village life. 😌
Not the hover bus helping control the animal overpopulation 😂😂
The way you cooked them in the most subtle way made me chuckle more than once haha
It does look like the artstyle had a downgrade and a lot of the disappointments just add up to a huge pile of sadness.
I'm so glad you're always advocating for more unique stuff in cozy games. It seems companies think cozy = low dev effort and we need to correct that!
I’m starting to see a pattern with most of not all “cozy” gamer on Kickstarter being scams or taking advantage of people. Puffpals is becoming a HUGE second with their pattern of handling stuff after like 3+ years in limbo and still in alpha. Oh but obviously they can still sell dlc and plushies for the game before release!!! They did this with a 15 dollar autumn dlc last year, said a big f u to the backers with a crap apology then was like, “or but we want the money so we’re still giving the people who bought it the stuff instead of refunding them” which really soured me on my purchase. I can’t even get a refund and their “NDA” can make you lose access to it all with no refund. The nda is a check box in a discord server whcih personally shouldn’t be legal. I spent too much money to care anymore tbh. :/
That's disappointing to here. I was looking into puffpals but msybe i should just hold off for now
"pigeons that are struggling" made me laugh so bad
oh yeah, that art is defo ai. See how the details melt together? The eyes are major clues, they vary so much between characters. even in other games that make different eyes for their characters (like genshin), the style stays the same.
What a shame - the original trailer with the original team looked amazing. Of course their health is far more important than a game! But it's a shame that the new workers don't seem to have even kept the spirit of the idea alive here.
Seeing more about this game makes me think there’s *heavy* inspiration from My Time at Portia. A bus that goes around town, animals roaming all over, and having to place soil to grow crops. But Portia is a much higher quality product than this game. I’m honestly so sad to see this game compared to how it looked originally. This game honestly looks like an alpha build rather than what usual early access games look like. I’m glad the original devs are looking after their health but for what the game’s become, it’s so disappointing. But there’s one positive, that “Yaa!” Really got me 🤣
I was thinking the same thing 😂
Maybe they should've made this as alpha build rather than early release. This game nowhere near ready for 'early release'.
Yes! They even copied Portia's weird scaling issues! xD /j
When devs don't have real artists in the projects that have a real say.. we get things like this. Taking shortcuts and all these bugs are not acceptable. It does have potential but still a lot of work needed. 😅 great feedback
It is shocking how many times I've heard of indie devs not caring at all about the art aspects of their games. I'm not obsessed with graphics, but I do expect some standard of presentation.
It's such a shame to see game dev team using AI and buying premade assets when there's so many artists looking for a job, or at least a side project to add to their Portfolio...
?? Buying premade assets do help artists though, the ones who made those assets.
@@appleturdpieyeah
The ai sucks the assets are there to use
thank you so much for this discussing the ai art was very concerning, as an artist it was very disappointing. It looks like it WAS ai generated. I've heard from people on other serves now. As a placeholder, even as much as I hate to say it. But a game--for sale? There is also no emote variations just still portraits. Thanks, okay, had to pause and check that part out first xD watching the rest of the video now!
It definitely is concerning. Even they removed them (mostly because they got caught) and they're no longer in the game, it says a lot about the development team...
also I can tell they tossed a multiply layer over the top of darker skinned characters which is why the coloring on characters that are supposed to be black and dark skinned it looks greyish because they didn't even know how to edit it properly...LOL...
@@JoshGamingGarden Yeaaah...pretty bad.
it's 100% AI generated. There's no doubt about it.
When I first saw this on Kickstarter, I had serious doubts. It turns out, I was right. Now, I'm also skeptical about Ova magica, Puffpals, and Sugardew Island. The reason why I doubt is simply because they haven't shown actual gameplay.
There is gameplay out there for Ova Magica! I played an early build a few years ago and it was actually really fun!
But I agree overall though, and I'm also skeptical for Puffpals and Sugardew
The bus being "a good attempt to fix the animal overpopulation" got me LOL
I'm an artist and I can tell you 100% the portraits are AI generated. They have the kinds of mistakes you'd have to go out of your way to make, lol.
those portraits are def AI what a lazy production...
BUSTED!
They've bought a lot of their stuff from an asset shop - the same ones that Bitten Toast bought to build Garden Paws.
Who cares about them buying assets
Why are the dark skinned characters in this game so gray in their character portraits…?
Because apparently (read from another comment) they took lightskinned Portaits and slapped a dark layer of it and erased around the Eyes...
