Great God Grove Review (AlbatrossSoup)
I had a lot of fun with this! It made me laugh out loud SEVERAL times. There's a lot of charm to be found in this game and a lot of vibrant personalities. Limbolane games always have the best NPCs and GGG is no exception! It's a beautiful game to look at, to boot. It's probably the prettiest game I've played this year. I also REALLY enjoyed the Megapon puzzle mechanic and how versatile it was. I loved just how MANY responses everyone had to so many different things. That being said, I think it's only fair to also address the couple complaints I did have while playing it. These are all very personal gripes so you can take them with however much salt you would like to.
The NPCs are all VERY creative and colorful and delightfully funky in their own ways, but I don't think you ever stay in an area long enough to really grow attached to any of them like the game really seems to want you to. They feel like they're usually only there for a gimmick or the bit. I had a similar problem with the gods: they're all INCREDIBLY cool and fun and frankly awesome to look at, but for a game called great GOD grove it didn't feel like we got to spend a lot of meaningful time with anyone besides Inspekta. They really just seemed like a glorified hint system more often than not.
The combat felt completely pointless and was janky every time it came up. One of the fights glitched and I completely missed the cutscenes right after HobbyHoo. I didn't have the final letter in my inventory for the rest of the game. Not to mention it was incredibly annoying trying to read the plot important dialogue happening at the top of the screen during the final boss fight against Inspekta while trying to dodge and suck things up on the bottom of the screen. The combat on regular difficulty wasn't hard at all it just wasn't fun.
Ultimately I did have a lot of fun playing the game, but at the end I was... underwhelmed? Left hanging? Going "that was it"? I was expecting there to be more of a payoff at the Spire. The game ended SO fast when I was 100% expecting to have the make that climb and deal with Inspekta's interference on the way while he monologued his motives at me. The end very much felt like "well, here's your resolution, get out and go home". I think it would have benefited from, if not the Spire being its own level, but maybe the ability to walk around at the end and see the cove without all the Inspekta propaganda. See how the Gods were after everything. See BuzzHuzz in color. Say Hi to King in her new fancy realm. Check on Hector and the boys maybe back on ground level. I guess I was just expecting for a game that was so much about conversation to let me talk to everyone a little bit more before the credits rolled.
All in all my feelings on the game are mostly positive, if a bit mixed. I do still recommend the game: it's quirky, it's fun, it's creative, it will make you laugh, the story IS still pretty compelling despite my criticisms and I love Cobigail and Huzzle Mug with my whole entire heart. I guess my suggestion would be just to go into it with the appropriate expectations and turn the combat onto Easy so you have to deal with it less.