Now I loved the premise of the game, when I first bought Folk's Tale it promised to be something completely different to what's out there...

That's it. It's been 3 years and the game still isn't complete with no story to speak of and last time I played it, it was just one big tutorial. A complete waste of time and money. I'm sure the developer had the best intentions but so did I when I went to Uni. I said i'd revise every day and not go and drink at everyplace i could until I forgot my name and lost my dignity.. but I did....

There's plenty of early access titles out there which promise similar things but i'd purchase those over Folk's Tale. It seems like it will nebver be finished unless one of the big boys picks it up and pumps in the $er.....

Tl;dr version: Buy it if you are fine with it being Early Access for awhile, or if you want to get involved in the building/scripting tools. If you aren't cool with that, don't buy it or at least don't trash it when you knew what you were buying.

Folk Tale has popped up as a recommended game for a long time. I really liked the art style, which reminded me of Kingdoms of Amalur, The gameplay leans more towards guiding a hero around and city building than the unit/tactic juggling of RTS games. I held off buying it because of the negative reviews, but over the past few years, those reviews have gotten progressively better. The biggest complaints seem to be that it is very much an Alpha build, and that the Devs don't just finish it, already.

I took the plunge and played it during an open weekend and enjoyed what little there was to it at the time. I liked it enough to buy it after reading that this wasn't abandonware and that the Devs were releasing updates every week or so. Sure enough, the Experimental Builds are making a steady, if slow, march to a whole, satisfying game. The changes are enough that I check back in every few months, and the gameplay feels better and better. There's still some long-standing issues (ale, firewood, clothing) if you overbuild too fast, but the Devs have addressed other, more pressing issues.

Its a mix between village builder and rpg,its not a bad idea but its poorly executed.
It wants to be both and ends up being nothing.
Rpg element of the game is just boring and seen it 100 times before,while the village builder is actually quite nice but there isnt nearly enough content to keep you entertained for more than couple of hours,much of the things arent still implemented and there simply isnt enough complexity with the building aspect.
Also the game is poorly optimised.
It is an early build bla bla,but its in early build for couple of years now,so unless you want to wait for couple of years more this is what you get.

Its overpriced and poorly done.Would not reccomend.

I think its great, mixing settlers with rpg , i did prefer, when the tutorial was part of the campaign, not a separate module so to speak, and with it being apart of the main game, at the end of basic tutorial you can add advanced tutorial option or begin main campaign option, and start the village bully scene, this way, you can atleast tutorial upto having a minimal economy , and barracks before you start getting ♥♥♥♥♥ and pillaged by the bullies and the spiders nest just near the the starting point, what happens is, a village walks past collecting berrys, aggros the 2 queens and her little minions, and its game over. fun ended. other then that brilliant game. worthy purchase.

I purchased this game in June of 2013. No progress. I am not angry at all. This was a valuable learning lesson.

I cant recomend this game untill it is finished. Its an interesting game, but playing a game with incomplete features and then having to wait, isnt one of my interests... Ill change my review when the game is done. Give it at least another year, probably longer...

Looks nice, description nice, they do know their marketing. But they cant work...

If i remember correctly this game was one of the first early access games, i bought it almost instantly. Maybe this is my first steam game, iwas drunk or something ;D No one knew back then what`s EA, if i knew i wouldnt have bought it... thats like 3 years from now...

Seriously, its ♥♥♥♥♥♥ great that they release weekly updates, but its easy to do weekly updates, if you dont do anything else, than write a line of code and then next week you delete it...

Please dont buy it, so they can stop working on it, I hate downloading it every six months.

DO NOT LET THE MIXED REVIEWS SCARE YOU AWAY. READ ON!

This game has had quite the history on Steam. Before you buy into all of the negative or positive reviews on this particular game, allow me the opportunity to provide some enlightenment.

It is true this game has been an Early Access game for a couple of years now. It is true that it is still incomplete.

It is also true that this game has been consistently improved upon week after week, month after month. It is also true that the developers consistently respond to the Community feedback, and incorporate many ideas with the direction and focus of the game.

One thing a lot of people do not realize is that this game was one of the FIRST Early Access Games through Steam, and at that time, both the developers and the Steam Community didn't really have a set standard of production of how far a long a game had to be, before it was released into the Community. Folk Tale has paid the price with mixed reviews because the initial launch of the game was virtually unplayable.

THIS IS NO LONGER THE CASE.

This game has two builds, experimental, and public.

The Experimental build is the most active, up to date version of this game as it stands now. It is updated almost weekly like clockwork. More content and fixes are added in every single patch.

The Public build is a more stabilized version of the game for those who do not mind having a slightly slower updating schedule for a more stable platform. This build is the culmination of all of the successful experimental build patches, usually about 6-8 patches, that get rolled in all at once.

Both builds are extremely playable. Almost all of the negative reviews for this game have focused on issues that have been long ago resolved, or people that are sour about buying into an Early Access game, even with the full knowledge beforehand that it was incomplete, hence Early Access.

