Title of The Garden Path showing a woodland clearing with a campfire burning, surrounded by a group of vegetable faced characters and anthropomorphic animals, together with the gardener.

The Garden Path Review

Game: The Garden Path
Genre: Simulation, Adventure, Multiplayer, Other
System: Nintendo Switch (Also available on Steam, Itch (Windows, Linux & macOS))
Developer | Publisher: carrotcake | Mooncat Games
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $19.99 | UK £16.75 | EU € 19,50
Release Date: July 30th, 2024

A review code was used, with many thanks to Player Two PR.

I’ve been looking forward to The Garden Path since Elena gave her thoughts on the demo back in August 2021. Via the release trailer, you glimpse how there is more to The Garden Path than just gardening. Taking inspiration from watching Studio Ghibli films and the Moomins, carrotcake, a solo developer, has hand-crafted a mystical place to explore, nurture and relax in.

Thyme to find out where The Garden Path will grow to!

Walking Along The Garden Path

The top part of the journal page is ripped, but the other words are: “A swan song for all the things he was. I hear it then and I hear it now.” Followed by the words given in the caption.
“Follow the path southward, and you shall surely find it too.”

After creating your character (skin tone and hair colour are the only customisations), you are presented with a ripped page from a journal and the choice of a tutorial or not. The journal extract helps to set the tone of The Garden Path – obviously, there are aspects of gardening in the game, but there is also a mystery to unearth.

The gardener character standing in a dark wood, carrying with a lantern. Text to the left reads “I should learn who wrote the mysterious note.”
Good idea. Who wrote the note?

As this is the first time I’ve played, I opted for the tutorial. The screen fades to darkness, and a text box appears, explaining how to light your lantern and encouraging you to follow The Garden Path south. As your character progresses, other instructions appear, getting you to interact with characters, record plants, and use the tools.

Before long, your little bouncy character emerges into the main garden, ready to start… but start what?

Meeting Folk Along The Garden Path

The gardener character standing talking to Augustus, a bear, who has a massive backpack and striped neckerchief. Augustus is saying: “You could be a ranger too, but you need the first edition of Your Guide: To Be A Park Scout Ranger.”
Always be prepared!

One of the first activities is to meet the travellers in the garden. There is Augustus, who will ask you to help him find something, and once you’ve helped him, Thom will appear. Thom will give you his old trowel and some advice about the mysterious note. In addition, he will teach you how to plant seeds and trade with those who visit the garden. This will also encourage your first vegetable-headed friend to visit, who might decide to stay.

A dotted two by two square, with a three ring target to one side. There is a blue music note near the centre of the inner circle.
Keep the music note in the orange circle to reel in the fish.

Larto will also be in the garden, near a river, quietly fishing. When you meet him, he will tell you about the song-fish and give you a fishing rod so you can catch your own.

The Garden Path characters are wonderful. Each of the travellers has their own distinct personality, and the dialogue reflects this. You can even play conkers with the veggie folk.

The gardener character standing inside their tent, a pile of books and yarn basket are on the floor. You can see the garden outside the tent, with paths, pots and a picnic table.
Home, sweet home!

There are a variety of activities to fill your time. You can record all the different plant species, catch some fish, decorate your campsite, design your planting scheme, search for treasure or brew some tea. However, the more items you accumulate, the slower you walk, and I mean slow, painfully slow.

It creeps up on you, and suddenly, you realise that the bouncy character that entered the garden has gone. Apparently, you can change or expand your backpack and get storage furniture – oh, how I long to find that merchant!

The Garden Path’s Design

The Garden Path is specifically designed for short play sessions, allowing the player to enjoy the game at their own pace and to encourage exploration; there is limited instruction. There are enough subtle hints as to what to do in the garden but not enough explanation as to how. For example, whilst I managed to make fertiliser, I couldn’t apply it to my seedlings (maybe they had some sort of bug?!).

A three by five grid map, with a highlighted question mark in the lower left corner.
Who is that?

