Trash Goblin Review

Trash Goblin is (according to the Steam page) “a wholesome, cosy shopkeeping game” developed by Spilt Milk Studios. Having been on Early Access since November of last year, it has now reached its full release. I’ve fallen in love with cosy games and mechanics where you take something apart and fix it, and this seems right up my alley. It’s sitting at a Very Positive review rating on Steam at the time of writing, so let’s see if it’s worth hoarding all this junk or letting it rust into nothing. 

You play as a goblin who was given a shop to run by your close friend, and totally not a criminal, Aimon. Starting with nothing but a sponge and a wooden chisel, you’ll find and clean up trash to sell to whoever's looking for it. It’s a simple life, but it’s better than nothing. However, you end up being caught up in something much bigger involving cursed furniture, massive amounts of debt, and an auntie who really, really likes complaining about her mining job.

The main story isn’t too interesting, but I found myself endeared by its characters. The randomly generated customers you’ll meet are quite the bunch. From humans, to lizardpeople, to little mushroom guys, you’ll enjoy their designs and come to like their quirky personalities… or well, at least the unique story NPCs. They aren’t bad to interact with and have some nice dialogue. The graphics overall are quite pleasant, but I really appreciated all the detailed models for all the trinkets, and I find the bag physics really satisfying, just watching it sway around as I drag it to my workbench.

But I can’t be watching bags swinging around, I need to make money! There’s only so much time in the day, after all, so let’s talk about running the shop. Each day, you’ll be deciding what to do with the limited amount of time slots you have: chiselling, cleaning, or upcycling.

Chiselling is sort of a mini-puzzle, where you'll click on blocks to slowly reveal the item underneath. There are only two types to worry about (one unbreakable, the other can only be broken on one side), but you'll mostly be clicking away at it until you've cleared it all. The constant clicking can be tiring after a while, but you can change it in the options to holding down the button so you don’t develop carpal tunnel.

Once you’ve rescued a trinket out of its blocky imprisonment, next you’ll clean it with a sponge, which doesn’t have any special mechanic; just rub the sponge all over it until it’s sparkling. However, a clean item isn't necessarily a valuable one, so that's why there's upcycling. Upcycling is attaching clean items to each other to increase the value, with bonuses for matching sets. For example, a fully assembled Frog Doll is more profitable than selling the individual pieces. If you’re missing a part, you can order one from the TrinketPedia (a catalogue of everything you’ve ever collected), and it’ll arrive on your workbench the next day.

This is all really nice to do, creating a very satisfying gameplay loop that was difficult to pull away from… despite all the constant clicking starting to make my hand cramp a little. I was slightly mad when some items mysteriously switched around, though. That bothered me for a while; I at least want my trash to look nice aesthetically before I sell it.

Now, let’s deal with the various customers who will wander into your store. They’ll be looking for a specific item, or they only have a more general idea for what they want, like a container (e.g. bottles, lamps, or pitchers) or a prosthetic (e.g. wooden fist, glass eye, or artisan hand). They’ll also add in conditions like having the item be upcycled, not upcycled, or having it be cleaned. Now, I don’t really get why you would sell a dirty product, despite some customers not caring about the condition, because spotless trinkets give you a cash bonus, so you’re only saving a time slot.

The act of dealing with customers doesn't take a time slot, though, and they’ll stay as long as needed for you to find their desired item. You can also dismiss them, and if it’s an important NPC, you can call them to the shop at any time. They’re shockingly nice because I’m very much used to dealing with patience meters and customer satisfaction in games about running a shop. None of that is here, and it feels weird, but I’ll take it; it’s a lot less stressful on me.

Anyways, because customers kept asking for items I don't have (until I realised that you can get those items if you chisel through enough bags), I started to hoard everything I got my hands on, especially when it came to essential requests that progress the story. I needed everything just in case it became useful later on… which was probably the intended reaction. Your workshop table will be littered with different things, you have no idea exactly what they’re for until you find their matching set. When simple shelves and a bigger table feel just as much of an upgrade as getting a better tool, it has to be doing something right.

You will always be hunting for more money to be made throughout your playthrough. There are quite a few cash walls that will stop you from progressing through the story, upgrades to your tools will cost thousands, and decorations and additional conveniences (coffee to extend the day, a washing tub to clean items for you) will cost a few coins per use. It might feel daunting, but taking it slow and playing it day by day made earning every coin worth it. I recommend using the market as much as you can once that unlocks. Customers are more likely to ask for something you already have in your Stash, so you make more money than the random patrons who come to the shop. You’ll also run into the problem of not getting the junk needed to complete the request from random bags.

Now, onto performance. Trash Goblin ran smoothly for the most part, staying at 60 FPS all the way through without even touching my graphics settings once. That being said, I did run into some issues, such as crashing the first time I tried to create a new game, then crashing again when loading my save in a fresh session. Then I triggered a request without talking to the person, so I had no idea why the little mushroom man needed a human-sized sword.

As mentioned before, there is some use of physics, but it is not done too realistically. Hairpins will stand on their point and don’t know how to lay them down flat, although it is more friendly to players. If all that junk did have realistic physics, it would be more frustrating to deal with as your pile grows, rolling around and spilling off the table and such.

I quite liked Trash Goblin, naturally putting you into the mindset of a hoarder who tinkers and works diligently to amass both money and stuff. It can feel like a slog when you’re prevented from progressing through the story by cash and item gates, but I found myself coming back for more after stepping away. Heck, I’m writing this review after playing for a few hours because I couldn’t sleep… and now continuing to not sleep. Huh.

Trash Goblin is out today on Steam when this review comes out! And hey, the developers are holding a 24-hour charity launch stream on YouTube and Twitch for the Immune Deficiency Foundation. Stream the game and Spilt Milk will donate $1 for each hour streamed up to $5,000, with ironmouse there to help get the ball rolling. Check it out if you have the chance.