“Garden Story” is the latest game from the makers of “Touch My Katamari”, “Mysterious Cities Of Gold”, and “Mystic Ark”. The game is also the first game developed by indie game company, BitSummit. Garden Story is an action game where you spend the resource points you earn on upgrading your garden, purchasing new garden tools, and decorating your house. To help you maintain your garden, you can train gardeners who will tend to your garden for you. You can also purchase clothes at the local clothes store, which you can then sew into different styles.
I purchased Garden Story thinking I might add to my (overgrown) backyard vegetable gardens, but the game turned out to be more of a (variety of) disappointment.
I’d be a lot of things, including gravely injured, if I picked a grape from the vine and it started attacking me with a pickaxe. However, for Concord in Garden Story, slinging weapons and saving the world is just part of the job.
In more ways than one, it’s a hefty task thrust upon their non-existent shoulders. Although the result of their labor isn’t fine wine, Garden Story’s distinct and pleasurable aroma gives it a flavor that stands out even among the best vintages, if only because of what could have been.
Review of Garden Story: Not Quite Ripe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJee PBds00
The Kindergarden is where tender plants wait to fall off the vine and join the rest of the world. However, there is a flaw in Garden Story. Thanks to the ever-expanding Rot that threatens to engulf all life, no new fruits have blossomed in years.
As a result, our hero Concord’s job as a Kindergarden tender is rendered obsolete. Concord is whisked away by Plum, one of the realm’s guardians, to the land of perpetual spring — a real place, not a euphemism — where they learn the principles of guardianship.
Garden Story appears to be a twee little adventure akin to The Legend of Zelda with a dash of Harvest Moon grafted on… at least, that’s how it appears on the surface. In reality, it’s a surprisingly depressing story at times.
Plum and the other guardians ponder the world’s doom and how things have deteriorated since Concord’s story began. Concord has these conversations with the guardians almost every time they speak, and it gives their mission an unexpected sense of urgency and depth.
Garden Story isn’t just a depressing story. Outside of the Kindergarden, everyone encourages Concord to do their best, and characters like the slacker-but-adorable Rana the Frog provide welcome comic relief whenever they appear.
Concord’s mission, on the other hand, is primarily a solo one. Garden Story adds a nice twist to the usual top-down adventure by taking them through four season-themed areas and combating rot in all its forms.
Concord can stay in a new area for as long as they want once they arrive. Each region has a charming bungalow with a leaf rug for sleeping and saving, a Dew well for replenishment, and other miscellaneous items.
There is no shortage of people who require assistance. Every day, Concord receives a new set of requests, such as maintenance, that help them level up their stats and reward them with cash for new tools or upgrades.
But that’s when the rot begins to set in. Garden Story has a lot of potential in terms of design and ideas, but it doesn’t follow through on any of them. The daily quests are nearly always the same, and the majority of the environmental puzzles follow the same pattern. You can construct and decorate, but only to a certain extent.
Concord is given a variety of tools to fight Rot, including a pickaxe, a parasol, and even a hammer. Combat, on the other hand, is stiff and unrewarding, hampered even more by a stamina bar that appears to be a holdover from farming simulators rather than a useful feature.
Most enemies, including bosses, have a set attack pattern that is easy to learn, and you’ll quickly settle into a predictable rhythm. Repeat the process of running up, smacking smacking, running away, buffing with modified Dew, and so on.
Although Garden Story does not set itself up as the next great action-RPG, Concord’s adventure does include combat. More variety would have been the equivalent of a spritzer from the grocery store in terms of keeping the journey from becoming tedious.
Aside from that, I’d have been content simply allowing Concord to establish stronger roots in each village. Garden Story clearly wants you to care about the characters, and I do — when they let me.
Despite its vastness, the world feels surprisingly impersonal. You don’t get much interaction with the NPCs, and the payoff from all the quests you complete to help revitalize each village is rarely, if ever, seen.
The only thing left is a slightly sour aftertaste. Garden Story is very eager to try something new and bold, which I admire. Unfortunately, most of its big ideas died on the vine before they could ripen.
Review of Garden Story — The Bottom Line
Pros
- Surprisingly complex plot
- Characters who are charming
- Ideas that are ambitious…
Cons
- … that never seem to go anywhere
- Combat is exhausting.
- Quests that repeat themselves
- Its best ideas are limited.
Garden Story exemplifies what top-down adventures and RPGs can be like. Its foliage has depth, and its foundation is a charming world. It appears that the development team tried to squeeze too much out of a plant that couldn’t keep up with demand, and the result was a watered-down version of the ideal.
New seasons bring new opportunities for growth, and I’m hoping to see Garden Story resurge in a new form.
[Note: The copy of Garden Story used for this review was provided by Picogram.]
