Longleaf Valley: Merge Game

About

"Longleaf Valley: Merge & Plant" is a puzzle game that offers a phenomenal story, exceptional game mechanics, wonderful visuals, and compelling music. However, the game is marred by frequent ads, grinding, and bugs. Despite its flaws, it positions itself as a game that allows players to make a difference, possibly through in-game actions or charitable contributions. Overall, it has great potential but needs polishing to provide a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

92%

Audience ScoreBased on 6,117 reviews

story240 positive mentions

monetization363 negative mentions

The game is engaging and fun, with an easy to follow yet interesting storyline.
Players can plant real trees by playing the game, contributing to environmental efforts.
The game offers a generous amount of energy and allows for enjoyable gameplay without constant ads.

The game often becomes cluttered with event items, making it difficult to progress.
There is no cloud save feature, leading to loss of progress when switching devices.
Some players experience issues with ads not providing rewards or causing the game to crash.

story
446 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
45%
2%
The game's storyline is generally praised for being engaging, cute, and centered around themes of environmental conservation, such as restoring parks and planting real trees. However, many players express frustration with the slow progression and the need for excessive resources to advance the story, leading to feelings of stagnation and a sense that the game may prioritize monetization over narrative development. Overall, while the art and concept are well-received, the pacing and resource management issues detract from the storytelling experience.
- “The game is engaging and fun, with an easy to follow yet interesting storyline.”
- “I love the storyline of this game so much, I'm rooting for the gay vet romance!!”
- “The story is cute, the game runs smooth, and it's nice to have so many free items for watching ads.”
- “The storyline is finished, events just endlessly repeat and the issues around recovery and cloud storage or saving data mean you can invest thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars to have to start again if your device breaks or is lost.”
- “The storyline is cheesy and slow-paced with how little progress in the story you make for every achievement.”
- “It's that right off the bat, it's difficult to move ahead without either purchases or waiting days to complete event levels or parts to the storyline due to the number of leaves needed to be collected for each task... which loses people's interest and attention quickly.”
monetization
423 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
3%
86%
The monetization strategy of the game is largely based on optional ads that players can choose to watch for in-game rewards, which many users appreciate as it avoids intrusive advertising. However, there are significant complaints about the reliability of these ads, with issues such as ads not closing properly, crashing the game, and not providing promised rewards, leading to frustration among players. While some users enjoy the ability to play without spending money, others feel that the game is increasingly leaning towards a cash grab model with a growing emphasis on in-app purchases and problematic ad content.
- “Other games in this genre clearly just want your money, but though this game does have in-app purchases, you can easily play without them if you want.”
- “Although it has the option for microtransactions, it's not pay to win.”
- “Fun enough even if you don't have the money to be spending on a bunch of in-app purchases (but definitely fun stuff if you do have the money).”
- “I loved the game and didn't mind watching ads to get extras, but recently I get ads that will not close, the ad for Township being one of them.”
- “However, the lack of new content and now I'm getting ads that I can't close out of has forced me to change my rating.”
- “I was really enjoying this game, (would have given it 5 stars) until all of the ads (watched to get rewards) started crashing the game.”
graphics
237 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
27%
1%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beauty, cuteness, and engaging art style, often described as vibrant and reminiscent of children's storybooks. Players appreciate the calming visuals and the game's overall aesthetic, which complements its environmental theme of tree planting. While most reviews highlight the graphics as a standout feature, a few mention that there is room for improvement in certain areas.
- “Beautiful graphics, great story, long gameplay, and real-life tree planting.”
- “The graphics are beautiful, love the concept of cleaning up nature, planting trees in real life, and a cute story.”
- “Amazing graphics and you're helping your environment in real life by playing!”
- “It's apparently an ASMR game, but the visuals are gross and off-putting.”
- “Only been playing for about 20 minutes, so far it is ok, and no constant ads jamming up gameplay... graphics are kind of dull and boring.”
- “Cute idea but repetitive with terrible graphics.”
gameplay
118 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
53%
3%
The gameplay is generally well-received, with many players enjoying its simple mechanics, engaging storyline, and beautiful art style. However, some users express frustration with energy limitations, tedious crafting processes, and interruptions from events, which can hinder the overall experience. Despite these issues, the game's unique aspect of contributing to real-world tree planting adds a meaningful layer to the gameplay, making it appealing to many players.
- “The gameplay is fun, events and leveling up give tons of in-game rewards, and there are no intrusive ads.”
