A remake of a 1995 PC98/Windows game, Pixygarden is a simulation game where you raise fairy-like Pixies. These Pixies have properties of the four elements – Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water – with many different evolutions based on their stats, more than twenty in total. You can pick from five gardens, each favorable for certain types of Pixy cultivation.
The Pixies begin their lives in a pupal state, floating in an orb. Your job is to place different items around the environment, each also with their own elemental properties, which are transferred via nearby Transfer towers that influence any nearby Pixies. Though the Pixies roam around on their own, you also can pick them up and place them anywhere, so they ingest certain elements. At any point, you can also try to evolve them, transforming them and further altering their stats. You can also alter the temperature and change the background music, which also influences the type of Pixies you’ll create
You’re not just raising Pixies for fun, though, as these little sprites have tremendous spiritual energy that terraform planets for human colonization. Once you’ve raised a fairy to an appropriate level, you can send them down to the surface and have them work their magic. You have a time limit for each planet to reach its goal, with six planets altogether. During their journey, a Pixy may trigger an event, rewarding you with an illustration, like you’d typically find in dating games. These were drawn by Mugitani “CHOCO” Koichi, later known for their mecha designs in the RPG series Xenosaga. The initial print run of the game includes a second CD that includes a video interview with him, among other supplementary material. There are a lot of cool Pixy designs presented in both these illustrations and their pixel art, which look cool and sexy without feeling sleazy, though male Pixies are noticeably absent.
Between the sci-fi setting and its elaborate terminology, Pixygarden seems complex at first, but it’s actually quite simple. You don’t do much other than placing objects, moving Pixies, evolving them, and sending them to the planet. Between this, you’ll spend a lot of time watching them do nothing but mill around. Though the game doesn’t tell the evolution conditions at first, there’s no randomization so you can continue with the same strategy until you’ve raised the pixies you want. If you’re playing on an emulator, at least you can fast-forward, a function that the game sorely needed built-in.
Links
Gnosisonic – Pixygarden
ROMHacking.net – Pixygarden English fan translation
Event Galley
