I love walking sims, exploration games, and mysteries… Kona was such a great title. Really moody and atmospheric. Looking forward to picking up the sequel soon, maybe during this sale. Thanks for sharing!
This is a great summary of the game, I just wanted to add on that you don’t necessarily have to start a new character for expeditions. They added the “Expedition Terminus” in the Space Anomaly a few updates back, which lets you start the expedition from an existing save.
That said, I always start a new character, because those first couple hours where I’m trying to get on my feet are always the most challenging for me, and that keeps the game fresh by pushing me outside my usual style of engaging with the game.
I really enjoyed 1 and 2, played through the main story in both at least two times. I installed 3 over a year (two years?) ago and just completely stalled out on it, so it remains unfinished.
I really liked the low-gravity aspect of Pre Sequel, and the more immersive thematic elements of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands… Hopefully there’s something like those things here, that really adds on to the core gameplay loop, and not just additional in-game currencies or another elemental damage type.
In addition to a few I’ve seen posted already (Stardew Valley especially)…
A Dark Room: A relatively short, minimalist, mostly-text-based RPG with a dark vibe. I come back to this at least once a year. Can be played free via web browser, but the native app version has some extras.
Dysmantle: A huge and well-polished zombie survival sim. Just recently finished it and was really impressed with the overall scale, level design and progression.
Papers, Please: A ‘dystopian document thriller.’ You play as a border checkpoint agent, verifying increasingly-complicated passport documents and questioning your moral compass. Port of a PC game by the same name.