- “Love the art style, cute little storyline, and a chill and rewarding gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is pretty addicting and the story is interesting.”
- “Too many obnoxious interruptions to the main gameplay loop for me to rate this any higher.”
- “Gameplay feels very limited even early on due to low energy values and the volume of low level merges even from higher level sources.”
- “It's a great idea and a pretty looking game, but as far as the gameplay goes it just feels like there's an extra two stages of useless merging compared to other merge games, and so everything just takes so incredibly long to do.”
music
75 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
53%
4%
The music in the game is generally described as calming and relaxing, enhancing the overall aesthetic and gameplay experience. While many players appreciate the soothing background music and its contribution to the game's peaceful vibe, some criticize it as bland or generic, expressing a desire for more variety and additional sound effects. Overall, the music is seen as a positive aspect, though there are calls for improvements and more options.
- “The music and vibe are unmatched in the merge game world.”
- “The music is so relaxing, and the fact that you actually do conservation makes this the best merge game I've ever played!”
- “This game is so relaxing, and the music is so nice.”
- “The music is pretty bland and just feels like generic royalty-free music.”
- “However, the game feels comically unfinished; I was unable to use sound or music options, and it's overall very basic in look and feel.”
- “No sound effects/music yet, hoping it will be added soon!”
grinding
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and frustrating, particularly due to the overwhelming number of events that clutter gameplay and the slow progression mechanics. While some appreciate the structured goals that allow for varied progress, many express dissatisfaction with the time-consuming tasks and the need to repeatedly start from basic items, leading to a sense of stagnation and a lack of rewarding experiences. Overall, the consensus is that the game has become too grindy, detracting from its initial enjoyment.
- “The 7 day events are ridiculously tedious.”
- “Was great at first but there are too many events that take up too much board space in a stressful way, and the further you get (I got to level 74) the more tedious tasks get and the value of leaves you earn can be way lower than the time and effort (especially things like sewing items).”
- “Also, losing everything and then getting it back next week is just tedious.”
stability
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
89%
The stability of the game is a significant concern among users, with frequent crashes, freezes, and glitches reported, particularly during gameplay and ad interactions. While some players appreciate the game's fun elements and acknowledge ongoing improvements, many express frustration over unresolved issues and the impact on their gaming experience. Overall, the game's stability is inconsistent, with a notable number of users experiencing major disruptions.
- “Great game for all ages and no glitches.”
- “The app crashes and closes out, the lily pad game constantly freezes, forcing me to completely exit and reopen the game, losing all of my items in the process, not to mention the constant pop-ups now to spend money.”
- “One star for glitches to alert devs: watching ads for rewards completely freezes the game, and even when you watch the full ad, it doesn't give you the reward.”
- “Great game so far except it freezes up whenever I get an item in a bubble and won't let me tap it or anything.”
emotional
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game to be a deeply emotional experience, highlighted by its heartfelt storyline, beautiful music, and stunning visuals. The incorporation of real tree planting adds a meaningful layer, making the gameplay feel impactful and wholesome. Overall, the game is celebrated for its relaxing and uplifting atmosphere.
- “The story, the great cause behind the game (planting real trees!), and the beautiful music and scenery make for a heartfelt and enjoyable experience!”
- “The game is super wholesome, and I like that I'm not just restoring a fake landscape, but actually planting real trees as well.”
- “This game is so wholesome and relaxing.”
optimization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, players praise the game's optimization, noting that it runs smoothly with minimal glitches and ads. While some express a desire for more energy and quicker progress, the general consensus is that the game performs well and provides an enjoyable experience.
- “I love this game, it runs smoothly, and the merges are nice, simple, yet a little challenging to clear the whole board to be less cluttered. I imagine as time goes on, I will get the items needed to clear the patches and/or make more mergers.”
- “It takes some time to make progress, and I would like to have more energy, but the game runs smoothly with very few glitches and not a lot of ads!”
- “On top of that, it's a great merge game with lots of events, the option to watch videos for energy, and it runs smoothly.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with players finding it fun and amusing, particularly appreciating the lightheartedness of the "funny little tree" theme. The combination of engaging graphics and environmental themes adds to the overall charm and humor of the experience.
- “Fun and funny!”
- “I love this funny little tree game; it has pretty graphics and helps the environment :)”
- “The story is good so far and a little funny.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is consistently praised for its exceptional quality, with users highlighting the music as a standout element that enhances the overall experience.
- “The music and atmosphere are amazing.”