My Little Blacksmith Shop

You can be the most fierce warrior in the land, have laid thousands of your foes to rest and honed your craft with a blade since you were merely a boy. However, if your tools let you down in battle, no amount of skill or bravery will save you from being chopped to bits by your assailants. This is why a blacksmith was such as esteemed position within the medieval communities. Without a trusty, well-crafted blade and shield, you were asking for trouble. My Little Blacksmith Shop runs with this idea and puts you in the shoes of the town blacksmith, where you will go about your day completing orders and honing your craft.

This game plays rather like games with obnoxious controls and mechanics such as Surgeon Simulator, Table Manners or Octodad: Dadliest Catch. While it also has order completion aspects similar to Overcooked and a laid back format that is more in line with games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. In short, this game tries to tick a lot of boxes and it certainly checks a few.

Has Its Ups And Downs

The game has a lot going for it on a base level. The concept for the game is great and is rather relaxing when you get into the swing of things. Crafting order after order at as leisurely a pace as you choose is a cathartic experience. Plus, the building mechanics although intentionally rather clumsy are still very simple to understand and navigate to make your customers tools and weapons.

Plus, the art style is commendable considering the budget nature of this title. The dynamic weather and day/night cycle is lovely. The textures are simple and bell-shaped but it suits the setting. Plus, the animations and sound effects are perfect and well implemented. Although it isn’t anything that will blow your mind, we really can’t fault the presentation of this game at all.

Where this game sadly fails to meet the mark is with its onboarding and its tasks for the player. The key issue is the game assumes that the player will inherently know everything about this game from the start. Admittedly, a lot of the content is intuitive and very accessible. However, some things are obtuse to the point that it breaks the game. For example, if you create a tool that isn’t needed by the customer by mistake, that’s it. There’s no way to make more money, no do-overs. Your business crumbles before your eyes and you spend the rest of your days staring at the sword with the wrong handle that cost you your livelihood forever.

Plus, the aspects of the game that have you step away from the forge are poorly implemented. You can go to the town to shop, you can go to the mines to gather ore or you can simply go explore. However, these activities seem awkwardly wedged into the gameplay and none are necessary to succeed in your overall goal of making cash. Most of these activities will hinder your ability to meet these goals thanks to slow movement mechanics. So if you want our advice, stick to your forge.

The Heart Of The Town

The art style and presentation were great. The concept for the gameplay and the various ideas for the activities away from the forge was great. The controls and mechanics when tending the shop were great too. The one thing that lets this game down is its execution. The ideas away from the forge are not optimised to the point of frustration, the tutorial is poor leaving beginners scratching their head and often forced to lookup forums online.

Pros

• Relaxing gameplay for the most part
• Suitable visuals
• Controls and mechanics are easy to learn

Cons

• Extra activities are poorly designed
• UI is irritating to navigate
• Tutorial is non-existent