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Garden Witch Life is being released today on the Nintendo Switch. It’s an indie title made by a small development team at Freetime Studio and published by SOEDESCO.
SOEDESCO contacted me two days ago, asking if I would like a review copy, and I just had to say yes. It was the first time I was offered anything for review in my seven years of running this small blog, so I eagerly accepted and was ready to play the game extensively to create the best review I could.
However, I stopped playing after almost four hours of game time, which is insufficient to write a proper review. However, the lack of overall polish and the visual bugs on the Nintendo Switch version were too apparent for me to keep going.
That said, there were some enjoyable aspects of my experience, and I want to focus on those as well. So, with all of that in mind, here’s my Garden Witch Life review for the Nintendo Switch.
The Setting
Garden Witch Life aims to be a cozy life simulator where you play as a character whose life didn’t go as expected and who is given a chance to start anew on a remote island filled with quirky characters.
On this island, you’ll find an abandoned treehouse you can decorate to your liking while growing crops in the surrounding land and caring for small magical creatures.
This is a typical setting for a game of this genre, and it always hits the right notes since it’s something we can all relate to, especially if you need a dire change in your life.
Gameplay
As a life simulator, Garden Witch Life offers many familiar mechanics such as character customization, growing crops, chopping trees, picking rocks, crafting, cooking, placing decorations, and interacting with a lovable cast of islanders.
I loved how organically you unlock new items to craft and recipes to cook simply by exploring, interacting with new materials, or purchasing items from the General Shop. This game loop kept me engaged for most of my playtime, as I was always trying to unlock profitable crops to fill my pockets.
And, as I mentioned, the islanders were well-written, I loved their design, and I enjoyed speaking with each of them, from Aurel to May, and my favorite, Rud (some say he’s magnificent)!
However, not everything was perfect. My first major complaint about Garden Witch Life gameplay is the movement speed. Even when running, it takes a while to get from my house to the town. Plus, finding where the townsfolk are when you first arrive can be difficult since the map doesn’t show your current location.
Also, some characters only appear at certain times of the day, and there’s no information about this anywhere. I spent a good hour just trying to figure out where the angsty teen Gimmi was.
Despite this, while tending to my farm/garden, I was immersed in the cozy experience the game was trying to offer and I’m now a proud magical potato farmer.
However, I’ve encountered several problems that made me not want to play this game after roughly 4 hours of gameplay. which I’ll discuss next.
Visuals and Performance
First and foremost, in this section, I am not criticizing the art style or character models. This is purely about the visual bugs and performance issues with the Nintendo Switch version, which aren’t great.
The first visual bug I encountered was the moment I arrived on the island and decided to sit near the beach. The result should have been seeing the character’s point of view, but instead, the textures, like the eyebrows and other lines of the character model, were visibly out of place.
Then, there are several missing floor textures. At first, I thought this was intentional, a magical effect, as I entered this great magical library tree where the floor showed nothing but the sky and clouds. But I kept playing and found several more instances of this bug.
Still, I could have overlooked these issues if the performance was solid, but unfortunately, it wasn’t, especially when it rained. Every time you leave a building and it’s raining, the game struggles to load all the elements, resulting in major slowdowns. Even when it wasn’t raining, there were constant frame drops just from moving the camera to look around.
I’ve compared the Nintendo Switch Version with others, such as the PC version from videos I’ve found on YouTube, and the difference is very noticeable. In my opinion, the Switch version should have been delayed and given more time to polish.
Conclusion
I didn’t want to write this review because I was afraid it might hurt the small dev team behind the game. However, it was my first review code, and I had to be professional and give my honest opinion, as always.
As it stands, Garden Witch Life, despite having cozy and immersive elements that allow you to live a magical, peaceful life, is brought down by the visual and performance issues that make it feel like an unfinished product at times.
I truly hope there’s a patch in the future to fix these issues since I have this hitch of seeing what else the game has to offer. If that time comes I’ll gladly change this review in a heartbeat.
I hope this Garden Witch Life review was helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know!