The Smurfs 2 - The Prisoner of the Green Stone
The Smurfs 2 - The Prisoner of the Green Stone
Game
Game2024
FOUNTAINS
Developer John Pywell
Master high-skilled combat to uncover the secrets of this war-torn empire and escape your captors. Carve your way through a gritty souls-like RPG set in a sprawling, interconnected world. From the Steam store page
241 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
79
LovedLoved
153 positive · 41 negative
95% range 73–84%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 153 | 41 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 4 | 0 | 35 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
320 of 378 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
78% recommend · 149 yes, 41 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 190 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (435 of 523 positive).
Players praise the interconnected world and satisfying exploration. [1][2][3] Many find the endgame bosses too difficult and tedious. [4][5][6] Some reviewers note the game is a love letter to Dark Souls and Hyper Light Drifter. [7][8][3]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
Okay, now that I was finally able to finish this game, I want to flesh out my review a little more. I feel bad not recommending this game, because clearly the Dev put in a lot of love and crafted a really cool world that is a lot of fun to explore and search for secrets. My biggest (and really my only, but it's a huge only) is that the end game bosses are just so damn hard. They require so much practice and repeated …
- [1]
This game has one of the best interconnected worlds I've seen since Hollow Knight. It's very satisfying to explore, and there's plenty of secrets to find and several side quests to complete. I also appreciate the limited RPG elements and that player power is more dependent on exploration similar to something like Sekiro. Combat is pretty good, although not always the most exciting, especially in the beginning of the …
- [5]
I recommend this because the first initial hours are fantastic. Metroidvania style map design, the world building, simplified souls combat, decent progression system... it nails the fundamentals. It almost nails more, with the main "unique" idea of the combat being: you heal and use ability with resources you gain from hitting enemies. Great idea, sadly not 100% balanced. Anyways, out of my roughly 12 hours I had 11 …
- [9]
Having finished the game, I can say there's so many great things about it along with some annoying things. The difficulty is intense, and with no way to level and only a handful of equipment to work with, you're going to have to study enemies and learn precise dodging/deflecting in order to succeed. You cannot cheese your way through, and this will not be for everyone. The exploration is top notch. Secret areas, …
- [2]
This game is too hard. Looks like about 6% of players have finished the game. By percentage, fewer people have beaten the first boss in FOUNTAINS than have gotten the true ending in Silksong. I put about 7 hours in and had a bunch of fun. The exploration and secret finding is satisfying. The map is sprawling and completely interconnected, which is really cool. It's great to beat bosses and get new skill rings that …
Summarised from 34 of the 235 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
FOUNTAINS sits at 79% positive across 194 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 241 · most liked first[NSFW🔞:latex, nullge, bimbofication] DO NOT DRINK FROM THE FOUNTAINS AT THE DOODLECO STADIUM, I REPEAT, ALL EMPLOYEES ATTENDING THE COMPANY SOFTBALL GAME MUST NOT DRINK THE WATER IN THE STADIUM AS IT HAS ACCIDENTALLY BEEN CONTAMINATED WITH POTENT LATEX CHEERLEADER TF AGENTS‼️
neutral · AI labelView post →"We asked 100 human souls what game would you hate for the knight to walk in on you playing" "Find and Seal Fountains, Tenna!" "Find and HUH!?"
neutral · AI labelView post →Two years ago some baseball team had a trivia game and they called Fountains of Wayne "the one-hit wonder who did Stacy's Mom." I'm still angry about it.
