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Have you heard about the video game, My Time at Portia and wondered what it even is? Would this game even be something you want to play? Let me first tell you what this game entails and then decide.
My Time at Portia is a beautiful building, open-world life simulation game, which is often compared to Stardew Valley. This simulation game has RPG like elements. It was developed by Pathea Games and published by Team17.
In this game, you are the builder in a post-apocalyptic setting. Don’t worry though, unlike Fallout 4 there is lots of greenery and there is no radiation. There may be minor spoilers in this post, just a fair warning.
The Character
“We get someone like you once in a while, always seeking that adventure, good to be young.” -Wuwa
First of all, you must learn about the character. You play as the main character, who is referenced as the builder throughout the game. The builder is from Barnarock. Your pa left behind a run-down workshop in Portia and it is now in your care. So it is up to you to build the workshop’s reputation and beat your competitors.
The character customization is not as impressive as Dragon Age: Inquisition or Fallout 4 where you can transform the main character into Nigel Thornberry, which is hilarious to see. Instead, it is very simple like Stardew valley. You still can customize your character’s name, gender, hair, and face thus allowing the main character to be unique to every player.
The Workshop
When I said run-down workshop 2 paragraphs ago, I meant it. The first thing you will probably notice is that you have holes in the floor and broken windows you have to fix to get a good night’s sleep. Pa just couldn’t even fix the place before he left?
You start at a low reputation level which you can increase with rep. points. In order to receive rep. points you may, complete commissions, quests, inspections and donate items at the museum. Every season, the top 3 workshops get a prize and the top 3 for the whole year gets an even better prize. If that doesn’t motivate you to increase your reputation, maybe beating a certain mean rival will. *Cough* Higgins *Cough Cough*.
Besides building you can do other things at the workshop as well like:
- Farming
- Raise Animals (once you buy the stables and the pens)
- Decorate inside and outside. (Decorating inside gives you status boosts)
- Cooking (once you make a cooking set)
You can also upgrade your workshop in My Time at Portia up to level 3. This makes the workshop bigger, higher max stat boosts and better looking.
Relationships
The game is the relationships with NPCs. You can build friendships with the NPCs and date, break up, marry and divorce several of them. Your character will begin with a relationship status as strangers with everyone except for the animals and Higgins. You can improve your relationships with the NPCs, again except for Higgins, in many ways like
- Completing their requested commissions
- Giving them gifts
- Going on play dates
- Fulfilling their weekly desire
- Talking
- Completing related quests
- NPCs viewing relics in the museum and in your yard
- Throwing parties (once you get the banquet table from South Block Trading Outpost)
Using the method above, you will raise your relationship status with the NPCs from strangers to associates, buddies, friends, good friends, and then best friends. Also, keep in mind that not all the options are available at the beginning of the game. You will have to progress through the story to make more options available.
Whether you and the NPC are on playdates or dates you can play minigames like:
- fireworks
- doodling in the sand
- star gazing
- swinging
- seesawing
and you can eat at a restaurant or chat under the wishing tree. There are plenty of things you can do to make sure you two have a good playdate!
Romance
Now don’t forget about the romance. That’s important in every game right? Well, you have the choice of 18 bachelors (Aadit, Albert, Alro, Antoine, Gust, Mint, Dr. Xu, Oaks, Django, Erwa, Liuwa, Paulie, Qiwa, Sanwa, Siwa, Remington, Tody, and Wuwa) and 10 bachelorettes (Lucy, Alice, Sam, Petra, Phyllis, Sonia, Nora, Emily, Ginger, and Mei). Lucky devil you.
You can confess to one of the eligible NPCs, when they reach friend status, by giving them the heart knot! Play then changes to date and new interactions are available once you and your chosen NPC reach boyfriend/girlfriend status. Have fun you two!
Of course, you wouldn’t stop there, right? The next step is marriage! In order to propose, you are going to need a wedding ring. However, some of the NPCs actually propose to you with a romance mission if they love you enough.
When your house is big enough and you have a cradle, you two can have a child!
Mining
In order to build machines, you are going to need parts and to donate items to the museum, you need relics. Mining is the solution to both problems and you can start mining at the very beginning of the game! You can mine metal ore, old-world parts, treasure, and relics from the abandoned ruins. If you mine extra items you don’t need, you can then sell them to a store.
As you progress through the game, more ruins will be available, each filled with different items! Due to all the new items, this will allow you to build better items, finish better commissions and make you more money.
Fishing
How would it be a game without fishing? If you are bored of building and mining, you can have a relaxing day fishing. Each spot has about two to three different kinds of fish and different spots yield different types of fish. Fish can be used for food, gifts, donated to the museum, or sold for money.
Each fish has rankings that range from common to emperor to king. King is very rare. So rare that I haven’t caught one yet! The only reason I know of the king is of list of fish donated at the museum records. If you donated the kings, the crown will be highlighted above the fish.
You get items for donating each type of fish. If you donate all types of fish with common ranking you get a prize. The next prize is for donating all fish with the emperor ranking and the 3rd prize is for all the kings.
You can also breed fish using the large fish tanks. It is a good idea to breed the king’s ranking of a type of fish. To do that, you will first need to catch 2 king rank fish from the same type. Good luck with that! You are going to need it.
If the kings are just too hard to get 2 of them, breed the emperor ranks instead. They are easier to catch and should not take that long to catch 2 of them.
Events In My Time at Portia
Some events and holidays take place throughout the year at Portia. Participating in events and holidays can earn you badges, thus allowing you to exchange them for items, prizes, and relationship points. Examples of events are:
- Martial Arts Tournament
- Day of Memories
- Land Run
- Autumn Festival
- Fishing Tournament
How Long Is My Time at Portia?
According to howlongtobeat.com, the average is 64 hours for the main story and 131 hours to complete everything. I am at 277 hours and am only half way through the game. What can I say? I like to take my time.
What Platform Should I Get My Time at Portia On?
Since the console update in September 2019, the console versions are now have voice overs. You just got to turn it on in the options. For me, going from no voice-overs at the beginning of the game to having voice overs all of the sudden is kinda odd. They do not sound how imagined them. I might even turn it back off!
The most of the quests and features are the same as well. However, there are still more DLCs and quests on the PC version.
Also, the console versions have more glitches than PC but I do address some of them in my other posts. Also, there is an item limit on your workshop lawn if you play on console. PC does not have a limit so you can decorate your ideal lawn.
My Time at Portia is available on Steam, Epic Games, Switch, PS4 and XBOX ONE.
Conclusion
In conclusion, My Time at Portia is an RPG like an open world, building, life simulation game. This game has plenty to do like, for instance, building, mining, making friends, fishing and participating in events. Since there is so much to do, you can spend hundreds of hours in this game. I did and I’m not done yet.
The game is available on Steam, Epic Games, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One. Since all versions are the same, the choice is yours for which platform to play it on. However, just remember the console versions have more glitches.
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If this post made you excited about this game, you can get it on PC via Steam or on console from Amazon, either in digital or physical form. If this post helped you, first, sign up for our newsletter and second, share this post with your friends! Also, if you are planning on getting the game, read 9 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Time at Portia.
Amber Borden
Amber is an avid gamer. The first game she ever played was Super Mario Bros on the NES. She has seen many genres of videos games due to her 30 years of gaming. However, Amber typically sticks to RPGs, Sandbox and Simulation.
Since she loves gaming, her first job was at a Gamestop. Also, she has written guides for Gamefaqs. Amber was a full time worker in the retail world, but now she is working on this site from home. No matter what, however, she still plays her video games.
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