It's a very pure pastoral pastoral and magical fairy tale, with a slight element of horror that is lost. The painting style is bright, the music is healing, and the main story is decent. Repeated work can get a lot of random rewards, effectively improving the farming experience in the early stage of the game. But because the game flow is very long, the feeling of farming in the later stage is still boring. Free exploration experience is good, fishing and catching insects are not playable, but the victory is rich in variety. But there is no easy map to view, I am always lost, but I also stumbled and found a lot of places. The community building system is very rough, and the interaction with NPCs is too procedural except for the main story. In short, it is still very happy to play casually once in a while, and there is no need to be more real with yourself. Serious suspicion that this is a child or parent-child game.
Withering and devouring the earth, the world is in danger, and even the Tree of Eternity is like a gossamer, and it is afraid that it will soon die.
For thousands of years, the Arreraean states have been united with this mighty rafter and prospered under its protection, but they have never realized that the withered seeds have taken root in the eternal heart and will one day take their place; and what is even more tragic is that the calamity of the day "arrived as scheduled", and the eternal warlocks of the past had lost their songs, and were no longer able to nourish all things with the rhythm of music, and awakened the eternal tree seeds that had fallen into sleep.
So the kingdom fell apart, civilization was destroyed, and the ruins of the broken walls under the thorns seemed to call for heroes from afar: it could be the knights under the kings, it could be the barbarians of the Northland Mountains, it could be the mages who had prepared earlier, or the assassins who felt profitable - in any case, it could not be the protagonist of the current one, right? There is no chicken power in the hand, no will to kill the enemy, although it is also a good wooden hammer, but in the end it is used to open the way with rubble, and there is no way to take this dark withering all over the world.
However, as the last Eternal Warlock, when the Ancestor's Magic Voice miraculously reappears as the protagonist to testify, he (or she) finally finds a shortcut to victory against darkness in this "Growth Story: Song of the Eternal Tree", that is, to quietly sow the seed in the Eternal Canopy and diligently help it grow.
There seems to be something wrong with the painting style?
Of course not. Although the game's backstory is really not very bright, some scenes with sound effects are simply terrifying, but at a glance, "Growth Story: Song of the Eternal Tree" is a kind of bright and pure electronic fairy tale: the painting style is cute, the scene is clear, the color is gorgeous and the contrast is quite high, the modeling is smooth and concise as if the super low Disney light and shadow magic - although the technology seems to be several generations behind, but such a picture does quite effectively reduce the visual information presented by the game. The guarantee that players can concentrate more easily and fatigue during the game, and thus send a clear and sincere invitation to children, promising that this journey to save the world may not be exciting, but at least it is new and interesting.
So with the eternal sunshine of Alaria, the alchemist also began to save the world: changing the player's carefully selected clothes and jewelry, cleaning up the rubble destroyed by thorns, showing the eternal magic that had been blurred in the memories of "Grandpa Instrument" and "Mother-in-Law", at this time the protagonist who walked out of the room could summon the pet to fly to the canopy of the Tree of Eternity and begin to perform his duties for the day.
There are polluted weeds that need to be uprooted, there are quite obstructive rubble and decaying wood that need to be cleaned up, some animals in the distance are haunted by shadows that need to be carefully cared for by the protagonist, and those "creeping shadows" dragging slime need a "hammer of love" to help them recover their minds and turn back into a carefree cute reptile...
There is a lot of miscellaneous work, but fortunately, after this busy period, the land between the "Tree of Eternity" has become flat and suitable for plant growth. At this time, the player only needs to sow seeds, cast Ganlin, and then you can safely and boldly hand over this land to time to take care of, or go back to sleep well and come back tomorrow, or go through the portal to help the small and cute Eternal Spirit change some clothes and accessories, and by the way, pick flowers and grass, fish and catch insects, and then pick some fruits and nuts, and the little life is also easy.
The next morning, the alarm clock arrived as scheduled with the sun, and the desolation of the Eternal Tree finally had some green traces. At this time, the protagonist does not need to "build a lot of civil engineering", as long as he carries the kettle to inspect, he will find that many vegetation is close to maturity, and when the protagonist leads the song, it will be quite "interesting" and bloom.
At the same time, the blooming flowers themselves will also blind box-like bursts of magic, elements, formulas, decorations and even clothes and hairstyles, as if to repay the protagonist's careful care in the past two days, and together with the "achievements" that are overlooked, they constitute the instant reward system of "Growth Story: Song of the Eternal Tree", and also cleverly integrate the randomness of market recognition into it, embedding a lot of psychological anchors, enough for me to enjoy the joy of labor and "opening the blind box" in the connection of the anchor point So much so that later, when the whole area became forested and the game naturally entered the next stage, I was still a little unfinished about planting the field.
Well, at this stage anyway, the player's main business is still to repeat the above steps to green between the clouds, but the "Eternal Tree" that has recovered some vitality has also begun to dispel the withering of the way, follow the process to gradually open up a new area, and find some extra work for the protagonist.
