Graveyard Keeper

shit game full of questionable pacing and balancing. not worth the time or money

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

Pros:

- 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.

Neutral note:

- The game pauses when the window is not in focus.

Cons:

- 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 slightly 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.

Bonus:

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. What a way to ruin the credit scene.

So I tried my very hardest to play this without referencing any wikis. Surprisingly, if you pay very close attention and progress in all quest lines then it is manageable. There were only a couple points where I missed quest lines entirely, like exploring the swamp to find Clotho. Which of course once you get way too far into the game without doing any Alchemy you're bound to think you missed something. I actually thought the swamp was just not able to be crossed after a couple attempts without finding the right path. Eventually I had to figure it out. I like that she sells alchemy recipes even if it's a grind to collect enough of them. Imagine how impossible it would be to play without a wiki if there was no way but random luck trying the thousands of possible combinations of ingredients. Good thing is I was wealthy enough by then to just buy the needed ingredients for embalming fluids also making recipes not entirely necessary. Though how else will I get rid of my abundance of maggots and honey if not for alchemy?

I'm only late mid game currently but I feel it's much like Stardew Valley with more engaging aspects and less engaging ones. I love the Zombie automation mechanics, it's quite funny at the least. Imagine if the inquisitor managed to peer down the cliff side and noticed your little zombie factory hard at work. That'd be quite the shock for him I'm sure.

Probably the biggest gripe I have is the predefined build spaces in any build area. I'd love more flexibility. Say I could put my smelters all in the back of my property so I don't constantly fill my inventory with the piles of smelted materials by accident. The right most area won't fit them and they can only face left or right. Why? Why they cannot just give you one massive build area instead of randomly sized smaller areas is beyond me. The cellar's build areas are even worse. Really it's all my cellar, let me build where I want in it. Why? Devs, why?

Considering I got this game for 3$ on sale It was an absolute steal. I still figure it's easily worth the 20$. Eating out could easily cost that and would only satisfy you for one meal. This will keep you busy and entertained for far longer.

Like a lot of life sims, Graveyard Keeper gets pretty dull after a while. The most interesting thing about it is the resurrection and task management aspect of the game, but it's honestly not worth playing for long. There are way too many resources and recipes to keep track of, a lot content is locked behind DLC and only teased in the main game (Building a relationship with Donkey, going to the Town and more) and some features (or lack thereof) are amateurish and frustrating. I accidentally made some extra tools I don't need, and I can't get rid of them as easily as I should.

Personally, I would stick with a different life sim.

Fun and engaging - all of a sudden a whole day is gone handling corpses

I've only played about 11 hours of the game at the time of playing this, although I played a little bit of the game before on GOG before migrating over to Steam. Like a lot of other reviews have said, the game doesn't really give you a whole lot of direction on how the mechanics work beyond the initial pop-up that shows when you do something new for the first time. The mechanics aren't too difficult -- press "E" to interact with things, long-press "E" or "F" to perform the associated action with the object -- but it can be a little confusing if you're a completely new player to the game.

I've seen Graveyard Keeper be recommended to people who enjoy Stardew Valley, and first things first, this game is definitely more on the grindy side of gaming than Stardew Valley will ever be. Graveyard Keeper is very story-driven, in the sense that there are many quests where you have to unlock a certain skill to be able to complete the quest, and in order to unlock the skill, you have to perform certain actions to get enough of the required points, and certain actions are associated with certain points.

Personally, I don't mind it the grind much since I'm the kind of person who enjoys story-driven games and the game being set up in such a way that's like "you have to complete this quest first to be able to complete this other quest, so you'll have to do this thing and then that thing to complete the questline" takes out a lot of the trouble of figuring out what order to do things in.

The DLC are also definitely worth it in my opinion, especially if you want to find out more about the lore of the world or even if you just want more content. I'd recommend starting a new game file to play through the DLC, though, since it's a lot better to experience the DLC from the start of the game rather than in the middle of it.

To me, the best description of the game so far (almost made the portal on Witch Hill) is Stardew Valley with more emphasis on character quests to unlock game mechanics. So pester those NPCs and visit town each day to find the daily NPCs. Also the wiki is your friend in alchemy and remembering what bits you need to build things. Also pay attention to which NPCs have money and will buy your things, makin' money was a struggle for me...
There's some great quality of life things, like the items in your chests being available for crafting, the interaction button having a larger range than expected which is great for gathering and the zombies are great for basic workflow. But some things a little lacking as well, like in combat the fighting feels a little limp and repetitive, and seeing who takes damage is a little hard since the numbers font and colour is all the same. As a very personal gripe, I find the walk speed horribly slow, but that is fixed by buying the Teleportstone and learning the Speed potion recipe. Both controller and mouse+keyboard work great in my experience. The art is beautiful as you can see, the music is alright and the humour is pretty good. In my opinion the game is more about interacting with the living than tending to the dead. Will keep playing to see if this guy gets home....

