Grave Seasons presents a brilliant concept—A supernatural murder mystery farming sim. It seems like every game in the farming sim genre is cozy or wholesome, with any darker plotlines being relegated to bits of side lore. Grave Seasons flips the script and serves you the bloody guts of your comfort character haphazardly strewn about the ground. You can save everyone, but will you? Consider this sentence a spoiler warning for a story moment that happens, but if you’ve seen any of the trailers, then you’ve probably seen what happens. Anyways, let's dive into the preview.
I played on a prepared Grave Seasons save slot for what was probably the shortest time I had with a game at PAX East. Even with what little play time I had, the game wowed me with its art direction, mechanics, and strong sense of horror. We start off with a little bit of context, stating that it’s been a month since we moved into an abandoned farm in the town of Ashenridge in an attempt to exchange our shady past for a peaceful life of farming. Though that’s proving difficult, as the mayor of the town has been murdered by mysterious forces, and now rumors are spreading of monsters stalking the night. Everyone's a suspect, everyone has secrets, and everyone's in danger.
I started off in my home, which is cozy yet a tad bit dilapidated. There’s water damage on the walls, the rug is frayed, and there’s a mysterious “dark machine” in the basement. You know, first apartment stuff! The save file I used was already well into the first month, plus I had a bunch of crops fully grown and maxed-out energy. My pantry was stocked, and my farm lands were already lush with crops, so I can’t comment much on the farming aspect of the game. Though I can say there’s a good variety of crops and recipes in the game, so farming certainly isn’t a side thought.
Upon going outside, I was rather quickly introduced to Leilani, a kind, spectacled woman with a flowy pink outfit and pink petals decorating her hair. She’s a florist, and she runs a shop called Sunbeam Florals. I continued to wander around my property and found a run-down barn, hinting that animals can be unlocked at some point. Honestly, the property is really beautiful, and the animations and sound design bring the game to life. There’s an old wooden bridge that sits above a small waterfall, and it’s so pleasant to just listen to the water splash or to the birds chirping. This is a fully 2D game, and the tools and bobbing hair of the main character are all hand-animated in all directions. Speaking of the main character, you’ll have the option to choose their gender, hair, and skin tone.
Adventuring beyond the property, I ran into a mine, which was blocked off. Apparently, you can do quite a bit in this game beyond farming, such as fishing, mining, forresting, etc. While exploring the area, I was redirected by a developer to check out the nearby priest's house. I entered his home, rummaged around, and stole his booze. One thing I appreciate is that there’s a dedicated button for seeing all nearby interactables (I think it’s shift or tab). I proceeded to the main town area of the game.
I wandered through town meeting NPCs in various buildings. It became clear that there’s a common theme here: all of the characters are hot, some with insane proportions, yet pretty normal personality-wise. Most of the people I talked to looked like they could fit right into JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Seriously, some of the guys I met appear as though they could casually throw a truck, and I love it. Characters just have so much aura. You can give gifts to gain favor with the townsfolk, and trust is a valuable resource in games like this. I gave a few different people I ran into a handful of worms (I had a lot in my inventory), and some were more grateful for the gift than others. What people really weren’t grateful for was when I broke into their homes with my trusty crowbar. Walking up to someone’s door and using the crowbar starts one of those timing mini-games where a needle moves back and forth, and you need to click it while it’s over a sweet spot. If someone’s around, you’ll be caught and they’ll remember your transgression, but it’s so tempting to snoop. This is the kind of town where everyone has their dirty little secrets. It’s also the kind of town with a task board, so you can exchange your goods for coins if there’s someone yearning for that item in particular.
I kept exploring the town, then I got hit with a cutscene as night rolled around. Leilani is wandering around looking fearful, and then she gets pulled away and murdered by a mysterious entity. It’s not a quick death, either, as she's dragged a fair distance, giving us a blood trail to follow. Aside from her mangled corpse, we find clues scattered around the area, like a traditional wooden worry doll, some poisonous hemlock leaves scattered about, and an old town photo depicting people in front of the Mayor’s office. It’s here where my time with the game ended.
This brings us to the supernatural murder mystery part of the game. You can save everyone in the game, minus the mayor, meaning if I had started on an earlier save file, I might have been able to protect the kind-hearted Leilani from her bloody, supernatural end. You learn occult methods to counteract the killer rooted in folklore and based on who they are as a person. Looking under the hood of the game, there’s a pool of potential killers, with some characters never being the killer. One person in the pool is randomly selected as the killer at the start of a playthrough, but you can’t get the same one twice. Beyond that, the narrative changes, the victims change, and the ways to stop the killer change, so this game brings massive replayability. The killer has a motive for each victim, but this is a close-knit town, so navigating the complex web of dynamic interpersonal relationships won’t be easy. Speaking of which, you can romance people, including the killer. That can factor into the ending, as the killer’s mental state matters. In addition, the narrative keeps track of who you saved and who died.
Once you complete the story, the game ends, so you can’t keep playing on that save file, and you’ll have to start again. Though what might have been the most intriguing thing the developer said was that the game remembers what you did in your run, and decisions made in one run can bleed over to the next. There’s a bit of a meta-narrative going on.
My time with the game was short, but it was impactful nonetheless. It seems like the developers over at Perfect Garbage have created a heck of a murder mystery farming sim. I can’t wait to meet all of the residents of Ashenridge and learn their stories and their motivations, or maybe their motives. Grave seasons will drop on August 14th of this year.
