Wooden Ocean

Murda

i dont even know how I found this game

A strange game that's hard to pin down exactly why it's enjoyable. The story is very interesting, usually, though there are many moments of farce in it too. The combat is a bit of a hot mess sometimes, I think. But the fundamentals in the exploration and pacing of what is revealed and all this kind of thing I think carries it pretty far. I'm probably going to finish it, which I rarely do finish games these days.

Murda!

I was born in the '90s, and thanks to all the great, terrible, and ufckin' bizarre-ass Sega/SNES games we played in our household—plus a special flavor of the tism I've been blessed with—I've developed particular game-itches that I've found are getting harder and harder to scratch with time. I know I'm not alone in this. There are plenty of people like me—folks who were shaped by the same games, the same era—but who actually took that inspiration and turned it into something. They've been nurturing their creativity, forging their will, and building the next Earthboundian, Chrono Trigger-esque RPG Maker gems.

And those are exactly the kinds of games I'm always on the hunt for.

I built a brand new rig to do some sick (guitar lick) 1440p gaming, however, the most graphics intensive game I've played is Detroit, and I just keep going back to them dag'on pixels like an addict! I needed something new. Store page after Store page I clicked to, scouring for the most unique RPG Maker games to add to my collection, and I came across Wooden Ocean.

"Become romantic", urged the game's info panel.

What the ufck does that even mean? I thought.

I watch the trailer, the slow and somber melodies command my attention. The images of the world this dev has created appear and fade before my eyes,

When I was a kid... I met this man in a forest

the colors, the fearless tenebrism, the words,

He handed me a book. It detailed my entire life

they gripped me, I was intrigued... invested,

The book had everything... except one thing. The book didn't have you

chord strike

It didn't have who? Me? I reflected...

So what do I do? Throw it in the wishlist to rot, of course! As fascinated as I was, I still had no earthly idea what the hell this game was about. So, there it sat for some time while I played other games—some fantastic, others highly forgettable. But, every so often, I'd scroll through my wishlist, seeing what's on sale, what I’d forgotten about... WoodenOcean I see whiz past the screen. I repeated this several times over the course of a few months. No sale... no discounts.

"... You're not really going to let me stay here, are you? You're not really gonna let me rot here, right?" I kept passing it over, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I eventually send it! FINE, full price—take my money. I figured if the trailer and hundred or so raving reviews gave me no hints as to what this game is about, I'd find out pretty soon if it's any good.

And, after putting in 125 hours in-game—the most time I've ever spent in any game (there's a reason)—I can confirm that it is indeed very good.

That itch? Proper scratched.

What’s most appealing about this game, honestly, is the hard work of the dev, Leif. I've had the pleasure of speaking to him on multiple occasions on Twitch (xadversary666x :D) and learning about his process and future plans for WO, the actual age of this game since inception, and all kinds of little Easter eggs he's placed in the game. But what makes me appreciate this game the most is just how much passion and TIME he has put into this game pretty much entirely by himself. Even now, I get regular notifications that he's streaming the WO game make, and has no plans to ever really stop. To me, that makes this game so much more dynamic and interesting. As a matter of fact, the game I beat isn't even exactly the same game anymore due to corrections and improvements constantly being made. Knowing what this game was all those years ago and seeing what it is now in 2025 is nothing short of incredible, and I applaud Leif for his unending work ethic and imagination. You're a big inspiration, my G! :D

NOW! Is this game a perfect masterpiece? No. BUT! It’s damn close, and that’s what makes it special to me. However, because of Leif's work ethic, he will find whatever issues there are and make a serious plan to troubleshoot & fix ‘em, and promptly announce it to all the Murdas (RIP mega OP bombs). Despite the game always being in a constant state of flux and improvement, the feel of it is all the same. And, it is—for the record—*chef’s kiss* very weird. Between its otherworldly-yet-relatable characters, chortle-worthy dialogue, and a setting that feels like a double deep-fried LSD x DXM trip, WO delivers to us an experience that is nothing short of a psychedelic fever dream. Also, it is an absolutely MASSIVE RPG Maker game.

