The Leviathan's Fantasy
- June 25, 2023
- Star Chess Studio
- 16h median play time
"The Leviathan's Fantasy" is a richly updated game with diverse adventurers, each with unique characteristics and autonomy. NPCs are made more lifelike through AI technology, and the game features hundreds of hours of content. Developers are now focusing on performance optimization and improving popular features based on player feedback.
Reviews
- The game offers a unique blend of city building and adventurer management, reminiscent of Majesty, providing a deep and engaging gameplay experience.
- Despite its flaws, the game has a charming aesthetic and a lot of content, with active developers who are responsive to player feedback and regularly release updates.
- The mechanics of managing adventurers and the economy are enjoyable, allowing for a satisfying gameplay loop as players build their town and attract heroes.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, including crashes and lag, which can significantly hinder the gameplay experience.
- The English translation is often poor, leading to confusion and difficulty understanding game mechanics, which can be frustrating for players.
- The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, making navigation and management cumbersome, especially for new players trying to learn the game.
- gameplay166 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 77 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a complex and engaging loop that combines city building and crafting elements, allowing players to manage adventurers and resources while exploring various mechanics like bloodlines and reincarnation. However, many players note significant issues with the tutorial's lack of clarity, poor translations, and numerous bugs that detract from the overall experience. Despite these challenges, the game offers a unique and rewarding experience for those willing to invest time in learning its systems, with potential for further improvement as the developers continue to refine the game.
“The result is a satisfying gameplay loop of city builder + crafting as you attempt to satisfy, equip, and buff your residents to higher levels.”
“The game is incredibly deep, has countless mechanics, and succeeds at keeping me engaged - and I'm someone who finds it hard to find most games interesting.”
“The gameplay loop is really fun and addicting too.”
“Despite the latest content patch and DLC, the game still has voids in the progression and gameplay where there's nothing much to do or nothing interesting.”
“The tutorial never advances after the camera movement part, and as the game mechanics are very technical, I have no idea what to do. Even after clicking on everything possible, I couldn't do a single thing in this game!”
“While the gameplay loop is solid, the timegating mechanics artificially make the game a chore to play at times, along with many various issues including but not limited to bugs, lags, and cluttered UI design.”
- story88 mentions
- 3 % positive mentions
- 93 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The game's story revolves around building a thriving town and managing an adventurers' guild, where players assign quests and develop their heroes while exploring various locations. While the core narrative elements touch on fantasy and mystery, many players find the storytelling uninspired and poorly translated, leading to confusion and a lack of engagement with the plot. Despite these shortcomings, the gameplay offers a rich array of quests and content that can keep players entertained, even if the story itself feels secondary.
“The core story ideas hit the right notes of fantasy and mystery, as you travel around the world to different locations with your adventurers, kindling the fire of civilization wherever you go.”
“It's essentially a chill, less punishing RimWorld story/base builder with the mechanics of the old school fantasy game Majesty and a Genshin Impact aesthetic.”
“I always wanted to play a game where I can play the role of a guild master developing individual adventurers and dishing out quests for them to undertake, so this definitely scratches that itch.”
“The instructions and story they set are both unimportant, uninspired, and unhelpful.”
“You won't even know the story.”
“The translation is jank, but all that matters is you read the name the quest giver gives you, scan the field for them, and click them.”
- optimization68 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has received significant criticism, with many players reporting poor performance, bugs, and a lack of graphical settings to enhance gameplay on mid-range PCs. While some users find the game enjoyable and creative, they express a strong desire for improvements in optimization to fully realize its potential. Many reviewers suggest that the game feels unfinished and would benefit from further development, particularly in performance and resource management.
“Most notably the performance and optimization, it needs to be the top priority.”
“I'm sure I like this game, because it has consumed so much of my time, but its optimization may not be ideal, and its engineers still need to solve some small problems. With potential games, please don't stop optimizing it; maybe it can become better.”
“This game has a lot of potential, but I feel like it should be in early access. It's clearly not ready for full release yet as it's still missing even basic things such as sound effects, music, proper translations, and optimization. I hope someday they can realize the full potential of this game and make it great.”
“I really, really want to love the game, but the optimization is a wreck.”
“Sadly, I cannot recommend it at this time due to poor optimization.”
“For what is here, I can say it is worth that 17 CAD, but as you progress in the game, the CPU gets hammered by unoptimized code as you gain more and more NPCs, with more and more structures and more enemy NPCs.”
- stability56 mentions
- 4 % positive mentions
- 4 % neutral mentions
- 93 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its numerous bugs and stability issues, with players reporting persistent glitches, crashes, and incomplete translations even after multiple patches. Many describe it as a "buggy mess" that feels like an early access title, though some appreciate its depth and gameplay despite the technical shortcomings. Overall, while the developers are actively working on improvements, the game's stability remains a significant concern for many users.
