Garden
Story

Garden Story (2021) is a role-playing adventure, crafting and farming game similar to Stardew Valley. It also features combat, dungeons and puzzles similar to the Zelda games. You defend your garden home from an invasion of malignant rot monsters and restore peace to the land and its inhabitants, all of which are fruit. It has prevalent themes of environmentalism and care for nature, and its unique pastel pixel art style combined with its relaxing music and whimsical story create an aura of calm and differentiate the game from others.

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You play Concord, the youngest grape in The Grove, who must become the guardian of the land after the previous protector vanishes. As well as nurturing the four seasonal towns (one for each season) in The Grove by helping their residents, you need to fight against the rot invasion with the help of your friends Rana, Elderberry and Fuji.

Although on the surface, the game appears similar to other tend and befriend titles, where you complete side quests and daily missions for the inhabitants, the primary gameplay is actually more complex.

As you defeat rot in each of the four towns, you discover each responds differently to attack. There's a deep combat system, skill tree and potions, each of which offers different advantages to you. At the end of each village's primary quest, there's a dungeon with puzzles and a boss battle. There is also little difficulty increase as you progress, so it is accessible to a wider range of players.

It's a unique blend of Zelda-like exploration, combat and puzzle-solving paired with the simple charm of RPGs and games like Stardew Valley that make it a unique offering in the gaming space and can help to create spaces for conversation about the natural world and our responsibility for it.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Garden Story 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 6 months ago.