The first to repair the battered airport, as long as the willingness of the eternal spirits who take pleasure in architecture is expressed, they will be busy and immediately started, guaranteeing that they can complete the task overnight. After that, when people return to this place of miracles in swaddling, you can also symbolically spend some "magic" to hire them to perform miracles, so that hotels, flower gardens, libraries, bakeries and houses will rise overnight.
So in this way, planning urban areas and ensuring that everyone lives and work in peace and contentment has become the responsibility that the protagonist needs to undertake. Specifically, you need to talk warmly with all the visitors, understand their abilities, personalities and personal preferences, arrange the most suitable housing, partners and jobs for them, and then pay attention to their emotional state and health status, chat and give gifts from time to time to dress them up beautifully, and complete the various strange tasks they give - although the tasks themselves are mostly difficult, but the protagonist's personal setting still makes me have a clear sense of disgust during the play. Now I think it should be the "tool man PTSD" that fell in the north and south.
What's more, because the appearance of the visitor residents in "Growing Story: A Song of the Eternal Tree" (except for the brothers and sisters in the main story) is completely randomly generated, and the production team Predeful Sloth seems to only intend to let their personalities stay on a few lines of expressive and limited text descriptions, I can neither feel the distinct personalities of both sides in the so-called "communication" with them, and there are no emotional fluctuations at all, as if two thread dolls echo each other and routinely say decent lines. Doing the corresponding gesture, but also by the way "reminded" the player that this seemingly warm and harmonious and vibrant town is actually as dull and strange as a doll's home: the hotel shop is unattended, the bosses have nothing to do, the commercial facilities are nominal, and even the player himself can not find any way to convert the raw materials at hand into finished products, and can only reduce them to a large number of basic alchemical elements, which will be used to make eternal tree species that can preset parameters in the future.
Everything is designed so carelessly and so casually, it feels like a group of children are seriously living the house, and interestingly, when we try to look at the game from the perspective of "for the children", all the above flaws seem to have a reasonable explanation:
Children who care about the lack of personality of the characters, can learn to shake hands and say goodbye is the most important;
Children who will pay attention to what emotional ups and downs, can understand that "helpers and people always help" is already very good;
Where will children understand what supply and demand relationship, can understand that there should be a bakery in the town is already quite good, to understand how to deep process this raw material that formula is really difficult for some strong people.
Although it is only a brain hole without any evidence, if it is true, if the production team really has to greatly simplify some aspects of the game in order to ensure the children's game experience, then I think there is no need for everyone to criticize the production team, simply ignore the "poor" NPC interaction, customize the town as you want, anyway, as long as the basic conditions are met, the happiness index of several urban areas will not become an obstacle to the player's promotion process. Instead, town facilities require players to work hard, open more "blind boxes", and collect the necessary items dropped randomly in the Tree of Eternity to obtain industrial upgrades that do not seem to have obvious effects.
What's more, as the gameplay continues, the story of Growing Things: A Song of the Eternal Tree will begin to methodically lead to more meaningful "adult" content:
Who were the ancestors who created the Tree of Eternity, and what was their intention?
What kind of magic does the magic of that song inscribed in the heart by the Tree of Eternity have, and why is it connected with the eternal warlock's heart?
Was the collective loss of voice of the Eternal Warlock really a fate or an inevitable accident? Or is there some ulterior secret behind this? How does this secret relate to the uncontrollable withering...
As the withering of the blockaded area fades, the answers to all these questions will gradually surface, in a cave that suddenly appears, in the corner of the diary on the scaffolding, in the labyrinth corridor of the "Song Fragments" full of puzzle traps (3D push boxes), in the memories of the Tree Heart Hall, waiting for the player to explore freely and discover the secrets - or considering that the game does not have a map, it is for me to mistakenly understand the bits and pieces of this grand world, and gradually clarify what serious fate I am carrying.
At this moment, Alaria is still sunny, and several urban areas are full of life. Look up at the sky and you will see the indelible thick greenery and the ethereal beat spreading between the canopy, crowning this giant tree once again as an eternal memorial: commemorating the resurrection of the Eternal Tree, commemorating the eternal warlock's inseparability, and seemingly proving that when countless times of unremarkable step-by-step convergence, the miracle of "saving the world by one" is just another kind of water that requires patience - of course, provided that you persist until the end. Not discouraged by the repetitive labor of the game's increasingly boring work.
Each area needs to be tossed
And I think it's time to close the game and put down the controller, flip out the ash-stained fitness equipment, pull out the schedule that I don't know how long it has been hidden in the snow, and plant the "Tree of Eternity" that originally took root ten years ago. Just stick to it step by step, not to save the world, but at least to help us save ourselves from the bad state of life.
Hopefully I'll be able to hold on a little longer this time.