@@Kairos_Akuma
Wtf lmao. 😭
It just feels like one of those soulless “cozy games” that come out lately… and im so sad to see it because it clearly had a lot of love and direction in the beginning, so it’s sad that the original creators couldn’t continue but hope they are doing alright. And that the developers can straighten themselves out and make sure to create an actually good game, cuz the base is there and im sure that in the hands of the right people it can potentially be pretty alright
*Goes to play Stardew Valley again*
New farming sims need to really step it up.
That's what we get for normalising AI in Art. This has got to be one of the most lifeless looking games I've ever seen.
Those kind of games should never be made early access. It changes so much, you've got to restart so many times that by the time the game is complete, you don't feel like playing anymore. So most people that buy it during early access just don't end up having the will to play it once it's 1.0, unfortunatelly.
I love how honest you are every time you review a game.
Man, I remember I was disappointed by the change in art style, the first one looked a lot more cozy :( sad to see it flounder to find its footing
yeah I liked the original art style too. I guess it was too hard to maintain so they just bought a bunch of models and tried to match that art style instead...
There's not much we can do now. The original devs who set up the KS disappeared and the project has been taken over by someone else.
"We have animal crossing at home"
9:56 Oscar looking like he been 3 months dead
Thanks Josh, you helped me save money, I really wanted to like it
Lmao, that's obviously ai, it's not even up for debate.
i played 6 mins and refunded lmao
''It's in Early Access'' Some games stay in the Early Access Hell for their entire life cycle. It's no longer an excuse in my book. And from what the comments are saying, there was also a Kickstarter for it.
They can and should do better.
i"m in paperless 2d animation, which thankfully isn't something ai can manage yet, I still don't like this. It's ONE thing to use it to finish a bit of rendering or maybe use flow frames for really slow movement, but using straight up for full commercial work inevitably means you stole someone else's work.
Of course it's really down to customers and audiences to reject finished work that uses AI artwork, we'll see if they do enough, but honestly I don't think enough people will care T__T.
Farming games have become such slop lately. Farming worked better than this on the SNES in 1996. With the high competition they really need to do better than this. If you can't even provide your own art and using AI maybe just stop. I think I'll be sticking to the upcoming 2D games that don't make everything so slow and generic looking.
Is anyone else put off by the fact we have deer, pandas, pigeons, and zebras all in the same environment? Pigeons tend to live in cities, deer and rabbits live in woodland areas, pandas live exclusively in a particular forested part of China, and zebra can only be found in the hot plains of Africa.
Aside from that, a LOT of the complaints I'm hearing have everything to do with it being an alpha/early release. The townsfolk look the same because it's early release and those models haven't been made yet due to not being vital to the game. You can't get inside because it's early release and those areas aren't available yet. The dialogue is boring and repetitious because it's early release and the story mode hasn't been introduced yet. You even say that yourself in the first few minutes that the story hasn't been added yet, so there's no way to have meaningful dialogue without spoiling the story.
You "won't be too harsh on the balancing because the game just came out early access", but you'll be harsh about placeholder models and restricted dialogue?
9:52 IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A BLACK PERSON😭😭😭
ah, yes, the game that tried to capitalize on the animal crossing title
Those portraits are 100% AI generated. It's very easy to spot the tell-tale artifacts on all of them.
I was going to say that maybe it was a bit overkill to say it was outright suspicious that the portraits were removed or explain signs they weren't AI, but then I say Erin at 8:51. AI isn't the greatest with hair or symmetry. If you look at their portrait in particular, their earrings are a bit off and asymmetrical, and their hair is weirdly blurry around the ends.
Most of their portraits don't look *bad*, just a tad generic, so I think there was probably some cleanup involved. One of the characters has a sweater with pretty good repetition, which AI struggles with. It's very possible they modified them enough to feel they didn't need to disclose the AI usage.
I think removing them was probably their best bet here, though. I don't honestly think the style of the portraits even fits the game.
The 2D art is AI generated. Especialy apparent in that portrait 7:00
I'm sorry that is very obvious AI art, they didn't want the trouble so they removed it. the Eyes and the highlights are dead giveaways
Those character portraits were definitely AI generated. In addition to the details you pointed out, AI tends to have a racial bias and fails to correctly depict melanated skin. That Oscar guy was greenish gray.
