All posts tagged in Farming
Aug 16, 2023
Square Farm is a cute puzzle game about the charming little plot of land you’ve just bought. On that plot is a fertile square field. You’ve now set out to master the skills of square farming in order to earn a bountiful harvest. Even raise animals to help earn more money and make your farm a success!
Square farming is easy to understand. Square Farm provides the seeds that come in different odd shapes. Each crop comes in its own set of shapes. You’ll have to fit the different shapes together to fill in a line, column, or 3×3 square. When you fulfill one of those requirements, the crops will be harvested! If you fulfill multiple requirements in one go, you’ll harvest higher quality crops.
Progress through the different seasons and raise seasonal crops for better profits. With the money you earn from your harvests, you’ll be able to upgrade your home, buy farm animals, and helpful tools to help you profit more. Square Farm even has a small town for you to visit. There, you’ll find a handful of characters to interact with. Bring them flowers you’ve grown to increase your friendship levels and learn their stories.
Square Farm is a laid back, relaxing experience with forgiving mechanics. There’s no penalty for not clearing every block on the screen. You’ll only earn money from the crops you’ve harvested, of course. That just gives you time to master the placement of your crops!
Available Now
You can find Square Farm on Google Play as well as Steam!
Farm Keeper is another fun farming puzzler you should checkout!
- Aug 3, 2023
With Palia’s open Beta release on the horizon, and its lofty promises of a free-to-play cozy experience, I’ve gotten more and more excited at the idea of having cozy MMOs. We have a hoard of relaxing, cozy games to play these days, but sometimes you just want to have a whole community you can play together with. And now, Palia isn’t the only cozy MMO coming to the market! Loftia is another adorable MMO for the cozy gamer crowd.
A Cute Solarpunk MMO Packed With So Much To Do
Loftia is still in its early stages, but it shows great promise. Drawing inspiration from fan favorites like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, the game seeks to carve its own path into the genre with some familiar elements.
Set in a new, solarpunk world you’ll be able to play solo or even build your very own community of people. Loftia encourages socializing by utilizing group quests and server events. You’ll be able to celebrate events like Halloween together by playing special mini-games that will give you the chance to win prizes like wallpapers, skins, outfits, and more! Group quests will take you on adventures across breathtaking biomes with friends so you can uncover the secrets of Loftia.
Loftia allows for total customization, too. Design your character and dress them up in a number of different styles. Then, you can decorate your home to fit your aesthetic. Want to live out your cottagecore dreams? Or perhaps you want to set up the gothic home you’ve always hoped for. Maybe you even want to create a gamer’s paradise. Whatever you choose, you’re free to make your home however you wish!
While you build up the perfect set of decorations for your home, you can go out and explore the world or even settle in for some farming! Loftia has over 50 different crops you can plant and harvest. The game even focuses on sustainable efforts, so you’ll get to use a community garden or hydroponics to grow your crops. Plus, you can level up your farming by becoming a beekeeper or wine maker. And when you get tired of farming, gather resources to upcycle items! Turn an old tire into a pretty little garden planter for your home.
Plus, so much more. Loftia is absolutely packed full of things to do. Just chill with friends. Hang out with the local NPCs. Explore the world solo or with friends. Join an existing club or create your own. Even adopt a pet! You get to choose how your adventure goes.
Release Date
There’s currently no release date. Loftia is on Kickstarter now, where you can check out the stretch goals, but it has been funded! Expect to see this lovely game on PC and Switch when it does come out!
- Jul 5, 2023
About Coral Island
If you haven’t heard of Coral Island, it’s a beautiful farming sim that I think everyone should give a play. You leave behind the hustling city of Pokyo to start your new life on the laid-back island. Be who you want to be with character customization, farm a variety of crops, tend to farm animals, create the perfect homestead, and help revitalize the town and its coral reefs. Also, you can fish, mine, dive, and get to know over 70 different villagers, 28 of whom are dateable!
New Character, Festival, And More
Stairway Games will release an update for Coral Island that introduces some great new content. At last, we’ll get to meet a brand new Merfolk villager, Semeru, the Merfolk Kingdom’s Guard Leader. He’ll be joining Denali the gatekeeper and Princess Miranjani as the dateable Merfolk, rounding out the total list of dateables to 28.
