After two posts exploring what I like and didn’t like about Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock), I want to finally, finally give my official review of the game. I’m going to break it up to different categories just because I feel like it.
1. Atmosphere and general vibes. This is one of the best things about the game–with a few exceptions. I love the heart that went into this game and the community the devs created within it. I dug the characters (for the most part), and even the ones I didn’t care for had a place in the game.
I really appreciated that they had a very diverse cast. Does it stretch incredulity that there would be that many people of different colors/ethnicities in a small farming town? Yes. Do I care about that? No. Why? Because it’s so fucking nice to have a game that unapologeticallly stans for diversity, no ifs, ands, or buts. Yes, we’re going to put people of color, queer people, and a nonbinary person in the game. What are you going to do about it?
I have a hunch that they don’t care if people (read gamer boys) want to whine about the ‘woke left’ and how they (we) are RUINING GAMEZ!!!!
To which I would say, FUCK YEAH! I love ruining games if it means that there is more diversity in them. I never understand this particular whine. 90% of games (and that’s a low figure) feature a cishet white dude as the protagonist. What more do they want?? There is actually a huge database of games some discontent whiny gamer boys made of games they considered too woke to play. When I scanned the list, I had to laugh to stop myself from crying because they literally put things like a Pride flag in the background as a reason that one of the very popular shooter games was too woke.
I really loved running around this world and seeing peoplle of many different colors. And hearing about their heritages and upbringings. I liked their backgrounds and what brought them to Fairhaven (if they weren’t born there). This is one of the strongest aspects of the game, and one of the reasons I continued to play the game.
2. Daily activities. This is one of the most divisive aspects of the game for me. Of course, it’s a cozy life sim, which means that there are going to be several daily chores. This is just an accepted core aspect of the genre, but I think the balance is off. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this game had mining, cooking, farming (tending crops and later, taking care of animals–including breeding them), sewing, hairstyling, and repairing buildings/building new things. That’s just on the normal side–and that’s not even the whole list.
On the magical side, there is a ton more to do, including brewing potions, wrriting incantations, gathering materials needed for the aforementioned potions and incantations, and more farming. I have to say that the farming aspect of the magic side is lacking. I don’t want to get into details, but I think they were aiming for something that they didn’t quite reach.
Side note: I much prefer devs who give it their all and don’t quite meet the mark rather than the ones who play it safe. Trying and failing is better than just being safe.
3. Graphics and music. Neither of these were my thing, honestly. The music was fine, but I kept it on low as I like to watch videos as I play games. It didn’t jump out to me either positively or negatively, so I will say it’s pleasant.
The art style is not my jam at all. It’s too cute and almost childish, but I got used to it by the end. I never warmed up to it, but I accepted it at some point. It fit what the game was trying to do, but I’m glad that the art style for their new game (which is going to be a prequel) is a bit upgraded from this one.
4. The big mystery. This is another aspect of the game that was not that great. I understand what they were trying to do, but it was fairly run-of-the-mill. And it was very overt–the message I mean. I agreed with the overall theme and even empathized with why the baddie did what she did. But it was so heavy-handed, I had a hard time not wincing as I advanced the story. I wished they had done it in a more nuanced way, but I don’t know what that would have looked like. They wanted to hone in on the feelings of being an outsider, which definitely came acrcoss.
5. Romance, dating, marriage, and divorce. From what I understand, when the game first came out, you could not divorce once you married someone. I think the devs should have stuck to that because making it possible to date all the dateables in one playthrough really cheapened the experience. Also, I would have appreciated it if they let me date more than one person at the same time. And if it didn’t go from one date to a second date to getting engaged to getting married. I mean, I understand why it’s so truncated, but it felt way too rushed and the fact that it was the exact same for each dateable person really took the shine off it as well.
In addition, no one really comments on who you’re dating/married to–including who you’re married to at some times. It’s really strange, and I think they could have made the dating deeper rather than so broad. I would have been fine with half the number of dateables if it offered a more varied and richer take on dating. I will say that for me, I found it to be frustrating that I wanted to get to know the characters I liked the best, but it only went so far. Which was not far at all.
The final verdict is that I liked this game more than I thought I would. Despite my wildly fluctuating feelings about the game, I played it obsessively for nearly a month. Every time I thought I was out, I got drawn back in. It’s going to make my list of my favorite games of the year, and I would say I enjoyed it more than a certain wildly popular indie game that everyone wants to win the GOTY this year. Which, yes, I have played, but I really wish I had stopped much earlier than I did.
This game was comfort gaming at its finest, and there isn’t a damn thing wrong with that.