I played Oriental Valley so you don't have to

[@nicole9680]

One thing that's important to remember is that bad actors can use comedy or parody as a cover for lack of effort. I like the idea of a hyper surreal comedy farm rpg but this isn't that.

[@juljue_gaming]

Yes it kind of is with the description of their steam page. But the name is wrong...

[@nicole9680]

@@juljue_gaming I'm not doubting that is what they're saying the game is. I'm doubting their sincerity. The UI is jacked, the camera sucks, the controls are weird, and the features are under-baked. Humor is not an excuse to deliver a sub-par gaming experience. I think giving this game any credit is disrespecting comedy as a genre.

[@MsMoonDragoon]

@@nicole9680 yeah I'm kind of sick of people covering up this lack of skill with "its just a parody!!!" like my brother in odin, we both know you just cant make games.

[@gemwolfz2860]

just like garten of banban... it's funny i guess but like. the game is not fun

[@annieshavingthoughtsagain]

Oh dear. Those blank NPCs take me right out of the game. It's probably just a me thing but the mannequins hit wrong for me. They should have named this "Uncanny Valley".

[@nyahanaru8899]

It’s not just you

[@phoenixastra4429]

no I legit called them placeholders. Even if there was a story reason they could've made a ghost/spirity look unique being or wavy shadows...not just...white blobs. lol

[@phoenixastra4429]

@@nyahanaru8899 the fact that is says a 'little mushroom girl with a bamboo basket' and it's a stick figure 3d blob, is wild. They made it worse for them trying to decieve the players that they aren't placeholders, giving descriptions like that. It feels scammy.

[@HausOfZombies]

Same here. I played the demo awhile back and thought it was just filler so that the demo could be playable and recently realized I was wrong lol. I like things about the game but definitely don't care for the blank npcs.

[@danandtab7463]

Uncanny Valley lol that's a missed opportunity!

[@honaleri]

I love that the plot is just some kid can't figure out how to call an uber, and gets gaslit into a lot of manual labor until they can get home. Like....its a farm sim, aren't you supposed to...stay on the farm? Why build a life there under duress?

[@notatallfunctional]

Spirited Away X Animal Crossing

[@honaleri]

Oriental Valley or "How to throw assets into Unreal Engine- Farm Sim Edition"

[@imannatasha3302]

I hate how many developers are taking advantage of this genre being popular now and making lacklustre games for a quick cash grab.

[@gucciguy3408]

Basically when the English Localizers of Harvest Moon took over the title. Though I will say the newer ones look more up to decent game status.

[@ehyzen]

idk how to explain bit this rly gives me the vibe that the game is at the very beginning of developing, it has that base UE feeling. this game has no business being sold as a finished game

[@svenbtb]

That's because that IS all it is lol, they just threw in a bunch of assets and called it a day.

[@catscanhavelittleasalami]

Wow, what gave it away? Was it the placeholder NPC portraits? Or the wonky animations? or the barebone dialogue?

[@dashboardfairy]

LMAO this game is such a trip trivia: Niuyang Village = Cowgoat Village Old man Jiang = ref to Jiang Jiya and his attempts to "fish" for a worthy master

[@brittanyxxbabyxx2186]

It’s sad I love the aesthetics. I Like the countryside of Japan, Korea, China for a cozy game for a cafe/ farm/ tea house or like “town mayor” plot line where you have to renovate a old town before it gets tore down. Or a studio ghibli vibe like Neighbor Totoro (just chill vibes cute spirit animals with farming and countryside living ) or howls moving castle ( and sell hats or be a witch that sells spells and potions) So much potential 😔

[@Tamaki742]

This one's definitely based on Chinese countryside though.

[@allChonkerdUP-E8kH]

It's such a waste it's a crime at this point. Hope this pisses a lot of people off so the talented ones out of the bunch would step out and recreate this from the ground up, like what happened to Volcano High and someone made a Snoot Game.

[@brittanyxxbabyxx2186]

@@Tamaki742 China I fixed it 🥰it would still be beautiful

[@TheMedicatedArtist]

The blank NPCs could’ve worked if *all* the villagers were blank, but had one distinct clothing item, like Basket Girl. The more the player interacted with that NPC, the more human they’d look. If the MC had a similar personality to Kuzco (The Emperor’s New Groove), Jasper (Klaus), or Bakugou (My Hero Academia), then their willful disregard of others could explain this stylistic choice.

