Great God Grove Review

When video games were first being developed, hardware and technical limitations restricted a lot of what could be done. But as the years have moved on and technologies improved, more advanced gameplay systems have come to the fore, leaving some of those original style of games on the wayside. Thankfully with the indie game boom, many of those unique styles have gotten a new lease on life.

Great God Grove very much plays like a classic point and click adventure game. However, it isn’t stuck in the past with its systems, and instead of taking the traditional gameplay of simply clicking on things, instead you are equipped with a megaphone that allows you to suck up objects and then launch them at characters to complete tasks. Where it really turns things around is that, not only are objects required to solve puzzles, but character dialogue can be sucked up and launched as well.

Quite literally, taking the words out of their mouth.

The stage is set as the protagonist is heading on vacation to the Great God Grove. While on the boat, this mystical megaphone falls from the sky and ends up in your possession. Shortly after acquiring it, the protagonist disembarks to discover the grove is in chaos.

As it turns out, the former owner of the megaphone and a prolific individual in the community, King, has sent letters to all the gods and put them in a state of emotional distress. An unpleasant situation at the best of times, but this so happens to be during the time of the great rift; an event that occurs every 33 years when a rift in the sky opens up, and it is up to the gods to cooperate and seal the rift shut.

Following some additional exposition, the protagonist is tasked with following in King’s footsteps. Using the trusty megaphone, the protagonist has to pass messages between the gods and citizens, solving their problems and getting everyone back on track.

For me, the plot does lose itself a little bit, especially towards the end of the game. Without spoiling anything, while the in-game stakes are incredibly high, certain resolutions and character motivations seem shaky to say the least.

In spite of that, the characters all have tons of personality. They are whacky and goofy, and the characters that follow the protagonist through the different areas do have their own little character arcs that are fun to watch.

These different areas are the domain of the various gods, and King’s letters have been a source of discontent for not only the region’s god, but the citizens as well. As someone who can sometimes be a bit slow when it comes to piecing together point and click style puzzles, this is an incredibly great way to format this style of game. These kinds of games are notorious for their nonsensical logic, requiring a certain level of trial and error. By limiting the total area that can be explored at a time, it helps keep you focused on the tasks at hand.

Beyond that, the gods of each area also offer hints at each step in solving an area’s puzzle. This makes Great God Grove perhaps one of the most accessible games of this style I have played.

It isn’t all launching items at characters to solve puzzles, and there are also some short combat sections between each area. These are the weakest aspect of Great God Grove – the combat isn’t low stakes, there are no stakes. There is no health bar and to complete each combat sequence, it’s more of a mini puzzle than an actual fight. This is most egregious at the end of the game. See, the resolution of Great God Grove is a combat sequence that can’t be failed. The protagonist can be attacked and pushed around, but won’t take any damage and can’t fall off the map or lose. The set piece is flashy and exciting, but it’s impossible to build up any tension when there is no risk of failure.

Incorporating the dialogue launching mechanics into the final resolution would’ve been a much more satisfying conclusion. While the game is accessible, it doesn’t just hand the answers to the players and solving the different puzzles is satisfying. That feeling just doesn’t translate to the combat sections.

Part of that feeling of satisfaction comes from preemptively being able to determine which items and pieces of dialogue are going to be vital in progressing. The megaphone can only hold five things at a time, so each time a character says something that can be grabbed, it leads to a decision. Not every piece of dialogue is used to progress the game, so will it actually be needed?

That said, even the non-essential pieces of dialogue can be used on different characters to elicit unique responses. There are funny bits of dialogue that are simply used to mess with different characters. For example, when a character says, “Get a haircut”, you can take that piece of dialogue and force characters to get a haircut. It’s goofy, but whenever a game incorporates little gags and details like this, you can see there is care about what is being done. 

The only other issue I really had with Great God Grove is that the user interface is too zoomed in. The list of items that the megaphone has is slightly cropped and there is no interface adjustment on Xbox. It’s a minor adjustment, but it would keep the interface from feeling cramped.

Despite a couple of flaws, the Great God Grove has a ton of personality and sets out to do what it wants. It may not be a game for everyone, but if you like point and click style games and are looking for something you can complete in a weekend, then it’s well worth checking out.

Buy Great God Grove on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/great-god-grove/9n36blqf3fx6