Secrets of Grindea Reviews

This game is what happens when a developer doesn't rush because of pressure from the community. It is fine tuned and sharpened to perfection. The humor is actually funny, which is rare, for me atleast, theres so much charm, great combat, charming slice of life, all around probably one of the best games i've played, thank you Pixel Ferrets for making this charming game! I'm not even halfway done yet with the story, and that makes me glad, it's only been uphill so far :)

Not quite perfect but surprisingly fun. The tropeish jokes and character names everywhere probably hold it back from what it could be if it played it straight, but then it puts you off guard for when it actually is serious and emotional. The lost city quest line was fantastic, like a different game within the game.

Pretty solid game overall. General feedback would be: Would be nice if pets where more rewarding. Like if they had unique starting base stats and there should be more pets in general. Wished there were more weapon classes then just 1h and 2h and a bow that you can't really main. I'd like a mid range weapon like a whip. Bosses are too spongy they could all have 1/3rd the HP and the game really wouldn't be any easier just less arthritis and RSI irritating. Arcade mode is surprisingly okay, I thought it would be worse going into it not as good as One Way Heroics but not too bad. If the Dev's haven't played One Way Heroics I'd recommend them playing it to get some ideas to improve arcade mode.

I tihnk I will update this comment once I am done with the game, but so far it is marvellous. The story and characters are fun, the art is beutiful, i really enyoy the puzzles (very easy but fun) , the combat is very fun to me, you canb grind or play on pure skill or both, there are tons of secrets. Did I say the art is beutiful? well, I will say that again here. Highly reccomend this labour of love of a game. Very glad pieces like this one still are made amongst the crappy generic AAA titles that are so bland that I cannot help but wonder why some games are even made in the first place.

absurdly good rpg love the combat, love the music, love the writing, all i wish is that there was even more to do.

One of the best games I've played. If you like to fight never-ending rounds of monsters and pick up their parts and treasures, this is your game. I spend hours happily fighting in one room and then go find another area and repeat. If I didn't have pain in my wrists and fingers, I'd probably never stop. I love the collecting. I love the puzzles--yes, even the math ones! I love the nods and homages to other games. The whole package is incredibly satisfying. Did I tear up at one point in the story. Yep! Did I shout with shock at the plot twist? Heck yeah. I can easily see how people play this game over and over, trying different builds and variations or difficulty settings. Highly Recommend.

This game has a lot of soul. Everything in it feels thoughtful, like I can just feel how much love went into crafting every object in every town and dungeon. Also, for a game that starts off with a pretty carefree attitude, it gets pretty serious toward the middle and end, which was a nice surprise. Overall, 4/5 stars.

Secrets of Grindea is a delightful action RPG that masterfully captures the essence of classic titles like Secret of Mana and The Legend of Zelda. Its charming pixel art style and witty dialogue create an engaging experience that stands out in the indie game landscape. The game’s visuals are a treat, with vibrant environments and meticulously designed characters and monsters. Each NPC feels unique, contributing to a world that’s both immersive and full of personality. Your companion, a sentient bag, adds a humorous touch with its sarcastic remarks, enhancing the game’s lighthearted tone. Combat in Secrets of Grindea is both challenging and rewarding. Players can choose from various playstyles, including sword and shield, two-handed weapons, bows, or magic. The flexibility to respec your character allows for experimentation, ensuring you can tailor your approach to suit your preferences. Collecting monster cards, which provide permanent passive boosts, adds an extra layer of depth and encourages thorough exploration. The game acknowledges its grind-centric nature with a tongue-in-cheek approach, making the process feel less tedious. Side activities like fishing and housing customization offer enjoyable distractions, allowing players to decorate their in-game homes with a variety of items found, crafted, or purchased throughout their journey. My play through was at around 60 hours for a completionist run, Secrets of Grindea offers substantial content. The game provides clear indicators of progress in each area, making it easy to track completed and remaining tasks. This feature, combined with the game’s humor and engaging mechanics, ensures that the grinding feels purposeful and satisfying. In conclusion, Secrets of Grindea is a lovingly crafted homage to classic action RPGs, offering a rich and rewarding experience. Its blend of challenging combat, charming storytelling, and a plethora of side activities makes it a must-play for fans of the genre. Kudos to Pixel Ferrets for delivering such an enjoyable title from start to finish.