[@revannia]

"Maybe she was from another universe. That would explain so many things." 🤣🤣🤣🤣I'm dying over here. 100% agree.

[@farmhandler]

The blank npcs might have been okay if they all consistently had clothes. That would show some effort, but all of them being naked just seems lazy.

[@Anna-zt3jc]

or if every npc was blank lol

[@riam850]

Or you could make them more like a silhouettes - I remember that one game made all non interactable NPC that were ment to just fill the screen a bunch of single color silhouettes and since they were in multiple colors and environment was colorful it's just looked natural.

[@katiethefandomgirl4412]

Not gonna lie, when I first joined the stream of you playing this I didn't know what we were getting into, this was a fever dream Weirdness aside, it's just another one of those new farming sims these days that got the mechanics down and made them functional, but without the knowledge on how to make them satisfying in cozy games.

[@BBALFONSECAPONE]

Reminds me of the new harvest moon series lol. You can see they're trying but completely lost

[@wildanbaxtli6913]

​@@BBALFONSECAPONEdespite Harvest Moon is not original developer anymore, I would thing they at least would take reference and learn from their past games. The fact they end up with game worse than indie stuff really confused me

[@DuskoftheTwilight]

not gonna lie the image of that cow bench-pressing got a genuine laugh out of me.

[@TheWillOfJ]

It's a very small touch in the grand scheme of things but the fact that characters don't turn their head to look at you during dialogue really stands out when you've gone for this graphical style. The village head is talking to your knees!

[@awastedcow]

Wait omg. I thought this released as early access. This is 1.0?????

[@JoshGamingGarden]

Yes, this is the final product 😭

[@imkellyonfire]

@@JoshGamingGarden HOOOWWW?!?!?!?! >.

[@suicune2001]

That's what I thought, too. I thought this was an early alpha build!

[@bunniewood]

Devs just want to make quick money. Most are stock assets and AI

[@Feirgheim]

wait wait wait, so, a clue to go back to your hometown is going to appear, but in the meantime you could take the bus to another place?

[@Froggycolouring]

Or you could just ask someone you know to come get you

[@maryo7690]

oh man I had this game on my wish list lol, I like the idea of the blank npc's, like a joke and how it differentiates between the actual characters, but Id probably want the game to be more fleshed out

[@Asunnixe]

Glad you got your refund back! Honestly you should do a review of the lacking farming games as they come out, your script for them is perfect

[@captainsawbones]

Oh man i hope they take your idea on board /gen

[@RaisinBug]

Another fun and fantastic review! 😂 I love the idea of an unserious farming game, but the gameplay itself seems like a frustrating and not-so-exciting experience. I held back on purchasing this game 'cause I was worried about getting motion sickness, which I was right about since I felt a lil nauseous from just watching this video. On a separate note, I misheard and thought you said that the character's name was Sim, which was funny enough, but then I saw it spelt as Simp in the dialogue and I couldn't stop laughing! 😂 Love the way you narrate your videos!

[@cw7414]

"I love to see all these new farming games with the same animals they bought for 39.99" PLEASE tell me that was sarcasm, it just took me right out laughing !

[@inqvizit0r]

This literally looks like a good premise for a horror farming game. Trouble getting home, those blank characters..... Add some kind of abandoned temple somewhere in the forest, several graves....

[@FavAMVs]

I feel like two issues, beyond the laziness of the developers, is some of this might be Chinese humour. Things that were mocked in previous Chinese games/shows. The other issue is they didn’t get a localizer. It almost feels like they got google translate or something and decided that was good enough. Hopefully they improve on the problems and make it a better game for their players.

[@rodelcorton8815]

Is that cow doing reps!!!

[@BBALFONSECAPONE]

And pooping milk!

