Birthdays the Beginning Reviews
If you're a fan of sandbox games, then you should definitely check out Birthdays the Beginning. It's a quirky, colorful and fun sandbox release with a ton of lifeforms to create and capture, giving you dozens of hours of gameplay for your purchase. There have been a couple of patches to the game to rebalance things, and the Platinum will take you “forever” since you'll need to basically keep your PS4 running for months, but don't let that get in your way since the overall experience is great.
Ironically, the only thing holding this game back is a lack of evolution.
Birthdays the Beginning is a really challenging game to describe in just a few sentences. It blends some genres and will undoubtedly be a divisive title as it is a slow burn that often provides more of a passive experience than an active one. The thing is - I find myself enjoying the time spent with it more often than not, despite some of its flaws.
Birthdays is a fantastic idea on paper, but suffers from some very poor execution that hinders the overall experience.
Birthdays the Beginning could be the love child of Minecraft and Spore, evolution merged with sandbox in its purest form. It's an interesting idea, at least in theory, but you're gonna need a lot of patience and dedication to fully appreciate it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I wouldn't recommend Birthdays the Beginning to anyone. Its biggest problem is badly done tutorial, which doesn't help in understanding this complicated game. Beside original idea for gameplay, there is not much worth seeing.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The ambitious-but-flawed Birthdays the Beginning is packed with charm, but suffers from a clunky interface and confusing systems.
Birthdays: The Beginning is a nice simulation game with a really cute art direction, which fans of the genre and people who seek a relaxing gaming experience will probably enjoy. Unfortunately it has its flaws, like poorly detailed graphics, slight frame rate drops and clunky controls, that we hope will disappear in the next titles of the series.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The game is worth it if sandbox creation games are your thing. On the other hand, if you’re like me and felt you would get this game based on your love of Harvest Moon only, that would be like comparing apples and oranges, and this may be a skip.
Birthdays the Beginning looks promising but most of the expectations did not meet when you start playing. Being their God was not easy and for me that was the only thing keeping me alive in the game, I could have died from boredom later.
Birthdays The Beginning can be a very fun and addictive game if only for a short while, the ‘beginning’ in the title feels very apt as the game feels like the beginning of something much larger that we’re just not being given in this game. The gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag as some features work brilliantly within the setting while others are straight-up broken or extremely frustrating to use. The positives of the game outweigh the negatives, but there just isn't enough of it to keep you around for that long. *It's worth noting that Birthdays The Beginning has received a day-one patch which, according to the patch notes, should fix some of the issues that I have laid out in this review and aims to improve other aspects of the game.
While Birthdays the Beginning isn’t the most hardcore god game out there, it’s still got plenty of merits. It’s a good game to chill out to, it makes you think, and its visual charms are undeniable.
I enjoyed my time with Birthdays the Beginning. It's not an action game or even much of a strategy game. It has some fun elements to it that allow players to create and relax. Finding all the life forms is a fun endeavor, and one that I think people who enjoy games like Viva Piñata and to a sense, Minecraft, will have a lot of fun with it.
Birthdays the Beginning is cute and nostalgic but there's not much depth
Despite the many obvious flaws there's a mesmerising quality to the game's artificial worlds, as the gameplay itself creates a surprisingly palatable form of edutainment.
Birthdays the Beginning stumbles on some aspects, but overall delivers an enjoyable "god sim" experience that I've been craving. While I did hope the PC port would have been better, the overall experience is enjoyable and recommendable to those with an interest in sandbox simulators.
This is for the simulation fan, or the gamer that has always had a desire to shape life and see what types of worlds they can create. Better yet, Birthdays the Beginning is perfect for anyone that has ever dreamt of visiting an alien world, and wondered just what it might like look. Because here, you have the power to make it look like anything you want. And the best part? No two worlds will ever look the same or have the same history.
Overall, Birthday’s the Beginnings is an interesting new IP from Wada-san. While it fails to capture the same magic as the “Story of Seasons” series has managed to, he was still able to create a game that could be seen as (almost) as relaxing. Despite some control issues and fighting with the game’s own mechanics, I found myself really enjoying this game.
Birthday the Beginnings may be fun but it also has a very plane gameplay. A game that may be fun for the usual management players, but with a very modest visual look.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
For every novel aspect the game brings to the table it fumbles in delivering a meaningful and engaging experience. It is interesting to experiment around with the massive number of species and create a beautiful world but it all becomes repetitive rather quickly. Considering that the developers already planned out a sequel we can only hope they will be able iron out its issues and add everything they initially wanted.