Grimoire Groves Preview

Grimoires Groves is a colourful action roguelite where you'll step into the shoes of Primrose, a novice witch who has taken it upon herself to help the fabled titular forest restore its inhabitants after they mysteriously disappeared. 

The preview starts off without missing a beat, as upon the game loading, you're tasked with talking to an older (and adorable) witch named Lavender, who immediately sends you off into the forest after a brief interaction between her and Primrose. Whilst this might've not been jarring or confusing in a standard setting with foes and weapons, in Grimoire Groves, fighting is a bit different: you don't kill any enemies — you just throw elements at the plants and mushrooms until they're happy and go underground.

The reason this was confusing was due to the lack of combat tutorials; the game doesn’t take its time to explain how the elements work, so I had to improvise and figure it out on my own when I was told to cast fire at a plant whilst only having the Elemental Puddle spell. Additionally, for some reason, I hadn’t registered that harvesting plants meant battling them, so I was quite shocked when I approached it and got hit!

That being said, I didn't personally mind the lack of tutorials; if anything, I was quite excited to jump headfirst into the action and spell-casting! And Grimoire Grove has plenty of that, as the game's loop is all about going into the forest, harvesting (defeating) plants, and using their loot to unlock new foes and spells.

The combat system is nuanced yet deceptively simple at first glance, as you'll need to use a mix of elements and spells to harvest the plants. This works well as they don’t affect one another; as per my earlier example, you can wield fire and still cast a water-based spell. In fact, you need to cycle between different ones in order to match what the plants want to harvest them.

This is why the combat becomes challenging, as every enemy is weak to a specific element and will disappear if you don't use it on them quickly enough. While in theory it doesn't sound too difficult, once you're in the middle of a battle with multiple plants of different colours, you'll need to stay focused to not lose any of them. Once I got past the awkward learning phase and became more confident, battling the plants felt incredibly fun thanks to inventive, colourful, and fun spells that made harvesting them satisfying and unique.

 

When you're not busy getting lost in the nuanced combat, you'll be using the loot from the forest to unlock new types of plants, which allows you to open up new areas, meet new NPCs, and unravel the story further. Whilst this is quite satisfying, I do hope more features get added to stop the loop from becoming repetitive: you spend much more time fighting in the forest than you do at home, and although there is a nice variety of plants, the novelty of the combat system and enemies might run out if it's all there is to do. 

The mission-based story progression doesn't help break the repetition either, as the only interaction you have with the NPCs are the fetch quests they give every run into the forest, which are incredibly easy to complete if you clear the level and forage properly. That being said, considering I played for three hours and wasn’t ready to stop, the repetitive loop isn’t as bad as it might seem, especially when taking into account that this is a Kickstarter demo. Plus, with plans to include a friendship system (including being able to gift them items), who knows what else Stardust has in store gameplay-wise.

This brings me to the last point I would like to touch on — music, graphics, and sound design. Whilst I write many a preview and review, I rarely touch on these points in most of them; however, it would be an absolute shame not to mention the fantastically colourful graphics, satisfying sound design, and quirky OST. 

I don't often notice music in games — unless it's something intense and haunting, like DARK SOULS' — but I was downright smitten by the themes in Grimoire Groves. The only way I could explain the soundtrack would be Banjo-Kazooie and Yoshi’s Island meets Animal Crossing: it's playful, it's upbeat, and it's peculiar; I couldn't get enough of it. The cheerful and bizarre tones really added to the game's overall enjoyment, especially when paired up with the exceptional sound design that is downright reminiscent of an arcade. I barely care for these sorts of things, as they don't usually add or detract from my gaming experiences, but it was a highlight this time around. 

Grimoire Groves is heading down the right path: with its refreshingly colourful graphics, lively soundtrack, and interesting battle system, I cannot wait to play more. If you like roguelites, witches, and fun combat, there is little reason not to keep an eye on this charming title.

If you'd like to support Stardust in their journey to developing the game, consider following them on Twitter and checking out Grimoire Groves' upcoming Kickstarter that comes live the 8th of this month!