[@cubone285]

Even if this game isn't some strange attempt at art, this review most certainly is. Thank you for going through this lmao

[@DiegeticDogma]

Thank you for protecting us 🫡

[@Lunicia]

The stream was so funny 😆 I personally think that if the white characters were really only a choice for the sake of the parody it wouldn't have been so many of them. I agree, it was probably a mix of both: making a parody and laziness

[@himechan1211]

This looks like the beginning stages of a game both in terms of mechanics and animation. What's sad is, if they put in a bit more effort and polished the game it could have been interesting. Also the lack of customization is a big no for me. I was a bit shocked when you said this was a full release...thinking it was in early access. Pretty much feels like an asset flip from what I'm seeing.

[@shozzy_id]

I love sassy Josh :D Thanks Josh, really helpful as always!

[@retroxify]

This is an asset flip, only without most of the assets and barely any flip.

[@ChemySh]

I can explain why Luo Meili elaborates on the meaning behind her name: Chinese names are complicated to write. Consider that only 3k CN words out of possibly 100k+ recorded dictionary entries are commonly used, and you have people whose job is to perform divination to give your fetus a "lucky" name, a lot of CN people have to explain which word/kanji to use for their names. It's just a common thing to do when introducing yourself in China

[@gda8773]

I really hope more people watch your review before wasting money on this game. Shockingly bad game, but fantastically funny review! Thanks so much for playing and reviewing for us. I definitely won't be buying this one 😂. Glad you got your money back.

[@amytheshihtzumom]

“Bird!” During your live stream, I was thinking what it would be like if all the animals said their names like the bird.

[@osakitty]

Thank you for making this sacrifice for us.

[@Bakuuren]

So the mayor traps you in the village, and the train doesn't go to your hometown, and everyone somehow knows that. There are also spirits. It's official, your character is in purgatory waiting for judgment. $18 dollars for this?! Man, this game does not look fun. It makes me want to try my hand at making a farm sim, but that is a lot of work and time I don't have. Thanks for checking this out for us, Josh! I can save my money.

[@katysayavong1928]

This review is so funny omfggg 😂 thanks for your service josh

[@Akane1313]

I’m sorry you had to go through what seems like a general scam of a game but your sarcasm is hilarious.

[@primadonna2312]

Hahaha this video was so funny. I love your sense of humor. :) It's a shame this game wasn't better made, it had real potential.

[@katsuminara4036]

I would love a Spirited Away game or a Howl's Moving Castle game XD where you play as Chihiro and Sophie or make your own character

[@yolandab2274]

I guess I'm the weird one out but I've been enjoying the game a lot. And I've tried all the new farming games that have come out. For some reason the progression in this one just grabbed me.

[@Lillian-Amour]

How the heck does this have "very positive" steam reviews?

[@BBALFONSECAPONE]

Bots probably

[@imkellyonfire]

i feel like too much work was put into having that cow work out xD whyyyy

[@dawnmccarthy1]

The cows look like the classic harvest moon cows to me.

[@IDOLL_Dev]

I appreciate your helpful feedback about what to improve and I respect that you have a different opinion, but personally this is funny as hell and as someone who doesn't like playing most farming sims you just convinced me to wishlist this.

[@Joe-gc2og]

Hear me out on that doctor

[@floofzykitty5072]

I bet a lot of the physical parts of the world are actually assets that were bought and not a whole lot of the game's composition is actually original. What makes me think this is that the game has a huge style mismatch. In a chill farming game, you expect to live a rustic and simple yet satisfying life if you work hard enough. The modern house you get right off the bat is not in theme with the rest of the game, and the mannequin-like people also feel cold and oddly dystopian, like this is some retirement village for defective robots. Even the clothes you wear and can buy notably don't even have farm-themed clothes like overalls and straw hats.

[@snestendo]

Such a strange game. It's got some effort put in there, but not exactly. They state on the Steam store that AI was only used for the store page, but it's hard to imagine someone went all this length with decent art to make such a half-baked game lol some of the character art is varying, but some of it looks like they traced and painted over references of the models, so it I could also be just overtly wary considering some of the stuff that makes it onto Steam nowadays.

[@ChromaSoul]

It actually has good reviews on Steam which is shocking...?? This game has so much potential but it fails at almost everything it tries to do. Definitely not worth the price. Only worth $5 or less.

