
Garden Story
Release Date: August 11, 2021
RPG, fantasy, sandbox, farm, 2D, top-down, indie games, cozy game, singleplayer
OpenCritic
Garden Story is an idyllic adventure with a grape hero, whose task is to expanse the village, help other fruit inhabitants and guard them against a mysterious evil. The game was created by Picogram studio.
Garden Story is a farmer's RPG adventure with a pixel graphic design that places a lot of emphasis on socializing with NPCs and solving secrets. Picogram Studio is responsible for the game. The developer is known for such games like P. E. Noire or Planet Pain.
Plot
In the game we play the role of a newly chosen defender of the village - the grape named Concord. Our task is to help the local community in their daily duties, to ensure the prosperity of the island and its sustainable development, to fight against dangerous creatures and to unravel the mystery of the enigmatic Rot that has penetrated the foundations of the island and has a negative impact on it. It won't be an easy task, but the karma comes back and the strength is in numbers, so our good deeds towards the island's inhabitants can pay us back at the most convenient time.
Mechanics
The action of the game takes place on an island divided into four sectors, which we must first discover. In each of them, we can plant different plants. As with Stardew Valley or other such games, everything takes a lot of time at the beginning, but as the game progresses, we have the opportunity to improve the tools that will make our work more efficient.
An important part of the game is also to help the neighbours with certain tasks, which are hung on a board in the centre of the village. We can undertake them in any order, and each task performed has benefits in the form of improving the relationship with the NPC (which may result in friendship with fruit and vegetable creatures) and gaining a specific material goods, a new seedling, a potion or a better weapon.
Garden Story has a peaceful and idyllic atmosphere, but not always. Our grape hero is often forced to fight with nasty monsters who want to destroy the peace of the village. To do this, we can equip our hero with one of the many weapons available in the game, varying in the damage dealt. For killing a monster, we will receive compensation in the form of a loot that falls out of them.
We can spend our free time fishing or other interesting things from the waters surrounding the village. We can also spend time expansing a local library, adding certain raw materials and components to it. The more items we bring, the more we learn about the history of the island itself.
Each of these experiences has a significant impact on our hero, who thus acquires additional skills and qualities.
Technical aspects
Garden Story is a game with pixel 2D graphics, maintained in pastel colors accentuated by an idyllic soundtrack.
Videos and Screens
[0:54] Garden Story trailer #2
[1:11] Garden Story trailer #1
Digital Chumps: 8 / 10 by Ben Sheene
Taking cues from Zelda and Stardew Valley, Garden Story is a charming adventure packed with action and crafting that can often be oddly paced, dampening the fun of an otherwise delightful time.
Gaming Nexus: 7.4 / 10 by Elliot Hilderbrand
Garden Story is not the apple of my eye, nor is it rotten. I enjoyed my time helping Concord clear the rot, especially with the boss fights, but by the third town (out of four) I felt I had picked more apples than I could eat in a week. Dungeons were exciting, but the other mechanics left a sour taste as they were introduced too late to matter and became another mechanic I could easily ignore. Garden Story simply was not my jam.
God is a Geek: 7 / 10
Garden Story is a beautiful game with a laid back attitude, but the slow paced gameplay won't be to everyone's taste.
Garden Story Summary
Platforms:
PC Windows August 11, 2021
Xbox One July 12, 2022
Nintendo Switch August 11, 2021
Garden Story System Requirements
PC / Windows
Minimum: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 256 MB GeForce 8600 or better, 100 MB HDD, Windows Vista

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