Fruity Fisticuffs for A Berry Good Community: A review of Garden Story

As Concord, the humble caretaker of the Grove’s youngest Greenlings, I must don my fanciest hat and step up into the role of a courageous Guardian. As the game begins, I awake from my slumber to tend to my daily duties in the Kindergarden. The vines need their morning Dew to grow Greenlings who will eventually become full-fruity adults. It’s a rocky start: Concord slides helplessly around his home while I struggle to come to terms with the controls. Arrow keys to move is reasonable enough but opening my inventory with the A key and interacting with the Z key feel positively alien. Even 10+ hours into the game the controls seem unintuitive and clumsy, my left hand constantly wandering over to the WASD keys to no avail.

Outside I meet my friends Plum and Rana. They tell me our village of Spring Hamlet has seen better days, and the duties of a Grove Guardian are put on Concord’s less than impressive shoulders. I’m provided a stick for a weapon and urged to smack nearby Rot with it. For those looking for a more relaxed setting to play in the game offers the “perish prevention” mode which stops Concord from dying. Attacks and blocking with a shield deplete Concord’s stamina and require some planning so as not to become overrun with enemies. After emerging victorious from the short battle Rana informs me that nightfall is near, and I should rest. After the first day the game’s day-night cycle is less intense: night falls when I go to sleep (or die).

Sleeping saves the game and allows me to look through a journal of Concord’s collected memories. Memories can be equipped to provide helpful boosts such as increased health or aid in finding rare materials. These memories are unlocked through gameplay and are always somehow tied to other Guardians. After a solid night’s sleep and my trusty stick in hand I fill my backpack with healing Dew and tour the village, occasionally slapping some Rot out of the way. After getting thoroughly destroyed by these angry, purple blobs I can heal Concord by pouring the highly revered Dew over him. For the villagers of the Grove, Dew is kind of a universal fix in a bottle: it heals them, helps baby Villagers grow and connects everyone to their homeworld’s magic.

Concord’s days are filled with requests and favors from other villagers. Completing them provides experience points which translate to the village’s improvement: vendors will have more to sell, and other villagers will be happier. No matter how hard I work, these fruit folk sure do seem to doubt my capabilities. Everywhere I go someone will comment on how Concord isn’t up to the task of a Guardian.

Unfortunately the requests start to feel repetitive around day six and seven when I’m running to deliver glass shards to Granny Smith for the fifth time since I started playing. The Rot needs disposing of every day in the same locations, and the same villagers constantly need the same items for the same reasons. The game’s visuals are delightful, and I love chatting with my fellow villagers about their day, listening to catchy music and exploring. Upgrading my weapons, solving small puzzles, and collecting cute hats is engaging and fun enough but the gameplay loop is so underwhelming it takes away from the whole.

 

Even if the core gameplay of repeating tasks isn’t all that compelling, Garden Story is worth a try for fans of the cozy genre.

 

Basic info

Publisher: Rose City Games
Developer: Picogram
Release date: 2021
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, XBOX One
Genres: Cozy, adventure
PEGI 7
Photos: Featured image credit to Garden Story’s homepagehttps://www.rosecitygames.com/press/garden-story 
All other images screenshots from Garden Story taken by the author.

 

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