Grimoire Groves by Stardust
Grimoire Groves describes itself as a cozy, Rogue-like dungeon crawler, coupling colorful forests full of hungry plants with a plethora of upgrades and unlockables gained through magical gardening.
A fundamentally gentle game, Grimoire Groves has its chilled, witchy protagonist feeding plants rather than fighting enemies, and this relaxed attitude permeates every aspect of her adventure.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Grimoire Groves is set in the titular forests where our heroine, Primrose, and a few other witches have made a home. Lavender, Primrose’s mentor figure in this adventure, provides some initial guidance on setting up the hub garden, and before long it’s time to head off deeper into the forest to find resources and bring life back to the Groves.
Each run into the forest brings back resources that can be spent to upgrade plants and other features in the hub garden, allowing for more powers and abilities on the next run. This Rogue-like formula is also reflected during the adventures themselves, as an option to proceed or return to safety with loot gathered so far is offered at the end of each stage.
The action itself revolves around feeding the many strange plant creatures found throughout the forests. These creatures can sometimes sap energy on touch and once engaged, they must be fed within a short time or more energy will be lost. If Primrose runs out of energy, she will return to the hub.
Plant Food
Feeding creatures is done through several spells that take the role of “attacks” in similar games. All said it’s a successful adaptation of traditional action RPG mechanics into a non-violent theme, and the colorful world provides plenty of varied challenges, from mushrooms that spawn smaller variants to cute, rolling plants that charge at Primrose.
One small niggle is that the plants tend to take rather a long time to feed, and this can start to feel like a bit of a grind, particularly early on when abilities are still limited.
Between runs, any resources that haven’t been spent on upgrades will be converted into compost, which can be spent during a run to buy health items from various characters dotted throughout the forests. These items must be cooked up through a relatively simple but fun mini-game; a bar must be matched to a moving point, rather like the fishing mini-game in Stardew Valley).
Grimoire Groves is beautiful to look at; the forests are vibrant and colorful with a stunning assortment of plant designs to find within them. Primrose’s cheerful little jog is charmingly animated, and the design for the characters found throughout the Groves is delightful.
An upbeat soundtrack accompanies these visuals, and this all comes together to offer a particularly welcoming experience.
The Verdict:
Grimoire Groves does a great job of providing a cozier take on the Rogue-lite adventure; the gardening theme is so pervasive it can almost trick you into thinking you’re playing a farming game at times.
The plant creatures can take a bit of grind to deal with during “combat,” but this is a minor issue, especially given the action of the game is good fun. This is worth a look for any fans of action RPGs looking for something a little more laid back than the usual fare.
Great God Grove is available via the Nintendo eShop and Steam.