You’ll be able to own llamas and collect llama wool from them. Plus, you won’t have to run around all day to pet, feed, and collect products from your animals anymore. The update will introduce auto petters, auto feeders, auto collectors, and temperature machines will be available to make caring for your animals even easier.
Perhaps the most useful part of the Coral Island update will be the addition of the Architect’s Desk. This handy tool will give you a helpful bird’s eye view of your entire farm. Build your perfect homestead even easier with the desk by rearranging crops, fences, decorative items, and even the logs and rocks that are scattered across the farm. Just be aware it will cost money to move each item!
Last but not least, and perhaps what I’m most excited for, is the addition of a new festival! Taking place on Fall 28, you’ll get to experience the Spooky Festival! Explore the wonderfully decorated festival grounds, and participate in some fabulous activities. Run around and play Bonk the Skeleton, take part in the Ring Toss event, and enjoy watching the vibrant Ogoh-ogoh Parade, a traditional Balinese procession meant to ward off evil spirits.
Coral Island is Available Now
While this lovely update isn’t available until August, you can pick up Coral Island now on Steam! It’s also currently on sale until July 13th.
If you’re looking for even more farming fun, checkout Litchi Town, Big Farm Story, or Kitaria Fables.
- Apr 27, 2023
Ooblets, a life simulation and creature collection adventure game from developers Glumberland, is an outstandingly adorable game. Players customize their own character and move to the run-down little town of Badgetown. There, you’ll learn all about the cute little creatures called ooblets. These fun and whimsical little creatures come in all shapes and colors, and can even help you on your farm where you’ll grow crops as well as new ooblets! Join an Ooblet Club, have dance battles with other trainers and their ooblets, and complete quests to liven up the town. Also decorate your home, buy new clothes to match your style, open your very own shop, and much more.
The Ooblets and Dance Battles
If you’re familiar with Pokemon, then you’ll be familiar with the idea behind collecting Ooblets in all their shapes and colors. Some are rarer than others, of course, and each town and biome you visit will feature their very own types of ooblets. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more ooblets for each area, too.
What really tickles me is the use of trainer battles, but instead of trying to hurt and knock out the other team, you compete in a dance battle. Dance battles involve a deck of cards that have certain abilities on them. The contents of your deck (and your opponent’s) depends on the ooblets you’ve chosen for your team. Each ooblet type has certain abilities, and as they level up, you’ll unlock new abilities and cards. For example, dumbirbs add in a card that lets you add “trepidation” to the opponent’s deck, which is adding useless cards to their deck so they’ll draw blank cards. That makes them unable to gain points, which are needed to win. The first person to the point total (which depends on the size of the group you are battling), wins.
Ultimately, it’s a simple little change to the usual creature collection battle style, but it’s wildly successful for a cozy game, in my opinion. The music used is fun and upbeat without being annoying. The dancing animations are adorable. The use of cards to choose moves is creative, too. Plus, when you win, kind words and congratulations are given to the opponent. It’s heartwarming.
Aside from the battles, your little ooblet friends are useful on the farm! Build them small Oob Coops, assign them specific jobs, and they’ll help with the farm chores. They can water crops, pick crops, battle weeds, break up rocks, and harvest logs so you can focus on dance battles and quests. Don’t forget to dress them up in the cute ooblet accessories you’ll collect from completing quests. Make them even more adorable than they already are.
The Overall Game
Glumberland really nailed it with this game. Aside from the adorable creatures and fun dance battles, the humor is just spot on. Overall, the game is goofy. There’s a wide cast of characters with wildly varying personalities and dialogues. Some are scathing, some sweet, and some just don’t make sense, adding to the silliness of their image. Items have weird names (like the sprinklehot or the dribbly can). People’s names aren’t standard, every-day things either. You’ll meet people like Churles who runs the clothing store, and Rugnolia who’s the local scientist (think Professor Oak). Whatever I’m doing in the game, it usually succeeds in making me giggle at least once here and there at its cute absurdity.