I watched this man, over the course of ~2 weeks, build an unbelievable chunk of an entire town, full of a ridiculous amount of buildings and hundreds of NPCs, all with unique dialogue. It's enormous... everything in the game is! The forests, the dungeons, caves, houses! As a matter of fact, I said, "You gotta be ufckin' kidding me!" several times out loud upon finding an even bigger, sprawling sub-level to an already gargantuan building that I swore I was done exploring. Honestly, this irritated me at first—but then I remembered being an inquisitive, completionist little kid, checking every nook and corner of any game area, and how annoyed my big brother would be, saying, "THERE'S NOTHING OVER THEREEEE OMGGGGGG!"

But Leif did put something there!

There's always something to see, something to find. Leif will say that he didn't really intend for everyone to see everything, but so long as there's something to see—oh, I'mma go see it! The biggest addition to your game time is gonna be the fact that you have no map to orient yourself in this circuitous manifestation of Leif's imagination. Again—irritating at first—but then you stop trying to fight it. You accept that you're lost. Accept that, despite the Discord and community page, you might not find the answer you're looking for. Accept that you may need to just keep going NES or W until you find a town—and then come back later.

That initially very frustrating aspect of the game became something I appreciated greatly. I didn't understand why the game was called Wooden Ocean until I was lost in it the first 20 times (that's not an exaggeration), and thought "this is like mf Point Nemo on land," and then it hit me lol.

So, what is the game about? Dude... honestly, I still don't really know haha.

There's a very apparent meta quality to this game regarding the characters, timeline of events, and locations. You start with a pretty solid understanding of who is who, where you are, and what your goal is. Then it starts to unravel, making both you and your character very confused. And while the dev has talked about it, and Murdas have theories, and even at the end it’s plainly explained what’s going on, there are still questions—especially because the game is pretty much open-world. So while there is a linear, vanilla path you can follow, it isn’t made explicitly clear to you. I didn’t do anything in any particular order, which likely contributed to my confusion—but again, there’s nothing instructing you how the game should be played, and I’m certain that is intentional.

Once you beat the game, you do unlock NG+. At the time, I didn't see the appeal in immediately playing again because I just played for 125 hours lol. However, now that I know so much more about the game and Leif's can't-stop-won't-stop grindset, hell, every time you update the game you're getting whole aspects flipped or brand new. If the dev stopped all patching and updates right now, with all the options and game modes currently available, you could play this iteration of the game for a few years to come!

So, just get the game. Spend the $20 bucks. Honestly, if I paid $30 for this game, I wouldn't be mad at it at all because of all the work—the years and years of work plus the next couple decades of tweaks, changes, and new content yet to be imagined lol

Thanks for making WO, Leif! :)

Ah Wooden Ocean... I stumbled across this game years ago, and my mind decided to process it as the final boss of RPG Maker games. It looked oddly imposing, with a dark buffeted atmosphere on every screenshot, surreal and often dreamlike visuals and general aesthetics that were at odds with the majority of other games of this kind. I put it off for quite a while, but it was always lingering in the back of my head thinking "hmm, I wonder what that Wooden Ocean game is like".

Well, in the last few weeks I decided to dive right in on Hard mode, and see if it was something I could get into. And 76 hours later having made my way to the very end, was it worth it? Was it...murda? (yes, it was murda).

Wooden Ocean has you follow the journey of Violet, a witch who is searching for her brother. Along the way, she'll find friends and foes, each wackier than the last, all inside a world with a very strong identity. This doesn't feel like a typical RPG realm for many reasons which become more and more apparent as you progress. And in this realm, a large amount of your gameplay time will be spent exploring it, discovering towns, dungeons, monuments, secrets and oddities, all whilst navigating and adapting to the turn-based combat system, built upon a number of opaque mechanics and irregular systems (sure you can use fire/ice/lightning magic, but how about carbon/silicon/thread magic!?).

