Reviews for Seedling

[xlr18]

Nice story, cool weapons, awesome bosses, this game has it all. overall a really good game that i highly recommend you play!

[TormtheWolf]

I really love this game, and there's nothing I can say that hasn't been said in the reviews already. However, a few of the larger dungeon maps where there's a lot of things going on causes A LOT of lag for me unless I kill a bunch of stuff first, which is hard to do when there's so much lag in the first place.

[Gretgor]

I love this game so much! It's been really long since I first played it, and playing it again made me feel just the way I felt way back then. Exploration, wondering, battling, gathering items and adventuring always got me going, and this game happens to do all that in a very charming way.

The graphics are simple and pixelated, but they work extremely well for this kind of top-down adventure game, and give this lovely nostalgic feel that I really like. I love the music as well, it's perfectly adventurous in the overworld, and quite mysterious and tense in each dungeon.

Another thing I really love is this game's gameplay, it's an action-adventure where you start out with a basic item set, then collect new items that allow you to fight better but also get through obstructions that you previously couldn't, and the extensive overworld maps provide the player with excellent exploration material to be done with said items. The main objective of the game is to get a seed to replant a huge tree for an Oracle that lives in a village, and in your way stand many different enemies, some slightly intrincate puzzles, eight mysterious dungeons and huge mythical creatures by the end of each dungeon. As you explore the game's map, you find many different places that you can't access, and as soon as you get a new tool in a dungeon, you're finally able to backtrack to the places you've seen before, giving you that very satisfying feeling of accomplishment and discovery.

The battle system works great, with a nice variety of weapons and ways to attack, and enemies that range from cookie-cutter harmless mushroom-like critters to huge beasts with mighty magical powers. Also, the puzzles contained in certain dungeons, especially Lacste, are pretty epic and interesting as well. Furthermore, the dungeons themselves are all pretty well designed, making the player go around the dungeon rooms in a non-linear, but simple fashion, usually involving returning to a previously visited room with a new item to open a new path.

As you run around the game's map, you'll notice a little white humanoid figure looking at you wherever you go. That thing is the "watcher", and it watches you murder each mythical creature in cold blood, and will try to prevent your evil deeds as much as possible. By the end of the game, when you're in the final dungeon (which also happens to be the first due to clever map design), he gives you an option: kill him to get a seed, or get a seed without spilling any blood. In order to get the "bloodless" ending, you'll have to do quite a bit of exploring through the game's maps and dungeons so you can find all the pieces of the "crest", conveniently placed in chests spread around the world, that open the way to the bloodless seed. That does require a bit of memory and backtracking, but it never makes it so that the player has to constantly be running through the same sections over and over again, nor does the player ever have to grind/farm for any reason ever.

The world where the adventure takes place also has some past history to it. Nothing too complex, but it sure adds some flavor to the mix. There's the statue of the Goreback creature that was killed by Sardol long before our adventure takes place, and a few other things that indicate that this world wasn't just spontaneously generated for this one scenario, but rather a world with its own history where our quest happens to unfold. I also like how the game's story plays with our cliché notion that large mighty beasts are always evil, and people who murder them are always heroes, by making it so that Sardol is not seen as a savior, but rather as a brutal killer for slaying a peaceful giant.

I found very few problems with this game in my most recent playthrough, and they are the only things that prevent it from being absolutely perfect. First of all, death is of no consequence at all: you just start over at the exact same map you were at, but at the entrance, and with full health. That makes the extra life upgrade kind of moot. Second, I never managed to figure out what exactly I did to kill certain bosses (I beat Shieldspire and the Owl by basically spamming the sword attack and hoping for the best), while certain other bosses were way too easy (the Times, for instance). Third, there's a part at Lacste where a very powerful creature shoots rocks at you, and there's no way to see them coming unless you've already taken a hit or two, and the creature is so powerful I often found myself wondering if I really had to get past it to beat the dungeon. I don't know, maybe make it so that it only starts shooting when the player is nearby would have made that part a little bit more fair.

All in all, this game is definitely an excellent work, and one of my favorite browser games of all time. It has a pleasant adventurous feel to it that is akin to that of the Legend of Zelda franchise, but in a casual, in-browser and free to play form that I really appreciate.

