From Growing Grass Studio, the developer behind Elven Legend, comes Meadow Story – a new family-friendly Time Management game. The Halfling tribe was leading a peaceful life until a volcanic eruption destroyed their hometown and their king ran away with all the town’s treasures. As the mayor of the town, can you restore happiness and peace to the kingdom?
At first glance, Meadow Story is not that much different from the plethora of Time Management titles in the market. However, the game thrives with small details. The whimsical and vibrant mood of the game allows it to incorporate a variety of creative and cute stations and tasks. One of the more prominent features is the “Happiness” factor, which can be achieved by installing gardens to houses, hosting performances, and more. This reminds me of Playrix’s classic Time Management series Royal Envoy, which effectively employed a similar feature.
Meadow Story offers three gameplay modes; relaxed, normal, and professional. On the normal mode, I found the overall challenge level to be relatively low. Funnily enough, the challenge level sort of rockets with the last 10 levels of the game’s 40 levels. This disproportionate difficulty progression makes some of the earlier levels rather stale despite the game’s various quirky elements.
Production wise, Meadow Story delivers with bright and cheerful sights and sounds. The colorful graphics do get a little overwhelming from time to time, but the quality is indisputable. While the game utilizes a number of different musical scores, some of the more upbeat ones can feel repetitive and borderline distracting. I found myself turning down the music volume more than I usually do.