9:57 you can see the highlights being crossed, which a real artist would know not to do. also wtf his skin is grey
The way they did the darker skinned characters is so dirty. They look GREY 💀 how did anyone look at that and go “yeah. That looks good”
9:14 also the reflections in his eyes are just a bunch of weird shapes instead of being similar like real eyes?? like, what
And looking at his bangs… some parts just don’t connect, not in the human error way where you just draw the lines wrong, but like, it definitely looks like an ai mashed shapes together for the bangs so yeah I see it
It's honestly disappointing the direction this game went in, it honestly feels like this game knew the basics of what a farming sim needed, but didn't flesh it out enough to make the game feel enjoyable. The AI art for the character portraits doesn't help the devs' case, especially since they never disclosed it and even removed the character portraits. As an artist, I could tell that the moment I saw the character portraits, something felt off about them. I wish the people in Crytivo recover for their mental help and wish the best for them.
On a bit of a lighter note, Josh, you caught me so off guard at 6:29 with the overpopulation comment
I would have quit right after seeing how the camera works 🤣
Thank you for this!! I will NEVER pay a cent to play this game. In fact, even if it was free- I’d NEVER play this. The devs should be ashamed.
I think The initial trailers art style was better
Graphically, this looks so awful. Thanks for explaining the development history. Definitely adds context
Laughed so hard over the comment about the bus taking care of the animal overpopulation problem.😂
I wasn't expecting a lot, but I did expect more than this. It's a shame they tried to sell...a Unity Template and not a game. smh
Crytivo is now associated with multiple controversies with the games theyre publishing, including this one. Super Zoo story looked extremely similar to stardew valley, many people thought it was a mod, the people behind it were weird towards replies, got so far even Concerend ape had to say, hey maybe tone the likeness down. Then Roots of Pacha was removed from steam temporairily because Cryvito (who were the ones to take it down iirc) had a Rights dispute between the developer, they did come to an agreement and parted ways. And most recently, Farm Folks came under fire for making a weird tweet about, asking about different levels of breast physics, a lot of fans were like hey thats a little weird and not something we're super into, the community manager had basically a meltdown in the discord server and rudely dismisses anyone who shared their thought. And it also resulted in a lot of outsiders, who arent exactly the target demographic, come in and be defensive and weird about it (think of the type of people complaining women in videogames dont look "women enough").
Now not everything is caused by Cryvito directly, and yet i cant ignore how often it happens with their games. So although they are not directly related to some of these controversies, its enough for me to say, be wary of recent games published by them, or at least make sure to look into it beyond the store page.
yikes,they make me think of that really weird developer guy who made yandere simulator..so creepy
I backed this on Kickstarter, the Japanese style and art direction had me drawn in. The positive thing I can say, at least something released...but at what costs. -- The Steam page has still not been updated, despite people in Discord telling the team to do so. -- I personally was a very late addition to do pre-release testing (4 days prior release). I want to stress others had more time in testing, not sure how many people and for how long though. -- And when I played for an hour I did question when they want to release it because there was not really a word of it in their Discord. -- The game feels very early Alpha not ready for release, even into early access.
And all the points you raised are very valid and true.
That art style change is insane.
It's as if the 2nd dev only continue for the sake of continue it. Chance the new dev is only only 1-2 guy seeing how messy it is, and the 1st dev just leave without oversee it any further. Just using the assets the 1st dev made and barely add their own, which explain the chaotic 3d size
The main obvious point is how they use the AI as it is, without any retouching. Bet they are strapped for cash and couldn't hire any artist, even the cheap one. Bcs if they do, they at least would understand how important in game art is, especially for character portrait.
Thank you for always shielding us from lackluster cozy games!
Yeah, I played the demo a while ago and couldn't play more than 30 ish minutes then deleted it from my wishlist, which I rarely do...
Same
6:23 If that hill was any steeper, the bus would have just grinded to a halt and the driver would have indicated "end of the line, please disembark."
Player: But this isn't even the stop.
Driver: I said Get Off!
"I never played a good farming game that had bad farming"
I rarely find any with any good farming! (aka something more interesting than just plant, water daily, harvest)
NAH, AI ART FOR A GAME LIKE THIS
AND WITH THAT PRICE, NAAAAH FALLOUT NEW VEGAS IS CHEAPER THAN THIS SHIT
You know a game studio like Hidden Tower is a scam when their games have logos that look like they came from a “reference image from the web” bot’s portfolio on twitter 😂 IE Spirit of the Blade.
Also let’s not forget Crypto- I mean Crytivo
The Buses seem kind of lazy as well... where are the wheels? That said, it is early access..
