In quite possibly the final review for this site, not taking into account a mini-review scheduled for later this week that's already in the bag, we're going to finish on Great God Grove, out today on PC.
From LimboLane and Fellow Traveller, you play as a glorified postie that arrives in town with a portable vacuum megaphone that not only sucks up the mail and spouts into the faces of the locals, but it'll also take their words and use it against them. Quite literally.
Jeitaro
Arriving on Cap'n Hauzer's "ship", you're given the skinny on King - your predecessor - and you're looking to step out of their shadow early on as they're well revered. However... King has turned, and in their haste, has left Great God Grove exposed to a rift that threatens to destroy EVERYTHING. Cue you, and lots of oddball interactions and problem-solving that, in an abstract way, is comparable to a point and click adventure.
Point and click adventure? Are you quite mad? On the contrary, the shoe is on the other foot as on two separate occasions, there must have been a tutorial/guide on how the mechanics work (sucking up phrases said by the characters) that was missed, as it seemed like the goal was to suck in non-existent materials, then fire them at characters accordingly. While that plays a very small part, it's the unusual dialogue tree that makes Great God Grove different.
Armed with the megaphone, a.k.a. Megapon, when a character's speech bubble has that marching ants/marquee around it, you can suck it into your inventory, packing a total of five phrases at a time. These are then shot at characters to get a response, unlock further dialogues, or just for the fun of it. Almost every interaction is unique in some way and encourages experimentation. However, if you're keen to progress, the experience is comparable to a point and click inventory and illogical pairings/combinations of items to get the desired affect.
Jeitaro
For that aspect, Great God Grove can be quite irritating, and despite starting off well, it's very much rinse and repeat throughout and effectively a fetch quest of phrase hoarding and experimentation. That sounds like fun, and while the dialogue is pretty damn funny, it's so quirky wiv itz spelings, that it becums qwite abstrakt. The dev's Smile For Me has been on the watchlist for quite some time, mainly because of the live-action puppets in the trailer.
The same applies to Great God Grove as the Toejam & Earl-like game world shifts to these VHS nasties hosted by the likes of the Bizzyboys and is immensely pleasing. Aesthetically. As for content and storytelling, it's out there, but not so much that it's ambiguous and warrants creative thought. Instead, the thought that comes to mind is, "What the hell was that about?", suck up some more dialogue, then pull about at the seams to make some progress.
In a game where quirkiness is all part of the character, Great God Grove tipped the scales as it was too niche, though for those it appeals to, they'll love it. There's no real middle ground for everyone else other than a game that's so unique with its madcap characters, lovely artwork, great live-action bits, and then the core quirky bit: gameplay - the weakest part. Wandering around doing the same fetch quests with speech bubbles and chinwagging with Inspeckta erred on monotonous in a story that fizzles out quite early? Let chaos reign.
