SunnySide is a charming, upbeat and mostly feel-good experience. It's like the adult equivalent of Disney's It's A Small World, only with choppy waters and bumbling mechanics. Afterwards, there's a pleasant taste in the mouth, but during the ride, there's some arm-folding, huffs and puffs.
Far from being a stressful experience, Rainy Games' debut requires some patience. After all, it's a farming game full of crafting and nurturing both plants and people - these things take time - yet in the game world, where another title is shouting for attention, or some triple-A included in your Game Pass or PSN membership is showing some leg, it's essential to see some progress early on, or at least a tease of it, otherwise you might not want to see it through.
SunnySide PS5 Review
Arriving in the titular Japanese countryside town of SunnySide, you've fled the city to buy some land and live the rural way. Before getting your moccasins grubby, you will need to create a character. While there's a fair amount of options, my character never resonated. They mostly looked like Ash Ketchum with a fake beard and could not gain weight. That inadequacy with one's appearance occurred again after getting off the bus and meeting the rugged Gabriel. He's so tough he can tend to his farm in a pinstripe shirt, yet has a penchant for kawaii goods. Iffy...
Anyhoo, you bid for some land; unsurprisingly, it's overgrown, and that dream of living outdoors becomes a reality as you'll be roughing it in a tent. The first port of call is to get some tools and tend to the overgrown grass. Mildly therapeutic, my character became knackered after a few swings and needed to rest. Sod this, I'm heading into town to get my phone fixed, like the objective states. I put this off at first, preferring to live my life how I wanted to, but in mingling with the locals, I got an app for my phone that allows me to build things using a drone. Only in Japan...
Source: PR
Sakura Tales
SunnySide's appearance is pleasant. Despite bodies askew and inappropriately dressed for living off the land, it's a lovely environment, though it doesn't fully showcase the PS5's abilities. On numerous occasions, I saw a blend of my character's bouffant hair or the inside of their skull when talking with the locals. I'd jump and glide like a mannequin made out of polystyrene and get caught on a fence post or unable to navigate a bamboo thicket, or the worse offender: misplace actions and enter the wrong commands, causing minor glitches due to the way the controller works, with the on-screen cursor. Naturally, a mouse works better, but it is not an option with the PS5.
Despite the sketchy interactions and counter-intuitive controls, the conversations in the game are very good and often well-written. There are plenty of encounters and scope for getting to know the citizens, potentially even courting them. Woooo! After stepping out of my potato/strawberry farm, I decided to go for a walk. Man, this place is HUGE! SunnySide resembles the Japanese countryside if homes were placed closer together and had a bit more colour and all-year-round sakura. It's not supposed to be a realistic sim; it's more of a Calico: Pawsome Edition than a Sengoku Dynasty.
Hose About Some Guidance?
You'll have your motivation for playing the game, but for me, heading out to the country is to get away from people. From this aspect, gameplay can be self-contained, with your limited interactions coming from selling goods for profit and completing the odd objective. You can effectively buy stuff online through the in-game mobile app, tend to your wares, and then head into town and flip for a profit. This element would be decent if the farming side of things is worth it, and in most parts, it is.
The SunnySide tutorials need to be more intuitive, and as annoying as the pop-ups can be, I didn't disable them. That said, I managed to cock up early on with the fundamentals: watering your produce. I'd set up my first crop right by my sleeping quarters. When it was time to water everything, the in-built hose wouldn't stretch! This sounds like a no-brainer, but immediately conceding defeat, I started hacking down a bamboo patch to rehome what I'd embedded outside my sleeping bag. After munching on some berries (to reduce hunger and get my energy back), I realised I couldn't replant anything, nor had the funds to buy anything new. What's this bucket? I wonder if I can fill it up and use... - yes, that works. Also, when you get the drone, you can build additional stuff like a hose.
SunnySide PS5 Review Summary
This SunnySide PS5 review might be somewhat disappointing, but SunnySide is engaging, though in small doses or when you've unlocked more gear. The placement of a home, upgrading new tools and fraternising with the community give it a much-needed boost, and the bottom line, despite all its flaws, is a nice place to retreat to - like a real-life allotment. However, it requires some finishing touches to reach its potential like its real-life counterpart.
