You play as Concord, a small grape fresh from the Kindergarden who has just been recruited to be the new guardian of The Grove. Rot is overtaking everything, the different towns are isolated from each other, and the current guardian just took off. Now, it's up to Concord to grow up, toughen up, and save their home!
Visuals
Garden Story is done in adorable pixel art with a nice pastel palette. It's lots of greens and purples and browns, which makes sense for being set in a garden and starring a grape. All of the NPCs are little fruits and veggies as well, and are super cute. There are also some adorable frogs, and other species in the other towns.
Sound Effects + Music
Some of the background music in Garden Story reminds me a lot of the Atelier games. It's cute and upbeat, but it is repetitive. Some locations have their own unique track, but it'll always be that one song every time you go there. Overall, the music is fine.
There's a good variety of sound effects, but again, they're very repetitive since you do the same tasks over and over. There's one sound that sounds suspiciously like the coins from Super Mario Bros...
Gameplay + Controls
Garden Story is an action RPG, so Concord spends a lot of time running around the map and fighting enemies. Combat did feel a little weird in the beginning. Concord can only make two hits at a time before waiting for their energy to replenish. It doesn't take long at all, but it does make fighting slow. I guess it keeps you from just mashing X like I want to do. Concord does get upgraded stamina, but very slowly.
Concord also picks up requests everyday from the village bulletin board. These will be things like killing a certain number of enemies, collecting a resource, or doing something else around town. You'll want to complete all of them each day to level up. In addition to those, there are the main story quests which will be listed on the map with a marker showing you where to go.
There's a lot of side content, but I didn't bother with most of it, which is unusual for me. In addition to saving the grove from the rot, Concord can help rebuild and upgrade all four towns. Some building projects are required as part of the story, but the majority of it can be taken at your own pace. You can easily see where these projects go once you unlock that aspect of the game.
Replayability
Garden Story isn't a game that I'd want to replay. The beginning is way too slow for me to want to slog through it again. It's also super linear, so there's not much else to make a replaying enticing. Unless you want all of the achievements, which isn't something that's important to me.
Overall
I liked Garden Story. It took me awhile to get into, but it eventually grabbed my attention enough to have me finish it. I wish I liked it more, because it is super cute.
Visuals
Garden Story is done in adorable pixel art with a nice pastel palette. It's lots of greens and purples and browns, which makes sense for being set in a garden and starring a grape. All of the NPCs are little fruits and veggies as well, and are super cute. There are also some adorable frogs, and other species in the other towns.
Sound Effects + Music
Some of the background music in Garden Story reminds me a lot of the Atelier games. It's cute and upbeat, but it is repetitive. Some locations have their own unique track, but it'll always be that one song every time you go there. Overall, the music is fine.
There's a good variety of sound effects, but again, they're very repetitive since you do the same tasks over and over. There's one sound that sounds suspiciously like the coins from Super Mario Bros...
Gameplay + Controls
Garden Story is an action RPG, so Concord spends a lot of time running around the map and fighting enemies. Combat did feel a little weird in the beginning. Concord can only make two hits at a time before waiting for their energy to replenish. It doesn't take long at all, but it does make fighting slow. I guess it keeps you from just mashing X like I want to do. Concord does get upgraded stamina, but very slowly.
Concord also picks up requests everyday from the village bulletin board. These will be things like killing a certain number of enemies, collecting a resource, or doing something else around town. You'll want to complete all of them each day to level up. In addition to those, there are the main story quests which will be listed on the map with a marker showing you where to go.
There's a lot of side content, but I didn't bother with most of it, which is unusual for me. In addition to saving the grove from the rot, Concord can help rebuild and upgrade all four towns. Some building projects are required as part of the story, but the majority of it can be taken at your own pace. You can easily see where these projects go once you unlock that aspect of the game.
Replayability
Garden Story isn't a game that I'd want to replay. The beginning is way too slow for me to want to slog through it again. It's also super linear, so there's not much else to make a replaying enticing. Unless you want all of the achievements, which isn't something that's important to me.
Overall
I liked Garden Story. It took me awhile to get into, but it eventually grabbed my attention enough to have me finish it. I wish I liked it more, because it is super cute.