Released just yesterday, I had no idea Kitaria Fables even existed until I went to the Steam Store page to look up something completely different only to see a heroic kitty cat staring at me.
Intrigued, I proceeded to investigate.
It was advertised as an Action RPG with farming aspects. Several reviewers referred to it as Stardew Valley but with Kitty Cats. Other reviewers referred to it as a horrible grind-fest with limited inventory. I like grind-fests! So I investigated further.
My main concern at first was that, judging by the screenshots and videos, it seemed like a game that required a controller. I don't use a controller. I haven't used a controller since my old Playstation 2 days. And there have been a few games I've gotten from my Humble Bundle subscription that looked fantastic, until I opened them and they were clearly designed for controllers with god-awful, non-rebindable keyboard controls.
I questioned this in the Steam discussions but my only response was a link to another thread complaining about the mouse not clicking. Impatient for real responses, I decided to just buy it anyway with plans to ask for a refund if it was more controller-centric.
Luckily for me (and for you, if you are so interested!) the mouse and keyboard controls are standard aaaaannndddd they work just fine! And there was much rejoicing!
Your character is a cat with an awesome name -- Nyanza von Whiskers. In fact, I might officially ordain my own cat, Charlie, with his very own surname of von Whiskers.
You and your little rotund pink friend are apparently warriors sent to this tiny town to protect the townspeople from the ever-increasing monsters that threaten the land.
As luck would have it, your dear old grandfather used to live in this very town! And so, it is decided, during your stay you shall take over his long-empty abode and make it your own. He's been dead for so long, so surely he won't mind you taking up residency and sleeping in his old, creaky bed.
When you enter your grandfather's old farmhouse, there is a mirror in the corner of the room begging you to go and approach it. This is where you shall customise your illustrious Nyanza von Whiskers and attire him once you find suitable clothing.
There are a few more kitty cat patterns available via the DLC, but, I'm fine with my fancy ginger friend here and have no desire to spend extra money on mere cosmetics in a non-MMO.
After following a short story-line you quickly discover that magic in this land is strictly forbidden, anndddd, of course, unbeknownst to you during every previous moment of your life, you actually have magical abilities that you've only just discovered! Lo!
It appears that the ever-increasing monsters in the land have something to do with magic from many years ago, from runestones that were hidden in ancient dungeons by the last magic-wielders before magic was made illegal, and now it's your secret job to find these dungeons, defeat the monsters within, and acquire these runestones whilst protecting the land.
The map seems decently sized and the higher-level areas are gated by, as many reviewers complained about, a grind-fest!
But I approve.
I like grind-fests in games, when done well, and so far this seems to have been done fairly decently.
As you can see from this Blacksmith's window, you require all sorts of materials with which you can upgrade your weapons. Same goes for armour and other accessories (like wings that make your movement speed much faster!) and for learning new spells.
Some of these items randomly drop from certain monsters. Others you can mine or chop from the occasional node you see. To make one ingot, you need five lumps of ore, and you need several ingots to craft most things so you're going to be doing a fair amount of grinding!
I'm up to a bit at the moment where I need to repair a bridge before I can continue onwards. I'm planning on using this time to gather as many of these lower level materials as I can and see what I can do.
The main issue with the grinding I'm noticing is that whilst the materials seem easy to acquire, money seems a bit difficult to come by unless you're selling all these materials. So I guess the smart thing to do would be to take note of every material you need for what you actually want to make and chuck everything else into your sell box!
Of course you also have a gigantic chunk of farmland with which you can farm away to your heart's content! The things that you harvest can be used to create different foods, to fulfil quest objectives, or to just vendor. At the moment I'm a pack-rat and am keeping absolutely everything.
The game doesn't have a stamina bar and you don't pass out if you decide to spend all night in the wilds fighting things. So, rest assured that you can plant as much as you want in this gigantic field and not have to worry about having enough stamina to actually water the things. You'll be fine.
With a non-upgraded watering can, you can only water one tile at a time, just keep that in mind.
One of the more annoying things I've found in this game is the fact that to do anything, you have to actually equip the tool. Unlike games like Stardew Valley, you don't have all the tools on your toolbelt ready to roll. You have to unequip your sword, equip your pickaxe, mine, re-equip your sword, kill some monsters, equip your axe, chop some trees, re-equip your sword.
All by accessing the inventory over and over.
It's more painful when farming. Equip hoe, equip seeds to plant, equip watering can, equip harvesting scythe.
More quickbar slots where you can put these tools and can just scroll between them would be amazing. It's not a gamebreaker though. Just slightly annoying.
Another thing that made me raise an eyebrow was the fact that guard-type NPCs don't bother helping you. They'll just stand there and stare blankly as enemies attack you, mere feet away from them.
Fine, guys; I'll handle these monsters myself!
The combat is fairly fluid though. Left-click to attack, right-click to dodge-roll, middle-click if you want to focus your target. 1-2-3-4 to use your equipped abilities or spells.
Enemies will perform their own attacks (which are easily visible with RED!) where you'll need to be quick on the dodge-roll button to zoom away from. Anddddd, another annoyance, you can't cancel your current action in favour of dodging. I've died a couple of times due to that.
But! Death is nothing in this game! You will not lose XP or items, you'll just wake up the next day in your bed as though nothing happened.
You will come across full mobs of enemies who are all releasing their abilities at you at once and you'll be dodging every which way only to run out of fighting stamina and be unable to dodge anymore and thus meet your maker.
You will be in the middle of performing an ability and want to quickly dodge but can't due to the cast animation, then be stunned by the hit allowing all the other enemies in the area to fling themselves at you.
You will fight an overworld boss-type creature and get it nearly to the end of its health, when a random creature will show up in the vicinity and start attacking you as well and discombobulate you and ruin your perfect fight.
It's a very gentle game, perfect for that casual grinding gaming feeling I prize so much. But as mentioned above, it can be challenging as well.
It is NOT "Stardew Valley but with Cats" as some reviewers have claimed, but it is its own thing and I like it.
You can find it on the Steam Store here!
If you get it, I hope that you like it too!
Until next time! 😊