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 Leviathan's Fantasy offers a unique blend of city-building and adventurer management, reminiscent of games like Majesty, providing a deep and engaging gameplay experience.
- The game features a vast tech tree and a variety of mechanics that allow for extensive customization of adventurers and city management, making it enjoyable for players who love micromanagement.
- Despite its flaws, the developers are actively updating the game and addressing bugs, showing a commitment to improving the overall experience.
- The game suffers from poor translations and a confusing user interface, making it difficult for players, especially non-Chinese speakers, to navigate and understand the mechanics.
- Many players have reported significant bugs, including crashes and issues with saving, which can disrupt gameplay and lead to frustration.
- The game can feel tedious and slow-paced, with some mechanics requiring excessive grinding and time-gating that may deter players looking for a more streamlined experience.
- gameplay83 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 76 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a complex blend of city-building and crafting mechanics, offering a satisfying loop that engages players through various systems like adventurer management, crafting, and town development. However, many users note significant issues with the tutorial's clarity, poor translations, and numerous bugs that detract from the experience. Despite these drawbacks, the game is praised for its depth and potential, appealing to those who enjoy intricate RPG mechanics and colony management, though it may require patience to fully appreciate.
“The result is a satisfying gameplay loop of city building and 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.”
“A majority of your gameplay will be spent scrolling through an unsearchable list of over 100 different resources, to buy one or two particular ones in order to finish an order or building.”
“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.”
- story44 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 86 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The game's story revolves around building a thriving town while managing a guild of adventurers who embark on quests, gather resources, and level up independently. While the core narrative elements evoke a sense of fantasy and exploration, many players find the execution lacking due to poor translations, uninspired quest design, and a convoluted user interface that detracts from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the game offers a wealth of content and opportunities for player-driven storytelling through adventurer management and city-building mechanics.
“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.”
“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.”
“Another low effort translation Chinese game with text overflow, with the same objects having different translations (lumber mill in the quest log, sawmill in the tech tree...), and with very obviously machine translated dialogue.”
- optimization34 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 essential settings to enhance gameplay. While some users find the game enjoyable and creative, they express a strong desire for improvements in optimization to fully realize its potential. Many reviews suggest that the game feels unfinished and would benefit from further development, particularly in optimizing performance for a smoother experience.
“Most notably the performance and optimization, it needs to be the top priority.”
“I found that the bugs I encountered on the first day are now gone, a hard work in the development room, and your game is very interesting, very creative, and it would be better if it could be optimized as soon as possible.”
“Like every game, many aspects can still be improved, including performance and the use of hardware resources, but these details end up being surpassed by a very fun game full of life, very complex with an immense possibility of becoming a work of inspiration.”
“I am also playing on a mid-range PC, and while tweaking the graphic settings can get it running smooth, the visuals take a big dive, and performance still isn't fantastic.”
“I really, really want to love the game, but the optimization is a wreck.”
“Sadly, I cannot recommend at this time due to poor optimization.”
- stability28 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 93 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its significant stability issues, described as a "buggy mess" with persistent glitches, crashes, and incomplete translations even after multiple patches. While some players appreciate its depth and gameplay, the overwhelming consensus is that the technical problems detract from the overall experience, making it feel very much like an early access title. Despite these challenges, there is hope that ongoing updates will eventually improve stability.
“Runs great on Linux/Proton.”
“No game-ending glitches.”
“The game unfortunately is indeed a buggy mess.”
“Game is still super buggy 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, no explanation of game mechanics.”
- graphics26 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the charming art style and overall visual appeal, especially for a budget title. However, many users report performance issues, graphical glitches, and a lack of polish, particularly on mid-range PCs, which detracts from the experience. While the aesthetics are generally considered good, there are significant concerns about optimization and bugs that affect gameplay.
“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.”
“I am also playing on a mid-range PC, and while tweaking the graphic settings can get it running smooth, the visuals take a big dive, and performance still isn't fantastic.”
“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.”
- music22 mentions
- 41 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews; while some players find it charming and atmospheric, others criticize its repetitiveness and the absence of sound effects in certain areas. Many appreciate the relaxing vibe of the soundtrack, though there are calls for a more expansive and varied musical experience. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's aesthetics, but improvements are needed to enhance the overall auditory experience.
“The music is charming and atmospheric, and the graphics are honestly quite above what I'd expect from a $10 game.”
“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.”
“Good looking graphics, interesting premise, cute art style, relaxing music.”
“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.”
- grinding15 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 farming for promotion materials and managing adventurer upgrades can feel slow and frustrating. While some appreciate the idle gameplay and community-building elements, many express a desire for improvements in the user interface and building mechanics to enhance the overall experience. Overall, the game offers engaging content but suffers from excessive grinding reminiscent of mobile cash shop games.
“It's a very long and tedious process 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.”
“There's 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.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The game offers high replayability, with players discovering new elements in each session. However, there are calls for improvements, such as additional heroes and better user interface features, to enhance the overall experience and make it more engaging in the long run.
“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?)”
“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.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is enhanced by charming music and impressive graphics that exceed expectations for a budget title, effectively capturing the essence of an MMORPG.
“The music is charming and atmospheric, and the graphics are honestly quite above what I'd expect from a $10 game.”
“MMORPG atmosphere: check!”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by amusing comments from characters who are aware of their existence in a virtual world, often referring to themselves as NPCs, which adds a playful and self-aware element to the gameplay.
“Really fun game, there are funny comments from the characters saying they are inside a virtual world and believe that they are NPCs. :D”
“The humor in this game is top-notch, with witty dialogue and hilarious situations that keep you laughing throughout.”
“I love how the game pokes fun at classic tropes, making even the most serious moments light-hearted and enjoyable.”