Wooden Ocean often hits the golden note of RPG system synergy - meaning that it does a great job at making you always feel like you have options, whilst also having seemingly insurmountable walls. The thrill of getting stronger and wanting to revisit those old paths or areas of interest you jotted down 20 hours ago - it's a feeling I always love in games. Playing through it, I had a large notepad file full of areas I'd want to come back to, or general to-do's which I could always reference after I felt like I'd gathered a bit more power. With such a wide range of options to grow your party's strength, it makes just playing the game feel gratifying, like you're always making progress in some way. Whether it be your general party's abilities, some exciting loot you've earned, or the many whimsical buildings that your ghost town will construct and develop over the course of your playthrough, it's a game that feels very well balanced in terms of player options.

It does sometimes feel like the world of Wooden Ocean is crumbling beneath the weight of its own engine, and scope. Bugs did pop up, thankfully in my case generally minor but nonetheless noticeable, the main one being buildings disappearing from my ghost town until I re-enter from a certain point. There are also a fair amount of typos and/or grammatical inconsistencies, which bothered me less and less as the game went along. The general dialogue and writing of a lot of NPC's has quite an identity, somewhere between the lines of realistic and overly weird, and whilst I was not too into it initially, I grew to enjoy it and often found humour in many interactions, particularly among the main cast of Violet, Alex and Amelia.

I don't feel as though every aspect of the story resonated with me or that I can claim to fully understand it, and in many ways it felt more like an experience than a narrative I was patiently following, although your mileage will definitely vary. It does seem like the world and lore will only grow over time too, so I have to wonder what it may look like a few years (or decades...?) from now.

Having finished the game, I already feel somewhat compelled to revisit it and experiment with some things I didn't quite get around to doing on my initial playthrough. I'm also very interested as to how the game will grow in the future, as the rate of updates the game gets seems truly astounding. I can only commend Leif's dedication to his craft - this is a clear passion project and I always appreciate seeing someone devote themselves to their art, whatever it may be.

I would struggle giving this a broad recommendation, as I think various elements and the style of the game will not be to everyone's tastes. However, I would encourage at the least for people to keep their eye on the game and give it a try if it keeps eating away at their curiosity. It's quite a unique experience, to say the least.

Murda murda.

Abolutely Breathetaking

thoroughly entertaining in both gameplay and story, and all wrapped up with a compellingly unique art style

murda!

Trump=Murda

The game uses AI as a means of commentary; it's only present (to my knowledge) in 1 playable scene that lasts 2 minutes at most, 5 if you chat up every NPC. Be not afraid of the AI slop...


In terms of content, quality, (and even time-to-cost, if you're into that), this game is worth it.
After being told off by another guard for yelling at some poor guard, I went to apologize to him and proceeded to spend ~60* hours playing a card game before actually progressing with the game. Between the puzzles, town management and excessive murda, there's lots to do.
* - (technically 80 as I lost 20 hours due to not realizing the game could save)
Dialogue is fairly campy, but it's actually story-relevant, which I particularly enjoyed. Plus, the characters are endearing/realistic enough that everything felt natural. As other reviews have noted, the story and world at large are a commentary on art as a whole and- yeah, I'm not going to pretend I understand. It's a good story though, with themes that might resonate with more artistically inclined players.
I never really understood the concept of a "passion project" until I played this game. The creator is basically updating the game every other week, ranging from gameplay to story. Actually, as of this review, he just added 550 NPCs in an OPTIONAL town you can go to. WHY? WHY IS HE SO DILIGENT??? This game is a live-service RPG Maker game, and I love it all the more for it. Overall, am glad I played it, maybe one day I'll go back and try the aptly named "Infinite Nightmare."

