Graveyard Keeper, the fun and slightly twisted graveyard management sim from Lazy Bear Games is back, this time with a Switch port. I initially played this game on the PC in a beta release format and you can check out my first review here. Since then, Graveyard Keeper has been released officially, tweaked, and ported to multiple platforms. It’s a pretty popular game too, and rightly so, as it’s quite fun! Let’s look at how the Switch version stands up to the original review!
As you may know, Graveyard Keeper is about a guy who, well, ends up through rather odd circumstances as the graveyard keeper of a medieval village. Along with a zany cast of characters that appear and disappear as the days and nights pass, his goal is to get out of this dark and dirty job and find his way back to his lost love. The beginning of the game is mostly setup for the management sim beyond but it does an excellent job of atmospheric setup.
I’ve got to say, since my initial playthrough, the game has grown on me. The Switch version is slightly more polished, with what feels like a mostly cleaner interface than the PC version had at during the beta. Button mapping is good, control is solid, and my keeper actually feels like he moves a hair faster than he did in previous versions. The gameplay is essentially identical, but as it’s my second playthrough, I found a lot of things faster and the pacing did feel a bit better overall. It also seemed like I ran out of energy a bit slower than before, which makes a huge difference in the overall flow of the game. I still feel that the early game proceeds a bit more slowly than it should, but the fun factor pretty much negates that issue as you keep playing.
As to Graveyard Keeper specifically on the Switch, this is where things get interesting! The first and foremost thing I wanted was touch compatibility. Sadly, there is absolutely no touch interface for the Switch. This is a sorely missed opportunity, especially with the menu management and item selection you’re constantly making in the game. This is the perfect game to use touchscreens with, but it’s simply not available. That being said, Graveyard Keeper is a game that’s pretty much meant to be portable. It’s way more addictive on the go than I would have expected, especially with the instant on feature of the Switch where you can resume a game at the touch of a button!
Seriously, Graveyard Keeper looks great on the Switch! The graphics are just right, the screen use is excellent, and the overall feel of the game in undocked mode is excellent. I found myself just picking my Switch up at random, doing a few things, setting it aside, then coming back twenty minutes later and playing some more. It was addictive enough that I started getting dirty looks from my wife, and she’s pretty used to my gaming habits! Interestingly enough, I found the game far less compelling in docked mode. When docking the game, the screen auto-shifts to the new aspect ratio and leaves a bigger surface area for you to look at. While this sounds like a good thing, your character seems somehow smaller while playing and the 16 bit-style graphics lose a bit of their charm on a 55” LED TV. Graveyard Keeper is one of the few titles that I would highly recommend to play undocked.
There were a couple of small hitches with technically aspects of this version of Graveyard Keeper though. I found that the placement of the minus button on the left Joycon made it mildly inconvenient for menu usage and there was no way to change it. I also had issues trying to get items to shift to the D-Pad quick use menu in the bottom left hand corner. Aside from those technical issues and a few times where I missed something a character said because their dialogue auto-proceeded, there aren’t any real bugs left in Graveyard Keeper. It’s definitely better than the Beta version, which is to be expected. Graphically, there are no changes, but there have been several expansions and updates to the original title, notably the Breaking Dead update which added a host of zombie labor related automation. Excellent for graveyard keepers, terrible for zombie labor boards. So many grievances!
Almost a year after my initial review, I’m going to say that Graveyard Keeper is a game that has aged well and made some solid tweaks and updates that make it even better than it was before. In terms of sheer playability, I don’t hesitate to say that the Switch version is the definitive version of the game, even if it is lacking an awesome touch interface (HINT HINT, Lazy Bear!!!). And as much as I enjoy everything about the game, I’d still really love to visit the Town and the Fortress, but I just can’t seem to get there. Odd, that. Graveyard Keeper is an indie title that’s worth owning though, and Switch owners with just a bit of patience can really get a lot out of it! This is one title that deserves a closer look, and even potentially a sequel that expands upon the mythos, or at the least, more DLC! You won’t have more fun with a corpse than this!
This review of Graveyard Keeper for the Switch was based on a digital version of the game supplied by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both undocked mode and docked on a 55” Sony LED TV. All photos are from the Switch version of the game, except for the first and last screenshots. I am not responsible for the ethical choices you make regarding the use of uncertified meats of questionable origin. Please try not to learn cooking skills from the game.