The world of Portia is bright, cheerful and pleasing to the eye. It is a game that offers a lot of features that Stardew Valley does, there is mining, fighting cute enemies, socializing with the town, farming, fishing, romance, but it also provides a 3D experience. As someone who is very keen on casual gaming it was a welcome take.

That being said there are some things I found in my first experience with My Time in Portia I felt could use improvement and other portions that far surpass other games! So today we will dig into both.

Pro — Great graphics

The game is visually stunning and there really is an incredibly wide area to explore. The visuals are a huge part of the game, if you are going to sink hours and hours into it then you should enjoy the atmosphere and I loved it. There were many moments in the game when I would just stop just to take it all in. I even got killed by a creature while I was admiring it. It definitely has a cartoonish vibe and most of the creatures are adorable. It can make you feel a touch guilty if you need the resources they drop and have to give them the ol’ stab. On the flip side it encourages you to start animal farms and tame your own llama.

Con — Dad is gone

This letter from dear ol' dad is part of your introduction to My time at Portia. He finishes this letter by claiming you are his pride and joy despite the fact he couldn’t be bothered to see you. I felt a bit torn about this story telling. On one hand it makes for drama down the line, but on the other hand it soured some of my warm and fuzzy feelings while playing the game. Your father was a part of the very lovely community in Portia, but this is the first time you’ve visited because you barely got to know him. You are a fully grown adult and are learning more about your father from total strangers than you’ve ever gotten to learn yourself. After this letter, any mention of the dead beat dad made me grouchy and there are certainly a number of them. Perhaps he gets redeemed down the line, but during the first 30 hours of playing I didn’t gain much of an appreciation for him.

Pro — Mining rocks

The mining in the game is interactive and satisfying. You can use your goggles to spot areas that are likely to have rarer objects and then you get to smash your way to them. I expected it to be a lot more of a flat, boring experience and I was impressed with it. Considering most of the resources you need can be found in the mines it is great that the experience can be considered fun.

Con — Errors a plenty

The biggest disappointment of this game, and in my mind the only reason to hold off on buying it at full price would be the crashes. The game does crash without any warning and did do so on me a handful of times. Which is worsened by the fact you can only save your game when you sleep for the night. Losing a day’s worth of progress can be very aggravating. I would much prefer to be able to save whenever I pleased but the developers are continuing to work on the bugs and glitches so we can hope that the crashes will be eliminated in the future.

Pro — Magical worktable

By far the most used object in my game was the work table. This game has a variety of tools to help with creation of objects but for most needed small items like weapons, tools, trinkets and more, they can be crafted on the work table. The best thing about this work table is that it can pull the resources from your chests for you. As long as you have the items, you can make whatever your heart desires and it does so instantaneously. I honestly wish more games would add this mechanic, it is always such a relief not to have to root through a dozen chests to find one object to craft or miss out on crafting opportunities because of not nothing to equip them. The worktable makes it easy for you.

This is especially important because money is not easily gained in this game. So using the work table to take normal objects and making them into slightly more valuable objects can be a good use of your time and energy. Especially since most other objects like the furnace have timers attached to them. The worktable is very intuitive and easy to read. It also links in well with the quests you get from the townsfolk as they will often ask for simple items like a fishing rod or a basket. Completing these simple quests will help your relationship with that individual and help your reputation with the town.

Con — Music is best off

This will come down to personal preference but unlike games like Stardew Valley where the music adds to the experience, I found the music of My time with Portia very corny and annoying. Its rare that I go out of my way to turn music in a game off but I did in this game. On the plus side the mod community has already come to the rescue and you can replace the music by following this link. Also the sounds for crafting, mining resources, chopping trees, etc are quite pleasing and worth keeping on.

Pro — Missions are challenging

This could be considered a con to some, but it makes the game go at a even pace in my opinion. You are given different missions, some you can choose to do on your own and some serve to continue the story line. Most of them require the use of the assembly station. Unlike the workstation it doesn’t magically create the item for you but it gives you the blueprint. It tells you everything you need and then you have to add it yourself. Now if this mechanic was apart of the workstation I would be annoyed with it, but it feels appropriate for these bigger projects to require the more hands on approach. It also is pretty satisfying, early on in the game you get to assemble a bridge and then it unlocks another area for you. You really feel like you have an impact on the town when you take on these missions and most of them are quite time intensive so it is good that the payoff is rewarding.

Con — Fighting is easy

This is one con that could be considered a pro to some. The main focus on the game isn’t the fighting mechanics so I wasn’t expecting to go nuts on these creatures but it is pretty easy. You can definitely fight enemies above your level without getting completely destroyed. It fits in with the calm atmosphere of the game, but considering this is suppose to be a post apocalyptic world it does seem a little exaggerated. It certainly makes the game more kid friendly but I think the developers could ramp it up in this area.

Pro — Fishing is fun

As someone who loathes fishing in most games this is a win. You have to move your cursor to stay on top of the fish while using left click to bring them in. If you do it too fast you can risk losing the fish. It didn’t take me too long to figure out the basics and I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to master.

Pro — Big town, big possibilities

Something that impressed me about this game is the sheer amount of characters. This group photo at one of the events doesn’t even have all of them despite having the majority. It also has a lot of romance options available, there are 18 bachelors that you can romance and 10 bachelorettes. It can be a bit overwhelming how many people there are to meet and talk to but you get to know the characters as you fulfill the quests, give gifts, chat them up and even battle them if you desire. It leaves a lot for the player to explore.

Overall even after hours of game play I felt like I was just scraping the surface of the game. The retail price of My time in Portia is $29.99 USD which is pretty hefty for a game that still crashes fairly often. Despite that I found there was a lot that this game offered to make up for that and I didn’t even have the opportunity to find it all. I would say that in my eyes the pros outweigh the cons in this case.