Berry Bury Berry

[h1]Summary[/h1] [h2]TLDR[/h2] A fun, quick, lovingly-crafted and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ *addictive* incremental game with a *great* story that explores themes of passion, money, greed, ego, art and value. [h2]You'll love it if...[/h2] [list] [*] ... you are interested in interactive narratives. [*] ... you enjoy incremental games. [*] ... you like the space between story and gameplay and how those two interact with each other. [/list] [hr][/hr] [h1]The Gameplay[/h1] [h2]Genre[/h2] Berry Bury Berry says it's a "juicy incremental game" and - while true - I think that's a reductive description... Don't get me wrong because it *is* a *REALLY GREAT* incremental game: it's a gente I typically dislike, and yet I loved this one (and could have continued playing it forever purely for that aspect). You could completely ignore the narrative, the mysteries, the puzzles and still have a great time. But that last sentence is precisely why I find it a simplistic label for this game. You would have to *ignore* some great writing, decent puzzle design (that are thematically coherent), really good voice acting and some meta narrative to get to a simple "incremental game". And if for some stupid reason you did that, I think you'd be doing poor Trevor Vaughn (and their tiredness) a grave disservice. [h2]Mechanics[/h2] Most run of the mill gameplay loop you can ever find (not criticizing it, because it's still distilled to perfection): 1. Grow berries. 2. Throw berries in whole. 3. ??? 4. Profit. That's pretty much it. You'll be doing things in between levels, there's a lot more to explore in each "level" and there's the expected "progression tree" for these types of games (however, I will say that here every single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ upgrade is distinct, worth it and interesting). To be clear, I'm not knocking it; it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ works. I honestly think this project could have survived solely on its gameplay alone - but I'm *so happy* the dev took it a step further and got to this beautifully polished gem. I also have to talk about how expertly they integrated the narrative into this project. The gameplay is front and center. Every single aspect of the story, lore and script is fully optional: you could play for hours and never touch a single piece of story unless you go "looking" for it. I think thats incredibly brave and a great testament to the dev's trust on their players. [hr][/hr] [h1]The Story[/h1] [h2]Script[/h2] Not much writing across the entire game, but every single line and word has been chosen with great care. There's not many throwaway lines here and I think more devs should take a page from Berry Bury Berry: 1000 beautifully crafted words *are always infinitely superior* to 999999999999 mediocre filler ones. [h2]Narrative[/h2] I LOVE the narrative in this game. I love how the gameplay feeds into it. I love how the narrative reinforces the gameplay loop. I love how it is entirely driven by exploration and curiosity. I love how it doesn't spell things out or hold your hand (yet it doesn't leave any open questions by the end). I love the characters, the fact that no one is purely good or purely evil, the idea that there's no "bad guy" here (or, if you prefer, the "bad guy" is open to interpretation). I just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love this game. I'm not going to discuss any narrative aspects at all. Just go play the damn thing. I wish there was this much nuance in all games out there. It feels like a maturely written story sandwiched between two kids-book covers. [h2]Themes[/h2] Passion, art, money, capitalism, greed, value, progress, teaching, ego, authors intent, property. [hr][/hr] [h1]Experience & Conclusion[/h1] I think it's obvious: a great experience with great gameplay and a great narrative. Stop reading this review, buy this game at whatever price point it is right now and play it. Trevor Vaughn is tired guys... They deserve your money.

genuinely an amazing game. despite its cute look, it has a gruesome ending.

I love this game! The gameplay loop (FEED THE HOLE) is fun, the berries make cute noises, and the picking-up coin sounds are addictive. Plus, there are extra puzzles in the world to solve. I have played through three times but have yet to fully unlock the remaining elements. I'm not sure there's really that much psychological horror as the tag claims, but I got a hint of it in one of the endings. Maybe I've yet to encounter it :)

Highly recommend

сначало она мне нравилась потм стало скучной и решил продать

fairly short and extremely addictive incremental game. spent the whole 5 hours hooked on the game loop, optimizing my movements and trying to throw as many fruits into the hole as possible. achievements aren't that difficult albeit a little grindy. you can't really go idle in this game if you want to progress, so it's very fun if you like managing your time effectively.