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, but it falls short in almost every way.

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.

The gameplay design of the early game is totally joyless and obtuse. Two hours of miserable grubbing around was enough for me to get a refund.

Very nice game, has a slow start though.

Pros: grind is not bad at all, there's usually at least 2 ways to finish a quest (one with grind, one without), overall a pleasant experience.

Cons: the game is sometimes very terrible at sharing information to the player. I needed the wiki open for a bunch of items and quests just to know if what I am doing is correct.

Conclusion: the game is the "Punch Club" take on "Stardew Valley", I liked both, there was no way I wouldn't like Graveyard Keeper too. I recommend it to people who love grindy games where you always have a goal in mind ("in order to accomplish [insert goal here], I need to do [task 1], [task 2], [task 3], etc...").

There are three game I play in this vein: Stardew Valley, Kynseed and Graveyard Keeper. All are satisfying in their own way, but here is what I like about Graveyard Keeper:

It has clear and meaningful stakes, goals and progression.

The narrative is expressive and interesting.

The map size and time constraints make you focus one aspect of the narrative at a time, which is good for progress and stops the resource grind from disheartening the player.

There are interesting takes on automation and resource management.

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.

I didn't expect to like this game so much. I've looked for a very long time to find a game that relaxes me and this does the trick. I really enjoy the management aspect that's not too much of a steep learning curve but takes a bit of figuring out to enjoy. it felt like stardew valley with less time constraints but much more unique. I must admit that it gets addictive for me to an extent. I give it a solid 8.2 out of 10.

Kinda like stardew valley, less wholesome, less free-play, more straight-through story. But it has zombies and bars and all kinds of alcohol and satanic worship so whats keep-ing you?
Starting my 3rd playthrough. This game really is best if you have all the dlc's. Then the story is even richer. The ending can be unsatisfying depending on your actions, but you can fix that by playing it again :-)

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.

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

I had some good laughs with this game. Having all the dlcs makes it a bit more confusing tho, to much to do and you have no idea how to do it. I love it.

The donkey carried the whole game. Period.

Game is pretty fun. I do think it has some weird pacing issues with the upgrades, but it's not too bad. I do like how there is no time pressure. If you like Stardew Valley you should like this, but it is a little darker in story.

I liked how this game started out... but end game is not great. It's unfinished... Spoiler alert... there is no town to get to. The whole premise just kind of peters out and you have a lot of materials and nothing to really do with them. I imagine the DLCS take care of some of this, but for the price it should be it's own finished game.

The game seems like it would be brilliant.
But keep screen jumping, tried changing nivida settings and has no effect. And if switch to fullscreen it makes my monitor go into standby mode. So totally unplayable.

Eh, I'd recommend it. If you can get this on sale I call it an easy buy.

Fun with neat art and rewarding progression. Might have my favorite aesthetic of any of these kinds of games...
That said, some of the characters fall flat. I'm hard pressed to remember any of them, honestly. Also, it can be hard to figure out how to do a lot of things.

I can't speak on any of the DLC because there's just too many packs and I wouldn't know where to start with picking them up. Maybe you can pick them up in a bundle on sale.

Words cannot begin to describe how this game makes me feel. It's addictive in the worst way imaginable. If you make the mistake of getting all the DLC packs like I did, you'll get hopelessly lost in the labyrinth of the frustratingly slow grind. It only takes an hour before the insurmountable need to complete tasks overwhelms all of your senses, and that's when you know you're trapped.

10/10, not for the weak.

dlcs too pricey dont get until on sale but good game.

Delightfully weird, like a twisted, but still fun version of a farming/crafting game. I like the visual style and am finding the game to be high in engaging content. It can be annoying in that there are lots of places where you need B before you can get A, and then you discover to get B you need C.

A game where you have to keep track of things and think for yourself more than usual (that's something I personally like :D)

If you love micro managing and unlocking recipes to get better at embalming while running a farm. It is a definite ADHD scratch and I lose hours playing this game. Stardew Valley 2.0 with dark humor, I love it.

Love cozy type games? Love zombies? Then you'll love Graveyard Keeper. This game provides a great story with the DLC added lots of useful content, as well as everything you love about cozy games. Farming, Capitalism, Small Business Growth! Did I forget to mention ZOMBIES? You'll love the characters, the story, and your trip through a strange world all to find your way back home.

Ever wanted to know what its like to be a shady graveyard keeper who may or may not sell corpse flesh to unsuspecting townsfolk? Whos bestest friend in the whole wide world is a talking skull? Who has a weird relationship with a talking communist donkey? Look no further! This is the game for you!

