A good adventure is hard to find. It’s always fun to play through a Zelda-style game, but they’re rather inconsistent. Rogue Heroes (our review is here) was pretty fantastic but others like Oceanhorn leave a bit more to be desired and a few which aren’t even worth mentioning are just downright awful. But developers keep coming back to the same adventure formula for a good reason. When they work, they’re great!
One of the newest entries in the genre is a little gem called Garden Story from developer Picogram and publisher Rose City Games. This one has been on people’s radar for a while, as it consists of a bunch of cute anthropomorphic vegetables and animals that are trying to defend themselves from the Rot which is encroaching on their villages as their society slowly crumbles beneath the encroachments of polluted vines and creatures.
You are Concord, a young grape that used to tend to the vine that produced new denizens of your town, but now, you’re thrust into your role as protector of the village and eventually erstwhile savior of your world. There’s more than a passing visual resemblance to games like Stardew Valley and Graveyard Keeper (our review is here), both in terms of design and comedy, but at the same time, this is a much more gameplay and puzzle-focused title. The script is clever and full of puns, the ambiance is excellent, and the overall vibe of the game could be easily be called ‘chill AF’. Garden Story is a game that exudes relaxation and good vibes, even when you’re fighting back the Rot. It’s probably the type of game that Serena Williams would love!
In between bouts of exploring, you’ll also be running errands for the townsfolk. There are three major requests per day which net you extra income and goodwill from the townsfolk, bringing back the sense of community in the town and protecting it from the Rot. You can use that money for upgrades, healing dews, and even clothing for your grape (a sentence everyone should savor…clothe that grape!). Eventually you’ll end up shifting bases to other towns as well with more and more to do.
None of Garden Story feels incredibly high pressure and the chill soundtrack and cartoonish air of the game reinforce the do as you please feeling of the game. Don’t want to complete a task? You don’t have to. You’ll get new ones tomorrow. Want to wander around talking to folks? Cool, there’s not a rush. It’s a very different feel for an adventure game like this one. That being said, there’s definitely combat, puzzles, and bosses as well.
Combat in Garden Story is a bit less impressive. The finicky attacks and small hitboxes of enemies get irritating fast as they move while you’re swinging at them. There’s no way you’re not going to take some damage here as the control response for combat simply isn’t quite as responsive as it should be. Enemies seem to have a longer reach than you most of the time as well, leading to a lot of darting in and out while you wait for your attack bar to recharge. It can be incredibly frustrating to run out of swings just before you know an enemy is about to be defeated and it happens all the time. The bosses are also surprisingly challenging, especially after picking up sticks and glass and fighting the occasional somewhat weak enemies. It’s quite the difficulty spike and some players will definitely be unprepared for it!
The visuals and music are excellent in Garden Story. It’s a crisp game with clean artwork and creative characters, enemies, and backgrounds. The soundtrack complements the game extremely well and the squishy sound effects from the Rot sound uncomfortably moist and unpleasant as you’d expect. It might not be a soundtrack you’d rush out to buy, but it’s an excellent composition overall and well worth paying attention to in its own right.
In addition to combat being a bit weak, there are a couple of other issues with Garden Story. The worst by far is Concord’s speed. He’s incredibly slow and the run button sucks up stamina so fast that it’s insane. Please stop using stamina bars people! Just put your character on perpetual run because sauntering along languidly is frustrating! Add to that the boss difficulty spikes, the repetitive nature of a lot of the town requests, and rather light puzzle difficulty and Garden Story has a bit of a balance issue and a bit of a challenge issue. You’re looking at around 18 hours give or take here, so balance is important. And remember, this is an adventure game, not an RPG or a farming sim, so that’s a pretty healthy time frame!
When you put all that together then look at the level design, the general lack of enemy variety (make no mistake, they’re great, but there’s not enough change here), and the limited depth to a lot of the side activities, you end up with a game that has more potential than it manages to capitalize on. If you’re looking for a game to relax and just casually complete quests in, you’re golden. For those gamers out there who want a bit more depth, Garden Story might not scratch their itch. That’s not to say that Garden Story isn’t fun. It most definitely is. Wandering about bashing things and helping people out is engaging and relaxing. The game is kind of like gamer comfort food (ironically) in the same way that Animal Crossing is. It’s fun, it’s light, it’s usually not too demanding. But that is a double edged sword and will definitely keep the hardcore crowd away.
It’s hard to say whether Garden Story is good or bad. It’s gorgeous, interesting, and well-designed. The soundtrack and effects are fantastic, and the game is very stable. But it also doesn’t really challenge serious gamers, isn’t incredibly long, and has some weird design choices (those community boxes and the small inventory??) that really limit play in ways it shouldn’t be. In short, this is a good game that ends up being a mixed bag, albeit one that is fun to play even if you’re not entirely sure about it. Concord is a lovable protagonist and the motley crew of fruits and vegetables around him are definitely entertaining. Garden Story is definitely worth picking up, but depending on what kind of gamer you are, you might want to wait for a sale!
This review is based on a digital copy of Garden Story provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent in both. It should be noted that the initial boot time is quite long on the Nintendo Switch and leaves you with a blank screen the whole time, so don’t panic if it takes a while to boot! Garden Story is also available for the PC on Steam.