Arrow in the knee Reviews

i like the idea and the gameplay loop, but they definitely used ai for all the dialogue. it feels stiff and makes no sense most of the time. the quality of this game would go up if it was strictly the tavern, no dialogue or story.

Just a few points: - I wasn't a huge fan of the gameplay loop as it feels like it suffered from project creep. It's something quite a few games deal with where many different mechanics or features are implemented, but are never built upon. It's like if a pixel RPG was in development for 8 years and only had 2 "boss" fights, 2 minigames, and 1-2 "puzzles" spread out across 2 hours of walking and talking to show for it. Just as an example from A&TT specifically: Deliveries would have been a good feature if you didn't nearly lose money doing them. All the offers I got on the delivery board only barely made a profit between how much the dish could sell for in the tavern itself and how much the plates and mugs cost that you didn't get back. With the time it took to run the pre-made order out to the client and to run back made it very much not worth it. It was far more profitable just tending to the tavern and ignoring deliveries altogether. - Likely another example of project creep: Combat was a bit too easy, though in fairness I did not play long enough to hit the "endgame" combat, so maybe it improved later on. The melee monsters were as simple as poking them once, backpedaling a few steps, poke again, backpedal again, etc. until you beat it. Ranged monsters were pretty similar, except it would be more like sidestepping their projectile, poke, sidestep, poke, etc. Since I didn't stick around for endgame combat this will only have a small impact on my overall review. - Another example of project creep: tavern automation is advertised in the description, but I would hardly call it that. You can hire two "staff members", owls, that have different roles: one runs plates/mugs to the table, while the other just sweeps and moves dirty dishes to the sink for you to clean. The runner at the very least needs improvement, as its AI isn't very smart. If you have downtime and want to help run the tables, the owl doesn't take into account food you've already delivered if it also wanted to deliver that plate. e.g. if the owl was heading over to grab a plate of corn and I happened to have one on me and I filled the order, the owl will still grab the plate of corn, head over to the person that ordered it, then headed back to put the corn back and went on to the next order. The owl should instead detect that I fed its intended target and proceeded to the next one. Back to there just being two staff members: this doesn't actually automate your tavern as advertised. You still have to do the cooking and dishwashing, which is fine, I don't really like having all of the jobs in a job sim game being filled, leaving me with nothing to do. But it's a bit misleading to say that you can automate your tavern. This last point won't affect my review because it's something I'm [b] uncertain [/b] about whether it's true or not, but I feel obligated to mention it. - It really feels like this game has undisclosed AI usage, especially the voice acting. Sentences didn't flow right, a lot of the dialogue had the same exact tone throughout without much, if any, deviation, and it just sounded awkward. If it was just the latter I would have attributed it to a VA that's just starting out and needed to get experience, but I genuinely don't think that's the case considering the other two points, and the fact that previous marketing material was AI-generated and replaced after it was pointed out really makes me lean toward the voice acting being AI. What makes me uncertain about this point is the devs have replied to a post in the Steam Discussions board for the game with links to a freelance website crediting who voiced the characters. Listening to the demos of the VAs whose characters I was certain were AI-generated did not change my mind about this. Last point aside due to uncertainty, I'd give it a 4/10. The gameplay just suffered too much from project creep IMO. Each feature needs some more time in the oven.

Pretty fun! and relaxing once you get into the swing of things. Multiplayer is a blast! Plenty of things to keep you and your friends busy for a bit!

FIRST off, I've had some amazing, satisfying and unforgettable moments with me and ma boys on this game right here. An absolutely admirable and cherished game to us considering it's MOSTLY a simulator game, seeing how much it offers beyond what you'd expect. Great boss fights, a multitude of enemies, countless FOOD items, limitless internal tavern design, continuous developer updates/additions, along with OUTSTANDING combat, farming, fishing and neat animal farming which was hilarious most of the time. You genuinely CAN'T beat the price for a game like this, which offers FAR more than what is displayed to the uninitiated, the newcomers. If you're hesitant, just wait for this game to go on SALE, in which it does quite frequently. Ale & Tale Tavern has a FREE version and is STILL incredibly enjoyable, so if you're indecisive on buying this game, try out the other version. Ultimately, this is a phenomenal multiplayer simulator indie game, with HIGH amounts of replayability and unforgettable moments that include loads of fun with it. I'd highly recommend this game, as I COMPLETELY respect and support the creators of this game for countless reasons, ONE of them due to their frequent updating/added content. Definitely worth the price on sale or not, and it's a game for many. AS always, cheers! 8/10 - RoniiBoi

we run this tavern like the navy the voice acting isnt that great but its like cheesy bad lol. the dialogue can sometimes trail off , were just staring at a character breathe, no animations, but meh just a nitpick. the world isnt big and diverse, but its still fun with friends. time flies when we're clocked into our virtual 9-5

Better than I expected, took about 17 hours for 2 people to hit endgame (new unlocks stopped around tavern level 25). Got it on sale, so 50 cents an hour sounds like a pretty good deal. The game looks pretty, lots of creative parts, love the owl helpers in the tavern. The performance is smooth and haven't crashed once the entire time. The only bug I encountered is related to the achievement for painting every single part of the house (which seems to be a common issue). I would recommend this, had a lot more fun than I thought I would.

It's a cute and addictive game that absolutely deserves some major content updates in the future. I highly recommend it, especially for the price. Just keep in mind that it is a little on the short side, I've already finished all of the quests and that's with taking my time to focus on upgrading the tavern first.

I'm disappointed, this game is just.. tedious. There's not a lot of fun to be had, really - the gameplay is fun for a half hour, serving patrons and expanding services.. but that's all of it. You don't get a fine level of customization, and the rpg elements are very basic. The dialogue feels fake, and the animations are passable. Combat is janky and the challenges are fetch-quests. Multiplayer is appreciated, but my friends and I found this boring so, so quickly.

Started a tavern with two others, one likes to adventure and has been taking care of quests, the other has been making all the decisions for the tavern, and never leaving it, and I've been doing menial tasks like dishes and farming. The adventurer among us is experiencing all sorts of neat things and tells us about it, I think it sounds awesome, and the manager absolutely REFUSES to believe any of it because of how outlandish some of it is. Bro, the cow talks, I promise!

It's a good tavern sim. It's a terrible adventure game. The tavern mechanics are interesting. Brewing, cooking, serving, rooms and so on like you would expect. I'd really love to see the rooms gameplay loop extended. At the moment it is just setup and some cleaning. I like the Travelers Rest way, where people also order things - would love to see something similar in this game. There are so many recipes - it's really fun. The only really negative thing I can say about the tavern aspect is VIP customers. They can order ANYTHING! Whether you have it on your menu or not. That means, you always have to have every single ingredient in stock, so that you can cook on demand, when a VIP orders something you don't normally cook. Everything else in the game, so the fighting, the (stupid fetch) quests, the exploration, the "adventuring" is not only extremely basic, but outright bad. Bad mechanics, bad quest design, boring walking simulators and a boring world. Luckily, you can rush through most of the stuff rather quickly. Every time a new quest popped up it was a pain - all I wanted is to get back to my tavern and server customers... If this was even a slightly bigger part of the game, I'd have to give it a thumbs down. It's just terrible. The contrast between the quality of the two parts of the game is extreme. I hope future updates will focus on stuff inside the tavern instead of outside - or give me a tavern only mode. Because everything inside is really well made! If I want to play an adventure game, I can play something else, please just let me enjoy my tavern if I'm in the mood for some chill taverning.