Birthdays the Beginning Reviews
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
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.
Ironically, the only thing holding this game back is a lack of evolution.
Birthdays the Beginning begs to be enjoyed by a particular gamer, which could hold it back from non-simulation fans to give it a try. I would have enjoyed more interaction between me and my organisms, but the game draws the line of interaction with the world to merely altering the land. With that said, the systems introduced in the game work well for a game that is supposed to the “beginning” of a much larger idea. I'm excited to see where the series goes moving forward as well as the incredible environments that are sure to come from the community.
As a simulation, Birthdays the Beginning is a fairly unique approach to the open-world sandbox simulator. It does a fantastic job of demonstrating how important it's to maintain balance within an ecosystem, in order for life to thrive. It also helps to drive home how even the smallest of organisms can make a gigantic impact on the world around them. The main issue is that the campaign is so focused on introducing new mechanics that it seems to lose sight of this unspoken thesis. In turn, this leads the player on a mission to track down answers that should instead be provided to them at a glance. Due to this, it's hard to shake the feeling of being thrown into the deep end of an algae coated swamp, without a life raft.
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.
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.
Birthdays: The Beginning is a cute and clever world-builder where simple actions can have deep, complicated results.
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.
Even though certain design elements aren't as streamlined, fleshed-out, or user-friendly as they could have been, part of me is just thankful Birthdays even got greenlit. Niche as it might be, I've wanted something like this for years, and despite my admittedly high expectations, I still came away impressed. I hope the game is able to find an audience, because it so clearly deserves one.
Birhdays: The beginning is an incredible game with many hours of fun to be had and a ton to see and do.
Despite the sometimes clumsy controls, though, Birthdays is still an incredibly easy-to-play game that serves as a great go-to for a quick bit of gaming. My entire family was intensely interested, and it became something that we got to explore together.
Properly articulating what Birthdays means to me is difficult. It is the embodiment of the pure joy of gaming, where I can sit down and simply immerse myself within this space without feeling pressure or tension. There's nothing to "win," but everything to enjoy while, at the same time, the game is pointing out, in its very innocent and heartfelt way, a very simple but so important environmental message.
It comes so close to being something I love and then it has a hollow core.
The designer behind Harvest Moon returns with a game that frustrates as much as it fascinates.