Garden Tale

I had high hopes for this game as a fan of turn-based strategy, but those hopes were quickly dashed. The only thing Garden Tale has going for it is the artwork, though some suspect character designs (Meryl) manage to tarnish even that. Garden Tale prides itself on a trap system revolving around Bonions, exploding vegetables that can harm both enemies and allies. The videos and images show large-scale chain reactions that seem exciting and fun, similar to games like Disgaea or La Pucelle. The videos, however, lie about these possibilities in a shameful way, including fabricating combos for show on maps that, in practice, aren't possible to pull off. Indeed, one segment of the advert video shows a combo on one of the first few maps you play on, with a starting point that would require a long-ranged attack. The problem? There aren't any long-ranged attacks, particularly not at that point in the very beginning of the game. And there lies the biggest issue with the trap system; there is no safe way to work within it. Bonions require an attack to detonate them and they explode over a large area, and several hours into the game and 5 characters acquired, I still only have melee attacks. Essentially, bulding a series of explosions thus means sacrificing a character to the fallout afterwards. Except, that assumes the traps are worth building in the first place! Enemies are many per map, and they hit very hard, an issue exacerbated by the forced progression from map-to-map without opportunity to grind and level one's characters up. Bonions, further, cannot be pushed, pulled or thrown, they can only be moved with certain attacks done by certain weapons wielded by certain characters. This means, in order to set up traps, you have to spread out your characters, take several turns moving Bonions into range of each other, and then sacrifice a character to detonate them. In practice, this will get you killed long before them just from enemy attacks, enemies which have your characters beat both in movement and attack range. The solution? Ignore the Bonions, and just attack the enemies. Not only is this easier, it's the only real effective strategy. Unfortunately, it's also the most boring one. In the most aggregious lack of enemy diversity I've seen in any game in a long time, there are only two types of enemies, and fittingly two types of enemy sprites; a melee wolffoxthing, and a ranged wolffoxthing. Further, while there are a variety of skills, they mostly function on the Bonions which have since been established as effectively the most falsely advertised form of a gimmick a game developer can get. So, enemies are uninteresting, and skills - given that they function on a nonfuctioning system - end up uninteresting as well. In the end, the game comes down to hacking and slashing enemies in a very uninteresting, monotonous way alongside some of the worst, uneditable control and camera systems in modern gaming. There is little else to save the game from it's badly thought-out battle system. Animations have no flair, music is forgettable, and the storyline and character development are on par with Creative Writing 101 alums at best. There's no way to grind, defeating the fun for people that enjoy that, no real way to strategize, defeating the excitement of one coming from better-made TRPGS, no multiple paths, no exploration, no choice, no point. Even at under $10, I wish I could get my money back. There are far better experiences even in this price range for RPG fans. Skip this one until it's in the dollar bin where it belongs.

tl;dr version- Charged too much for a poorly balanced phone port. Full Version- I haven't had a good SRPG fix in a while and I was, to say the least, disappointed by what I was presented with. It looked cute. Animation looked a bit stilted, but overall not too bad. The music is inoffensive, at least. Then I started playing and realized it was a phone game port. The mouse was merely an analog to tapping. The camera controls are sticky, and the menus large and intrusive. If I play a game with a neat aesthetic I want to be able to see it. I got into the combat and it only got worse. The Bonions were either overpowered or useless. Overpowered when they were set up from the start to be taken advantage of. Useless when it required baiting enemies into their range. What finally broke me was the first boss fight. I had given up on the Bonions and fallen to normal SRPG stragegy of just sending the heavy guy up front to wail while my others did whatever support they could. Then the boss summoned reinforcements not only right on top of my crew, but these new troops also got an extra turn. If I want XCOM-grade ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like that, I'll play XCOM. Got my refund after wiping on the fourth map to a scenario I could not have known about and did not have any chance to react to.

[ストーリー] 　ある日、平和に生活していた庭師や八百屋が獣人に襲撃され 　畑や店を荒らされてしまった。 　怒りに燃える彼らは、農具や野菜を武器に獣人の国へ乗り込んでいく・・・。 [ゲームシステム] 　ターン制のシミュレーションゲーム。 　庭師や八百屋などのキャラクターを操り、職業毎に得意とする武器や技を使用して 　敵対する獣人達を打倒していく。 ・職業と特徴 　「庭師」 　　　庭師の特徴を生かし、ハサミと槍で敵を倒していく主人公枠。 　　　農具を振り回し前方に範囲攻撃をする技を持つ。 　「八百屋」 　　　ダイコンと剣で敵を倒していく罰当たりな前衛タイプ。 　　　ダイコンで敵を強打する技を持つ。 　「花屋」 　　　花屋で培った技術で味方を回復する後衛タイプ。 　　　単体回復や範囲回復の技を持つ。 　「カレー屋」 　　　カレー屋特有のナックルで敵を打ちのめしていく前衛タイプ。 　　　ナックルで敵を強打する技を持つ。 　　 　　ゲームを進めていくと上記以外の職業についた仲間が加わる。 　　個性と職業が強く結びついているため転職はできない。 　　他職業の武器を装備できるということも基本的にはない。 ・キャラクターの成長 　敵を攻撃したり倒すと経験値が取得でき、経験値が100に達すると 　ＬＶが上昇しＨＰが増加する。 　特定のＬＶになると、技の性能が向上する。 　ＬＶの上昇により新しい技を覚えるということはない。 ・装備品 　装備品は武器のみ。同時に二つまでの武器を装備できる。 　武器には特殊効果や技が付与されているものがあり、装備していれば 　常時発動・使用可能になる。 　入手方法はステージクリアー時に貰える固定報酬のみ。　購入というシステムはない。 ・道具 　存在しない。 ・戦闘以外の要素 　戦闘開始前の立ち話のみ。 [難易度] 　ゲーム開始時に難易度を選べるようなシステムはない。 　戦闘中に倒されても、次の戦闘開始時には問題なく参戦するため、 　そこまで難しいゲームではない。 [クリアーまでの時間] 　４時間程度でクリアー可能な内容。 [感想] 　シンプルな出来でゲーム初心者向けかと思います。 　頭を使う要素はボニョンを連爆させる所くらい。