[@goblinmatt]

The thing that gets me is that the main character looks pretty interesting to me design-wise and the NPCs that actually got designed look pretty ok. The mannequins are definitely either unfinished and passed off as "quirky" to sell the final game or, if they are on purpose, a total misstep for me. Either way, got a great reaction image out of "there will be no more simp in this village from now on" so at least the game wasn't a total loss

[@mysticaccy]

Thanks for playing and reviewing this game, because i did thought bout buying it but now seeing the gameplay... Its not worth it and its an unfinished valley😂

[@imsunnybaby]

i really like our farmer girl's personality

[@adipoke2112]

"If I was bored - which I was" 😂

[@den......]

well, you know what they say, there's no time like this month second thursday

[@Miwako_vklolita]

nooo i loved the art

[@msemma4316]

Oh my gosh! I have never seen anything worse than these mannequin NPCs!!!

[@mojaslatt]

"Oriental Valley" is a wild name ☠️

[@ChiNguyen-gj8lb]

I decided to buy immediately after seeing your video. I have too many “real” farming games that it’s kind of boring, so an “unique” and “stupid” with full of bug and funny things like this seems interesting and unique 😂

[@kimsonmagat7620]

the visuals is quite nice ngl. but the blank characters is giving creepy vibe the storyline is weird also but interesting

[@koiitree]

10:04 LMAO JOSH ALKSKJJKLD

[@ellabee1858]

You should be reveiwing The Last Craftsman instead of this oddity. The game is amazing, has many of the things I would like in Stardew. I bet Eric Barone wished he had thought of giving collectables tags. It really changes things in such a big way. Also planting with no tiling soil or watering! Now you really want to plant stuff, lots and lots of stuff:)

[@cloudy4lockharty]

Gonna guess the months are "this, that, now, current, next, following, Month x(2,3,4...etc)" let me see if I was correct or close. edit: omg I got it with next and following, I was just missing last xD

[@terrykwonggame]

This looks worse than Harvest Moon Light of Hope which I've played 200+ hours.

[@alusandrea1501]

The names of those novels are peak Chinese romance novel titles. Too bad it's lazy since it does seem like an interesting premise. I wonder how much the weird dialogue comes from translation issues?

[@beckyx8133]

This was on my wish list - off to remove it 😖 Got to admit the animals working out is amusing. Also, Josh thank you so much for the dedication in checking the months 😂

[@Celery_Seeds]

If this was a card slap adventure game, I would like it more!

[@mlec5893]

This reminds me a LOT of a mobile game you ought to try sometime, Josh - it's a Chinese title called Harvest Town. In that game as well as this one, a LOT gets lost in translation and just seems nonsensical (ex. the coughing doctor, the broom is the type old women used here) At least the English in OV is decent compared to HT. 😂

[@batty-bites3185]

'played the game so u don't have to' don't worry i was never going to with a name like it has. the fact that it was okay'd to let release on steam is kinda boggling.

[@Icyangel10]

If it weren't for the fact this is not early access, there's a bunch of issues/laziness going on I would have found this funny This semi felt like a weird slice of life comedy anime especially with the blanks as background characters you can interact with. It's clear this game needs a lot of work to fix it up but I doubt anything will happen. The only good thing is that it's not an NFT scam or something. I dunno something feels like an asset flip especially with pointing out the animal pack the cow comes from.

[@milahtis7951]

This month is my favourite time of the year (⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠)

[@galiane7365]

Wow, I'd never heard of this game, but what a mess! Thank you for testing it for us! A total pass for me ^^

[@bunniewood]

This is a scam game people. Devs charging money for rubbish games I can’t believe they charging for this. Reviews on steam must of been paid for

[@anah7785]

I'm laughing so hard with this review hahaha thank you Josh for your sacrifice

[@shiannwilliams3617]

Lol please do another part so funny i love

[@AlexDayz]

I’m all for parody and self referential games that don’t take themselves too seriously but you can’t just rely on qwirkyness to sell your game, it still has to be enjoyable to play. I do love the look of the MC though, very cute

[@saffronnie3969]

Palworld Beta leak is nuts!

[@KryaDiere]

I tried this in the previous Nextfest and got horribly motion sick + the game was just crap, but I gave it a pass thinking it's just a small demo and still in production. Next thing I know I get a notif that the game was released??