Ooblets uses a beautifully vibrant color scheme without being painfully bright. Plus, each area features its very own look and introduces a new unique biome into the mix, allowing for some fun exploration. Add in a variety of quests, home renovations, farming, and ooblet dance battles, there’s a lot to do and love in this game.
Final Thoughts
I don’t know if I adequately captured the silliness and beauty of Ooblets, but perhaps it’s better to just experience it first-hand. I cannot recommend this game enough. It is adorable. It’s funny. It’s cozy and relaxing, too. Ooblets is a great addition to the farming sim genre, and should be added to your list of games to play
Ultimately, I give it:
Ooblets is available on the Epic Games store, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox. There are plans for a Steam release at some point, too.
Check out Monster Harvest or Palworld for more creature collection fun.
- Dec 15, 2022
Cook, Explore, and Play
Clouzy is the world’s first cloud daycare, and you run it! That’s right. Those beautiful, fluffy clouds you see floating in the sky? They’re sentient, and charming creatures! And in this magical world, the clouds require quite a bit of care and attention. It’s a big task, but you’ll learn as you go.
Part of caring for these adorable creatures is cooking for them. You’ll need to learn their preferences and how to cook their favorite items. Go out into the world and search for the freshest ingredients to use, and whip up some tasty dishes for the clouds. They need food to fuel their playtime, after all. Playtime is something else you’ll have to figure out. Each cloud has a preference for playing, too. You’ll also need to play peacekeeper sometimes, and prevent storms from brewing.
If you ever feel overwhelmed by your work at the daycare, you can always go for a walk! Clouzy features a beautiful and colorful open world to explore. Discover a variety of different biomes in your travels. Solve puzzles, find hidden secrets, and make discoveries about the world. You’ll also be able to restore towering structures. And don’t worry about doing anything alone. A companion cloud will help you out!
Available Now!
The Cute cloud daycare game Clouzy is currently out on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Epic Games, Xbox, and Itchi.io.
Don’t forget to check out My Fantastic Ranch or Critter Crops!
- Dec 8, 2022
Endless Seasons and Romance
In case you’ve missed seeing anything about Wylde Flowers, here’s my review on it, but Wylde Flowers is a relaxing, and enchanting simulation game where you play as city girl Tara. Having spent her childhood in Fairhaven, Tara isn’t unfamiliar with the small island town, but is brand new to the concept of farming and caring for animals. She’s willing to learn, though, in order to restore Grandma Hazel’s farm to what it once was. That’s why she’s back in Fairhaven, after all.
That’s not all though. Tara’s also a new witch! As it turns out, it runs in the family, and Grandma Hazel is a witch too. Now, Tara must learn how to live life in a small town, restore the family farm, and learn how to brew potions and cast spells. And do all of this while building friendships with the people of Fairhaven, solving the mysteries of the island, and potentially dating a new love interest.
One of the downsides in Wylde Flowers, which I mentioned in my review, is that once you’ve reached Spring 2, that’s it. You’re no longer able to change the seasons. So, if you haven’t gathered enough of the seasonal items throughout your play through, then you’re out of luck. There’s also a distinct lack of romantic interactions with your partner, especially after marriage.
However, the developers over at Studio Dry Dock listened to fans and will be releasing the Endless Seasons and Romance update, free, across all platforms. With this update, players will be able to change the seasons at will, as many times as they wish after completing the story! So no more worrying about content you missed. Plus, you’ll be able to take your partner on dates around town, and deepen your connection with repeatable affection animations.
Update Coming Early 2023
The free Wylde Flowers update is planned for early 2023, with no specific date given. You can find the game on Apple Arcade, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.
- Dec 4, 2022
Farm, Craft, Explore
We introduced Meetlight and the Secrets of the Universe back in April, but now there’s so much more gameplay information to gush over. Currently located on Kickstarter, this gorgeous game has taken the word “wholesome” and run away with it. Inspired by Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ori and the Blind Forest, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and My Neighbor Totoro, Meetlight looks to be a beautiful game with a comfy, cozy atmosphere.
You will play as Anna. Anna has faced a terrible tragedy and lost her spouse. Now, Anna has taken over her great-uncle’s forge and become the new blacksmith. You’ll build your house from scratch (and decorate it too!), customize your character appearance, and befriend animals, nature, and your neighbors (some are even romanceable!). You’ll even be able to complete quests for the villagers or trade with them.