neutral · AI labelView post →2025 recap: 👶Had a baby!!!!!! Now I am Daddy 🌞Daggerheart released! Lead concept artist 🌚Daggerheart: Hope & Fear announced! First time being an Art Director 🎲Critical Role campaign 4! Set concept design 🗺️Critical Role world tour! Set concept designs ⛲️Fountains board game! Illustration game art
neutral · AI labelView post →Okay, now that I was finally able to finish this game, I want to flesh out my review a little more. I feel bad not recommending this game, because clearly the Dev put in a lot of love and crafted a really cool world that is a lot of fun to explore and search for secrets. My biggest (and really my only, but it's a huge only) is that the end game bosses are just so damn hard. They require so much practice and repeated attempts that you pretty much have to memorize their every move and tell just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has one of the best interconnected worlds I've seen since Hollow Knight. It's very satisfying to explore, and there's plenty of secrets to find and several side quests to complete. I also appreciate the limited RPG elements and that player power is more dependent on exploration similar to something like Sekiro. Combat is pretty good, although not always the most exciting, especially in the beginning of the game. The bosses are very satisfying to figure out abut very chjallenging.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I first discovered this game in 2022 through its demo and I was utterly enthralled by the game's design, mechanics, fluidity and art style. Coming back in 2025, where I finally got around to playing the full game, I feel exactly the same. However, while this game is worthy of many praises, it is also worthy of many criticisms. The game is plagued with bosses whose health and damage are inflated to preposterous amounts, while being able to auto-correct attacks on the fly. In a game such as this,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fountains is a perfectly serviceable action/adventure game with metroidvania aspects to its gameplay that is held back by its adherence to Dark Souls-esque boss fights. As far as exploration goes, Fountains does well. There are plenty of varied locations, the enemies are reasonably diverse and the combat is quite enjoyable. Most of the enemies’ attacks are telegraphed well enough that an observant player shouldn’t be too overwhelmed unless fighting two or more enemies. Where the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The first actual in-game QB scramble that lasted longer than Fountains of Wayne's "All Kinds of Time"
neutral · AI labelView post →This game has many positive aspects, but in the end it feels like it took all the wrong lessons from Dark Souls, instead of the right ones. The boss designs timing, hitboxes, tells, bloat of health, consumables being lost on death, etc, all lead to a frustrating experience. Any time I beat a hard boss there is zero feeling of victory or satisfaction, just a sense that I either got lucky or learned some cheese, never that I actually engaged in the mechanics of the game properly or succeeded by…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game looks great and I love the pixel art. It was created by a single person I believe so that is very impressive. I am a big fan of the souls games and can see the obvious similarities. The bosses are just genuinely too hard for me and I found myself not even having a good time. I would definitely come back to the game if there was a toggle for the difficulty added or maybe a tweak to the damage taken or damage dealt. I really want to like it but I just was not having fun especially…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Also! I did the art for a tile placement game called Fountains from @theop.games
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is too hard. Looks like about 6% of players have finished the game. By percentage, fewer people have beaten the first boss in FOUNTAINS than have gotten the true ending in Silksong. I put about 7 hours in and had a bunch of fun. The exploration and secret finding is satisfying. The map is sprawling and completely interconnected, which is really cool. It's great to beat bosses and get new skill rings that expand both combat and traversal. But I've hit a point where, despite having…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →coincidentally, Meadows of Dan is both my favorite Fountains of Wayne cover band and my third favorite Ys game
neutral · AI labelView post →After spending some time on the game, I have a couple things to say, both positive and negative. For a game this size, the amount of content is honestly rather impressive, there's not too much but enough to keep you busy for a bit. The pixel arts, although simple in some places like the designs of the protagonist and some enemies, look stunning, which shines mostly through the looks of the world. The metroidvania aspects makes the progression and exploration somewhat enjoyable and rewarding…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hung around in central Lima until after dark so we could go and see the Magic Water Circuit fountain show. We'd seen this before but lost video footage so it was a chance to see it again and record some of it. Incredibly popular show with the locals, the park was absolutely rammed with families. Tomorrow's firm plan is to visit the Larco museum and we'll play it by ear after that. #Travel #Photography #Lima #Peru #Fountains
neutral · AI labelView post →There are 3 reasons I would not recommend this game: Some boss mechanics feel unfair. I like hard games and I have beaten all the Souls games, so difficulty is not the issue for me. The problem is that some bosses feel more annoying than challenging. It starts to feel repetitive when you have to fight a boss 50+ times just to perfectly time a few attacks. I have been trying to beat General Krus for 3 hours and I usually die in phase 2 when he starts doing the explosion attack above you.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to like this game, it has very strong Hyper Light Drifter vibes, but the difficulty curve is insane. This is way too much without accessibility options, at times it's borderline unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Royals broadcast just mentioned Into the Fountains!* *Because Dominc Canzone hit Seattle's 4th home run of the game. Still...
neutral · AI labelView post →A game where you pet dogs, kill gods and try to stay hydrated along the way.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ok who else playing FOUNTAINS..... ??? It's like Hyper Light Drifter, Dark Souls, and the olde Zelda games. Pretty sure the world is one big wet dungeon. Also it's cheap right now and really good.
positive · AI labelView post →Its great, however the boss fights make me not want to finish it. *edit* It could have been great. Boss fights took the joy out of it. Moved on.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is tedious and frustrating in its current state. Needs SEVERAL QoL features before it is playable. First and foremast....there are no I frames. Like seriously. Not the I frame window is small, NONE. In a souslike this is unforgiveable. The amount of wombo combos in here = several broken controllers, Second issue - WHERE the ####### DO I GO! Yes there is a map, no it wont tell you what to do and where you need to go. I recommend a guide for this unfortunately. Third…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing game! Love the style and aesthetics. The desaturated palette, different death animations, and overall vibe bring this nostalgic feeling. Like a game you played when you were 8 and didn't understand a lot but it was super cool, and now you are remembering it with today's gameplay. Overall, really good game. --- I have a complaint though: I really don't like the death system. I would rather lose everything I gained in exchange for being able to recover it, instead of the current system…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →www.t-mobilecenter.com/events/detai... Minnesota Lynx announced they will play the Nigerian Women’s National Team in #WNBA preseason @ T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO on April 27. Hosted by ProHoops Sports & Events, this will be the 1st WNBA game played in the City of Fountains since 2005.
