Roots of Pacha Review: Rooting for This Excellent Pre-Historic Game (PS5)

I’ve had my eye on Roots of Pacha for a while, a farm life sim set in pre-historic times that is very similar to Stardew Valley. I was a bit puzzled at first why I got the chance to review it, since the game has been out for over a year now. Then doing some research, I found out that recently, Roots of Pacha received an update, bringing in tons of new content and gameplay for new and existing players to enjoy. I was tempted by the trailer to give this game a shot, and I was pleasantly surprised. I was actually set to start replaying a different game, but I’m glad I got into this instead. Roots of Pacha isn’t only an excellent game, but it is wonderfully addictive and impressively detailed. I’ve honestly only scratched the surface of this game and I’m enjoying every moment so far. That’s why I’m excited to share my own review of Roots of Pacha.

KeenGamer has previously covered Roots of Pacha, which reviewed the PC version last year. This review was done on the PS5 with the big update included.

Roots of Pacha is now available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 | 5, and Nintendo Switch for $24.99. It has also been made available for Xbox consoles from July 31st.

Story – Settling and Growing in a New Home

The premise for Roots of Pacha is very simple. Pacha is the clan you play with, consisting of yourself, a customizable avatar (done when you first start a new game), and a 27-member-strong group of people, all of different ages, skills, and interests. Every member is unique. At the beginning of the game, you and your clan find a new land to settle in, guided by a giant tree situated in a forest. Your home base is situated on a plain, surrounded by lush trees and a stream. The goal of Roots of Pacha is to assist your clan with settling into your new land, growing and developing new ideas to make life easier and better, and eventually finding love.

I like the fact that Roots of Pacha doesn’t have an overly complicated story to follow. It does have a setting and backstory, and a series of goals to follow, but the main focus is on the gameplay.

What also impressed me was the members of the clan. One thing I did like was that at the beginning, one of your tasks is to meet all 27 members, to get introduced to them. You do get to know them more throughout the game, as you help with tasks or exchange or order items from them, but when you first meet them, you’re given a pop-up telling you what their role is in camp, a briefing on each person.

As the game progresses, you unlock new areas that you can explore, and they’re each unique to each other. Initially, you just have the plains and the neighboring forest, but a bit later, you’ll get access to a beach and savannah. There’s also a jungle with a big stone monument that tracks your progress in the game, the discoveries you’ve made and activities you’ve done.

There are 27 members in the Pacha clan, plus yourself.

Gameplay – Amazingly Addictive Pre-Historic Adventures

As mentioned in the introduction, I got the chance to review Roots of Pacha with version 1.2 just coming out. Although I’m only a little way into the game (I have 28% progress according to my PS5) and there’s still a ton of stuff I have to discover and experience, I’ll gladly share what I’ve encountered so far and my thoughts on this game.

The first thing I should say is that Roots of Pacha is very similar to Stardew Valley (I’ve really got to play that game one day!) I’ve previously played Harvest Moon (with Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns being my favorites), so this isn’t my first experience with farming life sim games. In fact, playing Roots of Pacha brought back happy nostalgic memories for me, as I haven’t really played a game like this for years.

Growing Crops

In Roots of Pacha, you can grow your own crops, which you can then harvest in a few days. The produce you grow can then be dried, smoked, cooked, or used for tasks and crafting. As you develop new “ideas” (which I’ll go into soon), you can make this process easier with new ways to keep produce watered. To grow produce, you need seeds, which can be discovered and gathered throughout the world. As you unlock new areas, you’ll find new crops to grow. The only thing that bugged me about this is that in the wild, you can only harvest seeds, not the actual produce. I’d rather buy or trade seeds from a member of the clan and harvest produce in the wild. Still, a lot of emphasis is put on growing produce from scratch, so that’s probably just the nature of the game.

Fishing and Other Resources

It’s not just about growing crops. You can also go fishing in the streams, rivers and even the sea in one area. Fishing is like a mini-game; you hover the cursor over the fish silhouette until the meter fills up. You’ll get an alert if the fish is spooked, prompting you to move away or the fish will swim off. Fishing is quite a lucrative activity, not to mention relaxing, but it does take quite a bit out of your character.