[Squezydoop]

Newgrounds, the birthplace of some of the internet’s greatest curators. Newgrounds is a place where if you’ve made something that you would like to share, a movie, a game, a drawing, a song, or even a written story, you’ll be able to put it up here for others in your profession will be able to see and praise your work. It truly is an amazing site with amazing people. Newgrounds is mostly known for its fan animations, shows, and obviously, its games. So why not start off our adventure into the greatest community online, with one of its greatest games. Today I would like to introduce you all to a fun little game called, Seedling. Seedling is an action adventure rpg created by ConnerUllmann, a game designer who has also made games such as, Dromad, Obsolence, and hit Quietus games. Most of his games are in the style of classic retro games that would feel right at home on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) Its in the style of some of the original The Legend of Zelda games. You explore, get a sword, get a bow, fight bosses, go into dungeons and solve puzzles. Just like a Zelda game. Now lets see if the game compares well to the game it is inspired by. You play the role of a little gray mushroom with that weird tattoo that Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender has. I’m just kidding, but it looks like that! The game starts you off telling you to go down a staircase into a little dungeon where you encounter the worst enemy of all…. the post hit knockback. Seriously whenever you get hit by these little brown mushrooms you get knocked back ten miles away! Seriously on the fourth or fifth screen in the entire game and I’m having trouble getting past two enemies. And it doesn’t help that you only have Three health points, but to give it the benefit of the doubt, it does set you back on the same screen you died on so you don’t have to go all the way back to said room. Once you finally get to the end of the dungeon you see a sword, a little sword in the ground with little green orbs circling it. You walk up to it and you receive the weapon, this sword is your best friend in this game. It’s one of the only things in the game that help you protect yourself, and when you’re running you can double tap the action button to do a dash attack. After you leave the sword room you see a chest, and inside is a yellow block, you then see this block become a part of something, a puzzle that can only be solved with the golden blocks, the puzzle pieces. We can assume that your main goal in the game is to get all of the golden blocks to complete the puzzle. After escaping the dungeon by cutting a few branches with your sword you head straight for the house, cut down the branches blocking the entrance, and enter to find the oracle. This is where you learn the main story and style of the game. The oracle tells you that you were created by the wind for the sole purpose of restoring the life of an ancient tree ,of which is starting to die, bye planting a Seedling in its pace. (*Cough* Title Drop *Cough*) And this is the part of the game which really made me excited for the rest of it. “I care not how you go about this--whatever good or evil you might do…” Oh… My… GoD! This game is an entirely open world, open ended adventure rpg. There’s no, map with symbols and numbers telling you where to go at what time in what order. There’s no annoying fairy that constantly bothers you by telling you where to go at that second only and nowhere else. This is a game where you can decide your own order and own adventure, all for free on some site created by some kid in 2006 or whatever. Not to long into the first dungeon, I spot him. Shield Spire. The first boss that I encounter. Not to hard, but a little tricky to figure out. After that I got a new Item: The Shield! Its pretty useful, whenever you’re moving the shield protects you. So now fighting enemies should be a breeze. The next dungeon I enter is Rostef, The forest Dungeon. Some enemies you encounter in this game are BONKERS. Like here in Rostef, there are these little parasites with their testacles on stone blocks that chase after you when you walk by them. They creep me out. Again in Rostef there are these little guys that look like the testical parasites but instead shoot acid out of their mouth. After defeating the boss in Rostef, Which I like to call the Time Guardians, you get the magic spell: Fire, which you can use to burn down certain obstacles such as trees, but is not a move that can attack. Now just to show HOW open ended this game is… not even halfway through the game and I accidentally walk into the final dungeon. Oh boy. This dungeon can be described in one word: Puzzles. The entire dungeon consists of puzzles, light puzzles, block puzzles, Lock Puzzles, Puzzle Puzzles, and just keeps your mind going. This is around the point of the review where I should stop. Seedling is a big game with a great plot and fun world that will want you to keep playing till the end. I won’t tell you anymore of the game or the plot, because it really all matters about how you, the player, do it. I’m sure you can experience this game in many ways, due to the open ended gameplay. Go play seedling, and all of Connor’s games. They are truly an experience that you must explore on your own.

Final thoughts: Seedling is a fun yet challenging Action Adventure Rpg that follows the formula of a familiar game, The Legend Of Zelda. With great music by rekcahdam, and a beautiful atmosphere, Seedling is truly one of ConnoorUllmann’s greatest masterpieces.

Final Score: 9.5/10 -SquezyDoop

[GrahamPeters]

You were so, so close to a perfect game. Seriously, I really loved the game. It was slightly frustrating at times, but this was because of difficulty which is an absolutely fine reason for a game to be frustrating. Apart from that, the story was interesting and the world was surprisingly immersive. It was all going well until the very end.

Who's idea was it to lock Lacste after you finished it. Because of this I was completely unable to collect all pieces of the treasure, even thought from the outset of the game it had been my intention to do so. This means I had to start a new goddamn game to collect every piece, and although I love the game, this is one thing that I cannot be bothered doing.

In the end you've made me want to recommend to players that if they want to complete the game, they should use a walkthrough, and you should be able to see that this is not a good thing. You did so well, but made such an irritating blunder, whether it was purposeful or not. Just please, please do not do it again in the future.