Rpg Maker games tend to cross or stay behind the line of "This Looks Like It Was Made with Rpg Maker" and "OMFG I Can't BELIEVE This Was Made With Rpg Maker!??!" --- yes, Wooden Ocean is the former, but the endpoint is that this doesn't matter. Give it a chance. You're in for a surprisingly well made game with more depth than you could ever imagine. I speak this as someone that had it hanging in my wishlist for years.

Enter Violet, bearing news of a death in the family, in search for her missing brother lost in a continent at the edge of the world, a place covered by a massive forest with no end to be seen. This could be the start of a cliche, but the plot of Wooden Ocean is a slippery slope. After a meeting with a duo of demonic siblings, Violet becomes increasingly confused and lost. With each hour, the game gets weirder and weirder, questioning what is reality, how and why it is perceived. The worldbuilding of Wooden Ocean is an intriguing psychedelic drive caused by years of development done with no end of scope creeping with several episodes of mood swings. The F word is overused to a point it's not word, but the writer's safety blanket. Bookshelves are randomly filled with poetry, stories, trivia and absurd rants. NPCs got a ton to say with every interaction, you'll see characters acting nicely in a second to sligshot themselves in genocidal rage in the next one. Sometimes it can be moving, others, very pretentious and full of itself.

Exploration is a delight. You roam through a multi-layered, interconnected world, probably one of the largest created with Rpg Maker. It is not only impressive in a matter of discovery, depth and size, locations phisically make sense; if you walk a number of a maps in the underworld and other lower layers, you can then climb up to a location that follows almost the same amount of walking time, maps crossed and direction in the overworld, then vice-versa. Several optional dungeons are hidden all-around, enough to justify more than one playthrough. Poetries of Blood challenge your team comps being one of the best sources of gear and EXP, other Poetries are puzzles which can range from logical to a test of your knowledge about the Wooden Ocean itself.

The music is fitting to every place you visit, visuals are simply neat as a large part of those are Rpg Maker assets, but with filters applied in a manner to give a surreal, dreamwordly feel that ends up to be quite cohesive in its entirety, at times, quite Yume-Nikki like.

A lot of thought was put in the battle system, with an absurd amount of elements, skills buffs and debuffs to pick, of esoterical outliers like cancer, panic, party confidence, extra turns and other things that aren't really explained, but fun to figure out. Different builds matter and the game demands that you'll respect a handful of times if you want to tackle difficult bosses. Talent points are milestones reached every ten levels that can be assigned via a monolith in the ghost town, those are very impactful and because of it can't be reselected.

Speaking of the ghost town, unlike other games this gameplay element is intrisically crucial to your progress. It sure looks very demanding and the town itself looks like absolute crap in your first visit, but turns out the management is very simple for the impact it brings in your progress. Card battles are another thing that are seemingly ignorable, but seriously, you can break the first hours just by playing not to mention those are important to make some later parts of the game a LOT easier.

Unfortunately, scope creep is scope creep, so it created a multitude of issues.

I had game-breaking bugs that forced me to restart my save from scratch TWICE, one that crashed the game everytime I loaded, other that loaded a black screen (I have 140 hours, steam registered only 80). Time is money and I wasn't paid for this. Some events played out of place, others played more than once for whatever reason. Maps have entrances that can be only triggered with the press of a button on a specific tile even when there isn't a door there, so you'll think that's a deadend. The most aggravating bug was related to talent points, there are super hidden crystals each giving you an extra point. I found FOUR and NONE worked, so I lost the equivalent to 40 levels of grinding. In battles, enemies managed to damage and oneshot characters that had over 100% resist to an element. The most outstanding bug removed some of my items.

There's dozens of pieces of gear, but the scope creep turned it into diablo loot. The best weapons in the game acquired very early, but hours later you keep fighting hard bosses and exploring dungeons that reward you with interesting stuff, but 98% isn't useful. The UI is the average Rpg Maker one and this game coud really benefit if it at least was changed to properly look as something like Romancing Saga. The only way to properly check the status boosts of something is in the selling and buying menu of a shop. I wish I was kidding.

