Paleo Pines

Game Title: Paleo Pines
Released: September 26, 2023
Game Length: 35 Hours
Grade: B+

Setting

Expectations: Paleo Pines isn't a game that would typically attract new players. The concept of being able to ride around on cute dinosaurs and grow a farm sounds kind of simple and childish. One review stated that the people look like cabbage patch kids and the mechanics are hard to figure out. While the game doesn't quite replicate the same experience of some modern cozy games, their systems are much more in-depth than what can be seen on the surface. The tutorial straddles the line between guiding you through each system and letting you figure it out on your own. The explanations in the help sub-menu are short enough to get straight to the point but still leaves out things you might discover later on.  

Controls: There is no problem when it comes to using a gamepad controller for this game. You'll probably want your keyboard handy whenever you want to jot some things down into your journal. The concern comes with how odd the game handles your interface. One button cycles exclusively between your journal or flute. Another button cycles through your entire inventory. While both are helpful, neither quite encourages a quick way to get out your shovel to clean up some pens. This is where a tool wheel would normally be beneficial. Tools need to be physically located in your inventory for you to use them. This too becomes a problem when your inventory is tight to begin with. You deposit and withdraw the entire stack by default, withdraw half, or increase them one at a time at a very quick pace. There is no prompt to input a set amount or pull a single stack of 99.

 Farm

Crops: For most games, the idea of digging a hole and planting something is rather simple. This game builds on the concept so much that the process will actually feel satisfying to figure out. Trees take an enormous amount of time to grow - a total of 42 days. They do not need water and will produce fruit like any standard tree in the world during the appropriate season. Bushes will only grow and produce during their season for a total of 9 days but make sure you throw a little fertilizer on them to start the process. Water isn't consumed from your watering can if it does not benefit what is on the ground in front of you in some way. Crops have a series of checks to increase their quality: (1) they must be harvested in the right season, (2) have the right type of soil, and (3) be fertilized. Crop Rotation needs to be considered too as each crop that is pulled will leave behind a different type of soil. However, the soil can be changed depending on what kind of fertilizer you use - soft, sticky, or firm. When you harvest something in the right season and soil, there is a chance of them producing as bumper crops with more than the usual amount or other bonuses. Crops that aren't watered will slow down the growth process to the point where they could ultimately fail.

Dinosaur Care: Dinosaurs on the farm has a long range of requirements that need to be watched. Tipping the scale between happy and unhappy depends largely on what their concerns might be. Your pets will remain unhappy if a pen is dirty (there is poop) or there is not enough food to satisfy their needs. Things that might make them generally concerned is whether the pen is too small, you do not consider their relationship status (loner, pack, herd), or not in the right biome (valley, forest, desert). You can increase their happiness by petting them, playing their friendly song, taking them out to roam around with you, riding them, or feeding them the right type of food (more so if it is their favorite snack). At a certain point, they will turn from friend to helper and be able to assist you. Larger animals will need to be equipped with a saddle to ride and initiate skills. 

Resources: There are three main types of resources that can be found in the game: stone, wood, and fiber. They can be found randomly on the ground or harvested from nodes with the help of your dinosaurs. Stone and wood are generally used for ordering in decorations while fiber is used for new clothes. Resources will also block pathways and shortcuts to other areas such as the stones into the forest or the bushes for the desert. Forest wood can only be found in the deeper areas of the forest off logs or scattered on the ground. As you break down the barriers blocking portions of your farm, you'll find three separate boxes that will help convert the weeds you pull off your crops into the three types of fertilizers. Other miscellaneous decorations like lanterns and chairs might also be found.

Townsfolk

Tasks: There are two bulletin boards that generate a total of 6 random quests each. One of them becomes available once you unlock the desert region. A new quest will repopulate the board the moment you complete one. You cannot refuse a quest once you accept one. Be careful as some will require things you might find in your current season or unlocked yet. You'll also need to watch when and where characters are available. Avery will not be accessible for long periods of time. These quests help build a relationship with the people. There are a number of different types: (1) study a dinosaur by clicking on them when you soothe them to sleep, (2) find a random item by clicking on the prompt when it appears near the area, (3) provide some goods, and (4) pick up and deliver a random item from someone. Finding items in locations can be confusing at first since you'll only receive a circle prompt on the screen instead of seeing a physical item.

Villagers: Unlike the convenience from other cozy games where you dump everything you want sold into a bin, things will need to be bought and sold from various merchants. Most of these will be in Pebble Plaza across the stone bridge from your farm but a few can be found elsewhere. The list can become quite extensive:

• Corlan will be available all day except for when there is a festival. He will buy and sell food, saddles, processed flour, rice, sugar, and a few random crops and decorations that change daily. There is no relationship status for this person.
• Marlo buys and sells the fencing for pens and troughs for food. Bigger troughs are made available when you build his relationship. You can order a number of decorations by supplying the proper resources and a fee. They can be found in your mail normally around the following morning. 
• Poppin buys and sells poppins that are used to befriend, increase happiness, or refill the stamina bar of your dinosaurs (depending on their current status). Building a relationship will normally provide you free samples and an opportunity for her to try new recipes with any type of plant you might have. She is closed on Mondays.
  