neutral · AI labelView post →I recommend this because the first initial hours are fantastic. Metroidvania style map design, the world building, simplified souls combat, decent progression system... it nails the fundamentals. It almost nails more, with the main "unique" idea of the combat being: you heal and use ability with resources you gain from hitting enemies. Great idea, sadly not 100% balanced. Anyways, out of my roughly 12 hours I had 11 great ones. What happened with the last hour? However, towards the end the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Itch] *Lights On My Screen*, top-down RPG. > Lights On My Screen is a 2D adventure RPG set inside a video game. Help Kid navigate the colorful world, solve puzzles, talk to characters and fight (or don't fight) the enemies. And find the one who brought them to this world... > > > * 7 Bosses. Some may fight you, some may become your friends, some can only be defeated together. > * 6 Levels. Some are normal and some are weirder. Some are open and some are very linear. > * 5 Fountains. Throw a…
neutral · AI labelView post →The reason I don't recommend this game is because I finished it without having fun, without being able to remember it in a goodlight. There are three things that made it so: the boss battles were unfun, the exploration had misleading hints, and the character progression was stagnant. Starting with the exploration, it is certainly the most interesting, fun, and well done aspect of the game. However, there are different places that you feel like you can interact with later that you can never…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had a great time watching @chipdip.bsky.social stream Fountains!! This is a fantastic review that gave me lots to think about regarding the game, but I wouldn't expect any less from the Pixel Professor 🤩
neutral · AI labelView post →Fountains of Wayne playing at the isles game 🥰🥰🥰
neutral · AI labelView post →Only finishing this game out of pride. The difficulty is too much of a jump with no ways to alleviate that. Bosses seem to be where you will spend 70% of your playtime just because they deal too much damage and there are almost no windows for recovery.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →balance what's that? Knock back is reserved for enemies only and shadow of the erd tree had bigger healing windows don't get me started on the ARMOR=STATS ♥♥♥♥ you get to upgrade each stat once .spells,use items, and perk items all share the same four slots.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The combat feels smooth and rewarding. The only problem is that there is not more game. John please make a sequel I will buy it immediately.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Apparently Blue Sky has some sort of filth filter applied by default, so if you're not seeing this post maybe check your settings. For context, I took this in 2019 in Fountains Abbey. Shortly before a game of Bogies with my brother.
neutral · AI labelView post →this game is really good but i lose my mind trying to figure out where to go next and eventually smash my laptop into a million pieces and also NERF GAURD DOG. but other then that, great game :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So dying deprives you of money, and you need to use your money to buy more of your healing resource, water? Why on Earth would you design a game system that kicks the player when they are down? It doesn't just incentivize grinding. It makes grinding borderline mandatory if you want to throw yourself back at a tough enemy that killed you after you used up your healing the last time around. I'd like to get back in the fight, not go off and grind against goons so I can top off my water before I go…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An impressive outing for a solo developer. While "Fountains" copies most of its homework directly from Dark Souls, it ultimately feels more like Zelda or Hyper Light Drifter cosplaying in armor. The more flippant tone, snappy combat, and Metroidvania style progression set it apart. I had quite a bit of fun with it and kept picking it up even after getting caught (repeatedly) on some of the rough edges. As others have said, there is a very noticeable jump in difficulty at the end of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to give this a good review but it's just not possible, it has a lot of elements that i like but after some point in the game the enemies just become damage sponges that 2 shot you, that's not good game design as far as i'm concerned, just lazy.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is fun except the unfair bosses. Worst boss designs I have ever seen. Tanky, homing attacks, constant same attack spamming, out-of-screen attacks, no time to heal etc .. not fun at all. Overall good game, but **** those bosses. Idk what the devs thought there. I finally beat the game, and the bosses get worse with Kruz .. some of them are complete bs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I gave Fountains a bit of a try. I think there is a really neat and interesting game in there, but it just wasn't clicking for me. It's got the difficulty and the slog that I'm just not looking for right now. Still... it's VERY cool and might appeal to you! store.steampowered.com/app/1841240/...
neutral · AI labelView post →Played Fountains by Kedric Winks at the Tantrum House game night. I am skeptical these days about take-and-make games, but I love the shapes of these tiles, and Will is such a fun guy. It turned out to be my fav in the genre since Azul!
