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Pardon the dust! This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. |
Review: Garden of the Sea
At a Glance
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How to Save and Pause:This game doesn't provide an autosave feature. Instead, you'll need to manually save your game by selecting "Save and Quit" from the game's menu. Closing the game any other way discards your progress. To pause the game, bring up your VR headset's menu. Viewing the in-game menu does NOT pause anything! Time needed per session:You can get a lot done in fifteen minutes, but it's generally more comfortable to play for forty five minutes to an hour. This is a slow paced game, after all.
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Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | No - this is a great game for Christians While there are some supernatural elements, these are extremely tame and aren't likely to be much of an issue. |
Screenshots
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/garden_of_the_sea_0.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/garden_of_the_sea_1.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/garden_of_the_sea_2.jpg)
Game Overview
Garden of the Sea is a cozy and quiet VR game about exploring islands, growing crops, and just generally chilling in a colorful world. It markets itself as a "meditative" experience where you can explore and progress at your own pace, and this isn't wrong. There are no enemies to fight, nor any hazards to be wary of. You're mostly left on your own to do whatever you want.
The thing is, there are a few things that you should do as soon as possible. This world is covered by a huge ocean, and while the main island is pretty big, you still need to fix the boat before you can see most of the game. To do this, you'll need to do some simple quests. Once all four pieces are recovered, the boat will be ready for you at the dock whenever you need it.
There are also a few other things to do around the main island. This is where the player's home can be found, as well as a shop and two wrecked structures. At first your home is little more than a patch of dirt with a crafting station, but once you've started building it up, you'll have a place to store your items and display the crafting recipes you've found. Later on, you can even experiment with cooking or decorate it with furniture from the shop.
As for the other islands, each of them offers a unique place to explore with their own unique plants, NPCs, and other surprises - like the fact that three of the islands are home to sleeping deities. To wake them, you'll need to solve their island's puzzles. Even though there's no need to hurry, you should still take the time to wake them all up. They'll reward you with special items when you do, and these are needed to repair the structures on the main island.
If you're looking for a good introduction to VR gaming, then I'd say that Garden of the Sea is a great place to start. The lack of threats and many places to explore will definitely help a new player gain their footing in virtual reality, and casual gamers can find plenty of things to do here too.
The thing is, there are a few things that you should do as soon as possible. This world is covered by a huge ocean, and while the main island is pretty big, you still need to fix the boat before you can see most of the game. To do this, you'll need to do some simple quests. Once all four pieces are recovered, the boat will be ready for you at the dock whenever you need it.
There are also a few other things to do around the main island. This is where the player's home can be found, as well as a shop and two wrecked structures. At first your home is little more than a patch of dirt with a crafting station, but once you've started building it up, you'll have a place to store your items and display the crafting recipes you've found. Later on, you can even experiment with cooking or decorate it with furniture from the shop.
As for the other islands, each of them offers a unique place to explore with their own unique plants, NPCs, and other surprises - like the fact that three of the islands are home to sleeping deities. To wake them, you'll need to solve their island's puzzles. Even though there's no need to hurry, you should still take the time to wake them all up. They'll reward you with special items when you do, and these are needed to repair the structures on the main island.
If you're looking for a good introduction to VR gaming, then I'd say that Garden of the Sea is a great place to start. The lack of threats and many places to explore will definitely help a new player gain their footing in virtual reality, and casual gamers can find plenty of things to do here too.
Points of Interest
Plenty of things to do
In addition to exploring, growing crops, and solving the story's puzzles, you can also spend your time cooking, expanding your house, fishing, and even raising pets. Of course, you'll need to rebuild the stables before you can dometicate the local manateecows and puffkins - and you can't do that until you've awoken the sleeping deities.
Post-Story Adventures
Once all three deities are awake, they'll gather together at the island in the center of the world. When you finally arrive, they'll say goodbye, give you one last token of their appreciation, and move on. This concludes their involvement in the game, but the bracelet they give you is able to open up some hidden statues. Inside them are treasure maps, which will lead you through another adventure!
Achievements
There are ten achievements to earn during your travels in this game. About half of them are earned for reaching key points of the story, while the other half are largely earned by building up your house through its multiple expansions. Not exactly inspired choices, but achievements are still something of a novelty for VR games.
Replayability suffers from familiarity
Very few things in this game are randomized, which means that the important things are always in the same place and the puzzles always have the same solution. Because of this, it's possible to rush through the beginning of the game and have the boat ready to to within fifteen minutes, which is certainly not how the developers intended their game to be played.
Concerns and Issues
Supernatural references
The only thing about this game that could be considered offensive to Christian players is that it includes "magical" environments and characters, much like popular fairy tales and other stories aimed at little kids. The sleeping deities are fairly obvious examples, but there's also an island that's themed around night time, complete with cute, floating ghost-like creatures.