REVIEW: Road to Guangdong
Spend some time to unwind and see family.
Road to Guangdong is, on the surface, a game about family. As Sunny, a young woman who is grieving the sudden death of her parents, you are tasked with revitalizing the family restaurant. There is one condition, though. You must take your loving aunt, Guu Ma, and travel across the south of 1990s China, reconnecting with family and obtaining various family recipes to boost the restaurant’s offerings.
This is all done through the management of your car, at an almost snail-like pace. You must get to your destinations while managing the gas and oil levels, the quality and effectiveness of your filters and engine, and keeping up with any repairs that you might require. There are garages and scrap yards along the way to obtain supplies, and you must balance what your car needs with the money in your wallet, ensuring that you don’t get stranded.
Like life, the value is in the journey, and where Road to Guangdong shines is in the meditative zen achieved while driving. Guu Ma has her radio on, and you will pass other cars on the road, but much of the time is spent enjoying the beautiful, wonderfully crafted scenery. The minimal, almost geometric art style conveys a sense of 90s road trip perfectly, evoking the haze of family road trips from our youth.
The visual novel elements you deal with when actually interacting with the family members are a great method of achieving your goals. For a game that is all about relaxation and reflection, paying attention and listening to family, it is a perfect game mechanic for this title. You must remember things that family has told you, make moral decisions based on your goals, and ensure that respect is still upheld — you are looking for their blessing, after all.
I think that Road to Guangdong could have achieved its world-building and aesthetic goals without the car management part of the game. The story and art style shine bright, but are held back by the requirements necessary to get to your destinations. Having to earn your way to each town is rewarding, yes, but at times it can be so frustrating to manage that it probably would have been better to let players just drive.
I can’t say enough good things about the story, the aesthetic, and the end result of Road to Guangdong, but I can’t help but think that in a different package, it would have been a game on many 2020 GOTY lists, instead of an honorable mention.
Road to Guangdong is available now on PS4, Switch, PC, and Xbox One. I played it on Switch.