2025-04-28 15:30:55

Okay, so: A good game. But flawed.
I do like the dark humor, I do like its gameplay loop, I do like the art style. The story, while not the greatest I've ever head, is solid and has a few unexpected twists.

What I don't like is how linear it all is, for the most part. You can build structures, and in theory you can chose their building location. Sadly, in reality, often there's like 3 plots available, tailor-made to make sure that just that building fits there, and you'll need to fill all up anyway. There is a single actual choice to make in the game - and that one is part of the "Game of Crone" DLC.

The DLC content is almost mandatory in my opinion. I've played through the base game once without and finished the DLC after, and I could have saved myself a lot of mindless and actual unpleasant grinding by getting them. Which is a mechanic / way of balancing that I hate. That being said, they also have some entertaining storylines and are otherwise fun to play.

I do recommend this one with a 7.5 or 8 of 10. But I would only recommend it if you don't mind to grind, like dark humor and buy it bundled with all the DLC on sale.

2025-04-21 06:55:46

Yes, BUT I had to mod this game 30 mins into playing. Slowed the days, added a dash, and cut all the energy consumption by half. AFTER all that, the game is great! I have to look stuff up every 10 minuets just to figure out how to do stuff, But it feels nostalgic some how, Like brave fencer musashi and the peoples schedules in the village.

2025-04-17 19:19:45

The game has unusual story.gameplay is okey for indie give it try

2025-04-16 22:21:16

I was looking for something to play after I got burnt out on Stardew Valley and found this game. This game is so confusing yet so fun. It does not follow the same farming mechanics as SDV, and although they can be similar in that you can go to the mines/dungeon, plant crops, form relationships, it is very different. The premise is bizarre and dark, but has many silly and lighthearted moments. I haven't beaten the game yet- there is a massive amount of stuff to do. Lots of crafting, lots of quests, lots of things to get sidetracked by. The main quest is not linear whatsoever and really shows how interconnected everyone in the game/story is. I really love this game, I put it down for a little bit because I was frustrated with my progress as it can be kind of difficult but if you take it one day at a time, it is so much fun! It can be as min/max as you want, making you very greedy (hehe), or you can take it slow and build up your resources/your home area. Wonderful game and great story, the developer did a great job representing the 7 deadly sins.

2025-04-12 13:31:11

I have completed the game's story and have no desire to go back to get achievements nor try the DLCs.

[h3]Pros:[/h3]
- Love the art style.
- The music and audio design in general are good.
- The best part was getting to know the characters and seeing the completion of their stories. I saw most of the connections coming a mile away but one did manage to catch me by surprise. They're all endearingly annoying and I like that.

[h3]Neutral note:[/h3]
- The game pauses when the window is not in focus.

[h3]Cons:[/h3]
- The progression is awfully paced. There's too much to keep track of and do during the mid point. And when at the end game all you're doing is waiting about for the day of the week that the NPC you need to speak turns up.
Example: Speak to Astrologer, he asks for an item. Give him item, he says come back in a week. Come back, he asks for the same item but gold quality. Do so and come back in another week. During this, if you do not have the means to make the item quickly (or look it up and have it at the ready) you could end up waiting an additional in-game week because you did not had it over same day. It's awful because at that point there was nothing else to do in the game. No need to earn money. Can't progress the story of other character's because it hinges on completing this one first. And because the game pauses when tabbed out you can't even do something else and let it pass time on its own. Have to use up energy, sleep and repeat to rapidly speed up time's progression.

- There is so much useless content.
Example: You can start making zombies near the end of early game to automate stuff. And there are a lot of ways to improve their efficiency, but there's no point in doing any of that. You're so busy that they'll get the jobs done quicker than you can keep up with anyway. The alchemy went mostly unused besides for making health and speed potions.

- The dungeon and fishing were annoying.
You can tell that they were both heavily Stardew Valley inspired. Except for the dungeon requiring you to kill all enemies to progress to the next floor. I wouldn't have minded that if the floors were linear. So much time was wasted backtracking in order to find a dead end room and kill everything. I ended up using a notepad to draw the layouts of the place so I knew which way to go.
The fishing minigame is the same as SV but controls [i]slightly[/i] worse. Even with the best fishing rod it makes no difference to the ease of it.

In the end, I completed it for the sake of doing so. Most of my time with this was spend either bored or frustrated/annoyed. And this is coming from a guy who loves farming sims, management games and darker tones.

[h3]Bonus:[/h3]
[b]Just because you make a self referential joke about missing/hyped/mentioned content being sold as DLC instead of being in the base game, does not make doing so alright.[/b] What a way to ruin the credit scene.

2025-04-10 00:43:33

I've tried really hard to enjoy this game, to the point where I've done three separate playthroughs - two vanilla, one modded. It just feels more like a chore than enjoyable, even when modded to try to streamline things. It's such a cool concept for a darker spooky farming sim, [b]but it falls short in almost every way[/b].

