Grow: Song of the Evertree
Released: November 16, 2021
Game Length: 30 Hours
Grade: B-
Introduction
Prelude: If you looked at my previous review, you might recall me mentioning the company Prideful Sloth in the making of Yonder: The Cloud Chaser Chronicles. This detail becomes abundantly relevant to the game I'm going to talk about today. Many of the aspects, assets, mechanics, and world are pulled directly from the game. However, the highlights of gameplay is flipped upside-down. Instead of primarily exploring a world to advance the plot with a little bit of building on the side, you will now focus on building whole towns and explore small temples to open up new areas. Although I have not personally played the game, many have related Dark Cloud in their experience. After 4 long years, the developers built on their weaknesses and in return lost some luster in their strengths. Let's talk about it.
Gameplay
Settings: There are quite a few extra features that weren't available in their previous game. The graphics have improved with characters that now look grown-up. They still have quite a bit of humor since my Texture Quality was set on "My Hardware is on Fire." There still aren't any voice-overs, but there is a dramatic increase of dialogue that is presented to the user. Although there is still some limitation to your character, at least you now have a say in whatever small amount of quests there are involving your persona. You immediately have all your tools available to you and can be used at any time. This allows you the opportunity to continuously pour water as you walk over all your seeds. Your line of tools can be customized in whatever order you want and can now be picked out of a standardized weapon wheel. Despite the controls on the gamepad being opposite of what I normally am accustomed to, jumping with the Y-button and interacting with the A-button actually makes sense when you play the game. There is an option to turn off your gamepad vibration. Like before, I recommend using a gamepad over the keyboard and mouse.
World-Building: A big part of the game revolves around a system that reminds me a lot of Spore. You mix a bunch of ingredients together to add certain elements and attributes to a bunch of resources that form in an isolated area. This part might seem rather boring for a lot of people since there is no deviation in the actions you take in every world. Even the caves are all the same! You cut and pull weeds, tear down ruins, plant seeds, water the vegetation, sing to make things grow, clean the local critters, form a bond and tame the wildlife, collect fruit of bushes, collect nuts off trees, collect plants, and interact with a few things that might randomly appear. Depending on what ingredients you use, objects might grow thorns, be smaller than usual, develop eyes, be frozen, grow tall, or any number of different variables. In my experience, I grew a lush forest, a desert wasteland, and a world that looked like a sundae. As you progress in unlocking areas, you'll be able to find 6 Alchemy Tables with recipes for Perfect Worlds (one of which is in the Everkin tutorial area). The two I formed included a princess landscape and a slime world. Whatever resources you gather can be "stored" in Nature Reserves (and collected using Everkin workers), used to remodel towns at the main square, used for villager quests in exchange for goods, or recycled for more parts.
Villagers: If there was ever part of the game that excels, this would be it. The people that visit your town feel alive. Their personality and quirks aren't just mere labels. A person will walk studiously, normal, or aggressively depending on their persona. Airheads will pause in their dialogue. Tired members will stare into the distance when they talk with you. People who do not like mornings will show it. You'll hear complaints if someone is bothering another person. One time, I found someone named Charlotte being mean to one of the shy gals so much that it brought her to tears... so I revoked his membership! There isn't a chart where you customize each person. The game enforces direct contact for various activities, thereby allowing you to become more acquainted to each and every member. Later on, you'll be given the opportunity to modify several values - their job preference, their name, their expertise, and their stats. You can change their wardrobe by gifting them various items. Just don't use any of the rare ones that you want to keep for yourself!
Limitations
Unfinished Content: Sadly, a big problem of the game is how it still feels like its in early access. That's because there are just so many things that feel incomplete or lacking in general content. One of the first things you'll encounter within the first couple hours is the fact that there isn't a way to actually take a picture. There is this whole camera subsystem that allows you to enter first person mode, pose with others, and zoom in without actually snapping a shot in the game. You'll eventually receive a critter house for your homes, but there is no option in buying any more. Although it can be quite difficult to even reach the 20-building limit, restricting us to 20 decorations per town is devastating. It can be fun going around and adding hats and beards to people, but you can't remove cosmetics from villagers afterwards. For now, you can only switch out hats for other hats. There is no feature to remove or kick a visitor out of your town. Instead, you remove them from any assignments and hope they go away. It isn't reassuring that very little was added, fixed, or modified in the latest patches either.
