Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator Review (PS5)

We can see a surge of “cozy” simulators from Stardew Valley to games depicting various serene themes such as life at grandparents, life at the farm, life at the farm with dinosaurs. This genre is not new at all, but it went through several changes over the years and grew into a genre with several subgenres. Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator focuses on bringing to life a community garden and a relaxed gameplay to help wash away everyday stress.

In Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator there is no rush and the maximum action you will see is spraying the nagging bugs invading your precious plants. The entire game is designed intently to help you slow down and detach from your day-to-day struggles refocusing on designing the coziest community gardens you can imagine.

This means growing plants, renovating structures, removing boulders and weeds, repainting and replacing fences, finding the perfect spots for both garden gnomes and frog statues, choosing the ideal spot for benches and night lights. There is no pressure, only the serene atmosphere of taking care of plants and solving tasks at your very own pace.

Of course there is a background story to frame it all, that has an unmistakable feminine touch. You play the role of a gardener who takes over after the previous caretaker of the community garden has passed away. There is a basis to start you off and on which to build upon, but there are even more unfinished tasks that require your attention.

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You start with learning the basics of tending to your garden such as turning weeds into compost, watering and trimming the plants, getting rid of bugs and harvesting seeds with the hope of discovering new plant variations. Along the way you will also discover the NPCs surrounding you, each having their own story and missions for you.

You will find yourself conversing with the ghost of the former gardener, being heavily involved in some wedding preparations, and among other things being the only person who can bring to life a pavilion full of floral sculptures. Although this may sound complicated, the gameplay is very simple and relaxing.

Each day has a limited number of hours during which you can accomplish tasks and have an impact on your garden. There are somethings you can do even after closing hours, such as carrying objects to be sold at the stall in the market square, but plants will not grow, and the shop will be closed after a certain hour forcing you to take the bus home and go at it again the next day.

Your most basic task is to tend to the garden, tending to the plants and growing from a couple of rose bushes to a full-fledged park. This will be accomplished by planting the flowers, watering them and spraying away the bugs that might infect them. You will also need to root out the weeds that together with leaves and unwanted parts resulting from trimming the flowers can be turned into compost or paper.

The next layer is expanding your garden by planting more and more seeds, adding decorations and unlocking previously inaccessible areas. This is done through completing requests and crafting or buying objects. The latter needs coins that can be obtained by selling flowers, bouquets or any other item you can craft in your shed. Again, there is no pressure, and you will find that growing and selling flowers assures enough resources to leave a leisurely life. You can even buy yourself cans of soda with little practical value.

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The missions range from cultivating and shipping certain number of specific flowers, to making bouquets, growing a certain number of plants in the garden to delivering seeds or decorations. The entire system is well thought out and interconnected in a way that gives importance to every element from tools to plants to decorations.          

As your garden grows you will afford to replace some manual labor with automated solutions covering irrigation or pest control. There are quite a few options that allow you to build your dream garden, despite the fixed elements. You cannot demolish or move the tool shed or the greenhouse, but you can change their colors. Also, you can choose what decorations go where and the layout of the plants you want in your garden.

Things evolve maybe a bit too slowly, but as a result Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator never feels overwhelming. The new elements are introduced gradually, and you never feel the pressure of time when it comes to requests. The seasonal change is a welcome mechanic that spices things up, but somehow the game still feels unfinished.

The variety of plants and tools is quite limited, the space you have to manage will eventually also feel quite small, and the missions tend to be repetitive alternating a few types of requests. Also, there is no clear info on what you need to do to get new color variants of different plants. Overall, it feels like an early access game with features still waiting to be implemented. As such after the first few hours the game will feel repetitive, and the coziness will turn into monotony.

The visual style is endearing, but at a closer inspection the graphics can lack details you would expect. The shed and most of the plants look acceptable, but the rain feels off and planting in close proximity bushes or plants can lead to the game forgetting to show the flowers and only render the green parts. This can be confusing and misleading.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion