Product Info

Platform

Switch, PC

Publisher

Team17

Developer

Spellgarden Games

Genre

Simulation

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

501 MB

Release Date (NA)

Aug 7, 2025

Purchase From

eShop

Steam

Ritual of Raven is a cozy simulation game with a unique style, from its design to gameplay. However, it may not be a hit for everyone due to some of its gameplay setups.

Trouble Brewing

You find yourself transported into a new world through a mysterious portal. Luckily, a local witch takes you on as her apprentice while she searches for her missing familiar, Flufferstoop. However, things quickly change when your teacher is sucked into another portal, leaving you alone with your own familiar, named Raven. Now, it’s up to you to explore this new world, assist the locals, and restore the portals to normal. It’s a challenging task, but some “witch” has to do it.

The storytelling in the game is relaxed, but the pacing between events can feel slow. The tasks assigned to you by the residents seem too easy, and the quests that drive the story forward can sometimes feel unnecessary. For instance, you may be asked to speak to someone, only to have to talk to them again before receiving an actual task. Some quests involve gathering specific ingredients or talking to other characters, which can make you feel limited and reduce your excitement for the farming simulation aspect of the game. If you rush through the dialogue, you might miss important information about what to do next. Overall, it seems like the game could benefit from speeding up the quest process to keep players engaged.

Cards for Crops

You won’t be getting your hands dirty, except for gathering materials. Instead, players will use tarot cards to initiate actions with a Construct, a mysterious living object. You can give it a set of actions, such as moving a certain number of tiles in a designated area, plowing, planting seeds, watering, and more. To create actions on more than one tile, you’ll need to be creative with your tarot cards by adjusting the movement number and direction. Additionally, you can use an object to set a designated field to save time covering multiple tiles. Players can use multiple Constructs to tackle different areas of agriculture, almost like setting up a program to simulate, which is a unique approach. This level of detail creates a learning curve for those accustomed to straightforward actions.

But that’s not all. Moon cycles also play a factor in your crops’ growth. Some crops grow in different ways, and controlling the moon phase is based on when you go to sleep for the day. However, the game’s tarot card option can speed up the process of growing your crops, giving players control over when and what they want to grow and harvest.

There’s more to the game than just farming. Players can participate in mini-games like Portal Fishing, which is similar to a crane game. Use your crystal shards as currency to move the crane and grab items in the portal. You can win various types of items, such as ingredients. While there is a variety of things to do, sometimes these trinkets feel more unnecessary than they should be.

Simple and Colorful

Ritual of Raven is vibrant, with simplistic designs that make it stand out. Playing the game on a large screen or on the Switch 2’s handheld screen, it feels and looks better when played portably. The soothing tracks add to the relaxing atmosphere of the game, though at times it can be so relaxing that it almost puts a spell on you.

The saving options in the game feel limited, and it comes as a surprise that there isn’t a manual save option. Instead, the game autosaves when you complete a quest or at the end of the day. It can be frustrating to have to save according to the game’s rules.

Final Harvest

Ritual of Raven is enjoyable in its own unique charm, but its story progression and learning curve can sometimes hinder players from advancing further into the game. If you’re seeking a soothing yet different style of simulation, give this indie game a try.

A review code for Nintendo Switch was provided for this article. Ritual of Raven is now available for Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam).