ActionIndie
The Messenger
Give it 10 hours
Gets good by 10h then rated almost like by veterans
Fully opens up by 15h rated like by long-time players
Reach the ending 33% of players who started
Started playing 90% of owners
Steam reviews 93% positive of 13,335
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 5 reviews are negative (19%); after 15h it's 1 in 30 (3%).
- Fully opens up by hour 15.
- 33% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Eye Of The Shareholder” (Meet Quarble) and “Dungeon Brawler” (Defeat the Necromancer): from 95% to 78% of starters.
- 90% of owners got the first achievement.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 13,417 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 298 reviews: 15.6h for positive, 6.6h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (90.3% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Enter The Ninja Beat the intro without dying 100%
- Eye Of The Shareholder Meet Quarble 95% −5
- Dungeon Brawler Defeat the Necromancer Most players quit here 78% −18
- My Bad! Defeat the Emerald Golem 68% −9
- I Quill Survive Defeat the Queen of Quills 63% −5
- Leg Day Defeat Colos & Suses 60% −3
- Glacial Peaked Get to the top of the mountain 57% −3
- Did The Thing Defeat the Arcane Golem 54% −4
- Was That A Dragon? Defeat the Sky Serpent 51% −2
- More Like 'Dumb In General' Defeat the Demon General 48% −3
- Not With THAT Altitude Defeat the Demon King 33% −14
- The Fake Ending Was Better Beat the game 33% −1
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (48)
story milestone ending side
- Enter The Ninja Beat the intro without dying 100%
- Eye Of The Shareholder Meet Quarble 95%
- How Ninja Is That? Attack your first enemy projectile 93%
- Challenge Expected Destroy your first Power Seal 86%
- Be Lootful And Multiply Destroy a Big Time Shard 81%
- Losing Weight, Gaining Ground Buy five upgrades in the shop 80%
- Dungeon Brawler Defeat the Necromancer 78%
- Hope This Phelps Buy the Swim Dash upgrade from the shop 75%
- Deposit At The River Bank Jump down the big waterfall in Bamboo Creek 72%
- My Bad! Defeat the Emerald Golem 68%
- I Quill Survive Defeat the Queen of Quills 63%
- Leg Day Defeat Colos & Suses 60%
- Glacial Peaked Get to the top of the mountain 57%
- Walking On Air Execute 15 Cloudsteps without landing or clinging to a wall 54%
- Sweet 16! Time travel to the future 54%
- Did The Thing Defeat the Arcane Golem 54%
- Was That A Dragon? Defeat the Sky Serpent 51%
- More Like 'Dumb In General' Defeat the Demon General 48%
- Man's Best Fred Ride Manfred around the world back to where it all started 48%
- Fine, I Won't Open It Be lectured on happiness 46%
- Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow Make it out of the underwater labyrinth 36%
- One Hit Wonder Kill a green demon in a single hit 36%
- Tumble Hijinx Bump on a few flowers in Rivière Turquoise 36%
- Started From The Bottom Buy all upgrades from the shop 35%
- Sun And Moon Receive the Key of Love 35%
- The Lava Is Floor Run on lava 34%
- Nothing To Fear Rescue all Phobekins 34%
- More like EleMENTAL Skylands Complete the Elemental Skylands scenario 33%
- Not With THAT Altitude Defeat the Demon King 33%
- Well, That Was Unsightly Survive the Corrupted Future chase 33%
- I've Been Around Enter all areas of the world 33%
- It Sounds Better On Vinyl Complete the Melody 33%
- The Fake Ending Was Better Beat the game 33%
- I'm Your Biggest Phan Defeat Phantom 33%
- Wheelin' And Sealin' Destroy all Power Seals 26%
- Sunk Cost Unclog the Money Sink 23%
- Rocked Opus Defeat Octo 23%
- Bait Taken Be lectured on the power of stories 22%
- Betcha can't buy just one Make your first purchase at the Craftman's Corner 19%
- Voodoo Told'em Defeat the Voodoo Totem 18%
- Welco Metot Henex Tlevel Keep a windmill shuriken going for 15 seconds 17%
- Now THAT'S a finale! Defeat the Demon General... again 16%
- You Said This Was A Platformer Be lectured on the inner child 14%
- Thanks I hate it Meet the voodoo mask 11%
- No Argument Here Make it from the beginning of the game to beating the Queen of Quills with zero deaths 8.9%
- All in Accept 'THE DEAL' 8.2%
- I Swear It's My First Time Make it through Dark Cave without the 'Power of True Sight' 6.8%
- Star Messenger Win the race with a perfect score 5.1%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.