Recent reviews by Abbica

I'm having a good time! An old-school style game with a fun and challenging, real-time battle system. I like the different take on the various monsters and critters. So far I'm only in act one, so I've got a long way to go still, and am curious where the story will take me. BGM & SFX are pleasant, graphics are great (considering it's a pixelated world), and good mechanics to boot.

-A Unique Take on the Farming Life-Sim Genre
Field of Misteria sets itself apart from other farming and life-simulation games from the start. Rather than inheriting a farm from your grandparents, you play as an adventurer answering a "help wanted" ad to help restore a village that was devastated by an earthquake. The village promises property to anyone willing to aid in its recovery. As you explore the world, filled with mysteries, ancient ruins, and subtle magic, the game teases potential future expansions of its magical elements. I'm hopeful that more magical features will be added as the game develops.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the weekly event, "Friday Night at the Inn" where you get to see the townsfolk interact with each other in board games, books clubs, and more. It gives you an in depth view of some of the characters personalities, and I can't wait for them to be given even more life. I only wish you, as the player, were able to join in on the fun instead of just observing it.

Additionally, I'm excited to see where they take Misteria's unique leveling system. You gain experience across nine skill trees by performing related activities, and you also earn essence points, a currency used to purchase skill perks. These perks not only make each skill more profitable but also streamline the gameplay experience, offering a sense of progression that is both satisfying and flexible.

-Early Access: Fast-Paced Progression
I played through one in-game year before writing this review, keeping in mind that Field of Misteria is still in early access. While the core systems are enjoyable, the game feels like it's been put into overdrive, with many elements feeling too fast or easy. For example:

Forageable goods respawn every couple of days.
Trees (outside the farm) regrow the day after being chopped.
I reached the current max level for town renown, maxed out 5 of the 9 skills, and completed all the available main storylines, all within a single in-game year.
I’m hoping these accelerated features are adjusted in the final release or that difficulty options are added to create a more challenging, rewarding experience. For now, the rapid pace diminishes the sense of accomplishment, as completing major goals happens too quickly.

-Familiar Mechanics with a Few Twists
The game incorporates many familiar mechanics from the farming-sim genre, especially in the farming and ranching systems. Farming doesn’t deviate much from what you'd expect, but ranching has a fun twist: the ability to breed animals for rare colors. I enjoyed breeding my cows to produce a pink variety and my chickens to get golden ones. It's a small but satisfying feature that sets the game apart.

Combat is another highlight. It reminded me of older Legend of Zelda games, where strategic planning is required rather than just button-mashing your way through. This gives the mining areas a more engaging and rewarding feel, especially when compared to more straightforward combat systems in other games in the genre.

-Characters and Relationships: A Mixed Bag
Field of Misteria boasts a sizable cast of 28 villagers to befriend, and there’s a traditional heart-level system for building relationships. At the time of this review, the maximum heart level is six, and I reached this level with six individuals. While romanceable characters have unique story scenes for every two heart levels, I was disappointed that non-romanceable characters don’t receive similar depth.

Many of the characters fall into familiar tropes for the genre, and while they each have some quirky traits, there’s not much depth beyond that. The “misunderstood jerk” trope, as expected, is a fan favorite, but overall, I wish more characters had rich backstories or more nuanced personalities.

-Magic and Exploration: Potential for Growth
The more you play, the more intriguing the world becomes. From a talking dragon statue to hidden artifacts waiting to be unlocked, Field of Misteria keeps hinting at more secrets that, at the time of this review, aren’t fully available. While the magical aspects of the game are intriguing, they currently feel underdeveloped. For instance, I can only cast rain a few times a week, which feels more like a novelty than a game-changing feature. At this stage, I’d honestly prefer traditional sprinklers to the magic system in place.

-Visuals and Art Style
The game's graphics were what initially drew me in, especially the Sailor Moon-inspired character portraits, which are beautiful and animated. The art style overall is adorable, and I absolutely love my little pink cow! The world design fits perfectly with the cozy, magical atmosphere that the game is going for, making it a visual treat for fans of this genre.

-Music and Sound Design
The music is charming and suits the game's tone perfectly. I even found myself humming some of the mine music throughout the day, which is always a good sign that the soundtrack has made an impression. It complements the gameplay without being intrusive.

-Bugs and Technical Flaws
As with many early access titles, Field of Misteria has its share of bugs and performance issues:

When animals exit the barn, they tend to stack on top of each other, making it difficult to interact with them.
Animals often clip through the barn, making them unreachable.
They don’t return to the barn at night on their own, which feels like a missing feature.
The game’s pace, as mentioned earlier, is far too fast, leaving little time to savor progression.
The quest board generates new quests every day, some of which are impossible to complete at the time they’re given, causing unnecessary stress. At one point, I had over 15 open quests.
There were two occasions where my animals acted like they were left outside overnight after I passed out in the mines, even though they were safely inside.

-Wish List
Some things I hope they decide to add into the game include:

Some form of "decoration mode" at a minimum for inside your house. It's a bit time consuming to move the expansive amount of furniture you acquire, especially with the limited inventory space you have. If there were some way to pause the game specifically to move thing around and decorate, I would be a happy camper!

Being able to decorate and/or place items outside of your farm would be amazing! Especially if I could strategically place a chest or shipping bin!

Sprinklers, PLEASE! You can only cast rain a couple times per week, and if you focus on farming, the water-can just takes too long.

I believe I read this was already in the works, but I'd love to see some achievements added!

-Final Thoughts
Overall, Field of Misteria has a lot of potential, and I'm excited to see how it develops through early access into full release. It’s definitely worth playing, but it also feels unfinished in its current state. The foundation is there—great visuals, fun mechanics, and an intriguing world—but it needs more polish and balance to reach its full potential. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it, as I believe it could become something special once all its systems are fully realized.

