The map of Portia

There are a lot of places to explore in Portia. Most times, the side quests from the NPCs urge the player to visit these places and interact with the NPCs in these areas. It is always great to develop a relationship with these characters to gain extra points for stamina or experience. I have also found My Time at Portia to be the first inclusive game I ever played. It allows you to romance any character present in the game irrespective of their gender. It is exciting to walk around the world of Portia and interact with the colored casts who have different stories to tell.  

Some characters like Arlo who works at the Civil Corps in the game, when befriended, can gift the player with loots collected from the ruins. Oaks is an interesting character in the game. He was adopted by a bear as a child and lives with Papa bear (the bear sometimes wears a blue bathrobe). It is also entertaining that the genius scientist in the game is named after Merlin, the magician.

The game is like a mini version of reality where you meet different people with different professions, passions, and backgrounds. It is very captivating and doesn’t feel repetitive. There are always new things to discover as one proceeds with the gameplay. Because of this reason, the gameplay might be longer than one expects.

As much as the world of Portia is fascinating for me, I was curious about the old civilization that is insinuated in the game to have fallen. It would have been interesting if there was a way in the game to explore the past stories of the old world. Another improvement that the game could focus on would be of reducing the crafting time to half. Some take hours to craft and the player is left with nothing much to do. I also wish there was a feature for automatic save for the gameplay so that I don’t need to put the character to sleep every time to not lose my progress. 

I have been thinking of replaying My Time at Portia because there are always secret quests that are only unlocked depending on who the main player chooses to romance with. For Arlo, there was a cave in the Eufaula Desert where he and the main player had to battle some monsters. The main player gets injured and falls and Arlo catches them. The cutscene plays where the two share their first kiss. How romantic is that?! There are secret quests like these for different NPCs which can only be opened after the player romances them. However, the player can only romance one NPC once their relationship has advanced. It makes me curious to play the game again for those secret quests. There are so many other things to complete in the world of Portia that I would definitely want to replay it from the start to find out the things that I might have missed.

Combat

The combat in My Time at Portia is basic but decent. Attacking is as simple as selecting a weapon in the quick bar and clicking the left mouse button. The monsters are fairly easy to beat and the difficulty level increases with the type and number of monsters being battled. Defense is usually limited to dodging and sprinting which consumes Endurance. It is encouraged to stock up on salves and food to restore one’s stamina and HP (health points), especially when exploring ruins that have many levels with many dangerous monsters. If the player is defeated in battle, they are sent back to the workshop. The player can also challenge NPCs to sparring matches.

My Time at Portia #23 Hazardous Ruins Floor Boss

Having good weapons and gear always works in favor of the player. These weapons can be crafted in the worktable in the workshop or bought from shops in the market. The player can also decorate their home with trinkets and things found in the ruins which might contribute to increasing stamina, attack, defense, etc. The fighting capabilities can also be improved through the skill system.

The Skill Tree

Any activity in the world of Portia awards experience which will increase the level of the character. Each increase in level will reward the player with a skill point. There are three categories: fight, gather, and social. The points can be allocated to any of the three categories. The ‘fight’ section vastly improves combat abilities, while the ‘gather’ section will improve efficiency in collecting raw materials needed for crafting. The social category will help advance relationships. Mei, a newspaper reporter in Portia, grants 25 stamina points if the player can develop the relationship level to ‘Best Friend’.

Quest/Mission System

The type of quests varies greatly in the game. Sometimes the player needs to build things as part of a quest, other times the player will be helping the NPCs solve their problems through various means. These quests are divided into ‘Main missions’ and ‘Secondary missions, other ‘Friendship missions’ and ‘Romantic missions’ can be unlocked as the player develops their relationship with the NPCs. 

The main missions progress the story in the game while the secondary missions are optional but might reward the player with unique gifts or relationship points. There are always new types of quests and new things to build. All in all, Portia keeps the player pretty occupied.

The player can get quests to build bridges to access the nearby island. Once Alice of the flower shop asks the player to create a poster for her and paste it all over Portia to help with the flower sale. Some other times the player gets minor missions to help find the lost dog, Scraps. Eventually, when the main player develops their relationship by earning points by feeding the stray animals, like Scraps and Pinky, they linger around the player’s house and can be adopted as pets.

Graphics

 Many people have complained about the lag in the game. My Time at Portia provides multiple graphics settings such as Texture Quality, Graphics Quality, Grass Quality, Shadow Quality, etc. Playing around a little with the settings and lowering the resolution to low/medium helps with the flow of gameplay. I usually use the medium resolution for Shadow Quality and ‘Good’ for Grass, Texture, and Graphics Quality. Despite that, the game sometimes crashes. This area is something that the developers could improve upon.

Pathea Games, in an interview, have talked about Ghibli films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky as inspiration for in-game world-building. No wonder the mountains, hills, and the town are so colorfully vibrant while the decrepit ruins add a nostalgic beauty to the landscape!

The sound or the music becomes a little jaded after a while. Perhaps if there were more musical varieties in the game it could add more to the already whimsy, nostalgic feel of the game.

Pathea Games

Pathea Games developed My Time at Portia for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch which was released in 2019. The developers are always attentive to the quality of gameplay. In fact, there is a phonebooth in Peach Plaza in-game. This is an interactable object which breaks the fourth wall because it lets the player ‘talk’ with Pathea Games. When clicked on the booth, a message appears on the screen which provides Pathea’s email that the player can use to write about their complaints, suggestions, issues, etc.

Pathea Games have listened to the community of gamers to improve many bugs and offer fixes to their games. They have since turned to develop the sequel My Time at Sandrock at present.

Price

My Time at Portia is priced at 29.99$ with a file size of 4.8 GB. It is playable on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. An android and IOS version are anticipated to be released in 2021 (here’s to hoping!). My Time at Portia is an offline game and there seem to be no in-app purchases as of now but perhaps that might change once it has been developed for Android and IOS.

Final Verdict

Pros

• Great visuals
• Variety of different quests
• Many interactive features- farming, fishing, mining, battling monsters, building, etc.
• So many Missions to keep the player occupied
• Numerous different types of characters to interact with
• Always new and interesting things to unlock/explore

Cons

• No automatic save feature
• Lags/crashes when played in the highest graphics quality
• Drab music
• Crafting time too long

Score

8/10

The vast array of quests, activities, and interactions makes this gameplay an interesting and lively adventure to remember but could do with some improvements for some of the issues. However, My Time at Portia does take the prize for including colored casts and not sticking only with heteronormativity in romantic relationships.

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