Craftlands Workshoppe vs Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Craftlands Workshoppe
Craftlands Workshoppe is a tycoon-like game that’s filled with fun adventures. In this game, you’ve inherited the workshoppe of your mentor, Allcrafts – the only master craftsman who managed to master all the craftmanship skills available, and your goal is to revitalize his workshoppe business and maybe make a name for yourself!The gameplay here is pretty much what I’d expect of a “grind simulator”. What this means is that the game, being a tycoon, requires you to gather resources or buy them, turn them into more valuable goods via crafting, and then sell them off at a nice profit margin - though you don’t have much say as to how much you can price your items. Rinse and repeat.
The game lets you choose between 3 starting professions, namely Alchemy, Cook, and Blacksmith, and from there, you can earn enough to purchase licenses to unlock the other professions. The goal here is for you to master them all. There’s actually a fourth profession, which unlocks the Assembly table, but that can only be obtained once you’ve completed a milestone quest.
Crafting is fairly easy for both Alchemy and Cooking since it either involves waiting out the cooking time or making sure to spend enough energy to brew the potion properly. However, for blacksmithing, there’s a little mini-game that you’ll need to play in order to make an item. Basically, there will be a fast-moving indicator on a meter and your goal is to click whenever it enters a green area on the said meter. If you miss, you’ll have to start over, wasting all the effort and energy you might have spent.
In short, Craftlands Workshoppe is a rather grindy tycoon-like adventure game that has a pretty humorous streak. Due to how grindy it can get, the game might just not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, if you’ve always had a liking for crafting-based tycoons and the idea of managing your own shop, and that you don’t mind spending hours just grinding away gathering materials, crafting items or selling goods, then this game should be right up your alley!
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands is a farm simulation/adventure game where you’ll not only need to maintain a farm and make sure that your surviving crew’s needs are being met; you’ll also need to set off on mini-expeditions to explore the many mysterious islands within the archipelago and to discover the secrets they hide. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you might end up finding a way off the island after all!The game is really easy to get into, mainly because the game is driven by its story-based quests so by completing these quests, you be able to unlock new areas and even new tools that will allow you access to different parts of the archipelago. However, you’re given complete freedom to explore any of the islands as you wish, though there are certain parts of the island that would be “roped off” until you’ve progressed far enough into the story and have unlocked the necessary tools.
Everything you do in this game requires energy - and yes, this includes walking – and it’s the main “currency” you’ll need to keep an eye on whenever you head out for a bout of exploring or just a resource-gathering run. Due to this energy system, the gameplay here can be quite strategic, forcing you to decide when you’d want to focus on exploring and when you’d want to spend some of the energy you have to gather some resources like fishing and chopping some trees.
Being a farm simulation game, Stranded Sails also has an allocated area within your base camp for you to grow some crops and feed your crew. You can even try your luck by fishing at the ocean, and then use those raw ingredients to whip up some delicious food to fuel your adventures.
So, overall, Stranded Sails is an oddly strategic farm sim/adventure game mainly because of its energy system, and as a result, the game isn’t as casual as some players would have liked. That said, the game has an interesting storyline going for it, and the gameplay, aside from the energy aspect, isn’t too shabby either. It’s definitely a game that fans of Harvest Moon or other similar games would love to play.