Undeniably a good game. Story is alright, could've been way better if it committed to either taking itself seriously or taking its sarcastic comedy all the way, but the ending was actually quite nice; which I feel is actually really rare these days, it's usually the ending that gets shafted after a long and great run towards it, but this story kind of felt the other way around. The music of the whole game is actually surprisingly pretty good, too; games like these I tend to lower the volume and listen to podcasts in the background, but the music fit the vibe of the game so well that I couldn't bring myself to do it. I ended up being surprised by how in-depth the game's arcade mode is because I didn't even read the store page's description of it, but it is actually pretty well made. Though do note that, as it suggests even in the game itself, you [i]really should[/i] play the story mode through before you play arcade mode. Things'll be confusing if you don't. And try to remember what enemies drop what items. I have some issues with how restricted you are with your ability to flesh out your skill pool, and with how limiting the game is with skills. Not being able to get more level 10 skills is just a buzzkill. Sometimes it's safer to give people more freedom of choice than to put them in a small box and see how cleverly they can use the tools as their disposal, because if one tool is objectively better than the rest - even if by the tiniest margin - everyone'll swarm to it; but I digress. It's overall a pretty negligible gripe that I think is a consequence of the game being made with multiplayer in mind, and it's not such a big deal either way, would've just made it a bit more fun.

I was pretty torn on whether to give this game a yes or no for recommendation. On first blush, there's a lot of game here, and as you enter into its charming, lovingly-crafted world, there's a buffet of choices and things to do. There are dozens of skills you can pick from, each promising differing playstyles and effects, each able to be up-cast by charging to have sometimes dramatically different effects. There's dozens of sidequests, and rewards with interesting little perks attached to many pieces of gear, inviting you to further specialize your character -- to say nothing of the grind for cards, each of which is a small passive perk that can be extremely novel and helpful. But play longer and the veneer starts to wear thin. Upgrade after upgrade reveal themselves to be some variety of "does 2% more damage." That huge spread of skills quickly becomes locked to you; for reasons I can't comprehend, the level scaling in the game is such that very rapidly, I maxed out my first skill, and then only at the very end of the game, doing literally every quest and grinding for every drop and card, had I recently maxed out my second. The perks on items and cards wind up being mostly vapor, full of potential to be meaningful, but almost all of them wind up being more of the insignificant passive bonuses. That's the crux of my first major complaint: The game invites you to grind, but ultimately, doesn't have much worth grinding for. More skill points in skills you can't use, while the ones you desperately want to level remain at half-rank, more items temptingly silhouetted on the crafting or drops page, which wind up being just another stat upgrade, more cards which could do literally anything, but instead do literally nothing. If you DO grind for everything, you let yourself into the final, final secret boss, which is awesome...but it's literally the one thing they do not tell you that you can unlock. My second criticism is a lot more damning. Almost at all times, I felt like the game didn't give me the tools to succeed. You get, early on, a potion that increases drop chance by 20% while it's up, and as far as getting drops, that's it. There aren't even rooms that are better for grinding specific enemies, really -- just mosh pits where every mob in the zone spawns relentlessly. Build diversity is pick a skill you like and maybe a couple of buffs. And some of the bosses and attack patterns are HARD, unreasonably so in the last couple of fights, weaving through literal bullet hells with a character that's got a fat, inobvious hitbox, and no good precision movement options. It felt so often that they had taken systems from other, better games, and implemented them without knowing what made them work. Over and over again as I plumbed these systems, I found myself battling against them and not being the tools I wanted to engage with offered challenges. Ultimately, my experience was one of frustration rather than joy. Now. That all said, I still think there's a lot of excellent game here. It's well-polished, well-written, and engaging. It has a surprising amount to say about the grind and chase of perfection, and it does so well. It's got characters and a world I love, and it lets me engage with them enough to see their stories through in a satisfying way. It's a game that serves you a dream, and so when you find yourself disillusioned as you pull back the layers, there's still a solid game underneath. It just hurt a little because I just wanted it to be a little bit better.