If you enter the main garden via the tutorial, you are encouraged to refer to the map. The map is divided into 15 acres and shows the rivers, bridges, campfires, and rocky (impassable) areas. Visitors or residents will also appear on the map, with those you haven’t met before appearing as a question mark. You can add pins to the map to highlight places of interest.

I really like the way the map varies for each playthrough. The starting acre (centre top), which contains the community board and compost bin, is the same, but the rest are different.

The Garden Path is played in a combination of real-time and in-game time. A day in the game is equivalent to 24 hours in the real world. You have a one-time option of altering the sync between real and in-game time – for one of my gameplay, I altered it by +13 hours, so I would experience the in-game sunrise whilst I was playing during the real-life afternoon. However, unlike the real world, a season is made up of 7 days, so you progress through an in-game year in 28 real-world days. I haven’t had a chance to experience the end of the year, but the game will apparently pause until you log back in, so you don’t miss the celebrations.

A Star-Filled Sky of Achievements

A brightly shining star called The New Gardener, with subheading of: The garden has a new owner. A picture of a kneeling gardener is accompanied with a quote.
When did I agree to be the new gardener?

I like achievements, and in The Garden Path, I was not disappointed in the number to collect. There are 40+ which are specific accomplishments designed to give you pointers as to how to proceed (e.g. run an errand for a resident). The other 140+ are more quantitative (e.g. collect 5-day fish), but the completion details are hidden unless you use a star map to observe the star. For a small trade, Jahi will supply star maps. However, the stars are more than just a ‘well done’ sticker; they are part of constellations. Once you’ve achieved all the stars in a constellation, you can connect them together to gain further abilities.

Each star comes with its own thought-provoking quote, like the one above: “Things die and things grow, and what was once one thing becomes something else.”

Alone or With a Friend

Vertical split screen for local co-op play.
Two’s company?

You can create your garden alone or get a gaming buddy to assist you. The local co-op is via a split screen, and each gardener will need their own tools.

Personally, I didn’t find the two-player option as much fun as in other games. That might be because my gaming buddy joined me after several days of solo play and didn’t know the controls. However, they needed to trade to get their own tools, and with merchants appearing on different days and stocking different items, acquiring all the equipment seemed like too much effort. Apart from that, with an empty backpack, they were running round the garden whilst I slowly crawled.

Gameplay

There are quite a few controls to get to grips with, but there is a reminder on screen, so no need to remember them all! Using the map requires pushing down on the right stick, which some gamers might find awkward.

The game works equally well in docked and handheld modes, although there is no touchscreen functionality. The text is large enough to read on the small screen, but as you collect more and more items, they get smaller and smaller to see in your overflow bag (unfortunately, most of the items do not stack). There is a slight pause when the game autosaves, but nothing to annoy. There is only one instance of the game per user, and there is no manual save option. Don’t accidentally click ‘New Game’ rather than ‘Continue Playing’ as there is no ‘Are you sure?’ option!

Playing a pre-release copy (v 1.0.0.7), I did encounter a few oddities and crashes, which I’ve been assured have been resolved, and a new patch should be ready for the launch date.

Conclusion

The depth and breadth of The Garden Path are so extensive and coupled with real-time interaction that it’s hard to review after only a few days of play.

My initial thoughts on this exquisite, hand-crafted game were positive. The artwork is stunning, the dialogue witty, and the mystery intriguing. But as time progressed, and I was slowed down by my excessive collecting, coupled with the lack of direction, my enthusiasm plummeted. However, I pushed through the barriers of frustration, had the Eureka moment, and started to understand where The Garden Path was going.

This is not a game for the faint-hearted. If you like bright colours and clear guidance, look for a different game. But, just like in real life, the more time and effort you invest, the more reward you get, especially when it comes to gardening.

The Garden Path is truly a remarkable game. Unlike anything I’ve encountered before, I’m left wanting to know more and play more. It was close to getting our highest rating, but the lack of clarity on some of the mechanics and the snail’s pace penalty for hoarding means:

Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot I like it a lot

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