[@julienicol9202]

I don’t think that it’s necessarily acceptable to have blank NPCs in a game unless you make it a deliberate joke. Also if I was the developer I would be so self aware in the game and break the fourth wall because of how poorly written and nonsensical the game is! It’s lazy and I would even say “The developer is too lazy to finish the game properly, so you just have to deal with it.” It’s better to be self aware in your project when you’re so lazy, than letting it speak awfully and ambiguously for itself with obvious unfinished and nonsensical things that don’t compliment your vision at all.

[@p0llencrumbs748]

This feels like a massively unfinished game that i hope they ill finish. the mannequins only seem lke placeholders, like the bamboo girl. Since it works at some parts, i donz think its awful, but paying SO muchmoney for a broken game is ridiculous.

[@BisexualTruck]

The base camera sensitivity is so bad and really adds to the fact that they really didn't care about the game 😭I honestly wouldn't even be able to watch if it stayed that way because of how easily I get motion-sick

[@celarts5752]

The moment I saw the name of this game I new it was gonna be a dumpster fire

[@Electric0eye]

Bro making games is hard, incredibly so. But this isn't even a beta, it's barely an alpha.

[@AStupidID]

Ten seconds in and oh my gosh XD.

[@xtyou2547]

The environment and lighting look great tho.. Better than many oversaturated and lackluster environments like those in RF5 or POOT..

[@BBALFONSECAPONE]

Such a weird game! 😂

[@GeekyMina]

The blank NPCs are a NO. It's meant to be a farming/cozy game but it looks so empty and impersonal, the blank NPCs seem more laziness than an artistic choice as some other characters are fully textured, the artistic decissions are messy, there is no interaction with NPCs as you don't reply or add any choice to the dialogues, they talked to themselves. It feels like a bunch of rushed decissions and not cohesive at all. Maybe an early access, but if this is the finished product, unfortunately this game is a big fail.

[@olivierdorval2486]

Au moins le jeu semble assez beau.. .

[@BBALFONSECAPONE]

Graphically it's beautiful. But that's about where it stops lol

[@th4nkyoub3n]

Of all things, I’m stressed out by how time passes during dialogue

[@Summonsloth]

Bird?

[@HenrietBoks]

How can this be very positive on Steam? 🤣

[@Kimo_Neko]

the newer stroy of seasons games, which I consider to be more lacking than the classic harvest moon games, has more stuff than this game

[@monkeylol1452]

this game do bad . but something good came out of it. u made me laugh so hard with your commentary🤣.

[@陸天篤]

Undercooked

[@Moebz818]

Have you ever ridden a bike before? I can stand still on a bike without falling off. I'm sure most people can actually. It can be learned I promise. As for the game, at first I thought it might be really cool. But now that I see it, I think it needs a lot more time before it's worth diving into or buying.

[@JoshGamingGarden]

I'm not saying it's impossible, but in most games (and most of the time in real life), people will put one foot on the ground if they have to stay still for a certain period of time. Considering how there's no animation with the scooter, I just don't think they bothered making the character look natural on the bicycle. 😅

[@TheYdyp]

Damn I couldn't even get through the introduction of this game because of how cringe and confusing that dialog was. Watching this though made sure I didn't regret not pushing through it and that I got my refund while I could.

[@Yithiru]

I'm confused. How can this mess of a game have so many positive reviews on steam? It's so disjointed, expensive and feels like they wanted to capitalize on the farming games trend. Pretty assets aren't everything, a game has to be fun to play too.

[@canariawing]

i think if this game was free i'd think it was hilarious and a fun little parody game, but they're charging almost 20 dollars for this. this game has less content and polish than stardew valley, which is CHEAPER

[@kaydwessie296]

Just the name itself is a “no thanks”

[@nathaliecarluccio7559]

GET YOU MONEY BACK

[@JoshGamingGarden]

I did!

[@saintnikz]

Feels very much like a cash grab, scammy game. If its just a joke/gag game, that's fine, but it should not be that much money.

[@Pipkiablo]

Can't think of a better name? I can think of a million better names than Deergrains! BOB is a better name than Deergrains! Deergrains isn't even a name! I can only assume it was a pun in Chinese, and everyone knows how well puns translate into other languages.

[@Ket246811]

Loved the video ❤ but hated the game 💔