Echoes of the Plum Grove

Game Title: Echoes of the Plum Grove
Released: April 29, 2024
Game Length: N/A
Grade: B- 

Interface

Options: There is an abundance of cozy games out there that try their best to make sure you have the most casual experience possible. Every now and then, the developers create a game where they place hurdles or obstacles to offer some sort of challenge. This game straddles the line by giving you realistic options that can be modified to your liking. These include turning off the fishing mini-game, changing whether characters get old, turning off taxes, removing durability from tools, preventing the community from contracting diseases, making sure you never go hungry, making sure you don't ever get tired, and preventing items from rotting into compost. The irony is how these features make the game unique compared to other cozy games. This dilemma reveals a glaring problem in the game's limitations that is explained more in detail below.

Style: The most obvious thing that sets the game apart is its appearance. Many will liken it to Paper Mario with how characters are expressed through four different images that represent the direction they are moving in the world. Any sort of objects that can be manipulated follow the same design. However, buildings and things that don't change are made in 3D. This unusual contrast helps you track down what you can mechanically interact with each day. While tough to visually notice, the game does mention that there is a dark outline around things you can interact with, even if they don't provide you anything useful.

Setting: When it comes to the story, there is barely anything present. You get a quick introduction to how you crash land in an unknown place, learn about some hidden secret, and find a couple of places that exist only to progress the main plot. The characters are all... paper thin when it comes to their existence. Their personalities are there to fit their role - child, adult, wanderer, grumpy, talented, etc. As they age and die, another character takes their place in the town. You personally can die too from a number of factors and continue your legacy through another family member. If you don't have one, the game ends.

Other: Time and character freeze while you are attending to a conversation. The signs on the map can be clicked on to instantly travel to their location. The time expended is always the approximate amount it takes for you to go straight there on foot. You can do this even while underground. Moving before an animation sequence completes effectively cancels the action. You must patiently wait to plant, water, or collect items. There is controller support but the way your character selects the appropriate tile for an action isn't as smooth as clicking on the tile and watching you move to action. While there aren't a lot of introductory clothes to wear before you start the game, plenty of alternative wardrobe items are available throughout the game.

Farm

Fruit: In most cozy games, there is an opportunity to collect fruit throughout the season. Sometimes you can find trees or bushes in the wild. Other times you can produce your own on the farm. While this game offers multiple avenues, resources are distinct from each one. For example, wild grapes will accumulate only on bushes throughout the town. Plums can only be collected from trees grown on the farm. Strawberries can only be collected on the ground. Onions can only come from the seeds you plant. Blueberries can only come from bushes you grow. While there is a chance to purchase almost anything from the villagers, you can see how things can get a bit tedious when trying to figure out how to obtain something very particular. 

Crop: To begin the process, seeds must be purchased from the villagers. As long as you are in the right season and there is enough time for something to grow, a seed can be planted in any hole you dug on your farm. Water the plant each day until you can pull, or use a scythe on some occasions, the crop and more seeds to repeat the process. Not watering them turns them brown first as a warning and then permanently withers the second day you forget. Bushes require a whole row and a total of 10 days to grow. Fruit trees require a whole square and 15 days. Considering that you cannot obtain seeds out of season and there are a total of 21 days, planning ahead can be crucial. Another important reminder - You cannot move plants once in the ground. Make sure you really want those trees where they are when you start.

Objects: This might seem a bit odd but decorations are generally marked as internal or external. Crafting stations are usually only able to be placed inside your house while yard material can only be put outside. Chests can go inside or outside. Wallpaper can only be used once. Your house can be moved after you upgrade it. None of the wild growth on your farm grows back, including rocks, trees, bushes, and grass. This is a rather appalling problem as your axe is only good for clearing the initial mess on the farm. Trees in the world can only be shaken, not chopped. Other than building the bridge, your hammer is only good for moving things around (which explains why it doesn't have any durability). 

Consequences

Rot System: The game has many systems that will test your micromanagement skills. How all food has a time limit attached before they turn into compost waste is one of them. Though, what might be confusing to understand is how the quality of the item extends the due date. Most forage items and fish that are bronze will last a total of three days. If an item is of higher quality, then they go down a tier and start the time over again. While it might not show it, this means that silver will have a total of six days and gold offers nine days. To add to the madness, stacking objects only shows the lowest amount. For example, you combine an item that expires in 7 days with one that expires in 10 days and the only thing that will display on the screen is the one with 7 days left. Don't freak out too much since the game remembers each individual item. If you consume or sell from a stack, the lowest valued one goes first.