That’s not all, however. With the loss of your spouse, you’ve gained the ability of clairvoyance, which you’ll slowly develop and perfect as you play. Enter the magical world of energy where you’ll meet new inhabitants, explore lost places, and discover the secrets of the universe. In this 3D open-world, with 19 places to visit on the map (so far), there’s just SO much to do and see.
Featuring Customization, Farming, Blacksmithing, and More
If you’re not feeling like exploring, don’t worry. Meetlight and the Secrets of the Universe also has farming. Plant and care for your own set of crops, and perhaps even a fairy will drop by to help you out with them. You’ll be able to create your own farm layout and decorate your fields how you wish. Also available for your farm are animals! You will choose a companion (a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a goat, or something else!) when you start, but you’ll also be able to tame wild animals like foxes and crows. It will take time to get close to wild animals, but eventually they’ll learn to trust you. Breed your animals and collect things like wool from them to use in crafting. It appears there’s at least one horse, too, that you’ll be able to explore the map on.
You’ve also taken over as the local blacksmith, so naturally you’ll be able to create things in the forge. Your uncle left his trade secrets behind. Of course, you’re new to blacksmithing, so you’ll have to practice the skill to get better and make greater quality items! You’ll also be able to discover new blueprints as you play the game.
Cooking and alchemy will be in game, too. Cook over 50 different dishes, each one giving its own buff to help you. When cooking isn’t enough, though, there’s alchemy! You’ll learn how to make potions that can also help you. For example, you can learn to make a potion that increases the duration of your clairvoyance.
With all of the crafting and cooking that can be done in Meetlight, it is only natural resource harvesting is a feature. Much like everything else, you’ll have to work on your gathering skills too in order to gather a higher number of resources and higher quality resources. You’ll have to craft tools to help you harvest, too.
Kickstarter Stretch Goals
Meetlight and the Secrets of the Universe is currently only for Steam. However, should the Kickstarter meet certain stretch goals, the game will become available for Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Playstation. What’s perhaps even more exciting, are the other stretch goals. One goal is for MORE map areas, expanding the already big map. There’s also a goal for total character design control where you’ll be able to choose gender, the name, and the shape of the character’s face and body. And the one I’m most excited about is the goal for co-op. If that stretch goal is met, Meetlight will have co-op for up to 4 players AND cross-platform play. How cool is that?
Coming 2023
The game is successfuly funded on Kickstarter with multiple stretch goals met, which also means it’s not yet available. Unfortunately, we’ll have a while to wait as Meetlight and the Secrets of the Universe only lists 2023 as the release date. You can also wishlist it on Steam. Meetlight will come to Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Playstation.
Chek out Kitaria Fables for another beautiful farming sim, or even Aka, where you play as an adorable red panda.
- Nov 24, 2022
Farming, Magic, and More – take a look my review of this magical game.
Wylde Flowers is an absolutely enchanting game with an incredible story line. In it, you play as Tara, a city girl who has just moved to Fairhaven to help her ailing grandmother with the farm. Unfortunately, the farm is in disrepair since grandpa passed away, so it’s up to you to restore it to its former glory. You’ll learn the basics of running a farm from Grandma Hazel, and the townsfolk will help you learn more advanced concepts. They’ll also prove to be a wonderful community to get to know.
Of course, farming isn’t the only new thing Tara will learn. As it turns out, Grandma is a well-respected witch in the local coven, and Tara’s also a witch. She’ll learn to cast magic spells and craft potions to help with things like growing crops or restoring her energy, and more! All while building relationships with the townspeople, possibly finding love, and solving the mysteries of the island.
Farming
Wylde Flowers is pretty straightforward as far as game-play goes. You run a farm that needs to be repaired. You’ll utilize Parker, the town woodworker, and Natalia, the town blacksmith, quite a bit in order to fix up the farm. Otto, the local fisherman, will give you a lesson on fishing, and eventually you’ll be able to buy livestock from Marty, who is also new to the town.
