Kitaria Fables Xbox review: A charming world that moves far too slowly

Kitaria Fables Screenshot Source: Windows Primal | PQube

Two genres of video games continue to grow in popularity over time: action-RPGs like Diablo 4 and Minecraft Dungeons, and "life" simulation adventures like Stardew Valley. With Kitaria Fables, developer Twin Hearts and publisher PQube effort to marry the two genres to create a game that caters to the players that love to grind for the next powerful slice of loot and the players that prefer to relax as they build an entire earth in-game.

In Kitaria Fables, players relive the life of Nyanza von Whiskers (or "Nyan" for curt), a feline soldier that is deployed to the remote Paw Hamlet with his true-blue companion Macaron. In this universe, monsters and "people" (a broad variety of intelligent bipedal versions of animals) are supposed to peacefully coexist, simply something is causing the monsters to go increasingly aggressive. It's up to you to protect Paw Village and effigy out why the monsters are behaving strangely in the first place.

Kitaria Fables volition likewise have you fight hordes of various monsters, collect a veritable smorgasbord of ingredients and resources, build up a subcontract for crops, craft everything you lot need to survive, and help the people of Paw Hamlet and the surrounding areas.

If y'all're a huge fan of the genres Kitaria Fables melds into one, and notice yourself drawn towards its totally cute visuals, you may find something to love in Kitaria Fables. Unless you have plenty of patience, though, Kitaria Fables' modest flaws add upwardly fast.

Kitaria Fables Reco Image

Kitaria Fables

Bottom line: From its distinctive fine art fashion to its surprisingly encgrossing combat, Kitaria Fables is as cute as they come and filled with its own personal brand of amuse. However, a myriad of strange game pattern decisions and a lackluster story combine to make Kitaria Fables feel like it moves at a glacial pace.

The Good

Adorable and appealing visuals
Unproblematic still tactile combat
Stable and polished overall

The Bad

Progression is far too dull
Game length feels artificially extended
Story is shallow and banal
Pocket-sized typos and writing mistakes are common

Update, Sept. 3, 2022. My concluding review for Kitaria Fables was delayed because of an obscure side quest that was mandatory to progress through the main story, and was hidden in a strange location with no indication of what was necessary. I have since finished Kitaria Fables, and the below review has been updated accordingly.

Kitaria Fables: What you'll like

Kitaria Fables Screenshot Source: Windows Central | PQube

From the starting time moment you lot outset playing Kitaria Fables, you're struck past its art style and visuals. This a game that immediately brings words to mind like "uwu" (I'k sorry), and those impressions stick with you equally you're introduced to new characters, explore new areas, and take on new enemies. Kitaria Fables is cute, obviously and simple, but it's also clear that a lot of attention to detail was used to craft its world. The game manages to own a unique style in an increasingly cluttered market, without sacrificing the foundations of a practiced game.

Category	Kitaria Fables
Championship	Kitaria Fables
Programmer	Twin Hearts
Publisher	PQube
Genre	Action-take a chance RPG
Game Size	ii.1GB
Players	Singleplayer & two-player local co-op
Play Time	xviii+ hours
Xbox Game Pass	No
Launch Date	Sept. two, 2022
Launch Price	$20-40
Reviewed on	Xbox Series X

Functioning is also exceptional, with narry a dropped frame or stutter at any time while playing. Of course, playing on Xbox Serial X probable aided in both the performance and visuals department, but it'due south undeniable that Twin Hearts did an exemplary task piecing Kitaria Fables together. That being said, while visuals and operation are important to capture initial players, it'due south ultimately gameplay that divides the proficient from the great.

Kitaria Fables manages to ain a unique way in a chaotic market.

The premise behind Kitaria Fables is relatively unproblematic. It's an activeness-RPG that features sure aspects of other games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley, with a day / dark cycle, weather patterns, farming, crafting, and a basic economy. While you lot're off battling monsters and saving the world, you're as well collecting the ingredients y'all'll need to craft better gear and consumables, or items that you tin sell for a hefty turn a profit. When you're at home, you're conveying out quests for your swain villagers and managing your growing farm. In the finished production, Kitaria Fables largely succeeds to execute these gameplay mechanics, at to the lowest degree on paper.

Kitaria Fables Screenshot Image Source: PQube

The monsters you'll see in Kitaria Fables are varied in both advent and beliefs and nigh e'er have a place in the game's crafting and progression systems. Gainsay is extremely simple but deceptively engaging, with quick reaction speeds and minimum mistakes necessary to consistently come out on pinnacle. Yous can also customize your fighting style, to a degree, with melee swords, ranged bows, and a broad variety of magical spells at your disposal (much of which yous'll accept to unlock). There are numerous bosses to conquer in Kitaria Fables as well, with each one featuring an entirely unique fighting style and reward.

On the other side of the coin, Kitaria Fables' life simulation elements experience like a bottom office of the game, simply they're at least consequent. Farming is essential if you want to earn money for progression, and crafting is necessary for nearly everything, so you'll constantly be dipping into your growing stash of random materials. Kitaria Fables' more relaxing half certainly isn't as compelling as games like Stardew Valley, just it is an interesting addition to the activeness-RPG genre. The entreatment of the premise is evident in Kitaria Fables, even if this iteration doesn't quite hit the marker.

Kitaria Fables: What you won't like

Kitaria Fables Screenshot Source: Windows Central | PQube

Kitaria Fables' biggest weaknesses are actually the result of many smaller game pattern decisions that, past themselves, likely wouldn't exist that big of a deal. Notwithstanding, the end outcome is that Kitaria Fables feels like an action-RPG above anything else, but one that moves but equally slowly, if not even more so, every bit a life simulation. At the end of the day, Kitaria Fables is just slow, with simple deportment and developments taking much longer than you feel they should.