Lack of Content: When it comes to building the towns, there feels like there is just enough to warrant the $25 price tag. By the time I built my third town, I had established enough space and resources to build one of everything (but not all in the same town). However, there is surprisingly a low amount of things you can do with them. Each building has probably a handful of decorations you can add to make them unique and 26 colors of wallpaper (excluding white and black) that you can plaster on the buildings. Did I mention that you would have to add these colors to the buildings to increase their rating? At least you get to go in them this time! Most of the buildings perform some form of basic function. Some examples: Lodge has video game arcade (that doesn't reward you anything), General Store sells supplies, Inn increases visitors, Tailor sells clothes, Hair Salon sells cosmetics, Temple sells tokens (modifiers), and Ranch shows off collected critters. Sadly, there is no way to upgrade the pond or picnic area. Half the buildings, like the Flour Mill and Cafe, have no other purpose than to offer more work positions for your visitors. As much as they built into the villager aspect of the game, you can't change the color of their clothing. There is only one type of small critter and one type of large critter. They are considered resources and change in the same way as everything else in the world you create. Excluding the two types of paths, walls, and gold statues that are rewarded from the festivals, there are a total of 9 decorations (including the Everkin statue), 7 lamp posts, and 4 plots (that change accordingly to the adjustments made in the town square).
Bugs: The difference between a bug and something unfinished is whether or not an included system is working as intended. Even though the game is quite polished, there are still a few quirks they need to work out. There is something wrong with the town labels when you rename them. The Door Gateway has a problem recognizing them and people will sometimes refer them as "{[Town Name]}" in their dialogue. I found a weird exploit by accident that allowed me to gather infinite number of tickets during Smile Day by re-assigning the same person over-and-over to a building. The save system uses a 24-hour time format, so the numbers reset to 0 once you reach that amount. Creative tokens are considered a "food token" inside buildings. Caves will immediately reset if you leave a world.
Notes
Miscellaneous: The game hand-holds you for the first few hours with heavy dialogue and learning all the techniques from the Everkin. There are only three main story characters that you will encounter. There is barely anything more provided story-wise beyond the first few areas. Time is essential - you cannot sleep too early, you cannot work in worlds or use flight after dark, and you will automatically return back to your home after you collapse at midnight. You will be reminded of important events like opening up the next area or when there is an Observance Day (or "Chore Day" as I call it). Achievements will provide you with some special ingredients and decorations, but are not necessary to "seek out" when playing the game. Although there is no map, it is possible to look at everything - including the colored buildings you constructed - when you summon your friend. There are still fun gags to be found like the "Unfinished Zone" with the "Deal With It" glasses or the "Throne of Stones" in one upper area. Some objects, like cut grass or raw ore, can be bartered with the Everkin for ingredients.
Summary: There are too many positive things to point out about this game, but there are also a lot of limiting factors that prevent it from being enjoyable. The introduction might feel overbearing as every action you take is dictated by your mentors, but things open-up rather quickly after building your first town. Exploring the world, finding secret areas, and discovering what you can do is very welcoming. Getting to a point where you are handling multiple towns, customizing their features, adding decorations, and interacting with the villagers are all great. However, there becomes a point in the game where nothing new comes your way. You learn how shallow and incomplete everything is as the newness wears off. Although I invested 40 hours into the game, my patience after repeating certain tasks in each and every new town became monotonous near the end. If the developers can find the time to add all the features that they left out and add twice the number of available decorations, this game would most definitely be great for any player. Until then, I suggest it for those who have a green thumb, a decorating eye, or consider themselves a conversationalist.
2-9-2022