garden story

[Ellyzien]

i recently grinded out a game called garden story.

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if you dont care about a detailed background of the story or game, just skip to the end :-)
(aka the green)

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The game begins. you play as a silly little grape named Concord, who is rather young, and assumes the role as a gardener. they tend to the groves vines everyday with dew. the vines produce more offspring, but the vines have not produced offspring since Concord was born. they are the last born offspring of the groves vine. Guardian Plum, a character that looks out for the grove, has to leave and gives Concord the responsibility of acting as a guardian of Spring Hamlet (where Concord lives) while they are away helping other towns. eventually, guardian Plum becomes quite busy and announces Concord as an official guardian of the grove as their successor and friend.
hence, the start of the main game.

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while guardian Plum is away helping with the big picture stuff with the rot that affects the livelihood of the grove, you travel the grove that you live on which is separated into towns by what seems to be seasons. starting in spring aka Spring Hamlet, then summer aka Summer Bar, then autumn aka Autumn Town, and lastly winter aka Winter Glade.

you go around the grove fulfilling towns people's requests, killing off the rot and fighting bosses; which are slowly killing the grove.

you also collect resources by farming/planting seeds, fishing, and breaking things like rocks, tree trunks, sandstone, fat wood, and even gravestones.

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you can complete these requests for each town to level up your conflict, maintenance, and forage town levels.

levels don't transfer between towns, as you have to level up these request types town specific. the reason for this is that in each town, you get new tools that will help you in the game, or in their specific part of the grove.

for example: Summer Bar. Summer Bar gives you a parasol and fishing rod. the parasol is a great tool for breaking resources and combat. the fishing rod, however, is used for obviously fishing, but also deshelling shelled rot, it can be used on other enemies from far away, but specifically Summer Bar when you are stuck there to help out the town.

• If you try to use the parasol on the shelled rot before it is deshelled, it will not work, so you HAVE to use the fishing rod on it first.

the same goes for the sickle from Autumn Town but on hayrot.

these levels can allow you to get a higher tier in your specific tools.
you can use the resources you have collected from the town you are in, or other towns to help get the upgrades.

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to heal in the game, you drink dew from jars.

resources and levels can be helpful to get new jars or upgrade them to hold more dew.

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the in-game currency are leaflets, there's not much more to say on that, but usually all purchases require a combination of a certain amount of leaflets and resources.

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in the end, collecting tons of these resources and fulfilling tons of these requests for tools and jars can be proven extremely helpful in defeating the final boss; The Groves Clutch.

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there are also orbs around the map that can be broken by specific tools or levels on tools to level up your stats like stamina, max hp, mind... etc...

you can also collect memories by living your daily life in general as a grape and guardian of the grove.

these memories can also be selected and used to level up your stats OR help as buffs, or debuffs with good affects (like +3 luck but -2 stamina).

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collecting resources is also used to provide for each town's libraries. it may seem unnecessary, but its actually pretty cool! in doing so, you can learn about the grove's history and culture of the past and uncover what happened to the grove. also what resources or tools can be used for what and how.

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not to mention, the cherry on top, accessories! you can wear cute little hats and backpacks. you can collect and buy these accessories throughout the game. filling up the libraries also gives you accessories!

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the overall goal of the game in the end, is to nurse the grove back to health and be able to produce offspring again as well as to figure out and discover the history of the grove!

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if you skipped, scroll here!

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in the end, this game is so cute, and really fun. in all honesty, it kind of reminds me of undertale, but maybe not as dark, and also fruits and vegetables.
i dont think its a gender thing to be honest, i really think anyone can enjoy this game, ESPECIALLY as a stress reliever.

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which leads me to this point, i don't know if anyone on here has played it, and part of the reason i wrote all this is because i feel like more people should play it or at least know about it.

also, because im trying to get out of writing an essay in class right now, but make myself look busy lol.

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if you were planning on playing this game, but weren't quite sure before, i hope this helped you decide, and if you haven't played it before or heard of it, i hope this maybe interested you a little!

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but anyways, if you HAVE played it, please let me know!! i feel like no one knows about it or doesn't like it, but i want to find more people who do :((

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okay class is over now and its like 5 minutes into my next period, so imma end it there.

that's all!

thanks for reading, if you did :]