Deiland from Chibig is a colorful adventure in which you take on managing the titular planet – the tiniest planet out there. Find out more in our Deiland review!
Chibig took Deiland to Kickstarter back in late 2017, managing to raise a bit over $30,000 in funding to complete the game. This is a relaxing 3D release in which you take control of Arco, a young boy who must explore a tiny but colorful planet in which your first task will be to collect a couple of berries. This will allow you to get used to how you move around the 3D planet as you search for the berries and find other things you can do, such as fishing – you know, once you manage to make a fishing rod.
After completing your first task, you will meet Mün, an explorer from the Interstellar Patrol who ends up visiting Deiland. She will then help you to plant and harvest food so that you don’t end up going hungry. She’ll give you your first recipe, and it will be for building a hoe. This will be added to your quests menu, which you can access by pressing down on the D-Pad. By pressing the Triangle button, you’ll be able to open up a view of the whole planet so that you can quickly see where you need to go. In this case, you need to return to your tent to forge the hoe. It turns out you need one stone and one wood to craft the hoe, which is not an issue since you have one of each already.
As you complete each quest, you will be rewarded with experience points, and for completing this one Mün will also gift you some carrot seeds so that you can start to plant some carrots. Completing this one will reward you with a recipe for a hammer, and after building it, you will realize that nor you nor Mün have enough wood to craft the campfire recipe you’ve just received. It is then that you’ll start to secure more materials, so you can put that hammer to good use to break rocks into stones so that you can build an axe to cut down trees for wood. Gathering materials will also reward you with experience points.
If you get enough experience points, you will get to level up the next time you go to sleep. You’ll then get to select between two boosts to your stats. For example, the first time I leveled up I got to select between increasing my strength by one point, thus increasing the power of my physical attacks, or increasing my stamina by one point, which would help to increase my hit points. Be sure to keep a balanced build so that you can be ready to battle monsters as well as to do a lot of chores during the day. That’s right. I said monsters. You’ll run into a few of them every now and then so you should be ready to use your axe to attack them while making sure they don’t get a chance to damage you.
As you use tools to gather materials, your stamina bar will start to deplete until you’re exhausted, so you’ll need to go to your tent to get some sleep so that you can regain your strength. You can switch between tools by pressing left and right on the D-Pad to quickly equip the right tool for the job. You’ll need to remember that cutting down a tree will remove it for good, so you should also plant new ones to keep everything balanced. Running out of trees is never good, but wood is needed for pretty much everything you want to make, so do keep that in mind!
Mün isn’t the only visitor you will get while taking care of Deiland. You might end up receiving a traveling merchant who is up for a chat as well as for buying some stuff you might not need or to buy something from its wares. Or how about a famous intergalactic chef who would certainly be happy if you helped to get him some fish from the Deiland pond so that it can cook something magically delicious? Whoever shows up be sure to always sell your surplus stones so that you can use the coins you get to buy seeds, food or metal since those are items you’ll need a ton of during your adventure to make some progress at a steady pace.
The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy, and you’ll be working hard to unlock the 23 trophies the game has to offer. The goals include defeating 30, 80 and 150 monsters, for cooking 15, 40 and 100 dishes, for creating 15 and 30 items at the workshop, for catching 20 and 50 fishes at the pond, for harvesting 15 and 100 crops, for planting 30 and 90 flowers, and more. It’s a list that will require a lot of hard work, but the game is fun and entertaining, so if you persevere you’ll get there.
Deiland is a fun and colorful indie release that is very relaxing to play. Even with the enemies that attack you every now and then, the overall experience is very Zen-like, as you’ll be spending time chopping some wood, breaking rocks to get stones and minerals, fishing at the pond, harvesting your crops, picking up wild berries, taking on quests. It’s a great effort from Chibig, and I look forward to seeing what the team does next.
Disclaimer
This Deiland review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Chibig.
