Author: Darlinganddeath
Date: 04-26-2023
UPDATE (05-30-2023): It's been our choice to not continue any coverage for this title due to a dispute with the publisher over the rights to the game. We do not wish to support game developers and companies that would go against legally binding contracts for profit. We humbly apologize for this decision but there are plenty of other review sources available for this title should you need them.
We've been following the development for Roots of Pacha for a few weeks now and even featured it in our Top 3 Upcoming Pixel Life Sims because of how excited we were. Us being avid fans of pixel games and particularly anything with a hot new take on farming and town building is going to have us at the edge of our seats ready to click "play" as soon as the game releases, and this game was no exception. We had the absolute pleasure of playing a few hours of the game last night and we're eager to share our experience, so let's get started! It's worth noting that we will write a second and final review article once we've put in a few too many hours in the game so... look forward to that.
Steam Description:
Be a part of a thriving stone age community. Discover “ideas,” domesticate crops, befriend animals, and contribute to the growth of your village. Play with friends in co-op or explore the early days of civilization in single-player.
Discover, gather, and farm vegetables and herbs. Explore the surrounding wilderness to find animals to befriend and domesticate; fish the shallow and deep waters to see what lies in their depths; and mine the darkest caves filled with mysteries and secret powers.
Begin your journey of discovery as you develop the tools and ideas that reshaped the primitive world. Learn to process and preserve food (meat, vegetarian, and vegan options), begin metalworking, create beautiful pottery and art, unlock your clan’s spirituality, and invent new buildings to expand your village any way you want.
Game Trailer:
Story:
I'm actually in love with the story in Roots of Pacha. It has this beautiful "Brother Bear" type feeling with the blessings from the spirits, and the character's tribal dress as well as behavior. The cutscenes in the game also give you that overwhelming sense that this is the stone age between the cave drawings and the land markings, as well as how the animals and people just look a bit rougher around the edges.
While within the first 3 hours, we haven't gotten overwhelmingly in-depth with the story, they've done a fantastic job of making it a main aspect of the game with what you are experiencing. I mean, the first quest you get is to go around and meet all 27 of your clan mates and even though it gave me social anxiety to do so, you bet I merrily greeted each one and was in love with how unique they all were. One neat aspect is that when you first interact with the clan members, it shows their relation to others in the clan, including their purpose or job, with a neat little description prior to even talking to them. If only those pop-ups existed in IRL. Hey, Brian here likes cooking and fishing but hates the rain and he's not related to anyone you know, sure you want to continue with the conversation?
Jokes aside, it's brilliant. It really connected all the NPCs together in one of the most unique ways I've seen yet. I'm always worried about how a new "Pixel-Farming Game" is going to be any different than the dozens we've already played, but Roots of Pacha shines brightly in this genre for sure.
Overall, I'm in love with the story and characters so far and am excited to see how it develops. I'm already scoping out marriage prospects for which one has the highest relation to Ducky but I don't think there's any genius' that are incredible at spreadsheets and video games so I might just have to settle for whoever is super sweet and loves animals.
Gameplay:
There's a lot to talk about in this section so let's focus on the big stuff!
Farming:
So... my favorite thing so far has been punching the ground with my stone tool to "un-sow" it. Yes, with just one tool we can break rocks, trees, bushes, and the ground. It also "un"-breaks it... just in case you didn't mean to. Of course, there are tool upgrades in the game to make chopping down bigger trees, and slicing up giant boulders, more achievable. I couldn't imagine sitting there and attempting to punch down a boulder with our tiny stone tool, no matter how hilarious it would be.
The way you collect seeds in this game is interesting too. No, you don't just go buy them from your random vendor (though, you can trade for them), but rather, you walk around the forest and find the plants in the wilderness to bring them back and plant them in your own garden. Have I mentioned how much I love how this game takes old concepts and applies them in new ways? Yes. I thoroughly stripped the forest of its plants and hoarded them for myself. The extra cool thing? They do regrow in the wilderness so you can keep coming back for more and expanding your own little garden into bigger and better things. It's honestly a good thing we got a well pretty quickly into the game, otherwise my day might've been enveloped by walking to and from the river to refill my small waterskin.
Fishing:
Let's talk about how I could sit here and fish in Roots of Pacha all day. The mini-game is genius. No more casting lines and being annoyed that you keep failing at pressing A at the right time to catch your fish. Nope, we're going to go stand in the water with our hand axe and hover over fish until we're confident we can snag them. Some are pretty easy and let us catch them with ease, others will say "move away!" for risk of scaring the fish off before it gets close enough to catch. How hard the fish are to catch obviously depends on their rarity, but seriously, this mini-game is by far the most enjoyable thing I've experienced in terms of fishing games yet. It also, once again, truly fits how they would've fished back in the old days. Sit perfectly still and wait till one brave little fishy gets close enough to snag it with your hands.
