Palm Sugar: A Village Story Is More Than A Love Story

Palm Sugar: A Village Story is a charming South Indian adventure that initially feels like a love story, but is so much more than that.

I still remember clearly a movie from 2010 called El Infierno (Hell) that detailed in horrific detail the life of a Mexican drug dealer. It only becomes palatable to watch because of its defiant dark humor in the face of so much corruption. Perhaps Palm Sugar: A Village Story does not seem to have many similarities from the outset, but by the end I was deeply surprised at how, sadly, violence runs in that narrative just as much as it does here. It is no doubt an authentic video game from South Asia that masquerades as a meet-cute but hides more than meets the eye.

The story starts inoffensively enough. Seenu is a young teenager in love with Geeta in the fictional city of Bellampakan, South India. Like most rumors that spread like wildfire in small towns—I was born and raised in one—Geeta grabs the metaphorical bull by its horns and tells Seenu to man up.

More Than A Fairy Tale

Palm Sugar: A Village Story’s presentation is endearing from the get-go. There is a distinctly chipper Indian man narrating the beginning of the story. With his guidance, we learn about Seenu, the town, and his infatuation long before we are let free to play the game itself. As a two-hour experience at most, it works well. It feels, at least in this first impression, like a local fairy tale. Until the ugly truth rears its head.

The game’s top-down gameplay is elementary. Initially, you are asked to find grass and throw it to move cows out of the way to find Geeta. In this regard, I can say that I had never actually done that in a game before. Then, once the first date with Geeta is set up, throwing a rock at her father’s car to distract him is the next task. Mechanically, it is all run-of-the-mill. As a person who knows how much everything costs, it is chuckle-inducing how love makes us do the stupidest of things.

Life moves fast from there. I would say a little bit too fast. The relationship does not even quite start to blossom, and Geeta needs to go to the big city to study for college. When she comes back, Seenu is ready to receive her, even if for the briefest of times. On their way back home to meet her parents, she is catcalled, and this is where the game takes a sharp turn that might lose some players. Unable to let it go, Seenu grabs a stick and starts fighting back to defend her. I would not blame him, but in video game terms, I wish I did not have to go through this.

There is a markedly different atmosphere from this point onwards in Palm Sugar: A Village Story. What appeared initially like a cutesy love story with some authentic South Indian charm reveals itself as a much darker truth. After beating the young men with the wooden stick for their transgressions, the older brother of one of them comes back for vengeance. As it turns out, a drug cartel runs the town.

This turns the game into an action adventure that is unable to sustain itself. This stems mainly from the fact that the dodging and attacking do not feel responsive enough to make it a fun endeavor. For such a narrative-heavy adventure, I wish these combat sequences could be skipped to fully endorse it.

Conclusion

Trying to save your loved ones out of an inevitable fate is one of the most tragic narratives out there. At least, in that sense, Palm Sugar: A Village Story delivers. Learning about a culturally rich area that you would not have otherwise makes this video game one worth playing. And yet, the gameplay sections do not achieve what they set out to do, making them more tedious than not. At the end of the day, what I will remember about this game is how it swings for the fences to tell a story that is not often seen in media. For that reason—and its short runtime—it is enough to give a look.

Palm Sugar: A Village Story is out now on Steam.