Pipkin Review

A gorgeous autumn town with a missing instruction manual

Pipkin is a Halloween-themed monster-collector RPG from solo developer Gregdude, published under Gregdude and Worlds Project, that began life as a Kickstarter campaign in October 2024 and reportedly raised around six times its funding goal before a year of public demo updates led into its full release on 28 October 2025 at NZ$16.29. Players explore the settlement of New Haven, a town steeped in autumn and Halloween atmosphere, catching and training more than 60 creatures called Pipkins and battling rival trainers and wild threats in party-versus-party turn-based combat. Its review sample, 32 reviews at the time of writing, sits at Mostly Positive -- a rating that reads, on close inspection, as genuine affection for the game's art and concept running up against a real and specific list of missing conveniences.

The praise across the sample centres overwhelmingly on presentation and creature design, and it's remarkably consistent for a game this small. One reviewer calls it simply "a real gem," citing the "cute aesthetic, creature designs, beautiful art, fun soundtrack." Another, more detailed review states that the game "absolutely blew me away," adding that "every creature feels genuine, unique, and full of personality, which is something a lot of other games in this genre miss," and crediting the game with bringing "real novelty to the table" rather than simply imitating existing monster-collector franchises. A third reviewer, drawing a comparison that recurs elsewhere in the sample, calls Pipkin "a very excellent Pokemon and SMT mix," praising a battle system with more genuine strategic depth than its modest scope might suggest, even while acknowledging it "doesn't have the deepest systems of course."

That combat system draws specific praise beyond simple aesthetic appreciation. Multiple reviewers highlight the party-versus-party structure as surprisingly complex, describing real synergy potential between different Pipkin types and movesets that keeps battles engaging without demanding excessive grinding. One reviewer specifically notes the game "doesn't feel too grindy" even as difficulty ramps up, while another calls the combat "surprisingly complex" and praises how it "creates some interesting possibilities for synergies" across a full party rather than a single lead creature. The Halloween theming extends convincingly into the moment-to-moment mechanics as well as the visuals, with several reviewers specifically enjoying humorous NPC interactions and seasonal flavour text scattered throughout New Haven.

Where the sample turns critical, it does so with unusual specificity and consistency for such a small review pool. A cluster of independent reviewers lists nearly identical missing interface features: no way to check your money total outside a shop menu, no way to view a Pipkin's remaining health while selecting a healing item mid-battle, and no way to inspect a creature's moveset outside of combat to plan strategy in advance. One reviewer who says they "really want to like this game" and loves its aesthetic nonetheless calls it "bogged down by a somewhat baffling lack of quality of life features," a sentiment echoed nearly word-for-word by other reviewers independently hitting the same missing conveniences. Layered on top of this is a complete absence of controller support at launch, with one reviewer reporting the developer indicated no clear plans to add it -- a serious limitation for a genre whose audience frequently expects couch or handheld play.

That controller gap compounds directly into reported Steam Deck problems. One detailed negative review describes the game as "pretty clunky with the menus," concluding that the combination of missing controller support and awkward menu navigation on Deck makes the experience "a nightmare," while other reviewers report the game is playable on Deck only with manual workarounds around resolution and control scheme. Beyond input and interface issues, a smaller but pointed critique targets the game's RPG Maker foundations directly: one reviewer catalogues "mixel" pixel art -- assets at inconsistent internal resolutions that become distracting once noticed -- and argues the game "can't escape its RPG Maker roots due to poor feature implementation," suggesting it undersells the six-times-funded Kickstarter campaign behind it. Crash reports after 20-to-30-minute play sessions appear in at least one review, alongside an explicit recommendation to save frequently as a workaround.

Length and narrative payoff round out the sample's most consistent complaints. Several reviewers independently describe the story as thin or absent, with one calling the game "short yet cute" and noting "it lacks a real story, and stops abruptly," while others frame the brevity as a direct value concern at the full asking price, suggesting the game would be more fairly priced closer to five or ten dollars given its length and missing conveniences. That said, the developer's response has been reasonably fast: two separate quality-of-life update posts landed within roughly two weeks of launch, addressing at least some of the exact complaints reviewers were independently raising, which several in the sample credit even while maintaining their overall score.

Verdict

Pipkin has a genuinely distinctive autumn aesthetic and some of the most consistently praised creature design in this review sample's recent memory, built on real pre-launch community enthusiasm from a well-funded Kickstarter campaign. But its Mostly Positive rating reflects a review base that loves what the game looks and sounds like while running into the same specific missing conveniences, absent controller support, and abrupt narrative ending again and again. If you're drawn to the theme and can live with a short, rough-edged experience -- and you're playing with a keyboard and mouse rather than a controller or Steam Deck -- there's a genuinely charming game here; everyone else should wait for a patch or two.