Great God Grove Review (Belts the Holly, Jolly Puppet)
I calmed down long enough after finally finishing this game so I can give a proper review of this whole thing, from A to B, from C to D, then 9 to 10. So here goes
*ahem*
T H I S G A M E I S T H E B E S T T H I N G T O E V E R C O M E O U T O F 2 0 2 4
No, seriously. There were a lot of video games that came out this year that were really good, and I was playing a lot of old ones too, hanging out with friends and such while playing them.
But once I saw this one random video back in Febuary or so from this random person/company by the name of LimboLane Studios showcasing an indie game called Great God Grove.... I was hooked. And the game didn't even have a release date at the time of the post. Just a short demo being released soon. The trailer itself captivated me FROM THE GETGO.
WONDERFUL ARTSTYLE. GOOFY AS HECK ANIMAL-CROSSING LIKE GIBBERISH FOR THE VOICE ACTING BUT NOT AS REPETITIVE AS ACTUAL ANIMAL CROSSING GIBBERISH (Sorry Isabelle ;-;). AND THE PUPPETS. OML THE SWEET, ADORABLE WIDDLE PUPPETS OF THE BIZZYBOYS. When i found Limbolane by random I had no idea that they, and Dayoflane, were both big fans of puppets and that they make puppets in their spare time. I absolutely love puppets, ever since i was a little kid with the muppets and sesame street and even some commercials and movies that just had them for the sake of it! Theyre really cute!
And of course to anyone who knows me personally, I absolutely love The Belts Show, by Cate Wurtz on youtube. Ever since this came out back in Halloween 2021 I knew from then that I really....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8h0nzdMS4&t=2s )
I'm getting off track, here. The game itself
GREAT GOD GROVE
Firstly, if you're coming in thinking that because the steampage promotes its puzzles, you were gonna be like "Oh fuck me its a puzzle game, MA GET THE CALCULATORS AND THE DIGITAL MAP OF THE GAME WORLD WE'RE GONNA BE RAGING ALL NIGHT ON THIS-" NO! The puzzles are actually really cool and easy once you handle the one main mechanic this game is known for:
USE YOUR WORDS.
No literally, Great God Grove gives you a device called the MEGAPON- that can literally suck up actual, full phrases, sentences, and quotes from various people, and with the right people or objects to fire these sentences at, will let you progress through the game. It's really creative! I never saw anyone do that before, not like this. Theres even a lot of jokey phrases and sentences you can fire at people just to get their responses and the dialogue is, honest to god, worth it.
Which of course leads me to the second thing: THIS GAME IS DIALOGUE HEAVY AND IM ALL FOR IT.
If you can fall in love with Undertale's iconic dialogues from the monsters and play Animal Crossing, this game is up your alley. EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER has such wonderful, unique personalities from the getgo.
Let's see, wat else.... AH
SOUNDTRACK IS A HELLA BANGER TOO!!!
If you notice my steam profile you see i have both the game, the artbook (BUY IT AFTER YOU FINISH THE GAME) and the soundtrack as well cuz UH YEAH
THE SOUNDTRACK SLAPS SO GOOD
EVERY SONG
THERE HONESTLY IS NOT . A SINGLE. ONE. THAT IS BAD. AT ALL.
if you open your heart and mind to different genres of music and embrace the weirdness
THEN GIVE THE SOUNDTRACK A LISTEN AAAAAAA
Now then uh, some personal notes of mine
So i'm gonna be serious, no caps lock.
Playing this game beginning to end made me really appreciate my life. As someone who came out three years ago as bisexual and four years ago came out to my friends as a woman- I identify myself as being trans male to female (she/her/they/them), this whole game has a lot of moments throughout the whole thing that made me cry my heart out. Yugo, Dayoflane and everyone who worked on this really understands talking about LBGT stuff, gender pronouns, all that good stuff without sounding like some corporate entity or being like "WE PUT LGBT STUFF IN THE GAME SO YOU HAVE TO LIKE IT!!" - no, they genuinely not only understand it fluidly but theyve made this game with absolute love and support to EVERYONE out there of all kinds who plays this. FFS one of my friends headcanoned when i was reaching the end of GGG while in VC today , in that server i mentioned earlier, that GodPoke, the main protagonist we play as, may be genderfluid because they do not speak at all throughout the whole game- nothing to officially call them a specific gender or a set of pronouns and honestly I absolutely love that idea- you can call them whatever you want want and its A-Ok. And I think that is what LimboLane Studios intended us to do with GGG- headcanons up the wazoo and enjoying the game how WE wanna enjoy it. Which makes this game, as I mentioned before, the best thing to ever come out in 2024.
So please. Go pway da god-dang gaem an come back wit yer own ree-vyoo :P
Shaboingboing time? ;-;