Fruitbus Review

If you enjoy cozy games or games that are easy to pick up and play I highly recommend Fruitbus! I gave the game a try through PS Plus Game Trials and almost immediately purchased it after the trial had ended. It’s a pretty fun game that has a decent amount to offer, but that doesn’t come without some issues here and there so let’s get into that!

 First Impressions

When you first start the game you’ll immediately notice it’s a very cartoony style and all the characters are some type of animal. Your Grandma is a bear and so are you!

Right off the bat I enjoyed the art style and found the world around me to be pretty beautiful in its own way. The controls are pretty basic, but I like how they handled prepping and plating without it getting too in depth. I should also mention the intro can be a bit sad towards the end before you really dive into the game and I know it’ll hit pretty close to home for those who have lost loved ones so keep that in mind before continuing to read. With that being said let’s get into the gameplay!

 Gameplay & Story

The game starts off with you hiding behind some bushes playing hide and seek with your Grandma. Eventually she tells you to come out because you’re the best hide and seek player and she can’t find you then from there a basic tutorial starts teaching you how to move around and such. Turns out your Grandma owns her very own Fruitbus and she brings you along a majority of the time. She has you pick a few apples then asks you to make her a fruit salad so you step into the Fruitbus and make your first fruit salad. This is where the game teaches you how to prepare, plate the fruit, and serve it up all while your Grandma compliments your chef skills! After she finishes the salad and gives you a little money for all your hard work you both sit on a bench and enjoy the sunset together. The screen fades to black and it’s been some time since the intro. You find yourself in front of a gate to junkyard where you’ll see Grandma’s Fruitbus. It’s missing its tires as well as some other pieces so you have to piece it back together before stepping inside again. Once that’s done and you get in to drive off you’ll notice a letter on the floor which is a farewell letter from your Grandma. She unfortunately passed away, but wanted to leave her Fruitbus in your hands because of all the memories and of course your amazing chef skills. It’s a pretty sad part in the game and the letter definitely adds to it. Though it was sad I thought it was a great way to start off the game and it gave you a bit more motivation to make the Fruitbus thrive. I personally never knew my grandma growing up, but loss is something that I think almost all of us can relate to.

After the Fruitbus is fixed up it’s time to drive off and start your new business you’ll need to drive to a ferry so you can access the starting island. Once you finally arrive it’s time to meet the people who you’ll be making dishes for as well as picking fresh fruit for your inventory. Your goal throughout the game is to remind people how great the Fruitbus is and through serving them dishes convincing them to attend Grandmas Farewell Feast. Some customers will want specific dishes that require you to explore the island and discover new fruits. They also give you stars based on how much they liked the dish which converts into money so you can buy new tools, appliances, decorations, and even paint for the bus. There’s three different islands for you to explore and they all offer different types of produce to make new dishes in every location as well as having produce you’ve previously discovered scattered around. There’s also some stuff that you don’t acquire the typical way for instance Chili peppers are found at the top of a Volcano. It erupts every so often spitting out a few Chilis for you to collect. That’s one of my personal favorite parts about the game. I love the aspect of foraging for your own fruits and produce to use rather than just buying them. I also really enjoyed being able to decorate and paint the Fruitbus whichever way I wanted and they offer a decent amount of customization too!

 Atmosphere & Visuals

As I mentioned the art style for this game is cartoony and it looks pretty decent at times with the beautiful sunrise and sunsets. This game also offers a day and night cycle, but you don’t ever sleep so you can continue running your bus! Aside from the intro the atmosphere is very cheery which makes even some of the menial tasks enjoyable. My personal favorite time is night especially when you’re in some of the forested areas picking fruits it’s very ambient and it has some great forest sounds to make it even better.

 Problems

As with most games they don’t come without problems every now and then. A consistent issue I came across during my time playing was when I was driving around. Whenever you leave one of the towns and there’s a stretch of road about halfway through the game stutters and frames drop a bit trying to load the things ahead of you. It’s not terrible, but it does happen every time you do this so keep that in mind if you get the game. Another issue specifically with the wheat when you get to that portion of the game is when you mix it with water to make your dough for sandwiches and such every so often it completely disappears and you have to remake it. It doesn’t happen every time, but it can get kind of annoying sometimes. Other than that though I didn’t run into any other issues worth noting and had a great experience playing.

 Conclusion

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy I’d definitely recommend picking it up! It’s fairly cheap for what it offers and I think you’ll get a good amount of playtime out of it. It offers something completely different than what I’ve seen before and I really think it’s unique. Being able to drive around three decently sized islands looking for unexplored areas while keeping my eye out for fruit to stock up on kept me entertained for awhile and that’s not even mentioning the hours I racked up from progressing the main quest.