A fair assessment of this game would be that it has about 50% of its total content at the time of this writing. That DOES NOT MEAN it is only 50% playable.

The content that is available is well balanced, well executed, and with a mountain of community support behind it.

In my 25 years of gaming, I have never seen a more proactive, responsive development team that regularly updates and informs the community about the goings on of the current state of Folk Tale.

Should you buy this game? I would. Even with only half of its content available, this game kicks the ever living crap out of almost every other game in this same genre. I would not be surprised, if once all the content has been implemented, this game would be priced in the $60 range.

Don't let negative, EARLY ACCESS, reviews color your vision about this game. This will be a must have, and in my opinion, already is if for no other reason than the Community and Developers that stand behind it.

Try it for yourself, and find the magic of Folk Tale. Give this game a fair chance, and I promise you personally, you will not be disappointed.

I've had this game dusting away in my steam library for two years just waiting for the release announcement after the initial play to see how it looked. First impressions were very positive with good contrasts, interesting visuals for the animations and I've always generally liked this genre.

Well after two years I decided to give it another go and quite honestly there have been very little improvements I truly wish there was but there hasn't been. The interface is still just as awkward, the villagers are about as smart as a brick, the camera is slow, the amount of control you have feels very little and lack luster and overall it's just a big let-down on what I had imagined it would of become by now.

Now before someone throws the "It's an Early Access Game" I will say that I know this, I got it on it's initial release to Early Access and I had high hopes for it but within the two years, there hasn't been much in the way of progress. I'm quite tired of seeing games with this big blue sticker being slapped on them "Early Access Game" as if to be a kind of selling point like "We'll get better soon, promise!" but for it to never actually happen.

In it's current state the game is not worth it and if I knew how slow or none existant the effort to improve and develop this game would be, I wouldn't of bought it at all because it's just a wasted space in my steam library and money from my pocket that could of been spent on things much better.

Don't listen to the "Positive Reviews" all being spammed because they've all been encouraged to do it and it's really dishonest and terrible marketing on the developers part so please spend your money else where if you actually want a game.

:: Edit ::

I decided to indulge the comments about me apparently saying things that are untrue and sat down for a full two hour session to see the differences. Things they've added short list:

Upgradable buildings but they don't work even when you have necassary resources
More buildings that some are simply filler and the rest are extra for "needs"
More worker roles that are all equally slow at their given tasks
Diseases are a thing and the villagers are too stupid to use medicine you have stocked

I understand they reworked the game but the bare bones of the game from the original early access is still all there. Things the same short list:

Your NPC's are still as dense as a brick
No adjustable camera speed just slow and mildly faster by holding shift
Your militia are still generally very ineffective
Resources are painfully slow to gather
Amount of control still feels short in contrast to what it should be
Gameplay feels unengaging and lack luster just waiting on resources
Day - Night cycle still doesn't seem to change anything

Summary: It feels like a game that had high hopes in a lot of ways yet lives up to very little of them so I still don't recommend it.

P.S Everyones entitled to their opinion, don't try force feed your own to others.

I bought Folk Tale within about the first week that it was available on Steam. I thought it looked like a cool concept, and I had no idea that the trailer was actually the entire scope of the game back then. In the time that this game's been in Early Access, I:

* Finished a Master's Degree
* Moved to a new city
* Moved to another new city
* Held three different jobs
* Witnessed the birth of four children among my friends' families
* Developed a hernia
* Had enough time for the hernia to heal without surgery
* Bought a new computer
* Beat The Witcher 3
* Beat The Witcher 3 AGAIN
* Read 14 different books (CORRECTION: 15)
* Watched approximately 1000 sunsets
* Deleted 20 duplicates of some crazy French stalker's comments on this review. Mon Dieu!

Pro Tip: Wait for them to finish it, then maybe take another look.


Edit:

To be clear, before anyone throws the other obvious argument at me... Yes, I have played the game since those early weeks and, yes, it has advanced since then. But progress has been limited, and at this pace Folk Tale is more likely to die a slow death than ever realize the charming vision it had when it first came to Steam.

I've already paid for it, so I'll certainly give it another look from time to time to see if anything ever becomes of it, but the whole premise of this review is that this game's a terrible risk compared to most other Early Access titles. What exists right now is still a bit of a mess, and not worth the price, and there's a very good chance that that's all you'll ever get for your money. Anyone who doesn't already have money riding on it should definitely wait.

I'm not wishing doom on Games Foundry, and I'll eat my own words if they ever manage to turn this ship around, but... don't put money on that, either.

Edit #2:

In my continued drive to live at 3.82x the speed of Early Access development, I just finished another book..... "A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain" by Marc Morris. Lots of fascinating historical anecdotes, and Morris is also an incredible narrator.

Edit #3:

Three of Folk Tale's most loyal minions went through and downvoted... every single review I've ever written, even ones that no one had ever voted on before. I would like to thank these brave heroes for taking the time to read my previously-unnoticed reviews.