As game development teams get smaller, leaner, and the indie scene continues to grow, we’re hearing from voices in gaming that didn’t have access to the microphone before. Palm Sugar: A Village Story is set in a rural Indian village and plays out like an action RPG, with its story taking up most of the playtime. It showcases familiar themes in a different setting and culture, and that piques my interest.
We play as Seenu, and the opening scene in the game has Seenu waiting for potential release from prison for killing someone. The game we play takes place as a flashback, explaining how events transpired and walking us through a love story gone horribly wrong. Some cutscenes are voice-acted, in a slightly stilted way, and the adult themes of murder, gang violence, and poverty sometimes awkwardly clash with its comedic twists. It feels “of the culture”, where dramatic beats smash in without subtlety. I personally enjoyed it, in part, because of its whiplash tonal bends.
Between conversations with key characters, you’ll be throwing mangos at people, or in the eye view of animals to move them out of the way to unblock roads and gateways. Sometimes, you’ll be pulled into real-time fights with enemies that feel closer to a side-scrolling beat-em-up than an action RPG. Battles with your evil drug lord gang, who are set on ruining you and your family and friends’ lives, replace mango-throwing with a slingshot. Gifted by your true love Geetha, you can attack enemies from afar. Melee combat works by attacking with a giant stick and then rolling away before you get punched back. Fights can often be cheesed by using your slingshot and staying out of range from many enemies, who then do very little to attack you back. Just make sure you have enough rocks (which spawn regularly on grass verges) to do battle. Melee attacks are always riskier, but require less skill to pull off.
My overriding feeling of Palm Sugar: A Village Story is one of missed opportunity. The developers have said I seem to have played an early Playtest build, and what I’m about to share should be fixed, but this is the review build I was sent. During my playthrough, I repeatedly stumbled into cutscenes that refused to trigger. I was able to walk around the scene, over characters, and sometimes perform attacks that didn’t land on anything, but the cutscene simply wouldn’t start. That would require a restart back to the beginning of the story chapter, and I’d hope it wouldn’t happen again. Invariably, it did. I erased saves, reinstalled the game, tried again, and would have a different cutscene get stuck. It was infuriating. I hope this has been solved, but as it hasn’t on my build of the game, I have scored the review based on my experience.
If the technical issues have been resolved, as the developer states in a pinned message on the video review, then I’d probably rate Palm Sugar: A Village Story either a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. The story and setting carry simplistic fighting and puzzles in a charming, cinematic way. There are some twists and turns in the story that I personally enjoyed, and it crams everything into around 2 hours, feeling like a feature movie. I hope to experience more stories from the region in the future.
A review copy was provided by the publisher. Palm Sugar: A Village Story is out on PC.
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