This is the story of a man, a graveyard and a talking skull. There is an indie game out there that has you doing exactly this: you manage a graveyard, deliver sermons and from time to time you resurrect the occasional zombie to help you in your chores. Graveyard Keeper is a pixel-art indie game produced by Lazy Bear Studios; it is in the genre of Stardew Valley for those of you who might understand the reference. I just wanted to share some thoughts on it with this article or quote on quote review since in my opinion they did a pretty good job.
The game
So plot wise the game initially does not seem too striking. You are a normal man that is returning to his beloved when suddenly you are run over by truck-chan (the favourite anime protagonist and trope in recent years) and a deity/superior being decides to let you continue on your journey and hopefully get back to your world. Here begins your adventures as a graveyard keeper in a small town where you have to make a living.
There is something to be said about the characters: the interactions between the villagers seems to always be on point and each one seems to be at least characterized in one way or another. Even if you are not a fan of pixel art, the gameplay has you doing so many different things that you will probably not even notice that you are using a 4k monitor for just a bunch of pixels. Quest after quest, upgrade after upgrade, grinding your way towards your goals, Graveyard Keeper is just a continuous flow of dopamine for each step of progress you make (and yes, this may be my personal opinion because of my monkey-brain).
The DLC’s
The extra content add even more things to do if you did not have enough with the basic game and in my opinion it is here that the game truly shines (as a side note, just look at the titles they decided to give the DLC’s – simply hilarious). In Breaking Dead has you reanimating corpses and using zombies as free labour and in Stranger Sins you will be able to manage your own bar (and make the previously mentioned undead produce wine and beer). With Game of Crone you will help a camp of refugees escape from the pursuing inquisition and in Better Save Soul you will be able to also heal the souls of the dearly departed.
All of these expansions add other quest lines, improvements to your operations and things to do; there will never be a moment to rest in peace in your quiet cemetery.
Cons
My biggest issue with the game, if you have the complete bundle, is just the overbearing quantity of things that you have to do. There are so many sub-plots and quests and so many of them that seem interesting, that when you are almost forced to go back and do the ‘grindier’ bits, you tend to lose focus. It is overwhelming if you are not a dedicated gamer. You have to understand how to prioritize, plan ahead your moves, and have a decent feel for the game mechanics.
In simpler words, it is surely not a game for everyone, but it has so many interesting features, that in the end it is all worth it. This of course if you like these types of games; it is a niche genre after all.
The alluring aspects
Finally the biggest praise that I have for the studio: they succeeded in creating a narrative fibre that is worth it (or almost if we consider the final part an open-ending or a way to still work on other expansions). Each threat intertwines with the main one and creates a thought out game. The idea got me intrigued, the dopamine that I received for the grinding was nice, but there was a part of the quests and plot that really got me invested.
As you progress through the game, you discover that you are in fact the fourth grave keeper within the last two hundred years or so; in a narrative that is dispensed only bit by bit (props to the pacing on this one), you uncover that several villagers are in fact immortal. They became eternal beings because of a pact with a deity, the same one that sent you to the village, and you slowly see what drove a florid city to its destruction and how just several people decided to try to preserve a remnant of their past lives. I don’t want to elaborate too much on the plot and how it all interweaves, but suffice to say that as a player I felt the effort and passion Lazy Bear Studios put in their game, hence this appreciation article.
If all that I said still didn’t convince you, I’ll just add that the donkey that delivers you corpses is communist (even having his own manifesto), you encounter some vampires along the way and at a certain point you ‘see’ even a certain Witcher. There are certainly several Easter eggs and comical moments in the game.
That being said, happy graveyard keeping all you wonderful gamers out there.