Mutazione

I rolled credits on this game with immense disappointment. The story starts out fine, an interesting setting and a good hook; and it builds decently well for a while. The problem is that the story ultimately goes nowhere meaningful. It is just generic character drama, generic revelations about the plot, and a generic climax so devoid of meaningful weight or emotion that I was actually annoyed enough to type out this whole review. There are a couple other flaws unrelated to the story, such as player dialogue choices sometimes feeling very illusion-of-choice (for example the ability to "say something" or "remain silent"), dialogue choices that omit reasonable reactions to a situation in order facilitate rising tension, or the many times where I left a character interaction completely unsure whether I had said something that ended the conversation prematurely by picking an incorrect response. I don't know if the goal was to accurately emulate the vagueness of IRL interpersonal conversations, but it makes for a very poor player experience. To top my post-credits annoyance off, there exists an "epilogue" of sorts wherein you read and "write" letters sent between characters after t…

This game is a peaceful and pleasant little game. It was enjoyable to follow the storyline and discover all the plants and play with the garden themes!

This game does not have combat. It does not have a fail state. It has, instead, gossip, gardening, community drama, and roughly four hundred deeply specific personal problems belonging to an island full of gorgeously designed mutant townsfolk who all deserve therapy and none of whom are getting it, so I guess that's my job now, apparently, as the seventeen year old who just got here. The gardening mechanic where you plant magical seeds that grow into musical instruments the town then plays together as an actual song is possibly one of the most quietly beautiful things I've experienced in a video game, and I say that as someone who did not expect a farming minigame to make me emotional, and yet, several evenings running, there I was, emotional, over some glowing space flowers. Every single character on this island has an entire arc, a whole life, complicated relationships, and secrets they will only tell you if you show up, sit down, and actually listen, which is a wildly refreshing thing for a video game to ask of you instead of just handing you a quest marker. Also there's a talking dog. I would die for the talking dog. Nothing about this game is fast. Nothing about it is flashy.…

This game is fairly straight forward, I had a good time exploring and learning the story!

doesn't end up feeling like a game a whimsical creation with very grounded realities

incredibly beautiful, from the visuals to the sound design to the story