Diseases: Any character in the game can get sick. Maybe someone who docked last week brought along a case of the flu. Or perhaps you stood in the rain too long. Eating raw fish is not a good idea as it makes you vomit on occasion. It is a good idea to prepare in advance and stock up on some medicine before you find yourself feeling ill when the doctor isn't available. Some ailments that are contagious can be devastating as simply interacting with the villagers can make others sick and lead to death. There is no way to give your family medicine but at least you are guaranteed that children will survive the encounter. I don't know why you should but gifting something poisonous to someone is an option in the game as well.

Durability: Every game has some sort of lifespan when it comes to their tools. How long you can pour water out of a can is usually the most common. Some games force you to increase the quality of your tool to get better resources. This game sort of has a mash-up of all them. There is an instance in the game where you will need a steel pickaxe to break through. Otherwise, your fishing pole, hoe, and scythe simply increase that potential the better quality you get. You cannot craft your own tools. Instead of paying full price for another one when your current one disintegrates, you can hand over your tool for the rest of the day to the blacksmith for repair and a small fee. Upon midnight, a fully-restored tool will be sent to you in the mail. 

Miscellaneous: There are a lot of little things you must pay attention to as you go about your day. You can save your game anytime and go to sleep whenever you want. The day will transition at midnight, crops will grow, and your character will upgrade if you increased your skill no matter where you are at in the world. You can sell an item for the same price no matter which villager you visit as long as they have enough currency on hand. The purchase value of the item will always be twice as much. You will slouch and slow down when you are sleepy, become irritable when starving, and slow down in darkness without a lantern with oil in it. There are many items that have absolutely no use such as old boots. Doubloons don't have a use other than to sell very well to vendors. A leaf can eventually be used for potions when you unlock the recipe.

Relationships

Value: Each character will have a bar visible on how friendly they are with you in the main menu. You can increase the bar by talking them or gifting them things they like that might fit their profession. The opposite is also true by insulting them or giving them random objects you might find on the ground. Ironically, insulting villagers in favor of those that are ill-tempered can actually increase your friendship with them. While there might be the occasional hint of what someone would approve of during a discussion with other characters, the only real way to know what they might like is through trial-and-error. If they have a distasteful response with a very sour expression on their face after you hand them some dirt, then maybe you shouldn't do that again when you next meet. Increase the amount high enough and they might give you something special through the mail or when you encounter them wandering around.

Quests: There are three ways to obtain a quest: conversing with someone who has a question mark over their head, checking your mail every day, or visiting the task board in town square. Doing a combination of all three can net you dozens in your quest log. There is no penalty for failing to comply. Completing a quest usually involves a number of activities through cooking, crafting, exploring (when it comes to finding things for kids), and fishing. Depending on the difficulty, you might need to accumulate four of a single object or nine when it comes to collecting resources. This is the only use for sticks. Taxes has an extra function where you can click on the envelope at the top right of the menu screen to automatically complete without physically visiting the mayor. Completing quests is the primary way to obtain recipes in the game. Even if you somehow already know a certain recipe, the item can be resold for a good sum of money. Whenever you do have a quest that can be turned in, the villager will be shown on the map but can only be accessible during the appropriate hours posted for the structure they are in.

Events: There are a few events you will want to take notice of in the game. Each season has at least one. Spring has a fishing contest that gets you a super strong fishing pole. The Bake-Off in summer tests your knowledge in cooking recipes. Weddings and funerals are two events where nothing happens mechanically but does offer you a chance to talk to a bunch of people all at the same time. There's very few moments where you are offered a task (with no time limit) that leads to a new part of the world. These include the bridge, the tunnels, and the tower. You find out rather quickly of your main goal to restore a part of the world by turning in objects and completing objectives. This also leads you to learn on how to use potions from gaining mana (only through quest system). While there is a tutorial page with a fair number of pictures explaining how things work, the game quickly throws you in the world to figure things out on your own. 

Summary

Review: The developers certainly put in a lot of systems to keep the game interesting. There aren't very many games that try to incorporate the generic fishing, crafting, cooking, mining, farming, and relationship parts of the cozy genre with management systems such as hunger, tired, durability, sickness, and expiration. There's just a slight issue when it comes to balancing both aspects when one is supposed to make your experience relaxing and the other keeps you on your toes. The mechanics of the game are all there and functional, but there isn't a solid foundation when it comes to advancing any particular skill. Recipes are so random and scattered about that learning how to make something simple like nails from an anvil can take you hours of waddling through the landscape grabbing whatever you can to build the capital necessary. Events and story are limited in substance when they rely on a system of replacing characters when they die from old age or disease. While the game fascinated me, it does not have my recommendation.