Introduction
Today we are going to look at a game that Simone has played for quite some time to get to this review. While making this review, we encountered a few hiccups, which I will mention later on. This is a life simulation game where you will also need to work as a builder.
What did Simone think before playing My Time at Portia?
My wife played this game before we started reviewing games, she did not finish the full game, but it was on PlayStation Pass. Thus, it was time for Simone to replay and finally finish this game. I had no idea what kind of game this was, except for some kind of life simulator. Thus, I wanted to check the Steam Page for more information.
The Steam Page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/666140/My_Time_at_Portia/
One of the key features is that you need to build your own workshop from scratch. You can even create a farm, there is a lot to do. One of the big features is also the community in MY Time at Portia, there are many residents to befriend, and you can even marry and get a child.
Rating
I rated My Time at Portia with a 7.4 before playing.
All in all, it looked like a fun life simulator with many great elements, like diving into ruins. Time to jump to the story!
Story
The game begins with you inheriting a workshop from your father, it lies in ruins, and it is your job to fix it up and regain its reputation as the greatest workshop. As the town expands and your workshop grows, it seems something sinister is going on in Portia, it is up to you to solve the mystery.
Rating
I rate the story of My Time at Portia with a 6
The story is not very good, I get what the developers went for, and Simone agrees with this rating. It could have been much more dynamic.
Gameplay
This game has the same mechanic as other life simulators, a day by day life. Time moves faster in the game and residents have their own routines. You can do a mission for your workshop or even complete a main quest. There are many things to do, even events, or diving into the ruins for relics, which brings me to a very flawed mechanic in this game.
This game has an insane number of relics, you can dig them up or find them. However, these relics need to be put together. For most of them, you need four pieces. But since there are over a hundred relics to collect, the chances of finding another part of the same relic is slim. Next to that, there are many bugged pieces with no picture at all.
Since these relics are needed for the museum, completing that will be near impossible. You can also trade with other residents, but this is not enough to remedy the situation. Once a relic is completed, you can also put in your workshop for benefits, since you can also level up in this game. And the experience gain is as unbalanced as a cow on a balance beam trying to do yoga.
The combat is as wonky as possible. Strange hitboxes and more. We also found a glitch to duplicating items, and Simone duplicated the food item that gives + 1 strength. Needless to say, she almost one shotted every monster. Which is fun for dungeons, but we get to those in the graphics section. As for the relation build up with residents, just dupe the flowers and give them to everyone.
Rating
I rated the gameplay of My Time at Portia with a 6.3
While there are many fun mechanics in this game, and too many to cover in this review. Almost everything is broken in some way in this game.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics in My Time at Portia are, horrible. The characters are ugly as hell. I have no idea what the developer tried to go for. Moreover, all the residents wear the same clothes every day. As for the levels, there are many repeat levels, and the monsters are assets used elsewhere in the game. I rather have low poly characters than this.
Sound
The soundtracks were not really good, you mostly heard the same one over and over. The voice acting was also all over the place. One second they are voice acting, the second after that you need to read. Then you need to listen, oh my god it is annoying!
Rating
I rated the sound and graphics of My Time at Portia with a 5.5
Welp, the long legs and necks of the residents almost scare me, I think one of them might be Slenderman.
What did Simone think after playing My Time at Portia?
While this game does have many, and I do mean many flaws. Simone enjoyed her time with this game and the bad design made us laugh quite a lot. The duplication glitch was also very fun to use to balance the horrid leveling system. Also, how are people not getting tired of getting roses as a present each day!
This brings us to a slight problem, the characters keep repeating the same line over and over, each day. Only after some events or major events they change their line, for a moment. Despite the flaws, it can be a fun game!
Rating
I rated My Time at Portia with a 6.5 after playing.
While flawed, the game can still be fun and a barrel of laughs!
Last Words
Pros
- There are many items to craft and ways to personalize your workshop
- Fun bugs that make you laugh
- There are many gameplay elements
- Duplicating is fun to do
Cons
- Not a very good story
- The residents switch a lot between voice acting and having to read
- The relics are very hard to complete
- The graphics are all over the place, and not in a good way
- Wonky hitboxes
- Combat is not good in this game
- Many strange bugs
- A very loopy soundtrack for each season
While this game has its flaws, it can be fun. Simone and I did laugh a lot at the ridiculous things that happened.
The Final Rating
6.3
Please let me know what you think of My Time at Portia in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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I gave this a try a couple of years back, but never could get into it
It felt really grindy and I’m glad I didn’t waste my time
I only saw Simone play it, but it is indeed grindy.
Weak story, wonky combat, not-so-nice graphics for characters
Hmmm
I thought the game was better than this.
I guess you could say, you are, disappointed!
had higher hopes from this game… now I wonder if Sandrock is also the same, or they revamped it to be better
I think they made it much better.
Caution! This is the kind of game that can become addictive 🙂 Thanks for the review.
I’m glad you reviewed this game. It’s always looked like a very cute little life sim game. The fact that you both had a good time playing it is the main plus here.
Hopefully something I can look into later on as well. It’s been a little while since I played a game like this.
As long as it is fun, it’s good in some way!
I must admit I am surprised at how many issues you ran into. Yes, the game isn’t perfect, but I didn’t have nearly as many bugs and I played it through twice. I had such an awesome time with it and now I’m rly enjoying Sandrock even more. 😀
We do kind of go looking for ways to test the game. Next to that, we both have a very watchful eye.
I used to play one of the Rune Factory games on the Nintendo DS when I was younger. A lit of these Farming/building/dungeon Simulators miss a good story.
have not expected either so many cons, then new game my time at sandrock is much better
it used to be free on epic but i never played it, anyway i would though it is better because of v positivie reviews on steam. But i don’t like a lot of grinding, would need to be really enjoyable and original game to make me interested and grind in it :]
As long as you don’t mind a bit of grind, it is a fun game.