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estirosePicked this up as part of a Humble Bundle. (Long story short, I wanted this and Little Kitty, Big City; I'd never heard of Minami Lane and The Ranch of Rivershine, also in the bundle, and I already had Spirit City: Lofi Sessions and Rusty's Retirement, both of which I enjoy and recommend.) I'm about two weeks in the game, game time-wise.
Non-spoilery thoughts: Reminds me so far of Wylde Flowers (another magical cozy), with some noticeable differences such as a customizable character (I like Tara and her storyline, but....) and a combat system.
General plot: You find a message in a bottle calling for your help. You travel there, only to find your ship being wrecked, but fortunately you are rescued and given a farm just outside the main part of the town. In return for your farm, you'll be figuring out what's causing things to go awry on the island, on top of farming/ranching.
Things similar to many farming cozy games/Stardew derivatives:
- You have a farming area, but it requires clearing, and some bits are not clearable with the standard tools.
- You have a tiny house at start with a bed.
- You get some form of farming tools at the start that can - and will need to be - upgraded by the local blacksmith.
- You can craft machines that will help you do things.
- There is a mine or mines where you can get the ore to make things/upgrade your tools. It may or may not have monsters.
- You can also craft decorations/furniture.
Other things I've noticed:
- This has a main questline, with chapters that allow you access to more and more areas.
- This is one of those games where you craft your own plots (of which there are several types). I find the plots very aesthetically pleasing tbh.
- The mine/dungeon monsters are all enchanted items. I actually find them adorable for the most part when they're not trying to kill me. The compasses have to be my favorites, but I've also seen chests, anchors, ships' wheels, and cannons so far.
- So glad for the so far bottomless storage shed and the fact that the crafting stations autopull from it.
- I'm also glad I don't have to build a coop, though I would have preferred not to have to buy a chicken to proceed in the questline. According to the wiki, the barn and another similar location are also pre-built.
- You can jump in this game and swim. I appreciate being able to do both.
- Interestingly, this game features a central selling area at the start instead of having a shipping bin on your farm, though you can acquire a shipping bin-type item a bit later.
- Getting fast travel is interesting! This game uses a system called "seals" (like seal an envelope, not the animal) for both overland travel and dungeon/mine travel. You're required to build the crafting station for these in a quest, but I don't mind. So far I've crafted two for overland travel (one at my homestead and one near the first mine/dungeon) and a bunch for getting down farther in the dungeons.
- For dungeons, you can create seals that serve as a sort of mystical elevator and also unseal the doors to the next floor (so if you have level 4's seal placed, you can dash to level 5 without having to find the door trigger). There is a small annoyance that a) each seal apparently must be placed sequentially, and b) the material for the seals are usually found on the corresponding floor, but that's a small matter.
Created my farmer, forgot if I got to name her so game picked up my steam username, which I honestly don't mind. She landed on the island, met the mayor, did a bunch of tutorial quests that involved some crafting, some planting, meeting a bunch of people, doing some fishing, doing some cooking, the usual stuff.
Next chapter was all about getting a magic staff, which involved feeding the local wizard who made me the staff in thanks. This allowed my farmer to access some areas that had been blocked off by thorns, which is great. There are some other areas currently blocked off by some purple stuff and another area where your farmer insta-freezes unless they escape fast, but I assume the game will have quests to deal with these.
The next chapter started with catching and selling fish and then acquiring and learning how to take care of a chicken. After that, my farmer was directed to meet up with the local adventurer, who sent her to make food and buy a healing potion for the mines. After satisfying that requirement, my farmer was finally allowed access to the mines to get some copper etc.
The next quest involved making and applying seals for the dungeon. This was tough at first - my farmer needed copper to start, which was scarce for a while - but it got done. Then my farmer had to upgrade her pickaxe - twice. Once in order to mine iron ore at all, once to mine enough ore. Once that was done, she had to figure out how to invoke its "magical powers" - which for me turned out to be finding out what button to push.
Finally, the adventurer gave her a key so that she could get past level 15 and asked my farmer to go down to level 25 and see if that gave her a clue to why the whirlpools were happening. She did, running across a magical creature who was the cause. Unfortunately, that magical creature needs what feels like a zillion things to power themselves up, so farmer is off getting the materials to build more stations that will make it possible to build more stations so she can finally cook the right recipe for one of the items. Thankfully the rest are mostly collecting things and catching the right fish.
ETA: I got that one finished! Once everything was collected, the whirlpools went away. My farmer got an upgraded staff and can now cast a spell - one that clears up some of the purplish black spots. She made her way up to find the... well, goddess, I guess? of the island, who asked her first for some flutter powder, which required a new station but resulted in wings! My farmer can't fly, but she can now jump farther! Then the goddess-being asked for some polished gems. I hit up the mines again and came out with some polished gems.
Had to make another new station to polish the gems I collected. Also, with the whirlpools being gone, my farmer now has a primary residence and a secondary residence, but that second residence is right next door. Also now has a barn. Clearing the purplish black spots also made that space available for growing plants/adding more machines.
