Review of Fae Farm Switch: A court of spells and turnips
Following hours of play in this year’s most anticipated mystical farming game, here’s what we think about Fae Farm on Nintendo Switch.
Greetings, dear traveler-turned-farmer, to Azoria, where an abundance of produce awaits you and the possibility of making new friends abounds. In Fae Farm, you’ll meet locals, mine, forage, fish, and more as you settle into your new farm.
The game is not all green-thumbed goodness – you’ll have to complete quests scattered throughout the island, which are all interwoven with an intriguing storyline. As you hunt for ore and avoid enemies shaped like pocket watches, statues, and violins, you’ll have fun foraging, catching fish, and navigating three big mines.
The combat in Fae Farm is simple to get a hold of, but you should arm yourself with plenty of potions to get an edge against enemies and protect yourself from harsh environments. In addition, you’ve got a magic staff with its own arsenal of useful spells, such as a whirlwind that can be deployed, or a charm that can stop enemies attacking you for a while.
Instead of smacking statues in the mines, you can plant, water, and harvest tons of crops on your farmstead. Plus, you can use your Woolyhorns to weave wool, polish gems for sale, or bake a variety of recipes with your machinery. It’s so easy to place these items – simply open your menu, pick a recipe, and place it. All the required materials are automatically pulled from your inventory, so you won’t have to run from storage to placement like in other farming games.
Once you’re feeling a bit tired, you head into your wee home. If you want to make it look cozy and homey, you can decorate it with items that give you extra health, energy, and mana when you wake up.
However, what really makes the Fae Realm great is its ethereal beauty. Through the story, you unlock this mystical area that offers a second farm for you to tend as well as a fishing spot and a second house to decorate. You can grow special fae produce here, which stays watered a long time. Plus you can house Spriggans and adorable Lunens native to the Fae Realm as your livestock. In addition to a central area filled with merchants, there is a sprawling wood full of catchable creatures, surrounded by rivers that you can fish in.
Some mechanics in this game are genius, and provide a very smooth experience in terms of daily farmstead duties, showing that the game has been developed by farm game veterans. In other words, you don’t get penalized if you catching fish late at night or tilling soil late at night. You simply wake up the next day in your home without losing anything.
If you’re tilling, while you’re doing your farm work, your active tool automatically switches to the one you need. An axe is used if you face a tree, a watering can if you are near dry crops. Having this feature prevents me from accidentally hoeing up my prized potatoes before they are ready.
The game doesn’t offer any upgrades for your farm other than the tools you hold – so before you start yelling, it’s because you have to get creative with potions and spells. It is Fae Farm, after all. The game comes with a sadness potion for watering crops while you walk, a whirlwind for collecting crops, and… a jar of bees for crafting. No, I’ve not figured out what that one’s for yet, but the others are incredibly helpful. It doesn’t hurt that potions are easy to craft and can sell for quite a bit of money.
Farming tasks, mining tasks, and collecting potions and food ingredients are all part of the constant loop of the game. It may not be a favorite idea for some of you, but it sure is a favorite of mine. A typical day for me looks something like this – “Oh, I need to find some fresh greens, fish, and ore for a friendship quest… better head to the forest, mines, and ocean!”. Then I need to feed my animals and tend all my farms. It might be a good idea for me to cook some food to sell and weave some materials as well. As night falls, my character magically transports home, satisfied with the number of errands he accomplished, and the day ends.
Although I found nothing wrong with Fae Farm, Phoenix Labs could improve a few things. Due to the fact that your Switch account name is used as the name of your character in the game, you may be stuck with a weird name that doesn’t fit the world.
The relationship-building side of Fae Farm is… there. I did woo and marry an eligible bachelor after flirting with a couple of other willing townsfolk, but once you tie the knot, there’s no more progression or much reason to speak to your wedded partner. Dialogue tends to get a bit repetitive when talking to anyone, too, as they all mention the recent quest you’ve completed to help the town. While this isn’t a huge issue for me, some players may feel let down that there isn’t a robust social scene to play through.
During a preview of the game back in June, I found some muddy graphics after a while of playing. I’m very pleased to report that I’ve not seen any performance issues like this while playing the full game. The initial loading of the game takes about a minute, but once you’re in, everything runs well.
In Fae Farm, you can build relationships. Once you tie the knot, there’s not much progression or reason to speak to your wedded partner after you tie the knot after flirting with a couple of other willing townspeople. As you talk to people, all of them mention your recent quest to help the town, which gets repetitive. Despite not being a major issue for me, some players may find the lack of a robust social scene disappointing.
My intention is to quell some rumors and ease minds ahead of launch by answering some concerns from the community. Stardew Valley, thanks to its too-low price tag and a massive amount of content, has – for better or worse – changed our expectations of farming games. Other games can’t compete with it.
Most people are concerned about the cost of Fae Farm. There are some titles costing the same or more that have much less content and perform worse, so I feel the cost is not completely unjustified as the full price does include all future DLC, too. The full price does include all future DLC, so I feel the cost is not completely unjustified, as some titles costing the same or more offer much less content and perform worse.
The game was really, really enjoyable – I’m not being forced to say this. It would definitely be beneficial if Fae Farm had a Switch demo so that you could try it before buying it, but for now I can only recommend it.
There is also the issue of not having a shipping bin and limitations on how many items you can sell each day, which is a real pain point for veterans of the farming genre. The first table has four slots for singular items, and the second table has eight slots for multiple items. Even with the remaining two produce stalls unlocked, some items sell for a useful amount of money, which does impact how much you can earn. Despite this, I have never run out of money. I admit, however, that I am frugal when it comes to upgrading my house.
As the backlash has been noticeable, particularly on Reddit, the shipping may get updated in the future, but no one can say for sure at the moment. The benefits of selling an entire stack, or even ten items, would be great. The benefits of stacking are obvious, so using it while bartering our beans would be a good idea.
Moving swiftly along, let’s look at the multiplayer aspect of Fae Farm. With three players, you can run through the mines and muck together. As for Fae Farm’s multiplayer functionality, I haven’t used it yet. I only used Animal Crossing New Horizon’s multiplayer to flog stuff on Nookazon, so I’m unsure how it works. In the mines, especially later levels where enemies can pile you up, this would be very beneficial. My beets, however, must be kept away from everyone back on the farm. .
With a mystical twist, Fae Farm adds a new flavor to your farming-themed roster of games. Although I’ve been playing the game for 40 hours, I still have plenty to do and story to tell.
There is no such thing as a collect-a-thon in a farm sim game, and everyone has their own list of what makes a good game – Fae Farm ticks almost all the boxes for me. For the foreseeable future, I’ll farm my purple fairy potatoes in peace. I haven’t been this enthralled with a game in a long time.
Our list of the best farm games for Switch and mobile will definitely include Fae Farm, and we’re also considering it for gardening games…
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