It’s been a lovely year for indie top-down Zelda-likes, with recent games like Chicory and Death’s Door offering dramatic yet artistic tonal shifts to a genre that still feels fresh after decades. Just when I thought I might need a break from this particular style of game, my eye was captured by the whimsical GameBoy-esque pixel art, adorable fruit characters, and cheerful demeanor of Garden Story from developer Picogram. To my delight, Garden Story does something of an about-face from other games like it, shifting a typical “save the world from evil” plot inward to a more poignant focus on what it actually looks like to be a hero to others in a world that’s actively falling apart.
Garden Story is a top-down adventure game with a bit of a retro Zelda look and bent. You play as sentient grape Concord, the fledgling “Guardian” of The Grove — a community that’s been suffering for years under an encroaching “Rot” that’s actively destroying infrastructure and making everyday activities dangerous for its inhabitants. With most of their fellow Guardians MIA, Concord emerges from their isolated home armed at first with only a little pickaxe and the encouragement of their friends as weapons against the Rot, undertaking a journey to protect their community against continued decay.
What sets Picogram’s little adventure apart from its genre compatriots is that Garden Story is less about obliterating some ancient evil, and more about one small person doing their small part to help the larger whole. Concord’s journey is not one of conquest or heroism, but one of responsibility. They’re invited early on to live closer to their community both because the community needs their support, but because they recognize that Concord needs the help of others as well.
While directly fighting the Rot is a component of their job — and includes the occasional dungeon crawl and boss fight, too! — so is cleaning up litter, fixing fences, donating materials to the community storage, and building infrastructure. But you’ll also see your fellow citizens doing their parts. For instance, I was able to help out a neighbor named Maraschino early on, and my aid freed them up to help me patrol and keep Rot out of a certain section of the neighborhood each night, improving community safety.
Pico, the game’s developer, tells me they started working on Garden Story when they had a full-time job working the graveyard shift at care homes, meaning they didn’t have much of a social life. Garden Story is their first major game, and though they do consider themselves a solo developer, they add that they had a “huge amount of support” from members of their community over the three-and-a-half years it took to make the game.
Their experiences working in care homes and being supported by those around them as they made games inspired a lot of Garden Story’s themes. Pico says that instead of making a bunch of separate video game towns that all bled together, they wanted to create a community full of diverse perspectives and links between characters. Their goal was “just making people feel connected and wanting one another,” a thought that was also sparked by their Filipino background and their years growing up in Hawaii and surrounded by Hawaiian culture.
“The idea of doing labor for people you care about was something I really wanted to bring into games, making a connection between being the hero and also supporting your community,” they tell me. “I think that the idea of a hero going out to a world unknown maybe isn’t as representative of the kind of heroism I want to see in games. I want people to elevate those in their community and make role models out of people who just want to contribute to those around them.”
Pico hopes that players will walk away from Garden Story feeling empowered and encouraged to become leaders in their own communities. They describe Concord as a “little squirt” who doesn’t know anything when they start out, but nonetheless becomes a hero to their neighbors and friends.
The framing of Garden Story as a story of building and participating in a community rather than some sort of solo, heroic effort offers a new and delightful perspective on the kind of top-down adventure it’s inspired by. With little consequences, few meaningful time limits, a colorful aesthetic, pleasant music, and charming nature-inspired character, Garden Story nestles perfectly into the growing roster of “cozy” games that have been gaining ever increasing popularity on the heels of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. I’m looking forward to spending more time with Concord and their friends in The Grove, and seeing how their community blossoms when we all work together to make it better.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
