Now that I’m done with Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock) and have had time to reflect, I want to give my actual official review of the game. I have had such highs and lows with it, and I don’t know quite what I think of it in the end. I mean, I think it’s a good game. I’m glad I played it, though I’m not pleased with myself for doing the grind to get that last achievement. That’s on me, though, not the game. It’s up to me to pace myself, but I am really bad at it.
I went into the game expecting it to be a couple dozen hours of cozy life/witchy life sim goodness. I would do a little farming; do a little witchy stuff; do a little dating, and then I would call it a day. I did not expect it to be so meaty, nor did I expect to be obsessed with it for almost exactly a month. Nor did I expect the depths it had–and I don’t just mean in the mines.
I want to make it very clear that I think this is a good game with such heart. I really appreciate the thought and effort the devs put into the game, and the fact that they took on the feedback of their community while tweaking the game. They added update after update, and with the last one putting a metaphorical coda at the end of their story. I read a bit in the forums afterwards, and there were people wanting more. Of course there were because there always are. But many people said it was an apt ending, and it was something they mentioned in the very beginning of the game.
I am amazed at how much they did with the game; I truly am. I have to say that I hesitated to pay thirty bucks for it because that’s more than I normally pay for an indie game, but it was worth every penty. I would have paid fifty for it after it was all said and done.
When I wrote several posts griping about the game, it was coming from a place of love. I just wanted them to do better–for them. Well, for me, but also for them.
I cannot fault the general vibes of the game. The devs were shooting for a certain aesthehics/atmosphere, and they nailed it. The visual art style is not my jam, but it works with this game. The music was pleasant enough, though none of it really caught my ear. Then again, I kept it on low because I like to watch something on my other monitor while gaming.
I really appreciate the diversity in the game. Gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, age, and religion. All of these had solid representation. Size was not as varied, sadly, but you can’t have everything. I ilked that there were people of all different races/ethnicities because that reflects the real world.
I have never lived in a small rural town, but I imagine it has a fish bowl feel to it. This game captures that feeling perfectly. Everything Tara (the main character, my character) does is under scrutiny, and she’s the topic of all discussion when she first moves to Fairhaven to live with her grandmother, Hazel. The latter’s health is failing, and she needs help with her farm. Tara was laid off from her job and broke up with her fiance(e), so she was looking to lick her wounds along with helping out her grandmother.
The first time through the game is a grind. I’m just putting it out there. At least until I discovered the fish finger trick (buying tuna and flour, cooking up fish fingers, then selling them to make 65 gold per (after spending 35 and selling each fish finger for 100 gold) and qucikly jacked my savings up to millions.
I felt not a whit of guilt doing that because the grind is so tedious. You can embargo the trick yourself if you want to make yourself earn money the old-fashioned way, but I have to say, I did the trick early in the game on my second playthrough, and what a difference it made. Not having to worry about money was so nice. Of course, I had to worry about resources until I build up enough a cushion not to care (for the things I could not buy), but that was a lot less miserable when I didn’t have to worry about money.
The story is serviceable. The witchy stuff touched on being an outsider and the fear that can inspire. I liked it, but it wasn’t anything exceptional. It did not stick out in my mind in any way except one–and that one thing was really cool. It has to do with how another character is added to the town, and I approve.
The rest of the story, well, let’s just say I figured out who the big baddie was well before the denouement. That’s not a huge pat on my back as there were only a limited number of suspects–very limited.
I did appreciate that there was more story after the main story ended, even if it was only flavor text, so to speak. One of my favorite characters did not even show up until well after th end of the main story, and I loved every minute I spent with that character.
I do appreciate that there was a plethora of activities that I could do even though I had a routine I stuck to most days. And I played on relaxed mode because I didn’t have enough time to get everything done. If I wasn’t in bed by midnight, I passed out. If that happened more than once, something with the doctor would have happened. I don’t remember what because it only happened to me once.
I felt quite harried as I had to talk to everyone once a day, tend my farm plots (and then later, my animals, too), mine for minerals and gems, romance the romanceables, search for resources around town, and that was just the day stuff.
With the witchy stuff, I had to tend to my plants in the Gloaming every day as well as fish for the fish you could only find there and gather some magical herbs, attend the circle at 7 p.m., and do whatever quests the other witches have for me. Plus, solving the mystery that really isn’t that hard to figure out, but it took me longer than it should have.
I found a comfort in my daily routine, but it did become boring at times. Usually, there was something to perk it up, but when there were several days of just doing the routine, that was tedious.
I will say that the robots one of the fae invented to do the mundane chores really helped. Oh, and they were called whirligigs. There were five of them, and they did the following: feed my animals; fish; water the garden beds; mine; and log (chopping wood). I had to energize gems to power up the whirligigs, but that was no problem because I could just buy the gems and grind up what I needed for the energizing part. I got those in my second playthrough, which means that it’s only the first season-and-a-half or so that I have to do everything by hand.
Once I get the whirligigs, life is so much easier. It doesn’t eliminate all the chores for a variety of reasons, but it does make them much easier.
I have more to say, but I’m done for the night.