Review: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, but can’t evade a frustrating final boss

I’ve seen a lot about Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, so I was excited to give this game a try. The only reason I hadn’t played it yet was because I hate games that force my phone horizontal. It’s a personal choice that I made an exception for this game. 

I found a lot to love and only one thing to dislike in this title, but it’s a pretty big flaw that may be the deciding factor in whether you give this game a try. 

If you have a Google Play Pass like I do, I definitely recommend trying it out since you have nothing to lose. If you’re thinking about purchasing it at full price, read this review before you make that choice.

The story behind Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

You play as Turnip Boy from Veggieville and as you might have guessed, you have committed tax evasion! As such, you’ve been locked out of your greenhouse until you complete a series of quests for Mayor Onion. 

You’ll travel around meeting a cast of cute characters, ripping up documents, and diving into the lore of the land. There’s an interesting twist to the story that you discover as you dive deeper into the game progression.

I assume you’ll get your greenhouse back at the end of the game, but I never got that far. More on that later in the review.

Gameplay / Music / Art

I found the atmosphere of Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion to be quaint and charming. The music is well done and the character designs are adorable. I really have no complaints about the set dressing.

With a soft art style and a gameplay design that mimics early Legend of Zelda games, there’s a lot to love about this game. 

I’ve seen a little from others on the controls not being smooth, but playing on mobile, I never really had an issue beyond having to switch between my sword and watering can. If you need to switch quickly, it can be a pain. I’m not sure if a controller fixes that issue with simple item/button mapping.

If you’re not a fan of fetch quests, this game may not be for you. It intersperses fighting elements, but the bulk of the game has you running around finding items and you’ll generally find them at the furthest point of where they were asked for.

Personally, I can’t get enough of questing-based games, so I loved that part of it, but if going back and forth to get items isn’t really your thing, then you may want to skip this game. 

Coziness

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion was well on its way to being a 10 on the coziness scale. With the chill atmosphere, the sweet characters, and the funny dialogue, there was a lot to love about Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. 

As someone who hates boss levels, I even found those to be easy to get past without little elevation in heartrate… until the last one. 

With four boss battles, I found the difficulty increasing at a good rate. Each was harder than the last, but with plenty of space to move and tons of heart containers to survive, I never had to repeat the battles on the first three. 

The fourth, however, is why that 10 on the cozy scale is getting dropped to a 6. (Coziness scores are independent of the final overall score.)

Cons

The only con, but the biggest con that drags the score of this whole review down is the last boss (not pictured). The difficulty level between the third boss and the fourth was upped by 500%. Where I could complete the boss battles in one go for the first three, I’ve retried this final battle over 30 times.

As I re-lived the worst version of Groundhog Day over and over, I got closer and improved early on. Victory seemed at hand until I plateaued. 

Figuring it was me, I caved and looked for advice online. Imagine my surprise when I was already doing everything I was supposed to be doing and that I wasn’t the only one struggling to complete this one last task to reach the end of the game.

The space you battle in is tiny and, with solid decoration assets, you get stuck in corners that almost always spell your doom. Not only that but the opportunity to recover health is nerfed in comparison to previous levels. When I tell you that this boss is overpowered, I mean it. 

SPOILER (for this paragraph only): With an attack that drags you to the boss, an attack that chases you around the map and explodes for three hearts of damage, and an area of effect attack surrounding the boss, it’s a nightmare scenario. A bigger space, more heart containers, or one less OP attack would have changed this battle for the better.

I enjoyed the game so much and to have my heart spiked like a volleyball during a championship game was the ultimate betrayal. It took the cozy vibes and it dropped them in a volcano of fury and rage.

Legend says that I still haven’t beaten the final boss. Except it’s not a legend, the final boss is a menace to doctors monitoring blood pressure everywhere.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is good and despite the evils of the endgame, it still gets a passing score of 7. However, had the boss level difficulty scaled smoothly and I had been able to complete the game, it would have been an easy 8 or 9. 

It all really hinges on that last battle for me. It felt hard for the sake of it since nothing else in the game matched the difficulty level the final boss brought. Maybe it’s because I chose to play mobile and the controls aren’t as suited to what’s required for that boss.

Whether it’s mobile controls or the devs wanting to make the player work for the end of the game, it feels like a miscalculation. The whole point of games is to beat them and if you can’t… it’s a huge disappointment. 

Overall, it was fun the majority of the time and if you’re better at boss fights than I am, you’ll enjoy the game. If you’re looking for something to be cozy with… this might not be for you unless you thrive on this playstyle.

If you want to give it a try, it retails for $14.99, but I’d personally wait for it to go on sale. Steam – Xbox One – Nintendo Switch – PlayStation 4 – Android – Apple