Many of the mechanics feel cobbled together or afterthoughts - like combat/dungeon crawling, technology points, and upgrading crafting stations for a few examples. Why doesn't the upgrade for the Stone Cutter 2 just apply over top of the existing Stone Cutter 1 I had been using for the first half of the game? Dungeon crawling feels so clunky, you have to clear every enemy from a floor before you can progress. Blue tech points are extremely difficult to earn early game, and even late game it feels tiresome since you have to go out of your way to earn them (whereas Red/Green points are passively earned). Many skills in the tree need these points so it's inevitable that you'll have to sit in the Church basement farming them (or grinding out and then recycling dozens of Stone grave fences). Earning Faith is incredibly bottlenecked due to being restricted to one sermon per week, and many recipes/studies require massive amounts of them.

And oh my god the ITEMS never end and there is nowhere to store them all - good luck if you don't have a storage expansion mod! Some of the items bafflingly don't even stack (or stack in odd numbers), you could end up with a whole chest full of single intestines or brains, while the bones and blood stack neatly. The game doesn't really give the best explanation for what each item does either, it could really use a better in-game tutorial or info window. I don't think most players would know how to get Acid for one of the story quests without looking it up online for example.

I could go on, but in summary progression is slow and confusing. I often forget that the name of the game is "Graveyard Keeper" because I am doing everything but taking care of the graveyard most days due to running around farming, fermenting, fishing, fetch questing, etc. while managing 100 tabs in my browser that I use to look up what every item does or how to craft something.

Sorry farming sim enthusiasts, you're better off going back to Stardew Valley or Fields of Mistria.

2025-04-07 00:25:19

✅ Highly Recommended
🕹️ Played way too much — and yes, I’m a real mortician

"Finally, a game that lets me unwind after work... by doing more work with corpses."

Graveyard Keeper is like Stardew Valley wandered into a crypt and got wonderfully weird. As a real-life mortician, I didn’t expect a pixel-art game to make me laugh this much while still capturing the vibe of managing the dead, balancing priorities, and juggling odd requests from the living.

The humor is dark and clever, the gameplay loop is incredibly addictive, and the world-building is rich with charm and weird medieval logic. One minute I’m chopping wood, the next I’m debating the ethics of selling questionable meat pies. You know — just like real life. 😅

It’s cozy, it’s quirky, it’s surprisingly deep — and yes, I absolutely cackled at how accurate some parts are (and how gloriously wrong others are). Whether you’re in the death care field or just love management sims with a spooky twist, Graveyard Keeper is a must-play.

10/10 — would exhume suspiciously fresh corpses again. ⚰️🕯️🪦💀

2025-04-06 14:49:42

Having read the description of this game, I thought it would be right up my alley. And to a certain extent, it really is; it's got a dry sense of humour, it's a bit macabre, has got great music and visuals, and interesting tasks for your character to do that all set it apart from a lot of similar-ish games. That said, the lack of guidance in this game makes that I can't play it for very long and that I'm tempted to give up before anything has really happened. The game gives you instruction on how to do some things, but for the most part it leaves you to your own devices. For some, that might provide a necessary challenge. For me personally, it's frustrating. I spent a lot of this game running around like a headless chicken, trying to perform tasks I don't know how to do and gather resources from places or people I don't know how to find. There is something of a log for your objectives, but most of the details you have to remember from dialogue with NPCs, which you often have no way of reading again. I've also already had to restart the game once because I realized I'd used up precious resources that I could only get more of by building something with the resources I'd already used up. It's a shame because I really like this game, its concept and execution. Maybe I'll see if can find some guides to help me get the most out of this game.
Do I recommend it? Yes and no. Yes if you don't mind a game with complicated features that requires a lot of detective work. No if you're looking for simple, relaxing, cut-and-clear gameplay.

2025-04-03 04:12:53

Graveyard Keeper is a standout game that I’m so glad I gave a chance. Honestly, I was hesitant to buy it, even with friends’ recommendations. But the first time I played, I ended up playing for at least four hours—and I haven’t stopped loving it since. I’ve always been a fan of cozy and farming games, but I typically steer clear of ones with minimal tutorials or direction. This game, however, really throws you in headfirst with barely any guidance, and somehow, it just works. It completely sucked me in, and now I’m nearly 80 hours in and just as excited as when I first started. I couldn't help myself and recently bought all the DLC packs, and they added so much more to the story/game (I didn't have to restart my current save after getting the DLC's either, they just add the content in to wherever you are already which was super nice!) it really feels like I have 3 whole new additional games to dive into. I also love that the developers designed the story-line so you can take as little or as long as you want to complete it. That flexibility made it so much easier for me to gradually learn the game’s systems, even with minimal guidance. If you’re on the fence like I was, trust me—this game is absolutely worth it.

2025-04-02 23:09:30

After Stardew Valley I was looking for a similar game, and of course there was no way around Graveyard Keeper!

The dark setting is rounded off by funny dialogues and the different daily cycles are well implemented. The crafting is quite hard and time-consuming, and the many walking paths are also not for the impatient.

Crafting, researching and other activities quickly become addictive. If you can't move forward, you have to find Person X or Y before you can continue. That can be annoying at times, and reaching for a guide is a quick chore.

Plays really good with a controller. Overall, a clear recommendation