In Mutazione, you control Kai, a 17-year old schoolgirl who visits her dying grandfather Karoo during her summer holidays. Karoo works as a witchdoctor in the secluded little swamp town of Mutazione, a place inhabited by dropouts and mutants.Due to his sickness, Karoo asks Kai to help him tend his garden, harvesting herbs and crops to make medicine for him and help the townspeople with aches and maladies. Kai is afraid of her grandfather, who always wears an eerie bird mask. Still, she starts warming up to him, as he teaches Kai about gardening and witchcraft.Soon Kai becomes acquainted with the slow pace of village life and makes friends among the mutants.She discovers her talent for shamanism, and Karoo sees as an opportunity. He tells her she could save his life: She needs to walk the depths beneath the forest and retrieve a sacred mushroom that holds the power to heal him, but the path is dark and full of perils.You move freely within the town of Mutazione, which is a living breathing place with its own day-night cycle. Characters have motivations, routines, and backstories – they socialize, eat, play music or organize barbecues. There's a telephone in the bar, from which Kai can call home. You can plant seeds in a number of gardens, and watch them grow over time into plants that can be harvested and reproduced. Each garden can be planted with a combination of plants that generate a unique musical soundscape. The more you interact with the inhabitants, the more the characters open up and share stories of their unusual lives. As Kai's gardens grow, she grows herself as a character, building relationships with the townspeople and her grandfather. As she learns about the medicinal effects of the plants she grows, she can use that knowledge to play an important role in the village. Kai can help characters, manipulate their feelings, or make her way to the underground caverns to retrieve the mushroom that can heal her grandfather.