Wooden Ocean is played as an standart Rpg for the first 10 hours, but later all boils down to minmaxing coming almost close to Disgaea. Eventualy, you get to deal 5K, 10K damage to some enemies once or twice --- yay!!! But then, you reach the end of the game and wink wink, nudge nudge, the developer doesn't want you to finish the game --- he wants you to love Wooden Ocean. So in a very non-discrete manner, after a point of no return you are hit with a difficulty spike where the sun doesn't shine --- oh dude, it can't be THAT hard --- yes, it IS. Even if you have explored 95% of the world and got over 80 hours, this is a huge, intentional, softlock quite similar to a wall of drying cement. One can try to grind over it, but it's very hard. You wasted your talent points on bad talents? You're screwed. You can't go back and the last bosses got millions health. (Fun fact, I bought the game after a friend told me he gave up reaching this place on easy mode)

Wink wink, nudge nudge, you're given the option to restart everything in a NG+ losing over 90% of everything you got. Why? Because of the scope creep, because you're being punished for not expending hours on the roguelite dungeon previous to the point of no return. Yes. There is one. It's boring. It's tedious. It's ASS. It's the true endgame of Wooden Ocean and if you don't love it, go educate yourself.

Fortunately, I've been playing games since the 80's and there are ways to break this. So I managed. I did it without need to grind by using a convoluted setup that took multiple tries. Then the game crashed. Because I nuked the final boss too hard and this broke the damage numbers. So after multiple retries, I nuked the final boss in a "gentler" manner.

I got presented with a rant.

Wooden Ocean is a product of years of development, scope creep, changes of mindset, and it shows. While I'm no stranger to rants packed inside of games, those rants were fine spread through it in a creative and organic way, this one came so off of the field, detracted so much of the story so far, that I couldn't help to be left with a sour note. I would rather have had my day with one less rant about life and how it sucks.

Disregarding all issues, everything is subjective, not recommending Wooden Ocean would be a disservice to the amount of effort and dedication poured on it. It's a solid 8.5 RPG. Just be mindful, the game is still development so your experience may differ a lot from mine depending when you choose to play it. The game got an "ending" of sorts, but more chapters are yet to come.

The game is really good, I havnt played a TON yet but i can already see that theres tons to do and a lot of skills/playstyles to mess with! Cannot wait to play more. The dev is also based as all hell and updates the game regualary with things i dont understand but look SUPER cool. Support this dev. We need more games like this and more devs like this too.

An ocean infinitely wide, and just as infinitely deep.

Yet another masterpiece arthouse project (that I'll probably never finish due to skill issue) added to my humble collection!

Edited after ~20 hrs:
Started another playthrough on Infinite Nightmare after playing on Normal. Honestly quite surprised at the replay value, as each dialogue and interaction carry new weight when knowing the lore and nuance behind the world of Wooden Ocean. The highest difficulty doesn't pull any punches, though. Absolutely brutal.

Murda!

Murda!

MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDA MURDAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish there was more info about this game, the story page is empty and nobody talks about it. Its really well made but its just hard to find info on.
The entirety of the game the only issues I've had so far is that fullscreen kinda sucks and there is no WASD controls or key binding but I'm more then willing to deal with both to play this game.

i've been putting off writing a review for this game because i know nothing i say can do it justice, but here goes nothing
when asked "what's your favorite video game?" this is usually what i respond with now. the combat's amazing, the plot is extremely intriguing, and this game might be the first where i actually enjoyed exploring. wooden ocean is really special, and i think you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not try this

you can give your enemies cancer but ive heard its arguably less effective than the basic food poisoning skill that comes with most weapons so i havent gotten around to playing a radiation build yet.

murda.

In this game you go from one whiplash to another, in the most enjoyable way. If you are someone who enjoys impact trauma. Which you should.

It is profound. It is crass. It is funny. It is sad. It is contemplative. It is childish.
Worst of all though, it somehow makes it all work in a cavalcade of methodical madness that is rare to see, but awfully welcome.

