Garden Story

Garden Story is a ripe take on Zelda-like ARPGs, but falls short in a couple of aspects.

Garden Story reaches for the sun with its bold stalks, but a shallow root system robs it of the stamina needed to fulfill its lofty dreams.

The frequent combat in this ARPG is hit-and-miss, but behind it is a sweet and sincere tale set in a land you’ll care about saving and starring the G.O.T.Y (grape of the year).

There is a lot to love about Garden Story, despite its minor flaws. The wonderful work of Grahm Nesbitt on the delightful soundtrack and effects enhances Picogram’s charming art, design, and polished programming to create an experience that evokes a fun time of thrills and chills.

Garden Story is a chill and adorable adventure that's great in small bites, coming alive once you get past the slow start.

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.

Ultimately, Garden Story shows that a better world is possible. Not one where everything is solved, but where things are more manageable. We can nurture the little bit of health that still exists in the world, and we can be there for those that need it most. The RPG-like elements that reminded me of the GBA games of my youth are all still just as endearing as I remember them, and honestly, I think in another world you could find Garden Story on the little handheld. For this small game to capture that magic, and for there to be an important story about community on top of everything else, it ma...

I don’t know if it was my poor understanding of how Garden Story was described during a past Nintendo Direct, or maybe its art style, but I somehow walked into this game expecting something similar to that of Stardew Valley. Instead, to my surprise, I was presented with a 2D Zelda clone with a somewhat confused personality, with sentient fruits and vegetables named after what they are, as well as random animals with names of their own.

The Grove is slowly getting much weaker, and only one tiny grape is capable of saving it. In Garden Story, you play as Concord and must defend your community against Rot while also uniting the villages that have been torn apart by it.