The crops and flowers you’ll be able to grow are seasonal, until you build the greenhouse. You’ll then be able to use the crops in recipes you can cook in your kitchen, many of which will help you in becoming friends with the townsfolk. Unfortunately, the space you’ll have to grow crops and flowers is limited. The greenhouse only has 5 plots, while the first outdoor garden you have access to can potentially hold around 11 plots. It will depend on your creativity in how things fit together. It’s almost like playing Tetris, with more unusable spots. When you finally open the large garden, you can fit about 27 plots there.
It’s certainly no Stardew Valley in farm size, but it didn’t pose any problems for me. Crops grow within a few days, and when you control the seasons (more on that later), it’s easy to just grow everything you want per season.
Magic
The magic system is a fun addition to a farm sim (though I’d say farming is the secondary bit to this game, while the story is the main thing). You’ll learn spells to make it rain, create thunderstorms, freeze time, reverse time, grow crops faster, make crops yield more per harvest, and much more.
I think my favorite part of the magic system is being able to ride a broomstick as a way to fast travel. While the playable map is fairly small, it’s still a great mechanic to get to unlock. Even better is the incorporation of magic into it. What’s not fun about getting to ride a broomstick across town?
My one complaint with this system is the ability to occupy your cat familiar, Cleocatra. While it’s a fun mechanic, and does play a part in the story, it’s not as useful as I’d hoped. It’s used once in the story, and that’s the only time it’s necessary to even be a cat. It’s also a pain if you don’t know how to do it, like me. When you become the cat, there’s no way to cancel the spell, unless you go to sleep. So, use it wisely, if you do choose to use it more often.
The Townspeople
The townspeople of Fairhaven are possibly my second favorite thing about Wylde Flowers. The cast is wildly diverse. From Kim, who is of Japanese descent and identifies as nonbinary and isn’t sure how to navigate beginning a relationship, to Amira who’s super flirty from the start. There’s even Cameron, the local leader of the League of the Conscious Mind center (*cough* can you say cult *cough*) with his sketchy past and charming personality.
Each character you’ll encounter in Wylde Flowers has their very own personality and rich back stories. Even better is each one is fully voice acted. And I don’t mean one guy and one woman change their voices to act out each character. Everyone has their own unique voice actor to capture the personality of the character. It’s hard not to feel the charm and beauty in individuality with this cast. You even have the chance to date and marry one of seven romanceable characters. So, take your time to get to know everyone, and see who you’d like to date, or just build meaningful friendships with everyone. The choice is yours!
The Story
I won’t go into detail about the story line, because it’s what Wylde Flowers is all about and I want all of you to experience the joy of progressing through it, but this is my favorite thing about the game. It seems so simple at first. Tara arrives in Fairhaven to take over and restore the family farm as Grandma Hazel is no longer able to take care of it. Then, Tara discovers Hazel, and herself, are witches. Tara is welcomed into the local coven, and is tasked with discovering the secret identities of each coven member after she’s gained their trust.
After that, Tara spends her time restoring the farm, exploring the mines, raising crops and livestock, and delving into her magical studies. However, she’s also working to solve the problems and mysteries that the small island town faces. And all of this while building relationships with the townsfolk, or even dating.
You and the coven are in charge of turning the seasons, which means you can progress as fast or as slow as you wish to, within reason anyway. You won’t get the opportunity (or appropriate spells) to change the seasons unless you progress the story, but when you reach that point, it’s all on you to initiate the change. So, take your time helping out the town with the bulletin board requests, exploring the mine, fishing, farming, and talking to everyone.
The downside is that you only get to experience one Spring, one Summer, one Fall, one Winter, then what I’ve deemed the Eternal Spring. You’ll change seasons one last time to Spring, and that’s it. You can play indefinitely after you finish the story line, but you better stock up on seasonal finds each season.
Final Thoughts
I LOVED Wylde Flowers and will absolutely be replaying it again and dating everyone I can. Even despite some of the minor irks like the cat transformation and the Eternal Spring. I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s perfect for cozy gamers, is absolutely beautiful, and a whole lot of fun. And any game that gives me the name “Cattleclysm” as a preset option to name my cow with is great in my eyes!
Check out another farm sim review we’ve done for Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town!
