About A Universal Time:
I initially discovered this game while trying out the XBox Game Pass for PC. My first impression was that it looked like a cheap Chinese knockoff of some popular mobile games, but I decided to give it a try anway, because it was one of the only games on that service that fit what I was looking for at the time. Well, I’m so glad that I gave it a chance, because I found that my initial impression of the game was dead wrong. This is one of the most charming, pleasant crafting games/ life sims I’ve ever encountered. Far from being soulless, My Time at Portia is absolutely packed with personality. Portia feels like an actual community, and it’s an absolute joy to become an integral part of it. The NPCs feel like actual neighbors who you befriend and get to know better. When it comes to who you choose to befriend or romance, there are a large variety of options available to suit all types of players. Some NPC backstories are inspiring, others are bittersweet, but nearly all of them absolutely ooze personality. It never feels like characters are reduced to simple tropes, they’re all complex individuals in their own right who are far more than meets the eye. The stakes can at time get high during the main storyline, but the game mechanics are forgiving enough to not make this a lesson in suffering for the player. You will have many, many chances to make things right, even if you accidentally goof up at first. And other than a few timed missions whose time limits are clearly noted when you first get them, for the most part it’s your own choice as to what pace to proceed at for most of the game. You progress through the game and its stories as fast or as slow as you wish too, for the most part. Sometimes, I found myself burnt out from a crunch of difficult-to-fill orders, so after I had taken care of them, I literally spent the next week in-game simply chopping trees, mining rocks, and fishing, because I could.
