Interacting with a video game world thru fort road and town building at this immersive level is new to me. Game came out of nowhere!

Number one for me is the way the game feels when you're playing, when you're fully immersed in it. Sailing at night during a storm, hearing a real storm due to the absolutely spot on sound design. Looking up at Yggdrasil and the stars at night. Seeing the sun shine through the trees in the Black Forest. The constant noises in the swamp and the overall feel of it. The feel of potential danger when going into new areas or when several higher tier enemies show up when you're not fully prepared.

Other things? The easy repairs that cost no resources but require the proper stations. How ships sail in a fairly realistic manner. How that first boss fight felt the very first time you summoned it, and how great that particular boss looks. Discovering that the game gives you just enough direction, but also leaves you to figure a lot of things out on your own which leads to a sense of satisfaction when you actually learn something new, improve your skill (not your character's skill), and as you progress to the point where your character feels significantly more powerful than the hungry stick wielding being that they were when you were first dropped into the 10th realm.

And, of course, whatever is planned for the remaining biomes.

It took 700 game days & 400 actual hours to start thinking I might give sailing a decent try and go get The Elder.

In the real world we live in there's nothing quite like having low urgency fun where most stuff seems to work as intended. I still haven't quite completely figured out how the devs managed to design 'no angst' grinding. Anybody know if any of the devs have some formal psychology education?

I like the slow meaningful progression.

You level your skills...

You level your gear...

You level your food...

You level your potions.

Even your ability to build levels as you progress (wood, fine wood, core wood, stone, iron reinforced beams etc).

The boss fights and progression has a nice curve.
The food system is rewarding rather than "eat or die"
combat is nice.

1. The atmosphere of this game is my return point every time. Love the games graphics all around.
2. Nice blend of enemies. Balance would be nice, but nothing to difficult once you figure it out.
3. Generally more content. But i'm patient and will wait until everything is released. What we have paid for so far is astounding and works well.

1 Like the progression system. It seems well thought out and, once understood, gives the player a lot of freedom on how they want to play.

2 Random world generation keeps the game feeling fresh. Each seed presents a unique world to find solutions for easier progress. What resources you can get, and when, play a big part in how you can play that world. My last world I just had to deal with not finding the trader.

3 It isn't overly complex. There are not a million different things in each category. You don't need a guide to figure out a "meta" build. It is just what it is. Not a lot of junk to just clutter up everything or make choosing between things difficult.

1. The changings to how been full works plus the food/filld timer.

2. All the extra foods been added ^^

3. can't go wrong with more building parts

4. The fix for shields and how stagger/tanking is going to work now :D

5. puke berries xD