Bem Feito Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Welcome to the World

Bem Feito describes itself as a life simulator where you play as a man who wants to make friends. With this simple objective in mind, I thought it would be a cute adventure where I got to maintain my world and interact effectively with those around me. Did it live up to my expectations? Find out in this Rapid Review.

As I booted up the game for the first time, I was introduced to a bunch of icons on a home menu screen. Included on this menu are directions to the game, a folder of different files with lore, and of course, the game itself. Though this was a simple touch, it added a bit of charm to the game that I enjoyed. While the home screen increased the overall presentation of the game, apart from aesthetically adjusting my experience, I found very little value in the home screen. I interacted with it to first begin my adventure, once in between, and then once at the end to investigate all the things I unlocked.

The simplest component of this is the lore. While I will not go into detail about the contents, I thought the writing was effective, but it did not overly grip me. The meaning behind a lot of the writing was literal, and straight to the point. This prevented me from gaining an emotional attachment to a lot of the components, and I instead looked to analyze their meaning. Though this is typically something I enjoy, I found these pieces did not have much content that could be further analyzed, making my efforts futile. Though aesthetically, I enjoyed the world of Bem Feito, the lore pages in the hub world were not very engaging.

Paradigm Shift

Another disappointment came through the game itself. Again, I want to avoid going into too much detail here, as Bem Feito is a game that would be spoiled if I went into too much detail about it. The primary objective is to complete tasks. These tasks, while functional, are not that special. They often range from gathering special materials to sweeping floors. Though many life simulators are not necessarily the most riveting, I found completing tasks in this game particularly mundane.

Also, there were also some tasks that were less tedious. If a task were not tedious, it would often place me in a moral dilemma. This is a concept that many life-simulation titles present. Many life sims present various alternatives, and I must choose which I want to complete given my lack of available time. This is not a factor in Bem Feito. I never felt pressured for time. I could always complete anything I wanted to at any point. Instead, dilemmas often happen because some actions have negative consequences on the world around me. While I thought these actions would have a large impact on my experience, Bem Feito does not adequately reward me for these corrupt objectives. Tasks with moral implications had little increased value to my player, so it was easy to justify not proceeding with them.

The lack of this additional stress made Bem Feito a bore once I recognized how to play it better. Once I understood what the developers wanted me to do, it was easy to win. This is a shame too, as I typically look to play games that get more enjoyable and complex as I understand them better.

World Building

Simply, Bem Feito did not have a rewarding gameplay loop. The brief experience did little to engage me as the tasks were mundane, and once I understood the objectives clearly, clearing the game was simple.

The dialogue further compounded this. Since the game’s description claims that the primary objective of the game is captivating friends, I hoped that the game would feature interesting characters. Unfortunately, it did not. While the characters were unique, there was no exciting dialogue, and repeated conversations would lead to largely the same dialogue. This meant that on multiple playthroughs, which is required to see the most out of Bem Feito, I continually had to read the same dialogue with very minor adjustments. Though they were cute, for the most part, these characters did not enhance my experience much, as their dialogue was incredibly static.

While the gameplay left a lot to be desired, I enjoyed the art design and theming of the game a lot. Though Bem Feito features a simple colour palette, the game is charming. Each of the characters has their own style, the world is nice albeit simple, and the text is also consistently easy to read, even as I am reading long blocks of it.

The sound design, while sufficient, is not as engrossing. The sound effects fit the theme of whatever action I performed, but the music was never overly catchy. Sometimes, it got on my nerves.

Overall, I did not enjoy my experience with Bem Feito very much. It did not meet my expectations for the game, as it featured a lot of unenjoyable tasks and much less character personality than I had hoped. Similarly, the game is overly simple. Tasks are not fun, and the lack of narrative challenge also prevented me from getting hooked on this title. While I had some semblances of an interesting experience, I would wait for a sale.

Rapid Reviews Rating

2.5 out of 5

2.5

You can purchase Bem Feito on the Nintendo eShop here