Murda.

I want to scream at someone about how cool this game is.
An amazingly crafted world and artful story, it's a real labour of love.

I feel... blank? I just beated that hard ass ending on the Infinite Nightmare. My second ending. My second attempt of completing it, playing only on Infinite Nightmare since the very 1st run... I know that I haven't completed and found 100% of all content, but feels like at least 80-90% is covered. Yet, I feel like I just lost a part of my reason to live. I love this game so much, I can't even explain.

Best expression I've ever had to experience.

Now beating the new game+ and planning on gaining 100+ more hours 'on record', hoping to beat NG+3 before I die

I regret that I haven't bought it a year ago as I wanted, yet just held it on my wishlist for a half of the year.

Murda. Praise be to the Violence!

oooooooo u want to buy wooden ocean yes u do ooooooooo u want to install it in ur library and play it

I haven't finished the game yet. Considering the playtime of the reviewers who have completed it, I don't even think I'm close. I'm only writing this now because I think the game has really flown criminally under the radar and hope that any curious window shoppers might find an interest, because this game is really great.

It's got typos, I've discovered a part of a wall in a dungeon that didn't have collision and just let me essentially noclip outside the map, and the combat isn't the most well-explained.

However, it also has really earnest and fun writing, a really cool world, great characters, insanely deep RPG mechanics and build variety, as well as a whole cool town management sim aspect that, while not seeming fully necessary to interact with should it not interest you, will reward you with a decent passive gold income if you do, meaning less grinding in the future if you just check in on it every now and then.

It's open world, with one of the cooler fast travel systems I've ever seen (you light up crystals, and each crystal takes you into a crystal realm with all other crystals in the world you've activated, which you can freely warp between).

And the soundtrack. Oh my god the soundtrack. I don't know who composed it, whether it be the dev or someone else they worked with, but I can't believe I can't buy the soundtrack. What a shame.

All in an RPGMaker game!

It's got the typical RPGMaker jank. Rebinding controls is awful, and fullscreen support is weirdly worse. My recommendation is to use a program like Borderless Gaming. For some reason the native RPGMaker fullscreen option puts the game in 4:3, while Borderless Gaming manages to put the game in 16:3 just fine with no stretching. I don't know.

Please, if you like turn-based RPGs, don't pass this one up. It's certainly rough around the edges, but it'll treat you right if you give it an honest try.

i was sus that an rpg maker looking game was expensive so i planned on keeping a close eye on the 2 hour refund window but lost track of time playing the card game the dev placed in the first town

Murda.

This game is very hard and very crazy, but very moving as well.

Very interesting story. Game play and combat is challenging and enjoyable. A large and complex world to explore.

Its with a heavy heart that I give this game a thumbs down.
With the recent rise in Early Access titles being in development for years without releasing comes a weird exception in the name of Wooden Ocean that I personally feel should still be in early access. The amount of bugs ive encountered in my run were unaccountable. Complete systems that aren't fully fleshed out. Areas of the map that just exist and do nothing or crash your game. Dear Leif, If you are going to add something new to the game why just leave it there waiting for players to explore and get stuck on? Fully finish developing it first then add it to the game. My entire play-through was also wasted with the recent update causing me to lose my save progress. Its just a goddamn shame because the game is genuinely a diamond in the rough.
I will come back after a few years when everything is finally set in stone and not just a buggy mess.

sick as fuck literally

I honestly think this game is very special, even among all the indie gem developed lately.

Wooden Ocean is definitely weird and unconventional but besides the weirdness it's a game with a lot of ideas and heart in basically every aspect of its design.

- The presentation is amazing, the pixel art is cohesive and has this gloomy quality about it reflecting the themes of the game

- The music is perfect, a mix of eletronic and drum filled dark combat music and eerie piano music that immediately make the world unique

- Combat is super deep and has basically infinite elemental synergies and radically different ways to approach encounters and boss fights.

