If you played Phoenix Labs‘ monster-hunting game Dauntless, you’ll be surprised to learn the company’s next game is a farming role-playing game called Fae Farm.
You can still take a whack and things and fight them if you wish, but this title is about fairytale farming. I saw it at a Nintendo indies event at the Game Developers Conference, and it reminded me of Stardew Valley. Game director Isaac Epp and Andy Burt walked me through an abbreviated version of the demo.
You can play it solo on the Nintendo Switch or play local co-op or online multiplayer with up to four players. The title is coming later this year.
In the game, you can chop wood and mine rocks to get resources and then use them to cultivate crops on your farm. You can grow crops and sell them and build a homestead. That part should definitely put you in relaxation mode. But the demo also showed there is a lot more to do on the enchanted island of Azoria. It’s a colorful world with cute characters and pretty landscapes.
You can explore the island and make friends with residents. You can discover fae magic and go into dungeons, ruins or find other things to do. The seasons will change and you’ll get access to new equipment or crops.
You can customized your character, choosing everything from your hairstyle to your pronouns. The game will let you tend crops and craft items. And you can infuse magic into the farming, fighting enemies, or exploring the wilds. When you’re getting resources, the game will automatically equip you with the right tool if you are harvesting grass, chopping logs, mining rocks or watering crops. You just press the A button and you don’t have to waste time switching tools.
Non-player characters can dispatch you on missions, like going out to catch butterflies. You just sneak up on them, press a button, and they’re in your net. I met an NPC named Eddie on the other side of a bridge and he gave me a fishing pole. I cast out into the water and did a circle with the joystick to lure fish. Then I pulled up on the stick to hook the fish. Sometimes they escape and sometimes you reel them in.
There’s a market square where you can put your goods up for sale overnight and then interact with street vendors to get things you need. You can go out on dates and develop relationships with romantic characters.
For combat, we went after some mischievous characters, and I used my fairy wings to help maneuver around them. They drop resources when you dispatch them. There was a dungeon inside a volcano but I didn’t have time to get through that.
Besides building your farm, you can also make your home and decorate the inside. You can add multiple rooms and floors and make it as cozy as you want. If you make it nice, then your characters will wake up in the morning with better stats with benefits to your health, energy or mana.
Overall, the game is cute and relaxing, showing that you can have both combat and farming in the same game.