The controls are very simple, but intuitive. The common point and click to move, letter and number keys to access things like inventory, weapons, and actions like potions and spells. I liked how simple and intuitive the controls for the spells and the potions were, giving them easy access and yet still not nerfing the difficulty of the game.
You play in third person, and while the point and click is charming, reminiscent of older or nostalgic adventure games, it does get frustrating at times as objects can easily softlock you, even if there seems to be a way around it. This happens most often when going through paths with sharp turns in wooded areas. It takes a little bit of clicking everywhere to eventually get out of it.
The camera angle also poses a problem when fighting or approaching enemies. Sometimes when the environment changes, the camera doesn’t change to the direction the character is facing but the front and blocks out the view of incoming enemies. This is especially frustrating when the enemies have projectiles or bows. A similar problem arises when you’re in studsville. It’s hard to maneuver the camera to be able to talk to a specific npc in the market area because the camera stays one angle and doesn’t allow you to see what you’re clicking on since something is the in front of the lower half of the screen, such as a market stall. This could probably be fixed by implementing WASD or a way to move the camera angle.
Enemies begin at a good difficulty level, but quickly after you get to studsville and collect items through items dropped by enemies and level up, the enemies no longer become much of a challenge. The Orc (or Oger? I forgot what it was) was a good example of a challenging battle that was pretty interesting, although the attacks and fighting style were relatively the same to the rest of the enemies apart from the projectiles which were fun to dodge. I wouldn’t’ve liked more miniboss/boss battles but rather more different enemies with different skill sets and difficulties. That’s not to say fighting enemies was completely boring. There were still plenty of interesting battles, like the one where you rescue Ezmore the wizard from the tower, and the spider king are the ones that I can remember but I’m sure there were many more. Combat could be more skill based, but it is not bad on its own.
After a while the game does become a bit grindy which is one of my issues with it.
I really liked the story. It was all over the place sometimes and I kind of enjoyed that, as it was genuine and fun. The map was charming in its aesthetic and simple style, and environments were populated that made them fun to explore. Despite several of it's flaws, it is a solid game I wouldn't mind playing again to kill time. 7/10