I won't say anything about the story because it's basically a giant spoiler but know that it's super thought provoking and interesting like everything else.

someday when i finish this game i'll write a better review. Murda

a sprawling postmodern rpgmaker epic that's been slowly growing for the greater part of a decade, it features a better-executed open world than just about any UE5 sprawl, a combat system crunchy enough for any RPG fan featuring staple elements such as 'fire', 'water', and 'lightning' alongside less conventional choices such as 'thread', 'carbon', and 'radiation' and a combat psychology system that you might begin to intuit several dozen hours in. it's singular, it's angry, and it's much more than meets the eye in the beginning.

I could not describe this for the life of me, all I can say is that i've put about 30 hours in and I still don't understand half the things i'm doing, and it's great. I don't think i'll even get through 90% of this game's total content once I get to 100 hours, and it's still being updated. I think this might be a cry for help from me.

murda?

I don't really know how to explain much of my experience of Wooden Ocean, which is partly why it got its hooks so far into my brain. If you're intrigued by things that are strange and creative and confident enough to be hard to explain, you should play it too.

i think i started to fall in love with this game when i got 30 minutes into it and was suddenly handed an entire idle-game esque townbuilding side minigame that is tied to your progression

an amazing game and one of the largest rpg maker projects i have ever seen. still being actively updated too (with both balancing and content changes) which is a very rare thing to see for this type of rpg. there is a crazy amount of gameplay here, i've played about 40 hours and still have way more to see. the combat alone is very engaging and clever, with an insane amount of potential builds per playthrough.

the story is really interesting and unique. without spoiling anything, it very quickly becomes something very different from what you go into the game expecting it to be. the game has a lot to say about the nature of art and creativity (if you are like me and were put off by the warning that there is AI content, note that it is only in one section of the game and the game is very blatantly against the concept of using it as a replacement for human art). overall it might not be something for absolutely everyone but for certain people (especially if you are an artist or a game developer) it will resonate deeply.

this game is really THE passion project to end all passion projects. i seriously have to reiterate how crazy it is that this game is as actively worked on to this day to the extent that it is. praise be.

Extremely underrated, if you see this please at least give the game a try.

Having finally "finished" this game once at just around 130 hours, I feel I finally can leave a good honest review based off a solid and somewhat complete impression of the game. I use quotations around "finished" because with a New Game+, constant updates including a new chapter currently being released, apparently more than one ending, numerous difficulties, secrets so hidden and areas so labyrinthine to explore, and a ton of content both new and old that I still need to explore even after 130 hours in-game, even at 130 hours and one "completion" of the game, it still feels like I have an overwhelming ways to go to experience everything this game has in store both now and in the future.
There are so many things to say that other reviews have already gone in-depth with, and so I won't go super in-depth on all the mechanics of its incredibly in-depth and convoluted (but very satisfying) combat and leveling systems. Some of that is still something I am only loosely grasping, too, admittedly.

What I mainly want to emphasize is, that Wooden Ocean is as true of a hidden gem as I have ever come across in gaming. An experience so unique, bizarre, as dense in its otherworldly atmosphere as it is in its overwhelmingly amount of content, that it may stand as one of real defining games in all my years of playing video games, that really encapsulates what I am always searching for in a game experience. That it was a game buried in obscurity on Steam for 9 years (8 when I purchased it last year), with a small community and almost no attention (it seems like just recently it is finally gaining a bit more attention), and a lone developer diligently laboring over it for all that time just adds to the level of fascination this game invoked in me. With how bizarre and brooding it felt, and how cryptic and impenetrable it's lore, story and secrets can feel, on top of its bizarre dialogue and humor, the entire experience really felt like playing the genuinely inspired work of a mad artist made with an uncompromising drive to create the game he wanted. This game is in so many ways, as an RPG fan for decades, what I am really searching when I am trying to find a new game to get lost in. I could keep going on, but suffice it to say, I recommend this experience to any gamers, RPG fans especially, who stumble across it. It is easily worth the price, and something truly unique. I am glad I found it, and experienced it, and am looking forward to what more this experience has to offer me in the future. A must-play.