There are other ways to get resources. You can smash rocks to get stones, chop at branches and even chop down whole trees to get wood, and slice at grass to get grass fibers. You can also shake trees to get resources such as pine cones. Other items you can find include herbs and flowers to make remedies, seashells on the beach, and mushrooms.

Crops and other resources can be used for cooking and crafting, and contributing to the clan.

Stamina

Gathering all these resources can take a toll on your avatar, as they only have so much stamina. There’s a visible meter tracking your stamina throughout the day, and makes you aware when it gets low, dipping into the yellow and then red. One thing I really appreciated Roots of Pacha doing was not making my character pass out when she ran out of stamina, which I remembered happening in Harvest Moon. The game just tells you that you don’t have enough stamina to continue with strenuous work, advising you to eat something to restore it. Otherwise you can continue playing.

Wild Animals

In Roots of Pacha, you can befriend wild animals, either to have as pets or use as mounts, getting fur, and breeding. You can encounter lots of wild animals, such as boar, ibexes, ostriches, wild dogs, wild cats, and even woolly mammoths! I was a bit wary when I first saw these animals, thinking they might attack my avatar, but they never did. Befriending these animals is also very easy; you just play them a tune on a flute. You can only do this up to 4 times a day with 4 different animals though, and most animals need this two to three times before agreeing to come back with you. It’s very rewarding though.

You can find, befriend, and tame lots of different wild animals.

The Evolution of the Pachans

I’ve discussed a bit about the clan already, the Pachans. I’d say about half the clan offer services, such as crafting tools or buildings or decorations for your home. Many of them though offer tasks you can help them complete. What I like about Roots of Pacha is this real feeling of working as a team, not just you working alone or everyone expecting you to do everything. When you do tasks, it feels like a team effort. You gather the required resources for someone, then they go ahead and develop an idea or craft a new item for you.

“Ideas” as they’re called in the game are new discoveries made to make life easier, such as farming and resource gathering, among other things. Your clan as a whole can also become more prosperous, for example, finding new ways to do laundry or lighting up the established village at night. You are expected to contribute yourself, and can reap the rewards for doing so, but are not chastised for neglecting your duties to the clan.

Prophecies serve as overall long-term goals.

Exploring

One activity I enjoyed doing in Roots of Pacha was discovering a cave in the forest and exploring it. I got flashbacks to Harvest Moon DS, going deeper into a mine and being faced with monsters. Roots of Pacha doesn’t have this (so far thankfully!) Instead, not only can you find lots of resources to gather, but you can uncover new chambers, plus there are giant statues in which you make offerings, using cave paintings to decipher what it wants. By giving the right offerings, you can unlock new abilities. For example, after completing one puzzle, you gain the ability to transform into an owl and fly around. I thought the whole cave system was very cool.

This is pretty much everything I’ve experienced so far in Roots of Pacha. I know for a fact there’s a lot more to be done and discovered, but this gives you an idea of what the game is about and how it can be easily addictive. I’m personally looking forward to making more discoveries in the game.

Exploring new areas is a favorite of mine in Roots of Pacha.

Graphics & Audio – Wonderfully Detailed & Immersive

One thing that’s really impressed me about Roots of Pacha is how amazingly detailed everything is. Graphically as well as gameplay-wise. I love how everything looks; the world and its different areas, and the buildings (inside and out). I quite like pixel art 2D style games, which was another tick for me. I also like how the different characters appear when speaking to them. I sometimes have a difficult job identifying pixel-style characters, but Roots of Pacha was quite easy, as each character is distinctive.

Roots of Pacha also has a wonderful soundtrack against the backdrop of this game set in pre-historic times. It’s actually got stuck in my head! It does do a good job of further immersing you in the time period.

Roots of Pacha was reviewed on PS5 with a key provided by Stride PR.