Garden Story is worth checking out while the demo is around

Protect this precious grape at all costs

I had been looking for an excuse to cover Garden Story, a ripe little adventure RPG coming to Steam next year, and today I’ve got a great one: there’s a limited-time demo from November 12 to December 21.

The Autumn Town demo runs about half an hour, offering a glimpse of Garden Story‘s produce-themed world and inhabitants, some basic hand-to-hand combat against the encroaching Rot, and fishin’ for items in a sewer. It’s essentially just the tutorial section, but I’m glad to get a peek either way.

The final version will go deeper into gardening and “fostering new friendships,” with developer Picogram going so far as to call Garden Story a “social sim.” The adventuring aspect feels well-trodden – you can dodge-roll and charge your attacks – but the characters are super cute. I want to see more of them.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one leading up to its spring PC launch.

Autumn Town Demo Available Now! [Steam]