Animals:
Instead of your typical farming game where you go buy animals from the local animal addict in town and wonder why they've collected enough animals to supply a few villages, you get to go out in the wild and charm the local animals with your flute. This is just such an enjoyable activity I can't even explain it. The idea of wandering into the forest and playing my little flute to impress bunnies, boars, and wild goats, is like a dream come true. Who doesn't want to be the modern-day (or stone-age) snow-white with the magical power of enticing little creatures to come back to your farm? No really... it's so much fun!
Clan Contributions & Interactions:
How you make "money" in this game is actually quite cool. You have a box that you just deposit all the junk (or not because the clan has standards and did not want my weeds) you don't want in and the clan pays you in "contribution points" for your donations. You then can use these points to trade for tools, food, and other cool things that will help you along the way.
Trade Items Example:
Donating also helps you gain prosperity points, which you'll need for vital clan upgrades such as wells (so you don't have to hike your tail all the way to the river for water), animal houses, and quality of life upgrades.
As far as interacting with your clan goes, you have your stereotypical daily interaction or conversation, and your gift-giving. Friendly tip, don't give your adopted grandfather the fish from the river next to your house... apparently, you should "know him better than that".
Oh, and yes, you can give gifts to the clan wolves to boost your friendship level so you can eventually pet them. I was sad that they didn't like me enough to let me touch them at first but surprised to see they liked my parsley plant, so now I'm scouring the woods to give them parsley (shhh don't tell them I have smoked fish in my pocket) so they'll finally let me pet them!
Characters:
As we stated in the story part, there are 27 clan members (and a couple of clan wolves) to befriend and a couple to romance as well. I absolutely adore the individual character art. They've once again done a brilliant job of giving you that stone-age feel with how their characters are dressed, colored, and even in the way they speak.
I especially adore the fact that they all have unique personalities. From hunter to fisher, to the mother of wolves, you get such a range of emotions and personalities in the clan members and I'm so glad they don't all just feel like copied and repainted versions of the same person with gender or slight speaking differences. In just the first 3 hours of the game, we have the sister who is just like her brother but trying to stand out, the mother of wolves who seems like she'd rather be sleeping in a cave than next to other clan members, the over-worked dad who just wants his kid to do their chores, and even the old grandpa who thinks his humor is "great" but we all know the truth.
They've gone above and beyond to give each character a voice and I love to see it because I'm not a fan of "empty" NPCs.
Audio & Visuals:
Audio:
Both the natural ambiance and the background music of the game are great. I'm famous for turning game music completely off because it's so repetitive to the point of mentally bothering me, but I did not have that issue with this game! They get extra props for the rain being so enjoyable to listen to. I'm a chronic "rainy mood" user for sleeping and am just obsessed with the rain in general so any game that goes through the trouble of making it sound real and soothing is one I'm proud to play.
Visuals:
Let's be honest, it's a pixel art game, so there isn't going to be too much to go into in the visual category, but I will say they're well done! The creatures are adorable, the characters well painted, and the texturing of the world beautiful. I particularly love the splash art for the characters, it definitely adds depth you wouldn't otherwise receive due to being a pixel game. Even the small things like how the contribution box opens and closes are satisfying, they truly spent time to make the game visuals make sense and the animations true to what they should be.
Combat:
We have yet to experience any combat in this game but it does appear that meat aside from fish exists so I imagine we might be able to take on some animals, however, we haven't tried yet considering we've been too busy taming them all. Our final review will include more about this once we've experienced it!
Bugs:
We're happy to report that we experienced no bugs during the first 3 hours of the game, so that's an awesome win! It's rare that we don't experience any issues on the first day of release, so kudos to Roots of Pacha for producing a finished and playable product (at least the first 3 hours).
Conclusion:
After only 3 hours of playing the game, I'm plotting how fast I can finish homework and other responsibilities in order to squeeze in as much time in the game as possible during this next week. I want to play it and I'm the type that if you have my attention after 3 hours, you've succeeded. Farming sims either completely capture my attention or have me thinking "ah yes, another repainted version of *insert random game name here*", and Roots of Pacha has my attention. From the little interactive mini-games to the thought of being able to spur "ideas" in our clan friends in order to improve the entire village, and even figuring out why there are turtle hedgehogs in the mines... I need to know where this Stone-Age story is going!
There's so much to do that 3 hours feels like barely enough to even scratch the surface, but don't worry, we're going to delve in deep with this one, so you can expect more from us about this game in the near future.
Disclaimer
Please note that we have not been paid or promoted for this review and are not affiliated with Roots of Pacha or Crytivo officially in any way. All thoughts are based on our own genuine experience of the game.
All footage is based on the Game in its current state as of 04/26/2023 and is subject to change in future patches or expansions at the developer's discretion.
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