Just played the first two maps of this game, and I can totally say that's pretty fun ^_^ The chance to have chain reaction explosion by hitting Bonions, with the risk of potentially wiping all your characters, (that's what happened to me during the first map :P) adds a nice layer of strategy; carefully positioning them before hitting for the big blast :D Gamewise, it is the typical Advance Wars / Super Robot Wars style game, on its side it really has a really nice character design; the characters so far have pretty nice sprites. If you like the genre, it is a game that's worth buying (10/10 would wipe my party again with a big chain reaction explosion :D )

内容は説明と動画を見てね。せっかくだから、ただの感想を垂れ流すよ。 システムも雰囲気も良い。そしてそんなに難しくない。 完璧な戦略は必要ないけど、ゴリ押しの単騎駆けは出来ない。 気軽にSRPGをやりたいならおすすめ出来る。カレー屋つよい。 以下、気になったところとか今後への希望。 戦闘速度を速くすると、ボニョンの爆発連鎖が一瞬で終わる。 続けて爆発する様をよく見たいので、戦闘速度と爆発速度は別に設定できると良かった。 あわせて、複数回爆発に巻き込んでも、おそらく最後のダメージしか表示されない。合計を見たかった。 あとは、おまけマップが欲しかった。 何度も挑戦出来て、クリア条件が特殊なものがあると面白かったかも。 爆発でしか敵にダメージを与えられないとか、一度も爆発ダメージを受けず規定ターン経過させるとか。 各ステージにクリア記録もあれば、自然とやり込み・リプレイ性も出てくると思う。 難癖のような感想になってしまったが、決してつまらなかった訳ではない。概ね満足している。 この続編や別のSRPGを作ることがあれば、爽快感・戦略性・リプレイ性を更に向上させた作品を期待したい。

Entertaining enough. Very short. Fun to pull off a full room clear or near full room clear with bonion combo. Still very short. :P Recommend but for me on sale is the way to go. I am accustomed to more hours for my money though I am unsure I would thumbs up it had it been substantially longer.

The game had promise, but falls short almost everywhere. The game looks cute, but uses that "jointed sprite" style of animation, so characters look "odd" none of them have any feeling, they all look dead inside. Music is ok but a bit generic, and the battle system, it is as bare bone and standard as you can get. The game is unplayable in fullscreen, no matter what I do, making the game full screen in the options, or forcing a resized screen using other software, the mouse no longer works, and there are no other controls for the game. That said the controls are bad as well, using ONLY the mouse, and nothing else. I gave the game a shot, but generic repetitive enemies, bland music, and bad controls all add up to a game that is just not enjoyable.

Dieses Spiel ist schlichtweg nicht ausgearbeitet. Ich hatte mich sehr darauf gefreut, die Graphik ist auf den ersten Blick hin wie die Story: ganz niedlich. Aber dann hört es leider schon auf. Man hat keine wirkliche Möglichkeit, seine Charaktere irgendwie auszubauen (man bekommt nur neue Waffen, welche unübersichtlich im Invenatr landen, und über welche man letztendlich die Fähigkeiten der Charaktere bestimmt) und ein Lvl up bringt einem lediglich mehr LP und nicht mehr. Wenn man nun ein anspruchsvolles taktisches RPG erwartet, dann ist man innerhalb kürzester Zeit sehr enttäuscht. Das Spiel fasst gerade mal 13 oder 14 Maps, durch welche man in etwa 4h Spielzeit locker durch ist. Die Charaktere haben ein maximales Lvl von 18-20 erreicht (je nachdem, wie effektiv man die Helden hat kämpfen lassen). Es fühlt sich an, als hätten die Entwickler nach der Anfangsphase einfach die Flinte ins Korn geworfen und ein unfertiges Spiel veröffentlicht. Wirklich traurig, ich hatte wesentlich mehr erwartet und für den Preis ist das leider einfach nur irrsinnig.

普段あまりレビューを書かないのだけど、気になったので書いてしまいました。 ■良い ・日本語 ■辛い ・操作性が悪い。特にマウスをクリックしてのマップの確認方法が面倒くさい。（これ以外にあるのだとしたら説明不足） ・マップを見て戦略を立てていざ実行とやっても、突然なにもないところから敵が追加される。理不尽。 ・レベルデザインが稚拙。楽しさを実感できない。

30% 세일해서 삿는데 나름은 재미나게 했음. 그런데 6시간 하면 엔딩임 추억에 이런게임류 한번 해봐야지 하면서 나름 신선한 느낌으로 했는데 7천원 좀 아까운 생각이든다.한 3500원 정도면 적절할듯. 스테이지 16개? 정도 깨면 바로 엔딩임... 70% 세일 이상해야 사도 안아까울듯