Grow song of the evertree world types

I am usually firmly in the camp of “wait and see” when it comes to new releases, and I didn’t actually

intend

to pick up
Grow: Song of the Evertree
the day that it was available, despite having been excited for it since I saw it while
watching Wholesome Direct
back in June. It just so happened, however, that my roommate tested positive for COVID-19 the same day that the game came out, and I made the snap decision to pick it up for myself as something to maybe keep me occupied during isolation.

… and then I proceeded to play it for almost 30 hours over the next 5 days.






Grow
is kind of an odd amalgamation of genres, but what it most closely reminded me of was
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
, if you weren’t restricted by the real time clock. You can expect to spend the majority of your time catching bugs & fish, playing with woodland critters, breaking rocks, and tending to plants. You start out with a single World Seed, which once planted, is – frankly – a big old mess of a place, but after three in-game days of tending, expands, and after nine in-game days is fully formed, and I’d say more than half of my game


Reviews

“There’s an open ended element to Grow that makes it something special. Far beyond the inviting graphics and the urgent environmental tale it tells, this is a thoughtful and deliberate balance of cute and considered gameplay concepts that make it a serious time sink.”
Spieletipps

“Overall, a fantastic game that yields a relaxing experience and a gaming experience for all. The adventure is fun and awe-inducing. The graphics and music are coupled well together and marry each other to make for an amazing fantasy feel”
Giga Games

“One of the best features of Grow: Song of The Evertree is the art design. The environments of every location are saturated with color and clean detail. Blades of grass blow in the breeze, the water ripples as fish swim through, and flowers stand out with vibrant hues. These details mixed with the relaxing soundtrack make it easy to lose track of time while playing and allow easy immersion into the world”
Gamepro




About This Game
Over time, the Worlds of Alaria faded. The Evertree – where many worlds resided on its countless branches – is now nothing more than a sapling, its splendor long erased from memory. No one knows how to make it


70%PC


17h 13m Played

Grow has a decent foundation, but fails to keep the gameplay loop interesting for the entire duration of the game.

The main issue is that you keep doing the same thing, both in the tree with the worlds, as well as in the wards. Every new world or ward plays out exactly the same.

There also isn't enough progress in terms of upgrading tools to make things faster, normally in these types of games you get a better pickaxe to mine faster, and so on. This game sort of does that but not really, you get a better hammer, but it's only a (fairly low) chance of requiring 2 hits instead of 3. Pulling weeds, planting seeds, knocking over stone walls, all never get upgraded.

This ties into my main issue with this game; it doesn't respect the player's time. From cutscenes showing you new things to do in worlds, to introductory flybys in temples, none are skippable and none are useful. In some temples you get multiple of these and they all take 30-60 seconds and they often don't even show you what to do properly (not that that's needed as most temples are just linear affairs). The worst offender are the cutscenes of opening a new ward or


Welcome

Hello,

You don’t need an achievement guide at all for “Grow: Song of the Evertree” but in case you want to look an achievement up, you can find some information here. It takes around 20h to completion and it has no missable achievements. After you get to the end of the story you will be dropped back into the game to be able to mop up the rest.


You can unlock all the achievements before doing the last temple and seeing the ending of the game, but after such a long time in the game you want to see the ending right?


Basic Information

Some basic information that is good to know:


City

Your main priority in the game should be the city, I focussed too much on the world at the beginning, but those are just a tool to get the alchemy ingredients to make the 6 perfect worlds and to make the different buildings in your city.

The most important tip I have is to make sure you claim the badges at the stone in the district centers, as those help you with getting a lot of happiness in each district.

When you unlock a district, check out the different stats that are needed for the stone in the district center and focus on that. Other tips to acquire happiness