I've recently run into a situation that has left a very bad taste in my mouth. In this case, having a creator effectively block me from commenting on one of his games, kinda came out of nowhere but it just so happens that I had written a somewhat harsh review of their game a few days prior.

Now, mind you, I do want to defend myself in saying that I did not openly insult the person in question, nor did I completely slander their game. Simply sticking to pointing out what I didn't like/What could be improved followed by what I like (Ex. Numerous typos in the game despite it having been out for slightly over 2 years not(this is important due to the game's nature as a sort of text-based rpg), Pointing out that the combat system was stale and uninteresting in my opinion and finally about the few images used in the game. Then followed by mentioning that I liked the premise and the general idea of the game).

After writing my fairly extensive review, I ended it off on a fairly good note, saying that I liked where the game was going and hoped some changes would be made to make the experience better for everyone. Yet the person just responded by blocking me straight up.

I'm not usually a person to stir up drama online but this particular situation has left a genuine bad taste in my mouth and makes me a bit doubtful of how legit the game's comment section is (in this case being entirely composed of positive comments without a single trace of negative criticism in sight).

I was wondering whether or not this is common, or even fair, It might just be me being generally very detached as a whole but I haven't run into this kind of thing so far, like, at all. I'm kind of just left there, genuinely frustrated at the reaction, guy didn't even bother asking me for more detail, just shut me off.

And don't mistake it for ignorance, I know how hard it is to make a game as someone who used to mess in Unreal and Unity when I was younger, the fixes I proposed could've been implemented and completed in probably less than a week considering the game's structure isn't a complete mess.

Common? In the itch.io space or any indie game dev space not really from what I observed, if anything most creators here (both game devs and artists) appreciate honest feedback. Fair? Not really imo. I think most people would always appreciate honest feedback and if they're mature enough they'll see it as a way to improve, not something to be insulted of. 

Unless the creator explicitly asked not to send feedback, I can't see any logical reason to block you for providing feedback. Don't think about it too much, get  a bit annoyed, move on and enjoy the rest of your day :) 

It is fair for users to give 1 star ratings to games?

Itch does not have a public review system. You cannot check for unfair negative reviews. So there is this sort of compromise, that devs have control over their game page. They can opt to deactive comments, ratings, or remove commentators.

If you have a game with mixed, bad or no ratings and only positive comments, you might suspect what is up.

As someone who tends to write too much, I feel you, but do not overanalyze. The dev might not have understood your lenghty comment or tried to prevent some kind of flame war. Or even an overly distracting comment. If the game is so old, it could be just a means of preventing further work of dealing with replies to your comment. Maybe fanbois reported and complained your comment.

In general, I see most games do not bother to sanitize their comment section, so you see good & bad comments. And the bad ones usually have an abundance of downvotes, so it does not really matter much. It is shortsighted to have ratings active and delete non-spam comments to fake an appearance of a good game. They unnecessarily risk 1 star ratings.

you can do it if you want but it should still be set to comment mode enabled.

In my experience, you find all kinds of people. There are people who do not tolerate any type of criticism, but it is not common.

If your criticism was constructive, that is, without insulting or belittling his work and he still blocked you, he is really the problem.

The Internet is a public place, full of very different people. Don't worry, because you made your comment in good faith.

Sooner or later you are going to run into another person like him, who will see any criticism as an attack and there is nothing you can do, however, this is not normal. Most people tend to accept or at least not react to criticism unless, of course, it is written in bad faith.

It is difficult to find an explanation, sometimes the other person is going through a bad time and takes a simple comment in the wrong way. Other people really have problems and can't tolerate dealing with criticism, etc.

I don't know if it's common thing to deny comments (by blocking people, close comments section, deleting comments etc) or not. But I do know for sure that some people can't accept comments easily and would rather fight back.

So for your question, is it fair or not? that depends on your definition of fair. For people who can't accept comments, yeah, denying comments would be fair for them. The issue is that they lose valuable feedbacks from other people which could be used to improve their games.

That being said, maybe you need to rephrase your comments or criticisms to make them sound more positive and supporting. Ex: instead of saying "I don't like the typos in this game", say something like "If the typos were fixed, the story would be better".

Honestly, welcome to the internet. There's quite a lot people that are mentally incapable of accepting critisism cuz they think everything they do is right and perfect.  The worst part of it is that those kinds of people never change, the only thing you can really do is let people know about the person's actions and avoid him yourself. 

Personally, when it comes to actual criticism, no. But when it comes to spam, hate, or bots, yes its fair. Now I'm a mix bag because a game im waiting to finish it's routes turned off comments because people were asking too much about when will the character's routes be finished. and that gets a to them a lot. but on the other hand it removes ability to tell other consumers that "Hey this isnt finish yet" or "Dont get this"