Now the door to the fae realm is opened and my farmer has a couple more things to do. I think it's time to pause the main story quests to upgrade all the tools; things are only going to get tougher from here and having steel everything or steel-equivalent everything might be required to handle resources in the new realm. Also, apparently polished gems are worth a lot? So I might build up my money reserves.
Non-spoilery thoughts: Reminds me so far of Wylde Flowers (another magical cozy), with some noticeable differences such as a customizable character (I like Tara and her storyline, but....) and a combat system.
General plot: You find a message in a bottle calling for your help. You travel there, only to find your ship being wrecked, but fortunately you are rescued and given a farm just outside the main part of the town. In return for your farm, you'll be figuring out what's causing things to go awry on the island, on top of farming/ranching.
Things similar to many farming cozy games/Stardew derivatives:
- You have a farming area, but it requires clearing, and some bits are not clearable with the standard tools.
- You have a tiny house at start with a bed.
- You get some form of farming tools at the start that can - and will need to be - upgraded by the local blacksmith.
- You can craft machines that will help you do things.
- There is a mine or mines where you can get the ore to make things/upgrade your tools. It may or may not have monsters.
- You can also craft decorations/furniture.
Other things I've noticed:
- This has a main questline, with chapters that allow you access to more and more areas.
- This is one of those games where you craft your own plots (of which there are several types). I find the plots very aesthetically pleasing tbh.
- The mine/dungeon monsters are all enchanted items. I actually find them adorable for the most part when they're not trying to kill me. The compasses have to be my favorites, but I've also seen chests, anchors, ships' wheels, and cannons so far.
- So glad for the so far bottomless storage shed and the fact that the crafting stations autopull from it.
- I'm also glad I don't have to build a coop, though I would have preferred not to have to buy a chicken to proceed in the questline. According to the wiki, the barn and another similar location are also pre-built.
- You can jump in this game and swim. I appreciate being able to do both.
- Interestingly, this game features a central selling area at the start instead of having a shipping bin on your farm, though you can acquire a shipping bin-type item a bit later.
- Getting fast travel is interesting! This game uses a system called "seals" (like seal an envelope, not the animal) for both overland travel and dungeon/mine travel. You're required to build the crafting station for these in a quest, but I don't mind. So far I've crafted two for overland travel (one at my homestead and one near the first mine/dungeon) and a bunch for getting down farther in the dungeons.
- For dungeons, you can create seals that serve as a sort of mystical elevator and also unseal the doors to the next floor (so if you have level 4's seal placed, you can dash to level 5 without having to find the door trigger). There is a small annoyance that a) each seal apparently must be placed sequentially, and b) the material for the seals are usually found on the corresponding floor, but that's a small matter.
Created my farmer, forgot if I got to name her so game picked up my steam username, which I honestly don't mind. She landed on the island, met the mayor, did a bunch of tutorial quests that involved some crafting, some planting, meeting a bunch of people, doing some fishing, doing some cooking, the usual stuff.
Next chapter was all about getting a magic staff, which involved feeding the local wizard who made me the staff in thanks. This allowed my farmer to access some areas that had been blocked off by thorns, which is great. There are some other areas currently blocked off by some purple stuff and another area where your farmer insta-freezes unless they escape fast, but I assume the game will have quests to deal with these.
The next chapter started with catching and selling fish and then acquiring and learning how to take care of a chicken. After that, my farmer was directed to meet up with the local adventurer, who sent her to make food and buy a healing potion for the mines. After satisfying that requirement, my farmer was finally allowed access to the mines to get some copper etc.
The next quest involved making and applying seals for the dungeon. This was tough at first - my farmer needed copper to start, which was scarce for a while - but it got done. Then my farmer had to upgrade her pickaxe - twice. Once in order to mine iron ore at all, once to mine enough ore. Once that was done, she had to figure out how to invoke its "magical powers" - which for me turned out to be finding out what button to push.
Finally, the adventurer gave her a key so that she could get past level 15 and asked my farmer to go down to level 25 and see if that gave her a clue to why the whirlpools were happening. She did, running across a magical creature who was the cause. Unfortunately, that magical creature needs what feels like a zillion things to power themselves up, so farmer is off getting the materials to build more stations that will make it possible to build more stations so she can finally cook the right recipe for one of the items. Thankfully the rest are mostly collecting things and catching the right fish.
ETA: I got that one finished! Once everything was collected, the whirlpools went away. My farmer got an upgraded staff and can now cast a spell - one that clears up some of the purplish black spots. She made her way up to find the... well, goddess, I guess? of the island, who asked her first for some flutter powder, which required a new station but resulted in wings! My farmer can't fly, but she can now jump farther! Then the goddess-being asked for some polished gems. I hit up the mines again and came out with some polished gems.
Had to make another new station to polish the gems I collected. Also, with the whirlpools being gone, my farmer now has a primary residence and a secondary residence, but that second residence is right next door. Also now has a barn. Clearing the purplish black spots also made that space available for growing plants/adding more machines.
Now the door to the fae realm is opened and my farmer has a couple more things to do. I think it's time to pause the main story quests to upgrade all the tools; things are only going to get tougher from here and having steel everything or steel-equivalent everything might be required to handle resources in the new realm. Also, apparently polished gems are worth a lot? So I might build up my money reserves.
