Garden Story in the test: extremely cute and still a letdown

Garden Story in the test

That looks lovely! Garden Story's press materials already exude a charm that even one or the other first-party Nintendo game looked over with envy. And despite the criticism that we will make in the following test: The loving pixel graphics and the successful background music are without a doubt huge pluses for this indie adventure. Inevitably, memories of the good old 2D Zelda and Earthbound times or the much more recent Stardew Valley are awakened. Only: You don't expect a life simulation here, even if Garden Story may seem like that at first glance.

Table of contents

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Sweet grapes

It is no coincidence that the library (there is one in every village) is reminiscent of the community center in Stardew Valley. Here, too, you complete item packages. Source: PC Games Your alter ego is little Concord, a purple grape that lives in an idyllic settlement. His homeland is not that heavenly, however, because the so-called rot produces disgusting slime monsters that bother the village, and new children are no longer born - you are, in the truest sense of the word, the last offspring in the fruit city for a long time. Fighting is the focus of play. Concord defends itself against the slime enemies with various weapons, over and over again. Garden Story offers a weather and time system, which means: A day consists of morning, noon, evening and night. If you lie down in bed, the next morning breaks.

Despite the relatively dark premise, the characters remain very one-dimensional. Oh yes: The whole game only offers English texts, no German. Source: PC Games Each day you will receive up to three tasks. You don't have to do these, but they gradually increase the level of the respective village (you visit several locations in the course of this), which means, for example, that the assortments of the dealers expand. In itself, the idea of ​​having the missions done for the good of the community is a good thing. However, there are always only a handful of different assignments (kill seven slimes, repair the railing and so on), which are repeated over and over and accordingly become boring after a few in-game days. Especially since Concord runs so slowly that you don't feel like setting off on some missions. Later there is at least a fast travel system and the hero's speed can be increased.

The idle comparison

The purple slime paws are the standard opponent. Fights against them turn out to be unexciting or annoying. Source: PC Games What you don't necessarily expect from Garden Story at first glance are Souls-like bonds. But these are definitely there: Concord can only dodge and attack if he has enough stamina. Over time, more bars are added to the HP and Stamina bar, which makes fighting a little more comfortable. And the cloud draws healing from baptismal bottles that are refilled at the wells. But where in conventional action games there is usually a certain variety of opponents, your grumpy hero takes on the same slimy pesky pain over and over again. In addition, the arguments feel unsatisfactory, the attacks are imprecise, and opponents mostly just waver passively in the area. Since the enemies offer so little variance, but Concord gets stronger over time, the level of difficulty decreases steadily after the game starts instead of increasing gently.

Only small bites

A certain amount Monotony can definitely be wanted in a life simulation like Stardew Valley. Garden Story sees itself largely as an action game and accordingly disappoints with the lack of variety. There is also a lack of quality and content in all other areas. When building, planting and crafting, you can't live out yourselves, these features are implemented too limited.

In addition, there are small things such as the confusing menus and the badly legible font or the design of some areas where it is not clear where you can walk and where not. Theoretically, you can spend a lot of time with Concord if you devote yourself to expanding the villages and working through tasks day in and day out - if you like gameplay with a lot of grind. If you just follow the story, you will have reached the end after about ten hours. Garden Story is similar to its hero Concord in this respect: it looks cute but doesn't fill you up.

Garden Story is available for PC and Nintendo Switch.

My opinion

By Katharina Pache

Chief Editor

[email protected] Optics top, gameplay a flop During the test, it quickly became clear to me: No, this is not a Stardew Valley. And that's perfectly fine! Garden Story does not get the rating in comparison with the farming indie king, but only because of what it offers. And that is an extremely repetitive experience in which the focus - namely the combat system - would have needed a lot more fine-tuning. Garden Story's target group doesn't open up to me either. The fights are too annoying for relaxed grinds, too late, too little is offered to live out your own creativity by building and planting. The background story is surprisingly dark, but the dialogues remain superficial. And if you want an action game, well, you can find better pretty much everywhere. Almost every idea comes to nothing because of the limited implementation. But the look is great! Garden Story (PC) 6/10

Graphics - Sound - Multiplayer - Garden Story (NSW) 6/10

Graphics - Sound - Multiplayer - Pros & Cons Superb pixel optics Nice background music Various villages Extreme cute hero background story with serious aspects monotonous gameplay level of difficulty steadily decreasing fights feel unsatisfactory few opponent types slow running speed repetitive gameplay with little depth more pros & cons ... Conclusion Sweet as sugar, but not rich in content and boring in the long run