Garden Paws

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In Garden Paws, players manage a farm and garden while exploring a magical island. They can build and customize their own home, grow and harvest crops, and raise various animals. The game also features dungeon exploration, fishing, and socializing with friendly NPCs.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Reviews

91%

Audience ScoreBased on 3,144 reviews

story92 positive mentions

grinding644 negative mentions

The game is incredibly cute and has a charming art style that appeals to players of all ages.
There is a vast amount of content, including farming, crafting, questing, and dungeon exploration, which keeps the gameplay engaging.
The developers are very active in updating the game and responding to community feedback, ensuring continuous improvement and new content.

The game can be quite grindy, especially in the early stages, making it feel repetitive and tedious at times.
There are numerous bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay, including issues with quests, inventory management, and multiplayer stability.
The NPCs lack depth and personality, making the world feel less alive and engaging compared to other similar games.

story
888 mentions
10 % positive mentions
86 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The game's story primarily revolves around an extensive array of fetch quests that players undertake to help townsfolk and develop their farm, with many reviewers noting the repetitive and grindy nature of these tasks. While the quests provide a sense of progression and unlock new content, they often lack depth and engaging narratives, leading to feelings of overwhelm and frustration due to the sheer volume and similarity of tasks. Overall, the game offers a charming and cute environment, but its storytelling is minimal and largely driven by the questing system rather than a cohesive narrative.
- “The game keeps things fresh by having additional season-specific quests and events (each game season being roughly 10 hours of playtime unless you skip days) and introducing additional areas and mechanics at various points.”
- “Doing quests and progressing the story does actually expand the nearby town and some of the world as well as open new areas so there is plenty of satisfaction from doing goals and achieving things as the world slowly evolves, this one is very satisfying to see.”
- “The developers took the time to create a farming simulation game that has a fun storyline with lots of characters and quests.”
- “The worst offender is that these quests are all more of the same; they are repetitive and boring and more of a filler to your experience rather than a real drive to keep playing.”
- “I don't mean to give the devs a hard time on the quests being so boring; I know it's hard for these types of games since they don't have a story-driven narrative, but it's also apparent they had no real inspiration to contribute to the genre.”
- “Honestly, the name of this game should have been 'fetch all the things', because most quests require you to go find a certain resource for an NPC.”
grinding
650 mentions
1 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
99 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed feedback from players. While many appreciate the cute visuals and variety of activities, they often find the gameplay repetitive and tedious, particularly in resource gathering and quest completion. Some players enjoy the grind as a relaxing experience, while others feel it detracts from the overall enjoyment, especially when quests require excessive amounts of resources or time to complete.
- “Not too grindy but doesn't feel rushed either.”
- “The building is good, it's not too grindy, and you can meet fun friends on multiplayer.”
- “Get this game if you enjoy grinding to gather wood to make furniture for every new person who moves to town (plus extra when there's an earthquake event and they need replacements), being asked to talk to villagers who haven't even moved to town yet, dealing with graphics issues like tall grass (which you need to make hay) being invisible and impossible to gather, constantly getting the same things (daisy and tall white flower) from chests instead of things that might actually be interesting, getting cosmetic options you can't even use as quest rewards, and being expected to pay vast amounts of gold for upgrades to your farm just so you don't have to store the lamb you got as a quest reward in a chest.”
- “This game is only fun if you're really into grinding out repetitive tasks.”
- “The quests themselves also start to get very tedious and you can tell were implemented to just pad out the runtime.”
graphics
380 mentions
39 % positive mentions
57 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally described as cute and charming, with a vibrant art style that appeals to fans of the genre. However, many players report significant graphical issues, including lag, invisible objects, and glitches that detract from the overall experience. While some appreciate the aesthetic and find it engaging, others feel that the performance and optimization need improvement, especially on lower-end systems.
- “The graphics are adorable and I love the decorating system.”
- “The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, sunsets, moon rise, shooting stars, etc. The gameplay is laid back but good.”
- “Not only does this game warm my heart with its adorable graphics and vibrant colors, but it truly lightens the soul.”
- “Secondly, when I play alone, after about 15 in-game days, things start going weird: chests become invisible (you can click on them, they just aren't visible), farm animals invisible, crops invisible... then you restart the game, it works for one in-game day again and then does the same. My farm is not even expanded yet and already there are graphic issues.”