Addicting crafting game. It pulls you in a dozen directions at once which is overwhelming at the start but quickly turns into a nice comfy grind where you can switch tasks as you please. Beautiful art and an interesting map to explore as well.

You'll be disappointed if you're looking for an alternative farming game like goth Stardew Valley (which I was).
From a open-world farm building perspective, there are not a lot of designing options, i.e. I can't really design my own land and choose what to do with it. There are some farming and crafting options, but within very narrowly confined spaces.
From a quest-based game perspective, there are not enough prompters, and you are often at a loss as to what to do. And for such a big map, the walking speed is sooooooo slooooooow! It takes forever to go from the farm to the lighthouse or anywhere else.
But, if your goal is to play a quest game with lots of crafting and farming and burying on the side, then this is your go to game. The controls are easy also, and you don't die from hunger or anything ,so not a steep learning curve.

I'm a bit of a brainlet, I'll admit. Maybe I just started really inefficiently but for once I can say that is through little fault of my own because there is no guidance in this game! Which may or may not be a flaw depending on how you play games, but doesn't make it very easy to get into imo.

At first, I didn't mind the running around everywhere, and once I could get the teleport stone it made my life considerably easier, but I just can't find it in my spirit to continue on playing this game when you either need to have a notebook beside you or some insanely wrinkley brain so you can remember everything your supposed to do while you run the length of a football field.

You know what would be awesome? Every chest links to every crafting bench. No more, oops! I need nails! time to run across an entire field to get them, but silly me, also needed planks of wood and some iron fittings, and my dumbass has forgotten nails.

It's so... grindy.... I'm sure automation is awesome, but 8 hours in and I'm not even close to getting a singular dude to help me out, and I'm getting tired of running around doing everything alone, especially when I have a frankly minuscule amount of energy to work with when in comparison to the sheer amount of work that needs to be done. I think my most repeated action in this game is going to bed. I'd love to make some food that gives me a substantial amount of energy, BUT I NEED A FUCKING STATION TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO EXTRACT WATER FROM A BUCKET.

Speaking of stations, why are there so many? And why are they so goddamn asanine sometimes in what you can craft at them? Like really? I haven't figured out how to pour water from a bucket???????? That's literally my biggest gripe. Fuck the water in this game.

I'm sure this game is great. I was really excited to play it. Just devastated tbh that it requires the same amount of mental power and effort as raising a child (probably idk I don't have kids).

Similar to stardew valley, but deviates so much from the first hour that it creates such a unique experience. The gameplay loop is extremely fun and immersion is almost never ruined with sleep being optional (for the most part). The dialogue and the story were really the cherry on top.

Farming sim with decent storyline and gameplay mechanics! Not too bad for a casual/achievement hunter type gamer

This game is amazing. Similar to Stardew Valley in a sense but with a morbid twist. Kinda grindy but engaging, so it doesn't get stale at all. Upgrading and developing skills is fun but there is a steep learning curve. You need to pay attention to the skills your choosing as some require other skills first and it might bottleneck you a bit. Otherwise great story with the DLC and tons of fun. Story doesn't deviate from the story ark so there's not multiple endings or anything but I've played this about 3 times through because it is just that fun. Happy Grave-digging!

At first, there are some interesting mechanics and the lore is kind of funny in the good way. After some hours, the game just becomes repetitive, and boring.

There are parts of the game that feel unfinished, or bad implemented. For example, you can get a pass to "explore" a part of the map, and at the end a f** lightning strikes killing you, losing the pass, and the time you spent to get it.

I wouldn't recommend it, heavily overrated.

the pixelart coziness of Stardew Valley, with a more gothic flare. the trailer showing the Keeper throwing a body into the river sold me. the gameplay loop is fun. but the grind is real. i put in ~500hrs

Byť se může tvářit jako Stardew valley, tak zdání klame. Výborná atmosférická hříčka o hrobníkovi, který se najednou octl ve středověku a chce se dostat nazpět. Jen tak jaksi v průběhu hraní nejspíš zapomenete, že chcete zpět. Ten svět vás pohltí.

I have played ~18 hours on computer and ~15 hours on the Switch. To me, this game is not worth the headache. They do not make anything clear in the game so you have to constantly look up how to get certain things which is very frustrating. I feel that every video game should have some sort of explanation IN the game on how to do/collect things. Whether it be an in-game help menu, or just clearer objectives/NPC explanations.

This game feels aimless at times, and there are moments when it feels like what you are doing is very silly. Like for example, I have to save up all my money in order to buy something that makes it a little bit easier to make money. Compared to Stardew Valley this game is extremely lacking due to its repetitiveness and I feel like i wasted the 30+ hours I spent trying to understand and like this game.

I really wanted to enjoy this game as the idea for it is very different and fun, it just missed the mark for me unfortunately.

