Played for over an hour and change, like 6-8+? weeks I think. Didn't read the 42 page manual :^)
*Controls are pretty bad on a controller, why is accept on X? I decided to not alter them since I try to acclimate to whatever default the dev intended. Also only keyboard prompts on the UI? Way to beat me while I'm down.
*A lot of bonuses to choose from in the creation menu, though I wish there were better descriptions to know what a given skill does. Negative traits that allow for more bonuses is cool, though I didn't touch them myself. May be a good idea to have a default list of bonuses preselected if you want to nudge the player in their first run to have an easier time.
*Initial tutorial with Billy was pretty good, the ? tutorials not as much, but I managed. It would be nice if they didn't disappear, just in case I needed to reread it. Maybe have them change color, gray out, instead of disappearing?
*I like the detail of equipment affecting the main character portrait. The UI is serviceable to use, a bit busy.
*I first explored, though my skills were so low I couldn't pick anything up besides some item pouches. Found the church cart cutscene and went into the town in the next area, which I can't remember the name of. Having a fast travel sign is nice, cause it took awhile to get there. Wish running was a thing so it didn't take long to go somewhere. It also feels kind of mean to take food on fast travel, since you have to waste minutes of time walking if you want to min max and not waste food for a week. I checked out the church in the cliff, nothing seemed to be there but that one girl from the cutscene, I left and went back to home base. I'll bring up that the game mentions that we gain mood from talking to NPCs once a week, but it isn't apparent. Maybe have an unobtrusive popup when an action does something to the player's mood?
*Back at base I learn some more tutorials then make my way to Billy. I work and my success rate is really bad. The next week I follow the advice of the john guy in front of my house, paying to learn new skills so I can actually farm and harvest potatoes. I then do some scavenging outside before doing a few rounds of practicing farming with Billy. At some point he goes to town so I use the sign to get to him. Talking with NPCs at the inn I was disappointed to have no one who would train combat, since I wanted to be violent and the first enemy, the chicken outside my house, clobbered me big time.
*Eventually I had a decent 50% success rate with the farm job and started farming at home base. I saw the cutscene with the undesirables and Billy, somewhat interesting but I assume it's just the first part of that quest line. I did some wandering then decided to stop there.
Interesting mechanics from what I saw. Just wish it wasn't such a pain to walk around to get the 'weeklys' before you end the week with a job/training. At the same time, I can see how it makes the island feel more like a place, than a glorified menu you walk on. But some running mode would be better than nothing.
Neat little game, hope to see it improved upon.