- “Multiplayer in this game is unplayable, plagued with graphical glitches, lagging, skipping frames, random freezes, and disconnections.”
- “The game is experiencing super lag, the mouse sensitivity is awful (I even turned it down all the way and still couldn't control the camera very well at all), and obviously the graphics are not good quality.”
gameplay
246 mentions
27 % positive mentions
67 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is characterized by a variety of mechanics, including crafting, farming, and dungeon exploration, which can keep players engaged for over 100 hours. However, many users note that the gameplay loop can become repetitive and tedious, particularly due to issues with item interaction and building mechanics. While the game offers a charming aesthetic and enjoyable multiplayer experiences, it suffers from bugs and a lack of depth in certain areas, leading to mixed reviews on its overall execution.
- “The game keeps things fresh by having additional season-specific quests and events (each game season being roughly 10 hours of playtime unless you skip days) and introducing additional areas and mechanics at various points.”
- “The gameplay is astounding, the quests are fun and cute, I never get bored.”
- “It's amazing, cute, and calming by yourself, but it just multiplies the enjoyment to get your friends in and create a collaborative farm, especially with everyone being able to take on different roles that suit their gameplay style best.”
- “Breaking down the overarching gameplay, it is, in its essence, an endless fetch quest simulator.”
- “It's cute and it can scratch that itch, but other than to make a bigger and better shop, there's not much motivation and the gameplay loop is very repetitive.”
- “The whole gameplay and the menus leave the impression of a poorly developed alpha version, nothing you should pay money for.”
stability
136 mentions
1 % positive mentions
1 % neutral mentions
97 % negative mentions
The game's stability is frequently criticized, with players reporting numerous bugs and glitches that significantly impact gameplay, especially in multiplayer modes. While some users find the issues manageable and enjoy the game overall, many express frustration over persistent technical problems, including freezing, graphical glitches, and item loss. Despite its charm and potential, the game's stability issues have led to a mixed reception, with some players unable to recommend it due to the extent of the bugs.
- “The offline mode works with little to no glitches or bugs that I have encountered.”
- “The art style is very much Harvest Moon (the newer games anyways) with a sprinkle of Hat in Time. It's very enjoyable to look at and looks pretty good even at lower settings. I wouldn't complain if shadows and grass got a slight tweak to optimize them, though the game still runs great regardless.”
- “Back then it was very fun playing co-op with my wife and building your farm and shop; however, since the version 1.0 release, multiplayer does not work for me. Whenever someone joins my game, it freezes and nothing happens.”
- “This game is exactly what I want as a farming/life sim, but it's so buggy and broken that it looks like it may never have a future as the game it is meant to be.”
- “And every time I come back, I end up playing for a half hour and quit again because the game is just as buggy as last year and the year before that. This really breaks my heart because Garden Paws has such potential to be an amazing game yet is absolutely ruined by the fact the devs won't just take some time to work on the bugs instead of adding new content.”
music
122 mentions
43 % positive mentions
52 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The music in the game is predominantly soothing and ambient, creating a relaxing atmosphere that complements the gameplay. While many players appreciate the calming and beautiful soundtrack, some find it repetitive and suggest a need for more variety, particularly seasonal changes. Overall, the music enhances the game's charm, though opinions vary on its effectiveness and appeal.
- “Beautiful, fun, relaxing game with an enchanting world to explore, neverending tasks to complete (in story mode), and a lovely soundtrack.”
- “I love this game, it has the right balance of super chill with absolutely lovely music, and plenty of stuff to do.”
- “The game has a relaxing charm about it, and the music does a great job at emphasizing that.”
- “The music was a bit iffy for me as well; it wasn't my favorite, and the music for the chests when you get close enough to one was a bit obnoxious. You had to have this on if you didn't want to miss any chests, but often times the chests just had the same thing in them, rarely anything different.”
- “The only true deficit I can think of is the soundtrack: it keeps trying to knock me out.”
- “The downside are small flaws, so in my opinion the music is very boring and some quests are completely the same with changing parameters (bring me 10 glass foundations, then 20 glass foundations, then 10 again).”
optimization
76 mentions
11 % positive mentions
61 % neutral mentions
29 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting frequent performance issues, glitches, and crashes, particularly on lower-end systems. While some users note that tweaking settings can improve performance, many feel that the game is poorly optimized overall, resembling a weak port from mobile or console platforms. There is a consensus that significant improvements are needed to enhance stability and user experience, especially for those seeking to fully enjoy the game's features.
