Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Phoenix Labs

Developer

Phoenix Labs

Genre

Adventure, Multiplayer, RPG, Simulation

Players

1 (2-4 online)

File Size (Minimum)

1.3 GB

Release Date (NA)

Sep 8, 2023

Purchase From

Amazon

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Fae Farm is a farm life simulation with role-playing elements. The game has a lot of replay value, but it does have some hiccups along the way.

Shipwrecked

Before starting your adventure, you can create your own character. Options for body type and facial expressions are limited but everything else, such as hair styles, skin and hair colors, has much more variety. You also have the option to choose different pronouns, so it caters to everyone.

Once you choose your character, the game explains in a storybook style how you were shipwrecked on an island called Azoria. You’ll meet the mayor who lets your character stay and offers you a farm on the island. She’ll also guide you through the basics of the game such as how to accept and complete quests, grab raw materials, etc. Quests are given from various people and creatures on the island. Completing them gives you rewards that’ll help your adventures and build relationships.

Love After Marriage

In Fae Farm, you can create and build on relationships with a select number of people. Some relationships can go beyond dates and into marriage. Obviously, it’s more responsibility to take the time and effort to build a relationship with someone. For example, you can give them specific items that can boost their feelings towards you. Even so, you can only choose one to marry.

However, all that effort is front loaded. Once you’re hitched, your spouse will make an appearance outside your house by the firepit every day before leaving to stroll around Azoria like before. You don’t have to do anything else like give them items to keep them happy or even chat with them. It feels mostly pointless. It would have been great to see your spouse do more than just walk around all day. They could help you out with the farming, help take care of your animals, divorce you if you ignore them, or anything of note.

Regarding the other characters you were dating, they will happily greet you but no longer pursue you. The game does offer the ability to reset a relationship, so you can redo the dating and marriage if you want, but again, it doesn’t really add much gameplay value.

Not Enough Time in the Day

Outside of relationships, there are plenty of things to do. You can grow produce, flowers, and a variety of trees, and herd animals to make wool, milk, silk, and more. You can also breed your animals, which adds some value to your herding but not much else. You can also explore dungeons scattered across Azoria.

Most of the action involves delving into these. With twenty-five floors to explore per dungeon, they’ll keep you busy. Plus, each dungeon adds more challenges. For example, there’s one with miasma, and you’ll need to create potions to endure the miasma for hours of in-game time in order to explore. You’ll also need to problem-solve each floor to open the next one. In the first dungeon, you’ll need to find a switch hiding underneath one of the stones, but you will have to use your pickaxe to find it. Watch out for enemies, too, since they won’t stay idle. If you perish when your heart gauge depletes to nothing or you consume too much miasma, you are automatically resurrected outside the dungeon.

Each floor has a variety of raw materials such as gems, ores, and more. These are essential to collect to upgrade your tools, such as your pickaxe. Additionally, you can craft them to make gemstones to help sell for a large amount of money, which helps to upgrade your house or pay for your wedding. You will want to focus on making seals with these raw materials that will automatically open each dungeon floor. This way, you’ll save time from having to try and re-open them. Also, you can use these seals to open areas that allow you to teleport to specific locations across the island, saving more time.

In-game time goes by fast. You start off at 6am and bedtime is at 12am. Even if you are mining for materials, once the clock hits midnight, the game cuts to the next day with a summary of what you earned in cash. In real time, it feels about less than an hour’s worth of gaming. Time flies when you’re having fun. There are four seasons and an equal number of days between each. Once a new season starts, your produce crops need to be cut down and re-planted. At the end of each season, there’s a seasonal activity, but you’re not required to join in.

This is only scratching the surface of what you can do in Fae Farm, and there’s a good amount of layers to dive into if you are enjoying your stay on Azoria. The game offers new downloadable content (DLC) to explore more and do more, such as taming wild creatures and coming across a new village in the clouds.

Multi-Disappointing

Multiplayer is available in Fae Farm, giving you the option to host or join other worlds. When joining a friend’s island, you are not going in as your existing character, though. You are going in as a new character. That means you will create a new avatar, and many of your things you’re used to having, such as your inventory bag and tools, are set back to their original states. Is this done to prevent people from providing shortcuts for others, such as offering better materials to craft better tools or making money easily? Possibly, but whatever the case, that’s how it is.

Friends are not required to stay within a certain radius of each other. Instead, they can explore and do just about anything. Do keep in mind that any money and inventory on your farm’s shed is shared between you and your friends, so choose your visitors wisely. Oddly, if a visiting player leaves your world, the inventory they carry is stuck with that character until they return instead of being automatically transported to the shed. At least any key items they’re carrying can be remade or found again. Still, that’s a surprising issue that’s not yet fixed.

A Pretty World to Explore

The world in Fae Farm is colorful and designed for all ages to enjoy. Each character is unique from one to another with different personalities and looks. You’ll not only meet humans but also fairies and more. Eventually, you’ll be granted fairy-styled wings that will let you do double-jumps. You can even change the wing style, as long as you meet the right requirements to make new ones.

The game’s soundtrack is soothing and fun, fitting the game quite nicely. Whether you are exploring dungeons or traveling through the village by the shore, each melody is a joy.

If you’re pondering which platform to play Fae Farm on, you’re obviously going to get better performance on the more powerful systems. The Nintendo Switch version has a lot of framerate issues, whereas the PlayStation 5 is very smooth and looks better. The game is also available on the Xbox and PC.

The Final Crop

Fae Farm has plenty of things to do and places to explore even if the multiplayer and relationship building could be approved upon. Overall, its addictive gameplay and replay value will make time fly.

A PlayStation 5 review code provided for this review.