As many of you can likely tell by the last few reviews I’ve done, I’m quite fond of wholesome, cute games recently. I’ve been playing a mix of relaxing games that don’t ask much of me and just some fun experiences that are a little more lighthearted. Garden Story is a lighthearted Action and World-Building game that really has a strangely similar feeling to games such as Dark Cloud from the PS2 days.

In Garden Story, you play Concord, a young grape who is named the newest Guardian of the Grove. The island, known as The Grove, is home to a tree that provides life-giving Mana to all the sentient fruits, vegetables, sea folk, and more on the island. However, The Grove is currently in disrepair as an evil force known as the Rot has begun to spread.

As a result, it is up to Concord to help repair and rebuild The Grove, which is split into four areas. Each one represents a different season and has different materials to find and characters to interact with. As you progress through the story, you’ll be able to do a variety of different things from fishing, farming, gathering resources, fighting monsters, and more.

Gameplay is pretty simple in practice. Each day, Concord is given up to 3 requests to do in whichever part of town he is currently in. There are three types of requests, and each one levels up a part of that area of The Grove. For example, the red requests are maintenance requests and work toward leveling up the Tool Shop, which can improve your weapons.

Blue requests are usually exterminations and can upgrade the Tavern, which is where you can buy different types of Dew. Dew is not only used for various farming and gathering applications but also is the equivalent of a health potion in an average game. Different types of dew heal a different amount. The Tavern can upgrade the jars that contain your dew, allowing them to hold more dew for more uses.

Garden Story has a day-night cycle that impacts what enemies come out and when the store and tavern are open. NPCs are also in different places at different times a day. This is important, because yellow requests are usually deliveries, and you have to complete the delivery to a forage box before you take Concord to rest for the night.

Concord’s stats are tied to things called memories. By doing different things in The Grove, you’ll unlock memories that can increase Concord’s health, stamina, stamina recharge rate, and more. Combat is a bit difficult since your stamina limit determines how many times you can attack before you need to let it recharge, but as you progress and unlock more memories you can increase that as well as your overall health.

The problem is, combat isn’t very well balanced either. Sometimes enemy hitboxes are a little off or you’ll think you are facing the right way and Concord will miss the enemy entirely. You can roll and use your shield to block, but that only goes so far, especially since your shield is also tied to your stamina. What makes this worse, is that if you die (such as in a dungeon) it ends the day and you fail any requests you haven’t finished or turned in.

Luckily, for more casual players or people who would prefer less of a challenge, there are two accessibility features that are really helpful here. You can turn off death entirely, and you can slow the passage of time so that days are longer. I personally think this is a really cool concept and a great way to balance things since you can turn off immortality when you don’t feel like you need it.

There are a lot of things to do in Garden Story outside of the daily requests. There are main story quests which progress the narrative, as well as Favors, which are side quests that usually unlock new things that will help you out. I could probably talk about all sorts of other things here, but part of the enjoyment I’ve found in Garden Story is discovering what the game has to offer.

Each region is visually distinct, and there is a lot to find and discover. Another fun thing is that each of Concord’s weapons is a tool that also serves a purpose. Gathering resources. Rebuilding, Fishing, and Exploring are just the tip of the iceberg.

Overall, I would say there is a lot to love with Garden Story. The puzzles are fun and interesting, the characters are adorable and funny, and the gameplay itself is a blast. I’m not super fond of the combat, but the more chill parts of repairing The Grove and helping out its residents make up for it in spades.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Garden Story was provided by Rose City Games for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Garden Story

$19.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Cute Characters and Environments
• Well Done Graphic
• Lots of Fun Things to Do
• Great Accessibility Features
• Smooth, Responsive Controls

Cons

• Combat is Clunky