This looks like a fucking roblox game 😭😭😭
I was somewhat interested in this game, but for some reason, wasn't that excited for it, I see why. Also, I'm really glad you take the time to do an HONEST review and give details about what you do/don't like about a game. Other YTbers, will just gloss over issues and just say something is "not fso good" and move on, not sure if they are afraid of backlash from the devs or it affecting sponsorships or what. I appreciate the honesty.
cracking up that they called it "a new leaf" as well
I feel bad for my friend who just got this game last week, I think she saw the old trailer and she's been duped 😬
If she got it on steam they have a generous refund policy i would contact customer support
Hi! I have been on this channel for more than three years now! This channel is so amazing and I don't regret clicking on the video at all! Yaaaaaah!! 🎣
You'd fit right at home on Omoide Island. 😃
@@JoshGamingGarden Haha, I am practicing my AI skills! All jokes aside, thank you for sharing your first thoughts! Part of me is hopeful that the game will get fixed. The ideas are great but it's just not up to par yet with other games.
...This looks like a play test. You know, something you'd see when they first start programming things and need to see if there's anything that need adjusting before alpha... As a complete game, it looks likes an unfinished mess...
i'm certainly not the first person to mention it but WOW the designs of those dark-skinned characters look awful. even if they just edited the skin tones on light-skinned portraits you could get a better skin color than that. the straight, blonde hair and the gray skin feel random and incohesive. even just giving them dark hair would fix a lot, but it would still be lazy and uninspired. they REALLY aren't helping the accusations of ai-generated images.
As an artist, even with a quick glance it’s 100% AI.
Too many small details are melting that’s way too many to list.
10:33 Look right above the eyelashes on Kelly. I assumed since the generative software they used probably doesn't have enough data on dark skinned characters, that's why it looked bad. But no, clearly not. My new theory is that they had it spit out a bunch of light skinned characters, took the ones they wanted changed, used the select tool on the face (missed a couple spots lol) and TINT SHIFTED the area. I don't know how else they could've ended up with a color that bad. That is hilarious!
"portraits are allegedly ai generated"
> portraits with the most common ai art style, tons of inconsistencies even on this small of a space
.....right.... allegedly. 🤣🤣
I'm really sad and disappointed. I backed the original game because I liked the artsyle and japanese/chinese theme, but now it's vastly different.
The comment of a dystopian idea where everyone is forced to have the same house, looks and constantly say how happy they are sounds like the horror shit you hear former North Koreans had gone through.
Yeah the portrait of Erin shows some messed up earrings and there's some weird stuff on her left ear. 100% AI was used in this, fucking shameful
Damn its almost like farming games are horribly oversaturated these days or something
I feel like we're going through a oversaturation of Farming and Life Sims right now.
This might be the worst cozy farming game of 2024 😢
from the comments, this is making crytivo look more and more like a worse publishing company. i thought they were pretty reputable and then crazy stuff happened when Roots of Pacha came out that had me confused why that great game had issues with the publisher and now this is what they're publishing?
This just seems completely unacceptable so far... Shady art practice and incompetence out the gate (or before even stepping out of the gate, given early access).
Literally got stuck right at the beginning. Couldn’t figure out how to put the soil down. There was too much to read on one screen and just was confusing 😢
the animals moving around reminds me of that gmod game "guess who" 🤣
oh, those are defo ai portraits - look at the one with the star shaped earrings, stuff in the iris being unidentifiable junk, clothes, and ones with the flower on the head doesnt even have correct one on the portrait, not to mention the discrepancy between the portraits and the models in general
I understand the game is early access...but I don't think it should even be early access yet judging by the state of it... And not disclosing that they used ai seems kind of scummy and lazy.
I feel like you should at least have a general idea of what you want as a game before putting it out to the public. Early access or not. This game just feels empty and thoughtless...
My opinion on what they could improve and make it playable to a person like me would be::
1. Hire an actual artist to make portraits with different emotions
2. Flesh out the characters more. A lot more. More dialogue more backstory etc. A big reason a lot of players love games like stardew valley is because of the characters, they add life to the game.
3. Add stories, challenges, events, etc.
Those are the most important to me personally but as you pointed out in your video. There is a lot that can also be improved on.
The indie game I can't wait tonplaybis Ova Magica!
they still havent updated their description images/videos on the steam listing...
Oh boy tu ne donnes pas envie de jouer à ce jeu 😂 ta critique semble tres juste
There are a lot of things in this game that, on their own, could be overlooked/excused or chalked up to it being in early access. But all of it added together? Gives the EXTREMELY strong impression that no real passion or effort is being put into it at all and that it's likely just an attempt to cash in on farming/cozy games' recent rise in popularity.
It's sad to see but I suppose it's just one of the natural pitfalls of a genre gaining popularity.
Listen.
People need to stop releasing games in Early Access.
Why are the characters all named after people from the office ??
first impression - another freaking farming game come ooooon