Communication Is Key
HIGH Tons of entertaining characters with lots to say.
LOW It’s too short. I want more!
WTF Live-action puppet shows?
Before writing this review I tried to think of titles similar to Great God Grove, and came up with absolutely nothing. I’ve genuinely never played anything like it.
Great God Grove was developed by LimboLane, and is their third title. They describe themselves as “…an inclusive and queer-run games studio founded by Day and Yugo. We love to make things that squish and bounce! Our games feature all flavors of strange and compelling characters. Folks of all types and ages are invited into our weird and wacky worlds!”
It should come as no surprise, then, that Great God Grove is a quirky and character-driven game with a wacky world. I haven’t played their previous titles, Face Love and Smile For Me, but from the trailers I can see similar elements present in Great God Grove, like the art style and dialogue. My point being, they’ve had time to refine their style, and it’s paid off.
The story of Great God Grove follows a tourist visiting an island, who then gets wrapped up in a conspiracy. The island has a tradition of voting an outstanding individual to become a god, and said individual rises to godhood during an event called the Festival of the Rift. Unfortunately, the latest nominee has gone missing, but not before sending nasty letters to each god who ascended before them, throwing everything into chaos. It’s up to the tourist, named Godpoke, to fix things.
Gameplay-wise, it’s a linear, story driven puzzler. Every chapter had me walk around a map, and every puzzle was solved by talking to different characters and using their words on other characters.
Godpoke can vacuum up specific dialogue, which is the main gimmick of Great God Grove. Each chapter started out fairly restricted, but opened up as I talked to more and more people and solved their problems.
For example, in the second chapter I needed to give a baker an idea for a creative recipe. Earlier I had spoken to someone who said “…what if they had edible lipstick?”, and that was the solution. Even if I didn’t immediately know who to use the dialogue on, using the wrong dialogue on someone didn’t feel like a waste of time because they’ll have something to say about it.
The vibes of GGG‘s world are on point. The first god to appear is Ms. Mitternacht, a skeletal vulture in a nun outfit. However, before she appears, her presence is felt via her tears – they cause a downpour of rain in the starting area. In this way, every section of Great God Grove showcases the gods’ influence before the player talks to them. It’s an impressive way to build each of the gods up, and it also did wonders for worldbuilding, as it shows how each god influences their area.
If it wasn’t obvious, there’s a lot of reading involved. That isn’t usually my style, but I was curious about what each character would say in response to what I shot at them. However, my curiosity would mean nothing if the characters themselves weren’t interesting. Remember the part about strange and compelling characters? Great God Grove is full of them, especially the gods themselves.
Everyone on the island has some quirk that makes them stand out as a character. Take the Bizzyboys, for example. They’re green monkeys that follow the God of Leadership, and are faithfully dedicated to helping the grove. They all look similar (they even use the same 2D sprite, with slight differences in the form of accessories) but I was able to tell the difference between them because of their personalities.
What’s more, the connections between characters felt believable. Most of them have history with each other, and figuring out this history by being the middleman for tender moments was captivating. This kicked in, full-force, in chapter three, when two gods appear — Thespius, the god of love, and Click Clack, the god of storytelling. Usually, they work as a duo to create love stories, but their relationship has been strained. No spoilers for this situation, but using words from the story they wrote was touching.
What binds the whole experience together is the art style. It’s an interesting take on 2D, comparable to something like Paper Mario – colorful, expressive, and at times abstract. However, the most distinct visuals in all of Great God Grove aren’t 2D at all, but live-action puppet shows. Each chapter has a television that can be interacted with and run episodes produced by the Bizzyboys that explain some part of the world. I was not expecting these at all, but they were a nice change of pace and each episode filled in a piece of the overall story.
I was immediately hooked by Great God Grove because the mechanics of taking someone’s dialogue and using it on other characters is something I’ve never seen before, and so it fueled my curiosity. I went out of my way to see as many interactions as I could, and I’m glad I did. Everything in Great God Grove comes together to make a great (albeit short) experience that is well worth getting into.
Rating: 9 out of 10
— Zack Edwards
Disclosures: This game is developed by LimboLane and published by LimboLane and Fellow Traveler. It is currently available on XBX/S, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Mild Fantasy Violence. It is safe for kids. There’s no objectionable content, as far as I can see.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized. There are no audio cues needed for successful gameplay. This game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.
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