Kakarot96: Contrary to the other opinion, i don't think Balrum is a good game. In my opinion, it's the strange mix, precisely, the problem.
The game has a good amount of content but mixing survival needs with a real time rpg is a bad idea. Or, at least, in this case is bad implemented. When you have text to read (quests, dialogs) and you have to think in front of a screen full of items (skills, crafting, building, etc) but the time never stops...well, you can dehydrate and/or starvate without even noticing. Why not implement a pause while you are reading something or even at your inventory? I remember people saying this again and again to the devs while development to no avail. No answers, no explanation, ignoring feedback.
Dialog is not good but you can find yourself reading a (small fonts) text too large while you know you are losing time (eat/drink/rest) and stressing about that. I ended up NOT reading almost anything, accepting any quest as soon i can hit the button and reading only what i needed to do later. In my opinion, this is a but stupid and frustrating. Same when you are looking at your inventory and thinking about what to craft or how to plan your building.
Only pause is at combat. This is TBS, while all the rest is RT. Also, game stops time whenever you get close enough to a hostile, even if that hostile is not attacking you and you don't even see that hostile. An example: you are grinding (yes, you will need to constantly grind, even more at the begining to get berries to eat...constantly) and game is stopping again and again, yet you don't even see why. It's frustrating that then you suddenly have to move like in a TBS (if you managed to see what npc was "near" you and move away from it) just to continue normally with your game in RT.
It's a shame because the game has enough content to be good, but the design is questionable, in my opinion, and gives you unnecessary stress while playing and also kills completely my immersion when i have to accept quests and talk to npcs wihout even reading the text (that, or accepting the "penalty" for reading in the form of hunger and thirst...crazy)
Dgaart: As the earlier poster who has been enjoying Balrum, I completely agree with your gripes and can understand how this could be a deal-breaker for some. I've been playing on the "slower dehydration/hunger" mode and have never even come close to dying from lack of food/water despite reading everything. I had read some reviews earlier with the same complaints, which is why I chose that mode to begin with. It is questionable why they don't pause time, or accumulation of thirst/hunger during dialogue though. There are lots of small changes that would make heaps of difference which they haven't bothered to implement.
I only found unexpectedly entering "combat" and switching to turn-based movement to be a minor annoyance. It just means there is an animal or stealthed enemy nearby. Why the heck they made non-aggressive animals like deer cause you to enter combat is kind of weird though. Again, another seemingly small change that would make heaps of difference.
Maybe I'm just enjoying it more because I chose that mode. I've been finding the game to be pretty chill. Yes, slow and grindy for sure, but I've been enjoying it and have definitely gotten my 5 bucks worth.
Hopefully the devs won't give up on this game. Really, if they just made some of the above changes, increased exp amounts a little, and had a better writer go through and edit some of the dialogue, I think they could have a game which would be much easier to recommend and not as divisive.
That was just my opinion, i'm really glad you are enjoying the game. For me, those design choices i talked about are important and ruins a game that, as i said, has a lot of content and very good ideas. Yes, playing in "slower" survival mode gives you more time, but you are also losing water and food, so that stresses me anyway.
Also, for me, entering the TBS movement without any real enemies (and sometimes you are gathering food or whatever in a zone and are entering this again and again) is not only confusing, but irritating at the end.
It's like you said, just a few design changes will made this a good and enjoyable game. A pause while you are reading or at your char/inventory panel, not entering "combat" mode if there's no combat to fight are just 2 changes that could make this, indeed, easy to recommend, even more at this price (game costs 15$/euros while not on sale)
About entering the TBS mode, it seems that what triggers that mode is the contrary that should do any TBS (an actual example: Divinity Original Sin series): entering combat mode when you spot any creature that is not a friendly npc, even if that creature will never attack you. This vs. entering combat mode only when an enemy that will attack you spots you or when you spot an agressive enemy you must fight or you can avoid with stealth. It's something i could never understand while development, and also another point that was raised and ignored by the devs and i still can't understand the justification for this ilogical system (and devs never gave any explanation anyway)
So apart from the bad design, what irritated me was that devs had feedback about those systems, this was a game developed with feedback (early access and all of that) but despite they were selling their game while still in develoipment supposedly to gather feedback, and they ignored any argument about those systems. Maybe at that point of development it was already a lot of effort to change the TBS triggers or to add an automatic pause, i don't know because no one had answers from the devs in regards of this. It's only a team of 2, young developers, and this is their first game, but i cannot forget their stubbornness in accepting feedback about this basic systems (and not from a single person, but even from those giving them good reviews)
It's commendable they are still supporting the game and releasing fixes (there's a new mini patch today), but sadly nothing seem to change their initial design decisions, not even the reviews or the feedback (and it's feedback given since the beta version) or to implement some options when creating a game to change that.
Let's hope someday they will change something or explain why they never accepted any feedback about that, but game was released a year ago, i doubt there will be any major change to the gameplay. And without a good non-irritating/frustrating gameplay and without good writing, it's difficult to recommend a RPG.