positive · AI labelView post →Can't recommend enough for people suffering withdrawl from being left high and dry after they anounced Hyper light drifter 2, and having it be changed to 3d. Still different enough that it only takes inspiration from other games, while keeping things fresh and interesting! loving the Dark souls type atmosphere and message system!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My haul from my trip to CO. Shout-out to @octorock1982.bsky.social for bringing me places where I can spend money 😆 The CD game was strong in this town! Hype to finally own the Fountains Of Wayne B-sides collection! Also this Powerline shirt wtf 😱
neutral · AI labelView post →Having finished the game, I can say there's so many great things about it along with some annoying things. The difficulty is intense, and with no way to level and only a handful of equipment to work with, you're going to have to study enemies and learn precise dodging/deflecting in order to succeed. You cannot cheese your way through, and this will not be for everyone. The exploration is top notch. Secret areas, optional puzzles and npc questlines, item descriptions that leave you thinking…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game had a recipe for greatness but really fumbles it in a few key areas. The level design is pretty great, a nice top down semi open world that really links back on itself with all the shortcuts. The combat is suffice enough, relatively fluid and reactive, if a little simple. But the main problem is there is no drive for the player to do anything. There is no level up system, which means the currency system is limited to buying items... of which there are few. This, tied to the fact that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has everything I could want out of a 16 bit souls like. Definitely up the same vein as Hyper Light Drifter, Death's Door, and Tunic. I'm so grateful for the simplicity yet difficulty of this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This checked a lot of my boxes: top-down pixel art, action, metroidvania-ish. I had fun. It's pretty darn good for a solo developer game. I would have liked some of the bosses to have more readable windups and a little more cooldown between their attacks. It seems like many boss attacks are timed just shorter than the time it takes to cast a heal. But overall the bosses aren't really unfair; they just punish greediness and sloppy timing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I CAME LOOKING FOR COPPER AND I FOUND GOLD.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall a fantastic little game. Pros: - Good sound design. Music is amazing. - Snappy combat. Feels good to hit things. - Metroidvania-style backtracking when you gain new abilities. - Semi-obscure storytelling. - Difficult, but not unfair bosses. Cons: - No major power spikes, especially towards the end of the game. - Level design is a bit bland. Shortcuts feel lacking purpose. - Difficulty spike in endgame bosses is quite significant. They mostly rely on your reaction…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hey all! New stream schedule is ready for the week after being gone on vacation. Times and days have shifted slightly due to some changes at work. Excited to play more Dawnfolk and then start Fountains!
neutral · AI labelView post →The things I didn’t like Enemy attacks are very spammy and feel unreactable at times Lack of meaningful combat upgrades (mainly stat boosts and map progression) Confusing map and inconvenient fast travel These 3 things sum up exactly why I do not like this game. First problem: Every enemy gets to spam the same attacks over and over while you just have to sit there and wait it out. This game has massive Elden Ring syndrome, where bosses get to do cool, broken ♥♥♥♥ and you just get to sit…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We're making fountains in the board game Fountains
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is a hidden gem. Combat is tough but fair. Secrets everywhere. Great soundtrack. Amazing art. You gotta give props to John Pywell.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not bad exactly, but yeah I'm not really feeling it. It really doesn't do anything bad - it just doesn't do anything remarkable in any way either. It just feels like going through the motions.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I never leave reviews. This is perhaps my greatest $10 regret ever. At what first appears to be a solid contender in the vain of Hollow Knight, Blasphemous and other entries in the metroidvania/souls-like crossover genre you begin to notice the pig poking its' snout through the makeup. Projectiles from enemies seemingly being able to penetrate any obstacle while yours are blocked by foliage, hit boxes that are off just enough to make you wonder if you really should have been hit there,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a decent game but it has some issues that make me ultimately not recommend it. These are of course my opinion so if these are things you're looking for or just don't mind you'll probably like this game. 1) Combat is a little too precision for me. I like challenging combat but you're expected to dodge alot and the iframes are pretty tight imo. That might be ok normally but the enemies are smaller on the screen and their attacks aren't super readable imo. If you like precision…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a competent soulslike adventure. If you looked at the screenshots and figured it was probably boring (like I did) then I would just avoid it. The visual style, while kinda basic and not really appealing is certainly a factor. Audio/Visuals play a role in how mid it feels as a game. Games like Tunic and Death's Door do this sort of thing in a more compelling way. It's "okay", but 'okay' really isn't good enough when there's like a million games out there competing for your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Top-down 2D passionate love letter to specifically Dark Souls 1. The bosses in this game are of the variety that require playing patiently and waiting for them to give you openings, and the later bosses will likely take you 20-50 attempts each to clear, but if you're patient and willing to take the time to practice their timings, nothing in this game has felt unfair - just challenging, and if you're the kind of player who enjoys that, this is gonna be a treat. The map design too is where this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fountains is a Dark Souls inspired Metrovania with some jaw dropping pixel art. It's not my sort of game, but I love just looking at it.
neutral · AI labelView post →I wrote this today at Into the Fountains and was probably generous on my attendance estimate for the game in Atlanta.
neutral · AI labelView post →
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