April Grove

Wow, this game has a lot of charm, but that’s about all it has. It’s a monotonous, chore filled slog wrapped in the Color Grave aesthetic and its wonderfully odd charm. It feels like spending five hours grinding a gathering profession in an MMO, repeating the same tasks over and over with very little variety. This game is incredibly niche. I’d only recommend it if you’re a huge Color Grave fan, and even then, I have my reservations. I loved the world and the characters, but they weren’t enough to carry the gameplay. At around $3, though, it feels appropriately priced for the experience. Edit: I didn't directly address it, but this is a game you are obviously meant to play while in the middle of another task. It's probably best played while binging a show, or watching a movie. This is not a stand alone experience that takes your full attention and focus. This is for when you are distracted and killing time. I still can't say you need a bare bones game for that task, but you do you.

I went into this wanting desperately to like it. A GBA style cozy exploration and forester game is 100% the kinda thing I love finding. But it's just so DULL! The graphics and sounds are nice, and the spritework is cute. I especially love the forest god lady with flowing water for hair. But that is entirely where the positives end for me. Every time you chop a tree, it is a full unskippable cutscene until such point as you finish all the logs. With no indication how many you'll get (normally 4, despite the inventory space not being divisible by 4), or how long it'll take. No tree health bars, or progress meters or anything, and because you can't cancel it once it's done, you end up waiting and wondering what on earth you're doing. The shop and the badger prices increasing with every purchase is just [i] aggravating [/i] beyond my ability to put into words. Every increase you are just mentally calculating how much time of your life it's going to take to get the next thing, and eventually that math just doesn't side with the game. And if it was five levels between new trees, I could [i] almost [/i] not care. 5 levels is pretty long, it'll take you a good half hour of chopping to…

An unfortunate case where I am unable to recommend a game with all due honesty. While the visuals are quite cute, the sound is adequate, and the mechanics of moving around the forest are all alright... That's about it. The gameplay loop is nothing much, but requires constant input. The idea of gradually unlocking new areas to explore and new story beats is the key to a idle game, which make it fun, however... This isn't an idle game. It is a "grind fest" if we stretch those meanings a little bit, as the grind isn't exactly horrifyingly long. It is however, unfortunately dull. The unlocks are few and far between and really do not change the gameplay or mood basically at all. I wish I could give a more middling review, but I can't recommend the game for just cute visuals and an alright soundtrack

Chop wood. Get money. Buy tools and buffs. Chop more wood.

Short but interesting. Its a really good base for future updates with plenty of avenues for expansion.

The art for this game is beautiful, but that's the only thing it has going for it. You have an inventory with 15 slots (even though each tree drops 16 logs), a very slow walking speed, and 90% of your axe swings do nothing. So you swing at a tree 20-30 times to get four logs, collect 15, and then slowly walk several screens away to get to the store. The beginner logs give one gold each, and the first upgrade costs 350 gold. If you fill up your inventory each time, that's 24 trips back and forth, plus going back to your house to sleep when it gets dark. Then the shopkeeper increases prices so the next purchase costs 700 (or 1000 for the more expensive ones). When you reach level ten (which will be after or around the same time you get the first upgrade), you can start cutting oak trees, which take 2-3 times as long to cut down and drop logs that give your 3 gold each.