Fae Farm preview: Cosiest of farm sims with a touch of RPG magic
We got a chance to go hands-on with the wonderfully charming Fae Farm which combines your typical farm sim gameplay with the adventure of a fantasy RPG.
Alex Garton
09th Jun 2023 23:01
Image via Phoenix Labs
Fae Farm is a wonderfully charming upcoming farming sim RPG from the folks over at Phoenix Labs that’s all about getting cosy and escaping into the fairytale land of Azoria.
Throughout your adventures in Fae Farm, you'll cultivate crops, customise your homestead, and adventure through the magical landscape that surrounds you while bonding with countless characters along the way. During our preview, we experienced all of this after jumping into the preview build of the game.
While we only saw a slice of what the title has to offer, it was immediately clear that Fae Farm is one cosy game that's shaping up to be something special - and a game that you could easily get lost in for hours on end.
An enchanted farm of your own
At its core, Fae Farm has all the typical elements of a farm sim, giving you the tools to grow and harvest crops, care for animals, and customise your very own homestead to your heart's content.
Of course, to build your dream farm in the game, you’ll need to collect resources - which can often be the tedious part of a game like this. In Fae Farm, however, that certainly isn’t the case. With floaty and fluid movement, it’s incredibly fun to traverse the landscape and interact with the environment around you.
Whether you're harvesting wood, mining stone, or picking herbs, the gathering process always feels satisfying and will certainly deliver a dopamine hit to collectable-hungry gamers.
Once you’re ready to craft, the easy-to-understand build mode gives you a huge amount of options when it comes to furnishing and decorating your dream home. As you would expect, not all objects you can craft are just for show. Here, players can create a potion brewing station, a cooking stove, a magical mirror and much more.
One of the most unique aspects of Fae Farm is the game’s Coziness mechanic, which interlinks objects in your home with the power of your character. Certain pieces of furniture will increase your health, energy and mana, meaning as your house gets cosier, you’ll become stronger - further incentivising spending time to furnish your home.
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Adventure around every corner
Although Fae Farm's delightful visuals and world never get boring while tending your homestead, to truly experience everything the game has to offer, you’ll have to adventure further afield. Separating itself from a typical farm sim, the game encourages you to explore multiple regions across the expansive map. From the Floating Ruins to the Spooky Forest, there are plenty of secrets to uncover across Azoria.
Tackling dungeons and heading off the beaten path will give you the opportunity to collect rare resources, and in turn, craft more impressive items for your house. While combat is basic and not too much of a challenge, it gets the job done and the small selection of spells you have access to keeps things interesting.
You’ll have side quests, jobs, and even a main story to get stuck into throughout your journey, but unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to experience that during the preview - so we’ll have to wait until release to see if the narrative holds up.
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Final Thoughts
Ticking all the boxes of a brilliant farm sim and combining with it the adventure of a fantasy RPG, Fae Farm certainly looks like a game that could hook you, and keep you enchanted by its world for countless hours.
Although we’ve only seen an early slice of the title, the cosiness and charm on offer here are on another level, and we absolutely love it.
Previewed on Nintendo Switch. Fae Farm is set to release on Nintendo Switch and PC on September 8, 2023.
About The Author
Alex Garton
Alex is a Senior Writer at GGRecon. With a BA (Hons) in English, he has previously written for Dexerto & Gfinity. Specialising in Call of Duty & Apex Legends, he loves (attempting) to improve his aim in competitive shooters and will always make time for a single-player RPG.