- “The game runs smoothly and is so easy and fun to play for hours; you can easily get sucked into this game.”
- “The game is well-optimized and easy to pick up and play.”
- “Additionally, occasional bug fixes and optimization would ensure a smoother experience, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in the game without interruption.”
- “Horrible optimization on an otherwise great game.”
- “Very poor performance, no integrated graphics support, and the game even crashed in the first ~20 minutes while I was tinkering in the settings menu.”
- “My initial impression was how poorly the game was optimized; I know it's an 'early access' title, but this isn't Crysis.”
emotional
52 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
"Garden Paws" is widely praised for its heartwarming and wholesome experience, making it an ideal game for families and friends to enjoy together. Players appreciate its calming atmosphere, charming visuals, and the emotional comfort it provides, especially during challenging times. The cooperative multiplayer mode enhances the emotional connection, allowing players to nurture their farms and embark on delightful quests, fostering a sense of togetherness and joy.
- “Garden Paws is a heartwarming and delightful game that has carved a special place in the hearts of families everywhere, including mine.”
- “Garden Paws is more than just a game; it's a heartwarming journey that has provided my family and me with countless beautiful moments during the challenging times of lockdown.”
- “Your dedication to creating such a wholesome and enchanting experience has not only brought joy to my family but also countless others.”
atmosphere
20 mentions
30 % positive mentions
55 % neutral mentions
15 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its relaxing and cheerful qualities, enhanced by vibrant colors and detailed graphics. Players appreciate the balance of gameplay elements, which contribute to a wholesome and immersive experience reminiscent of titles like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon. The soothing music further complements the environment, creating a beautifully casual setting that feels both inviting and engaging.
- “Some highlights for myself personally, however, have to be the relaxing atmosphere at which you find yourself as you immerse yourself in the game.”
- “The bright, vibrant colors everywhere in the game also create a very cheerful and lovely atmosphere.”
- “The music is wonderful and relaxing, and the atmosphere is gorgeous.”
- “The graphics are actually really cute, but also very detailed with the atmosphere and environment.”
- “It's done in a very tasteful manner that brings a wholesome feeling to the atmosphere without making it feel too childlike or an eyesore.”
- “Trees and plants also regenerate to keep the atmosphere comfortably casual.”
humor
16 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its quirky and charming characters, amusing dialogues, and unexpected surprises that consistently bring joy to players. Despite some bugs affecting gameplay, the lighthearted moments and adorable interactions, such as finding characters in funny situations, contribute to an overall delightful experience that leaves players smiling.
- “The dialogues are really funny.”
- “There's almost always a new surprise, something funny or interesting that pops up, and the kids absolutely have to show me... that's a daily thing.”
- “Cute, interesting, funny, quirky and charming, this game always leaves me with a smile on my face and feeling relaxed and happy.”
replayability
10 mentions
20 % positive mentions
60 % neutral mentions
20 % negative mentions
The game offers mid-to-high replayability, enhanced by user-generated workshop contributions that introduce new questions and systems. Players find it fun and cozy, making it enjoyable to revisit.
- “It contains workshop contributions that can also contribute to the replayability by adding new questions and systems.”
- “Fun, cozy, and replayable.”
- “Its replay value is mid-to-high.”
- “It contains workshop contributions that can also contribute to the replayability, by adding new questions and systems.”
character development
8 mentions
25 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
38 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is minimal, with no significant story progression, cut scenes, or relationships with townspeople; characters primarily serve as quest givers. However, players appreciate the cute character designs and extensive customization options, particularly enjoying the ability to play as a little dragon.
- “The character designs are too cute with tons and tons of ways to customize your character's looks.”
- “I also like all the character designs and that I get to run around as a little dragon.”
- “There's no character development, cut scenes, friendships with the townspeople, or any type of skill/leveling system.”
- “They just stand there and give you quests and rewards, so don't expect much in the way of story and character development.”
- “There's no character development, cut scenes, friendships with the townspeople, or any type of skill/leveling system.”
monetization
4 mentions
75 % positive mentions
-25 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has been criticized for being a cash grab, with users noting the absence of microtransactions but still advising potential players to avoid spending money on this early access title.
- “There are no microtransactions in this game, which is a refreshing change.”
- “I really appreciate that there are no microtransactions; it makes the experience much more enjoyable.”
- “The absence of microtransactions allows players to fully immerse themselves in the game without distractions.”
- “This is a cash grab of an early access game, save your funds.”