Garden of the Sea releases today (October 3rd) on PC! I have been given the chance to play this cozy life sim game a few weeks ago before its official release, and this is a pleasure for me today to bring you into its colourful world.
You may already know Garden of the Sea as its VR version was released in 2022, but there’s none of that here. We live an adventure in the simplest possible way: same as the original game, but without the need for a headset to immerse yourself in this tranquil world.
The interesting thing is that many of the game mechanics have been adapted to the classic controls for the keyboard-mouse combo and the controller. This can be a little less intuitive at times (I’ll come back to this later), but overall the game experience felt very natural!
Garden of the Sea: Discovery And Learning
The adventure begins on one of Garden of the Sea‘s many islands. Here we learn the basics of gardening and harvesting our own vegetables, and we also pick up our first precious tools which we’ll keep with us throughout our journey.
The first thing we can notice is a strange creature that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. It introduces one of the main gameplay mechanics, which involves harvesting specific things – nothing too complicated for now. All we have to do is grow three turnips and put them in the little yellow bubble.
These kinds of trades will regularly occur as our adventure progresses, whether it is to get access to other islands, to unlock new buildings or to improve our camp.
Personally, I love this system as it meant I had to really think about finding the right resources. The game doesn’t guide us, there’s no real story running through it, to give us the freedom to explore the world at our own pace. This also means that you can miss out on basic resources by exploring the wrong islands or going too far from the start.
Gardening To Craft
Once this first trade has been completed, and we’ve met some new animals and little unknown companions, we unlock a somewhat rudimentary camp. There’s a sign with lots of resources to gather to improve our tent, as well as constructions that let us make our first pieces of furniture and cook recipes.
Regarding the first topic, cards are scattered throughout the Garden of the Sea world to teach us the combinations of resources needed to make specific furniture. Cards can be placed on the shelves outside so that you can keep an eye on them – otherwise, everything is stored in your book by pressing TAB.
As for cooking, the dishes are mainly used to feed the animals on the island. Indeed, there’s no combat or crazy fights on the agenda here! The food is not used to regain life or stamina, as it might be the case in other games of the same genre, but simply to satisfy the cravings of those sharing the island with us.
By giving them their favourite meals, and unlocking special constructions for them later on, they’ll give you useful resources once their hearts are full. Resources that will also help you unlock many other things – it’s quite a satisfying domino effect.
One of the most practical things to make in any world like this is chests! I’ve set up several of them inside the house (which is no longer a tent) so that I can store all my resources. Because in the course of our wanderings, we end up accumulating quite a lot of stuff – including some that can only be found far from the camp!
Setting Sail To Explore
Yes, Garden of the Sea is also a world to explore. To do this, we have to collect everything we need to repair our boat. There’s quite a lot to do, but it’s not too difficult to get there in the end! Here’s a little tip: there’s a tool box inside to keep our pockets clear, and a chest to store our new discoveries.
From there, we can explore and visit whatever we want. Each island will require us to solve puzzles with a rare item at the end we can use in our camp. The puzzles tend to be fairly straightforward, but I personally took a long time to finish the crystal island. Not because I got there too early, but because the VR game mechanics adapted to a non-VR version lacked a bit of guidance. Nothing too serious though!
Without giving away too much about what happens on each island, they all have very distinct themes, each with its own unique resources. You can use them to unlock new constructions and craft furniture for your home, or even expand it!
The ending of the story is gentle and wordless, a serene contemplation of the ocean we explored throughout our journey. An ocean that still holds many wonderful surprises for us!
And What Comes Next In Garden of the Sea?
We can continue to expand our campsite and take our time to create a beautiful garden, of course. Personally, I was especially interested in the merchants.
There is one directly on our island who offers recipes and furniture to decorate the inside of our home. To do this, we simply need to give resources that will give us a specific amount of shells. These can then be exchanged to acquire decorative items!
But there are also other merchants on previously visited islands that can be unlocked, like one on the bamboo island. The goal remains the same: we need to get the right resources in one of those yellow bubbles for them to appear. This one for example offers tool upgrades, allowing us to harvest new resources that were previously inaccessible.
In short, it’s up to us to continue exploring and discovering at our own pace, without stress.
Garden of the Sea is available today on Steam! A big thank you to Neat Corp and Future Friends Games for gifting me a key before its release 💛
And if you’d like to read more, feel free to check out my latest articles!
