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0 Spilt Milk Studio’s Trash Goblin is a wholesome game where we play as, well, a Goblin who runs a tinkering store. We will meet a cast of characters, all while uncovering new items to sell. The game is available now on Steam for £16.75. And if you wish to further support the developers, then a Founders Pack is out for an additional £4.29. This pack comes with several cosmetic items for the shop.
Why Sell The Trinkets When You Can Keep Them?
Thumb Culture first covered the news of Trash Goblin back in October last year announcing it’s launch into Early Access. It’s now had it’s full release and I am ready to play. Let’s get this review started!
Gameplay
There isn’t a deep storyline for Trash Goblin. We are just the owners of a newly opened shop, all thanks to our business partner Aimon and Aunty. Later in the game, Aimon will allow us to purchase upgrades from him. While Aunty will continuously supply us with Trinkets from her delving. Our shop has four sections; service window, bed, upgrade stalls, and the most important, the workbench.
The workbench is where we’ll spend most of our time uncovering new trinkets. This is the main gameplay loop for Trash Goblin. When uncovering a new trinket from the sack, you’ll be able to clean it. This will make the item worth a little more and increase the sale, so it’s worth doing. Clean trinkets can also be used with the Upcycler tool, which allows you to merge items together. This can get weird later on when mixing items.
Customers Aren’t Always Right.
There are two types of customers in Trash Goblin, Named and Strangers. Named characters are the more interesting folk who visit the store and will have a fun story to go through. My favourite being Donoval, with Jaq in a close second. On the opposite side are the Strangers. These are simply passers-by whose only purpose is to buy from you. Or it would be if I ever had something they need when they actually visited. I’ve told more strangers to go away in this game than in real life!
Tool Time
Trash Goblin only has three tools to use, but each can be improved. Firstly, is the Chisel which is used to chip away at debris covering the item. Secondly, is a sponge used for cleaning, and finally the Upcycler. Which, when improved, will allow you to attach more items to a trinket. Not so much a tool, but more so a service, is the Hullifer Delivery system. Once per day it allows you to order something from Trinket-Pedia book that you’ve already discovered. Great, when needing an item for quests.
Graphics
Trash Goblin is the perfect blend of cosy, quaint, and vibrant all at once. I love the designs of some of the fantasy characters, and both the graphics and character portraits look superb. Everything from the lighting, the colour palettes and the gentle music in the background gives off a homely vibe. Even some items look really cool, such as the Lich Crown and the Dice Box.
However, there’s plenty of fun in the visuals too. I particularly love the satisfaction of chipping away at a certain block on a trinket and watching all the others attached crumble away in succession. Although both chiselling and cleaning are changeable to a hover mode instead, I prefer doing it manually and find both fun and satisfying to watch.
Longevity
I’ve sunk around 14 hours into Trash Goblin so far, and there is still things for me to do. Like unlocking the last two Steam Achievements that elude me! The game has 16 Steam Achievements in total. Some of these you will gain simply from playing the game, while others are more story related. Even once you have all the achievements this is a game where you can tinker away for an hour or two though.
Final Thoughts
My only real complaint about Trash Goblin is the mechanic of selling to the Strangers (non-named characters). As I mentioned above, I almost never had something someone wanted. It would have been great if players could have placed stock, similar to Moonlighter or Amber Isle. Although the market you’re able to go to does help with this issue a little. Any minor bug issues I did encounter during my playthrough were all in relation to the trinket bag, and they were sorted easily by a reload of the game.
Overall, Trash Goblin succeeds in being a casual game. Its gameplay is fun, simple, all while letting you go at your own pace. I confess there weren’t a lot of characters I liked, but on the other hand, there weren’t any I hated either. Which for me adds to the whole running a store vibe.
I award Trash Goblin the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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