Brinks on great game mechanics

Bellwright, when I look at it objectively - is very close to an exact replica of one of my dream games id envision, since I got into Ark: Survival Evolved.

It's got the basic ideas there. A living world, exploration, survival, story, objective/nemesis, village building, sim-management, basic rpg combat, basic rts or total war style combat (by ordering around militias and your own guards to do battle).

It's ambitious, but I feel like it's been inevitable games like this will be arriving - especially with large language models (ai), the types of game mechanics once unique to each genre, will be able to blend into insane games that carry the best of all worlds, with infinite variability.

So that being said, whereas I love the ideas behind the game and what they are trying to do... I think they are missing on a crucial point of why it's ambitious to blend different genres like this. Stacking systems into a game so that players can "do everything" in it doesn't automatically make the game better. The systems have to be built well, it has to be enjoyable to players.

Bellwright has all these boxes checked, as far as gameplay systems and mechanics, though it seems like they are just rushing to coontinue checking off the next box without actually perfecting any of the systems, this might not go so well for them.

Whereas it's interesting enough to keep my attention for a few days of grinding, the core gameplay needs loads of polish. Instead of adding expansion content they need to perfect their basic systems/ux + remove ai voices and stuff like that, streamline npc and village + trade management, things like that.

Whereas this game and this type of game in general have lots of potential. The systems in this one are a bit too unpolished or simply "mid" for it to keep most people's attention for very long, I feel.

Mid crafting - combat - exploration - npc interactions - battles - story - village building and management it's all very "mid", not bad,, not great.

Wait for a sale, or just keep an eye on it and see what people are saying, if they polish it a bit, it would be a more worthwhile experience for players. If even just for the novelty of growing and managing a village and fighting force.