• Agami buys and sells seeds. What kinds are dependent on the season and your relationship status. Basic seeds such as spring onions and carrots will be available from the start. Seeds for bushes become available after you increase your relationship. A single tree seed, such as for mangos and apples, can be obtained from her freely after building up your relationship.
• Orani buys and sells fiber. Like Marlo, she will process fiber into various clothes for a small fee and deliver them to your mailbox. She appears a little later in the timeline and can be elusive in figuring out when she is available. Your inventory will be upgraded once after you order a handful of items.
• Mari is an explorer that wanders around the map. You have an opportunity to release your dinosaur into the wild and retrieve them at a later date through her.
• Owynn is all about keeping up with his research and doesn't provide any sort of function other than the opportunity to stay over at his place after building up his relationship.
• Avery appears in town to explain the Shenanigans event during the second season. He unlocks the seed and produce hubs for your dinosaurs that use the tender skill.
• Freya becomes available after you unlock the desert area by gathering the appropriate goods to clear the road. Similar to Marlo, she takes orders for advanced decorations that may require things like dye to craft.
  
• Zara is your historian that wants any information you might have collected in your journal. She will then write in additional details once you accumulate every item in a particular category.
  

Dinosaurs

Builds: If you check the statistics page on your journal, you'll notice a lot of data from your favorite dinosaur to the number of times you pet them. It will also keep track of how many of the 39 different species of dinosaur you've recorded and how many of the 504 rare colors you've might have seen. The dinosaurs can be identified as common, uncommon, rare, and ultra rare. The harder to find colors are usually albino, gold, very bright, or very unusual. They will be distinguished by not only their color in the journal but also in different body patterns. One type of dinosaur might have stripes while another have dots on their face. Each dinosaur also comes with two different perks, one for farming and one for the wilds:

• Little dinosaurs generally are able to tend to your crops. You must learn how to create baskets from Avery in the desert. Only one type of seed can be placed in them at a time. They also have the ability to discover hidden items. This isn't exactly useful as they do take awhile to identify if there is something nearby and squawk in place until you get close to the item.
• Average sized dinosaurs usually have at least one useful ability such as sprinting through the landscape. Your initial pet is very good at it and can clear items directly from the ground without dismounting. Some items such as truffles can't be gathered by hand. Some with hard heads can till the ground and smash rocks. Others can spray water out of their mouth.
• Larger sized dinosaurs are more versatile when it comes to harvesting crops. They have a distinct ability to stomp down logs or slash bushes.

Journal

Dinosaur Type: Not all the dinosaurs fit into a specific category and their needs can be very different from each other. The amount of food and size of pen will be determined by their size. Herbivores will want plant food, carnivores meat, and omnivores don't mind as long as you put something in their trough. Their favorite type of treat that makes them trust you takes a bit of trial-and-error and will be recorded once you succeed once. Try feeding your trained dinosaur different kinds of food until you discover which is their favorite to better increase their happiness. Stamina, experience (up to level 20), care info, and even a little bit of space to type in some personal notes make each dinosaur in your possession feel unique. You can modify their name, the name of their pen, see who isn't happy, and check on their species directly from the journal.

Community: Within the pages of your journal, you can double check your friends, where they are usually located at that time of day (once you discover it), your relationship status, and when their "Budding Day" is. You can check the time of day, season, what sort of weather you are experiencing, and whether there are any events on the calendar. No matter where you are in the world, your day will end at a quarter after midnight and send you back home. There are three seasons that will determine which seeds you can buy, what crops will grow, and what you will find in the wilds. A list of quests from the task board and from your friends will be shown. 

Collection: All the types of crops and dinosaurs will be recorded. All artifacts you find with your journal will be recorded as well. Any sort of statistics from the hours you played to the number of times you played the flute is recorded. There is an entire todo list that shows you how many dinosaurs are unhappy, if there are crops that need to be watered, the number of weeds that need to be pulled, and the number of total helpers you have available on your farm. Interesting, there is also a cooking category where you can see various recipes provided you from your friends (or the ones they hinted at). Make sure to tug that corner to check each page when you look at each category in your journal!

Miscellaneous

Problems: Since the game isn't designed like other games, there can still be a lot of robust systems that can take some time to learn. Some of these are listed above. Perhaps the biggest problem is how interacting with something in the world depends highly on finding a little dot that appears on the screen - a lost hat that can be found in a bush, trying to find a lost item in Archeo Pelago, following tracks on the ground, finding a chisel that assumes you have figured out the secret behind the story, conversing with the mystery person behind the pillars that only comes up if you get off your dinosaur, where Marlo goes at night, or never finding that lost notebook. You can only expand your inventory once. Learning the intricacies of the Triassea Picnic can be difficult without the guide. Maps do not show resources but do show any villagers that are in the same area as you.

More Systems: You might be thrown back when the stamina bars don't automatically replenish but you can eat food or feed dinosaurs. Food also has a number of boosts such as making it easier to attract dinosaurs, increase the number of crops you harvest, or increase the quality of crop. There is a festival for each season that provides you exclusive rewards. After a year, you will receive gifts from your friends and a tool that converts all items in a small area into a pickable crate. Crops age after a season ends and lowers their star quality by one. There is one windmill in each region that will convert wheat into flour, turn apple into sugar, and make different kinds of dye. You command dinosaurs by the rhythm you play on your flute.

Summary

Review: Paleo Pines initially appeared as one of those simple games that a small kid would enjoy. You clear out your farm, bring cute dinosaurs home, and buy products from the locals. What I didn't know is how thorough the game would be by using a journal filled with nearly every statistic imaginable, exploring three separate biomes, and interacting with a large number of dinosaurs. The details of each dinosaur and how you can personalize them through writing information in your journal makes them feel special. They can be tasked to assist you in a number of ways as you grow various types of crops on your farm and explore the wild. Unfortunately, the quest system can be quite frustrating as it was built late into development and the map doesn't update with anything more than the villagers located nearby. Despite the complications, you can spend hours distracted with caring for your dinosaurs as you advance the main questline. I do recommend this game if you find taking care of dinosaurs cute and attractive.