It looks simple but is actually an incredibly complex game. It's terrible at explaining what you need to do to advance so you will be spending a lot of time googling for answers. But even with that it's still a very fun game if you're willing to put some time in.

A deeply insightful work of creative genius, absolutely brimming with fun story telling, characterization, and mechanics. One of the smartest games I've ever played.

The game has two flaws: First, menuing is inefficient and inconsistent, requiring too many clicks and too much attention to navigate. Second, endgame resources are balanced poorly, creating bottlenecks around certain goals, e.g. ash only comes from bodies, and you never get more than one body per day, so it takes 12 days to make one top tier graveyard column. These bottlenecks may be intentional to encourage meditation, though. :ohm:

Played this game in 2020, I got pretty far on my Switch, but I never finished. I did have a lot of fun. I'm happy to be trying this again on PC, there are still things I have to look up as a lot isn't explained. Be ready for trial and error. My suggestion, keep a note book, take your time, the map is pretty expansive but not crazy, harvest meat from the first few dead bodies until you can sell them, take advantage of the teleport stones, Pressing [ i ] opens your inventory, explore your "Technologies" and the different branches within. Most importantly have fun. :)

Beginning was hard to get into. Middle was fun. Late game turned into a grind fest. Pick up quest, then wait a week to talk the the guy who will only show up on one day. Talk to him and he sends you to another that you have to wait a week for. Repeat. Seriously, the game gives chinese free to play games a run for their money.

Since it asked for an update on my review. It got worse near the end. Much worse. Most of my time was staring at a black screen while meditating time away. When I finally beat the game, I believe I set a new world record for the time it takes to exit the game and click uninstall. This developer earned a spot on my ignore developer list (click the gear icon on their page and click add to ignore).

Good humor and atmosphere

I love exploring and learning, but the game refuses to teach you anything.
Hey go defeat some slimes, but I won't tell you how to attack.
Hey you need to research asap, but I won't tell you how to get all the required resources.
Hey you can use zombies for labor, but I won't tell you how to get zombies.
Hey go dig up this grave. Which one? Dunno, I will never repeat it and not keep track of it.

Every time you start having fun, you realize it's because you aren't doing any progress.
How does one progress? Google it, or keep guessing for in game WEEKS

Nice story, easy to play but need a little open graveyard wiki to make it fun.

Good Stardew-like game but with a darker theme. While the farming isn't as pushed as with Stardew or similar games, the crafting experience is a lot more developed with unlocks and science grinding.

This game is grindier than most, but to me, personally, it was easier than stuff like Stardew since the game gives you clear quests objectives with an actual ending. There are a few mods out there, some of which can help you move faster or reduce some of the grind if it's too much for you, because I do think the game is fun and interesting.

There's so much to discover and do in this game, I can easily play it for consecutive hours on a row. It lets you play at your pace, which I find refreshing as most games nowadays can be so time sensitive/ anxiety inducing. Highly recommend it if your looking for something to relax and explore the world.

Good game with lots to do. Eventually it starts to get grindy, but by then you should have zombies to help ease the burden. A little confusing on how to do most things... there isn't great guidance throughout, but some things are able to be figures out on your own eventually (some things I had to look up bc after 28 hours I still haven't figured them out.)

Love the game. It is more in depth than I was expecting it to be. I am enjoying it very much.

Very good, better with mods

I played this game for more than 50 hours. I expected to be somewhat like stardew valley or other games like that, but this game has none of the freedom of casual RPGs like stardew valley.

The plot is linear, every play of the game will be almost the exact same save for the endless amount of time spent trying to figure out how to progress a character story or waiting for the week system to pass. It seemed cool at first, like the stardew valley holidays, but its every day. For some quests if you have nothing else to do but wait a week for a single person to reappear, and it gets exhausting. By the end of the game, I was literally begging for it to end.
I feel completely unsatisfied after playing this game. No personal development, no candid interactions with any important NPCs, I hate the "relationship" system because its just a measure of how far you are through linear quest based story, with no other purpose for raising relationship other than to finish the goddamn game.
I like the games graphics, it has cool art and unique mechanics, but by god the world is full of nothing but tedious tasks that lose their flavor after you figure out how they actually work.
With games like this i expect to have to look stuff up to find out how to get certain things done, but the things I had to look up were rediculous. Things that should be noted in the NPC quest menu often weren't there, and you had to wander around doing whatever until you could either meet with them and discover a box over their head, or until you make the goddamn beer and burgers for the inquisitor.

If you want a time sink, I'd say this is one of the better ones out there, but I feel empty after playing this. I feel so unconnected to the characters because all they would ever say to me was "give me this" and "i have this relationship with another person". I get the point is it's an undesired isekai, but you could at least have the NPCs be something other than tedious quest givers.

Sorry devs, I can tell a lot of work went into this, and I did enjoy parts of it, but ending it drained my soul.