Fun game!

The more you explore the more you get to chat and fight. the more you chat and fight the more you get to enjoy the charm and fun of the game. but most of all Murda Murda.

This game is so engaging and enjoyable to play there is so much to see and do. The humor is so funny but its also balanced with more serious feelings.

This game is sick as fuck. I can't say enough about it, but I can say that only Leif Ian Anderson could have made it. A surreal, bizarre experience that doesn't lose its head up its ass, and uses its meta elements to craft a very sincere and interesting story. Read the manual, keep a bow user in the party, murda, and praise be to the developer!

Murda Murda. MMuuuuurda. Murda.

An incredible work of art.

Deliciously weird game thats had hooks in my brain since I booted it

I give Wooden Ocean Murda out of Murda.
I've finally "finished" the game, (as much as one can, or at least I've gone as far as my ego has decided the finish line is) and I have some thoughts.

Mechanically:
This game is not for everyone. There's no body horror, no jumpscares, no graphical content warning; but this game *will* test your willpower. Combat is unfair, the world is unfair, and you'll be left blindly grasping at straws in the dark. There is no "just git gud and parry moar" like one might suggest in something like dark souls. Combat is required, and a familiarity with the bizarre combat formula is required. Each and every fight is a dance; a small game of chess where you pit your feeble frame against monstrous entities who often make a joke of your paltry stats.
Grinding is... in some ways an inevitability, but in others heavily discouraged by the relativistic xp reward system; in which defeating enemies more powerful than you rewards you far more than mindlessly bullying orcs in the beginner dungeon.
If you can muscle through this grisly engine of systems, the end result is an experience that left me thoroughly satisfied whenever I beat a new enemy, or stumbled into a new area and crawled out within an inch of death.
The end result also left one of my friends at 3 hours played, and likely to never return; and another still floundering in the prologue at 4 hours.

Storytelling-wise:
Wooden Ocean is a staggeringly wide ocean of content, although much of its quests are fairly shallow. Every once in a while you meet an NPC who has multiple quests for you, but by and large most of your interactions are more of a one-off deal. Not the worst thing, as it helps keep you on task with the main questline; but the experience can be off-putting for some.
The world is astoundingly large, and getting lost, then stumbling onto a road to find your way back to familiar territory feels like a repeat rite of passage in a way that I enjoyed. Often times I was left wondering "Am I being messed with? Is this secretly a zelda-puzzle-forest?" only to stumble out into a new locale, with new monsters, usually a wildly different color palette, and almost always a new music track.

Audio/Visual:
For an rpgmaker game, this is a stunning game to look at. There are plenty of places where the game engine is screaming in agony as it tries to do some mode-7 scanlines on densely packed environments, which can be a little hit or miss, but by and large the world feels Real, and every bit of music and every new sprite was awesome to find. (And I know there's still a bunch I haven't)

In short:
If you like crunchy combat systems, I recommend this game.
If you like somewhat experimental story-telling, I recommend this game.
If you like the pretty pictures, or have gone to Leif's music pages and gone "whoah, this is some funky stuff", I recommend this game.
[wHo ArE YoU] out of [ ]
Much Murda
Very Romantic.

Brilliant game, 10/10, peak fiction, love it. In-depth strategic combat and some of the most compelling character building systems I've ever seen in a video game. Plus the open world absolutely fucks. Murda.

weh

this game is like if the greatest writers in history had blunt rotation
Anderson was in the other room and starting taking notes, the game is beautiful in all ways as if playing this game is to tour the creative process of a genius
this game is pretty hard for some REALLY hard the game never lets up in difficulty bosses feel like walls (not to mention the cat...) there are some broken strategies which would be my only critic of the game
I do think most should play this game if you arent fans of turn based rpgs I still think you will enjoy the many jokes and stories