“The game runs great on Linux/Proton.”
“There are no game-ending glitches.”
“The game is still a super buggy mess after over 10 patches.”
“Everything about this game screams early access, from options not working, constant reloading a save file to fix clicking bugs, graphical glitches galore, horrendous in-game documentation, useless tooltips, and no explanation of game mechanics.”
“The developers are desperately trying to patch these issues with major reworks, but the result is still a buggy convoluted mess.”
- graphics52 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 62 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the charming art style and overall aesthetics, while others criticize performance issues and graphical glitches, particularly on mid-range PCs. Many users note that while the visuals can be appealing, they often suffer from blurriness and lag, detracting from the experience. Overall, the graphics are seen as decent for a budget title, but still exhibit significant room for improvement.
“The graphics are nice and the variety in the different game types makes you want to play more to find out all of its intricacies.”
“The music is charming and atmospheric, and the graphics are honestly quite above what I'd expect from a $10 game.”
“Good looking graphics, interesting premise, cute art style, relaxing music.”
“Traveller, be warned that this game is still riddled with bugs and exhibits peculiar graphic behavior.”
“The graphics made my head hurt; there is some weird blurry effect everywhere, and it is surely not my GPU acting up.”
“Everything about this game screams early access, from options not working, constant reloading a save file to fix clicking bugs, graphical glitches galore, horrendous in-game documentation, useless tooltips, and no explanation of game mechanics.”
- music44 mentions
- 41 % positive mentions
- 52 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its charm and atmospheric quality, while others criticize its repetitiveness and lack of variety for longer sessions. Several users noted the absence of music and sound effects at launch, suggesting the game feels incomplete. Overall, while the music is generally appreciated for its relaxing vibe, there are calls for a more expansive and engaging soundtrack to enhance the gaming experience.
“The music is charming and atmospheric, and the graphics are honestly quite above what I'd expect from a $10 game.”
“There is indeed a steeper learning curve than usual but this game is truly one of a kind; the music is amazing.”
“I absolutely adore this game, the art, music, and gameplay itself is spectacular, whilst the translation is rough and not the best you can understand enough to get what's going on.”
“The UI seems better, graphics-wise, but there's no music, sounds, or ambient noise in the background!”
“This game has a lot of potential, but I feel like it should be in early access. It's clearly not ready for full release yet as it's still missing even basic things such as sound effects, music, proper translations, optimization, etc.”
“Music is okay, but for long sessions, it gets repetitive quickly.”
- grinding30 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be both tedious and time-consuming, particularly in the midgame where progression feels slow and often out of the player's control. While some appreciate the idle gameplay and community-building elements, many criticize the excessive grinding and cumbersome UI, suggesting that improvements in these areas could elevate the overall experience. Despite these issues, the game remains engaging for those who enjoy village simulation with combat elements.
“It's a very long and tedious thing that you can't control how fast or slow your adventurers fuse/upgrade, but you can see that the effects those purification materials were meant to have do not function.”
“- a huge amount of unnecessary grinding that really feels out of place.”
“So, basically, this game could be gold, but for some reason it's been developed the same way they make grindy cash shop heavy, mobile games.”
- replayability6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
Players generally find the game's replayability to be high, discovering new elements with each playthrough. However, there are significant concerns regarding the user interface and gameplay mechanics, which some hope will be improved to enhance the overall experience and replay value further. Suggestions for boosting replayability include adding more heroes and random hero generation.
“The game's replay value is high, and I find new things to enjoy every time I play.”
“I hope its replayability gets boosted (more heroes? random hero generation?) and the UI is atrocious (right-click to close menu should be a must, as well as the possibility to display building names in labels on the main map).”
“I hope its replayability gets boosted (more heroes? Random hero generation?) and the UI is atrocious. Right-click to close the menu should be a must, as well as the possibility to display building names in labels on the main map. The hero interface is poorly explained, and the impossibility to change the number of orders of a product without de-queuing and re-queuing is incredibly annoying.”
“Not refunding the game, as there is literally no game in the Majesty style on the market, so I have big hopes that this will be more playable someday.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised, featuring charming and atmospheric music alongside impressive graphics that exceed expectations for a budget title. Reviewers note that it successfully captures the essence of an MMORPG environment.
“The music is charming and atmospheric, and the graphics are honestly quite above what I'd expect from a $10 game.”
“MMORPG atmosphere: check!”
“The music is charming and atmospheric, and the graphics are honestly quite above what I'd expect from a $10 game.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its humor, featuring amusing comments from characters who humorously acknowledge their existence as NPCs within a virtual world. This self-aware comedic element adds to the overall enjoyment of the gameplay experience.
“Really fun game, there are funny comments from the adventurers saying they are inside a virtual world and they believe that they are NPCs. :D”
“Really fun game, there are funny comments from the adventurers saying they are inside a virtual world and they believe that they are NPCs. :D”