Roots of Pacha review

Story of Seasons but set in the Stone Age

Farming simulations habitually depict the life of an individual. Many agrarian-centered efforts begin after you inherit a homestead and continue well after you’ve courted a significant other and perhaps even raised some children. But Roots of Pacha’s scope is much larger, stretching in time from the Stone Age all the way into the Bronze Age. Outside of the Civilization series, few games attempt to depict this vast span of human history, making Pacha feel distinctive.

Roots of Pacha’s other deviation from the norm is a shift away from the individualism of its peers. Most genre entries have some kind of container where you can mail resources, crops, and other commodities, earning yourself a tidy profit. Here, there’s a community bin where you’ll earn points for everything you share with your clan. Although you can use these points to acquire your own tools and supplies, you’re also contributing to a pool that can help progress your entire village. Pacha supports cooperative play with an online partner. But even if you play by yourself, the game attempts to make you feel like a part of a larger community.

Advance Humanity by Finding and Making Things

A sense of collectivism is rooted in the large number of NPCs who inhibit Pacha’s different biomes and neighboring areas. Pleasingly, the game provides a bit of context before you speak with them, with a pop-up window detailing your relationship, their occupation, as well as links to other relatives. Beyond the usual bit of expositional chatter, your fellow villagers also generate ideas.

Essentially, these are fetch quests, but competition offers some discovery that frequently opens up additional innovations. These advancements produce a sense of satisfaction. Sometimes, they’ll open up new possibilities for play, like angling for new varieties of fish in deeper bodies of water. Others ease the burden of your daily routine, such as an irrigation system removing the inconvenience of daily watering. At the very least, yields and efficiency will increase, which captures the same sense of fulfillment as stat building in a role-playing game. Sure, it’s pleasing to transform a derelict farm into a burgeoning agri-empire. But advancing through Roots’ timetable of human civilization feels more far-reaching and ambitious.

Like some of the modern Story of Season games, NPCs follow their own idiosyncratic schedules. Mercifully, Pacha doesn’t make you memorize their schedules or consult a FAQ. With a few button presses, you can see where any other villager is. While some might find some fault when switching between tools and your seed supply, the rest of the game’s interface is smartly designed. At present, there are a few bugs that can lead to the occasional crash and animals who become inadvertently shrouded in tall grass. But the eight patches applied to the game since launch demonstrates that the developer is monitoring issues.

Agronomy and Autonomy

Given the game’s emphasis on human advancement, gratification might not occur straightaway with Pacha. While there’s an in-game todo list of things to accomplish, it’s easy to fall right into the familiar rhythm of farming, socializing, romancing, cooking, and building up the land. For better or worse, developer Soda Den adopts a hands-off approach, leading you to stick with the customary farming sim pursuits. Early on, my daily contributions of smoked fish, stone, and wood didn’t make it seem like I was pulling my own weight. But alas, Roots of Pacha was patient, allowing me to underachieve until I realized that I needed better tools for a more sophisticated output.

However, if you elect to linger in the Stone Age and you’ll miss Pacha’s elaborate storytelling. Naturally, you’ll hear the requisite wisdom of your fellow villagers, who provide an incessant stream of sage advice and some flavor to the context. But what’s more interesting is when their ambitions overlap, revealing a tapestry of intertwined character arcs. Astonishingly, Roots of Pacha can feel like an authentic world, where villagers don’t just exist for you to speak with. When their pursuits and perspectives become evident, you just might feel a deep-rooted sense of motivation to help this community. All too often, the genre is fueled by my own self-serving interests or the desire to get married.

Yes, you can forge a union and produce offspring. But oddly, Pacha forces monogamy on you, so get rid of any hopes for a harem and a pack of hardworking children. But there are very few limits on the number of faunae you can provide for. Pacha offers a remarkable reproduction of animal domestication. At first, creatures will saunter about, seemingly disinterested in their bipedal cohabitants. But when you pick up a flute, a simple music rhythm mini-game gradually wins their affection. Soon, you’ll be able to hug them and give them a bit of shelter and a steady meal. In return, they let you ride them, which increases your rate of traversal.

Conclusion

What’s truly fulfilling about Roots of Pacha is the lesson of how everyone plays a role in the development of civilization. Advancement is often attributed to individuals and I won’t soon forget the village who discovered that grain could be converted into alcohol. But seeing that innovation fuel additional ones elevates Roots of Pacha over most of its peers. While Soda Den didn’t invent the agronomic sim, adding a sense of community and a representation of human development is the kind of innovation the genre truly deserves.

Roots of Pacha was reviewed on PC with review code provided by the publisher.