This game was obviously highly influenced by old-school Harvest Moon; it's a farming sim with mythical elements, with villagers you can befriend and even marry. Unlike HM, this game was developed by a single individual, who is still (8 years after release) handing out high-quality content updates.
There is a little bit of everything in this game. Everyone will find some aspect that they enjoy. You will spend hours farming crops, loving animals, exploring your world, making friends, exploring dungeons, fishing, digging through garbage, crafting tools, cooking and of course, decorating. Decorate your home. Decorate your farm. Decorate the whole island. Or just Leave it as is. The choice is yours!
Villagers have personalities that make them come alive, and some of them have some dark traits that will surprise first timers. At the time of this review, there are six male and six females who you can romance. Along with a couple surprise besties you can get too. Add a couple mods and you can have so many more, should you prefer. This really is a game of "relaxing" possibilities. Anyway, I hope if you came here to learn if this was a game to try, that you DO give it a try. You will not be disappointed. And with that, I'm going to go play some more.

A simplistic shop keeping game. You need to manage your shop by creating goods, or simply buying goods to put on shelves for patrons to purchase. You must manage the flow of funds to ensure you can pay off your debts at regular intervals. So long as you specialize in a specific area, such as focusing on just stocking potions, for example, it is very easy to complete, even on the hardest difficulty. The game gives you several goals to aim for throughout the play-through, and once your debt is paid off, you're free to spend money without worrying about falling into deficit. The scenarios were enjoyable, but there are only two of them. I would love to have move scenarios to play.

While I like the game, a lot, there are too many issues that make it difficult to continue enjoying.
It's an incredibly slow burning game, which could be good or bad, depending on your particular play style. I'm at a little over 40 hours at the time of this review, and I only just got to Fall in my first year. Anyway, you take over the farm/shop from your grandparents, like most games in this type of genre. You must e dedicated to stay in your area and run your shop until you are able to hire an assistant to run it for you, which would leave you free to run around, quest and gather more goodies to put in the store.

Overall, I've had a good time, but it doesn't feel like a finished product. There are far too many glitches and visual blemishes. I honestly thought this was still in beta until I decided to double check when the complete package was supposed to be released, which apparently was back in 2018...

Please note, I played this on the Nintendo Switch, I did not play the Steam/PC version.

If you like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, you will very likely enjoy Story of Season: Pioneers of Olive Town too. You run a farm you inherited from your grandfather (seriously, why is it ALWAYS your grandfather) and learn to farm, fish, mine, craft, cook, and harvest wild goods. You become as the only person (for some reason) who can save the sleepy town's economy and increase the tourism by completing simple gathering quests. SoS is a spin-off from the Harvest Moon series so the adorable art style is very similar. As in both HM and Stardew, you also can build relationships with the townsfolk, get married to one of the several romance options, and have kids. I frequently find myself saying, "okay, I'll play just one more day" as my real day keeps slipping by.

Things I like about Olive Town:
- Gender doesn't matter, all romances (5 males, 5 females) are available regardless of which gender you choose.
- Lots of relationship cut-scenes. One for each heart level, regardless of if it's a romance-able character or not.
- The graphics are adorable!
- Finding and selling new produce in the wild makes them become available in the stores.
- Getting your first of each type of livestock free by taming it in the wild.
- All hairstyles and colors are available upon character creation, and once the salon is unlocked, you can change those whenever you fancy.
- The simplistic fishing mini-game.
- The cute wildlife. I get excited every time I see one of the adorable foxes run by, and the camera is a nice touch.
- Cooking lets you choose the specific items you want to use instead of auto selecting for you.
- The relationships screen has a notepad about each person, which adds more detail the higher relationship level you obtain with them.

Things I DON'T like about Olive Town:
- Although the townsfolk have their own personalities, they are... lacking and overall uninteresting.
- Inventory issues. Your inventory fills fast, then you end up with chests you built everywhere to store items you need to keep.
- No fighting. Though they have "baddies" in the later mines that you can bop.
- Lack luster museum. Items get placed on designated pedestals, which is fine, I suppose. I would have hoped that the fish you donate would at least have more visually appealing displays. though.
- Trying to plan your farm layout is frustrating as most items are 2x2 squares, and the traditional setup for fields is 3x3, if you want to take full advantage of sprinklers. This makes it hard to make things efficient and still visually appealing.
- All the "maker" machines. So, so many maker machines. You basically will end up turning your farm into a factory as you end up spending most of your time just running to each machine to refill them with resources, then take those resources to stuff into another machine to make something else. Since there are multiple grades of each resource, you need multiples of each maker machine to be efficient.
- The crafting menu. Everything is shoved into one menu, with no way to organize or limit it to what you're looking for. There is no indication of which items you've previously made or what's new to your list of options. (It does tell you in the cooking menu, though)
- How quickly nature takes over your farm. Resources are a must, but it's discouraging to have to chop trees and smash rock every single day to have your farm look nice.

Unexpected twists had me laughing at my ridiculous deaths and multitude of prison sentences as "Tim" tries to save the princess. As of yet, I honestly haven't even gotten past the guards, but that's part of the fun.

Watch out for that rock outside your house.

Classic, turn-based alien butt-kicking fun!

Running around exploring and trying to solve puzzles in a turned based battle system. Lots of comedic moments. I like how you have the freedom of choice in many situations, yet there are still consequences to those choices; if I want to kill a random citizen, so be it, though my other party members may have something to say about it, or may even want to kill me for it after the fact.