Practically everything related to progression in Kitaria Fables requires crafting, which in plow requires lots of resources and materials. These materials are earned from killing monsters, with each monster dropping unique items. This leads to a constant bike of grinding for the next batch of resources you need to unlock anything in Kitaria Fables, like weapons.

Grinding is a part of most activeness-RPGs, simply Kitaria Fables requires it at every single plough

Grinding is commonplace in near action-RPGs, but is normally associated with tardily-game or endgame play, where players are striving to find the best possible gear and boodle. In Kitaria Fables, not-insignificant levels of grinding is required for even the most basic upgrades, and the requirements only become more stringent equally yous movement forrard.

Escalating this issue to new levels of frustration is how Kitaria Fables provides you with shockingly little data on its globe. Descriptions for items might tell y'all how y'all can obtain it, simply this is far from guaranteed. On top of that, Kitaria Fables doesn't provide any data on where monsters, treasure chests, bosses, or materials tin can be found. Information technology'due south entirely upward to you to remember where everything is, and whether or not you lot've actually seen where a specific item or monster is at all (since in that location are subconscious areas you can't admission until after in the story).

Kitaria Fables Screenshot Image Source: PQube

Farther driving home how tedious grinding can be, Kitaria Fables's map is comprised of a ton of smaller areas, each of which may contain different monsters, bosses, and chests. Y'all tin can't fast travel between these areas one time you've explored them, but you tin can set checkpoints scattered around the map (although you lot often can't fast travel from these checkpoints, requiring a different mark in a dissimilar location). Traveling betwixt the areas is time consuming thanks to relatively tiresome character movement speed and the constant loading screens between them (on Xbox Series X, these loading screens were never more than 1 to two seconds, but older hardware may struggle more).

Information technology tin can accept literally hours to grind for one significant equipment upgrade, specially if you don't immediately remember where a specific monster is located (some monsters only appear during sure times of mean solar day in specific areas!). But information technology's not merely your own personal upgrades that require grinding. Nigh every quest involves gathering resources, requiring further grinding to progress through the story.

Everything in Kitaria Fables is slow, except for time, and that makes everything feel even more glacial.

Information technology'south also upward to you to maintain your farm, which takes valuable time out of each game day. You'll take to battle with slightly awkward movement controls, and switching between the diverse tools you'll use for farming and combat requires jumping into your full inventory constantly, every bit the game doesn't provide enough shortcuts.

All of this is exasperated by a puzzling attribute of Kitaria Fables: how quickly time moves. Kitaria Fables' days are shockingly curt, meaning the uncomplicated act of maintaining your farm can accept upwards of 2-5 hours a day. Everything in Kitaria Fables is ho-hum, except for fourth dimension, and that makes everything feel even more glacial.

Layers upon layers of crafting and grinding make Kitaria Fables feel it has been artifically extended to take up more than of your time. When you footstep back and consider what has actually happened in Kitaria Fables' story, you realize that what took you 10-12 hours to complete would have only been about iii in another game. The side quests on offer are particularly egregious offenders of needlessly wasting your time, and you frequently tin't skip them. Progressing through the main story actually requires many of these side quests to be completed, and the game doesn't tell you which side quests are mandatory and which are optional.

Speaking of story, Kitaria Fables' isn't going to win whatever rewards for its storytelling, and comes off as pretty generic and shallow. The writing is filled with meaningless exposition, convenient plot devices, a few too many "shocking" plot twists, and a lot of fluff that, once once more, feels designed to elevate out the game's length even more. Figuring out what you're supposed to be doing isn't always obvious, as well, as many side quests are required, but can be scattered all over the map. Yous could exist looking for i side quest for hours, with zero indication of where yous're supposed to become or what you lot're supposed to do.

Kitaria Fables: Should you play information technology?

Kitaria Fables Screenshot Source: Windows Primal | PQube

It was often frustrating to play Kitaria Fables, since it's built on such a fantastic foundation of style and premise. Kitaria Fables attempts to blend two genres of video games, both of which are typically built to be fourth dimension consuming, but, unfortunately, ends up combining the exact parts of those genres that shouldn't be together.

I enjoyed a good deal of my fourth dimension with Kitaria Fables, simply tiny game design decisions snowballed into a title that's difficult to truly sink your teeth into without hefty amounts of patience and a capable memory. Faster movement, better fast travel, a more informative map or player journal, longer days, lower requirements for crafting, more than varied quests — all of these would go a long ways towards delivering Kitaria Fables closer to its potential.

Kitaria Fables is a charming and lovely game at its core, and it's withal more than possible to have fun while playing. It's genuinely impressive how the small-scale team at Twin Hearts managed to craft a game with and so much character and smoothen. If you're already predisposed towards deadening-moving games like Stardew Valley just want more than gainsay elements, there'southward still plenty to love in this feline-led take a chance. Endless game design flaws and a frankly mediocre story massively detract from this experience, though, leading to an incredibly slow-burning game that doesn't deliver a lot on your investment.

Kitaria Fables probably isn't going to be considered one of the best Xbox games in its current country, but my fourth dimension in Paw Village was mostly well-spent (even if I spent far likewise much).

Kitaria Fables Reco Image

Kitaria Fables

Bottom line: Despite beautifully cute visuals and a solid foundation, Kitaria Fables falls short of greatness thanks to terribly slow game blueprint and a boring plot. If you lot love the game's charm and possess plenty of patience, you tin even so find something to dearest in Kitaria Fables.

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