Fae Farm review: Whimsical, grindy, but uber-cosy

Fae Farm is the latest entry in a seemingly endless list of cosy games that make for ideal playing as we enter the Autumn season, and its charming art style and lilting musical score make it a perfect addition to that lineup.

It’s no secret that the cosy game genre seems to be becoming one of the most saturated areas on the market - after all, what better is there to do than to curl up after a long week with a blanket and a game in hand that can help to melt away the stresses of the day?

If you’ve played entries like Animal Crossing, Wylde Flowers, Stardew Valley, or even Disney Dreamlight Valley, you’ll find enough of a hook here like cooking, farming, animal care, and fishing to reel you in (sorry, had to) as you explore the whimsical isle of Azoria - but is that enough to help Fae Farm hold its own?

Whimsy, whimsy, whimsical

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Before diving into your Fae Farm journey, you’ll first need to create your character. While the options on offer here aren’t huge, players can choose their character’s pronouns, body type, and voice alongside the standard fare of hairstyles, skin colour, and eye colour, meaning that there’s enough choice here to create a character that resonates with you. 

As is often par for the course of a game of this style, you’re also able to name the town you’ll be residing in (I went with Avrin Ville, in case you were wondering). 

Fae Farm’s art style is absolutely adorable, the game’s set dressing is gorgeous, and it’s these things that set it apart from many other titles in the genre - its animations, world, bright colour palette, and townspeople to get to know all with their own individual styles are truly where its personality shines. 

Your story in the mystical Fae Farm begins with a gorgeous hand-drawn cutscene like so: Upon finding a message in a bottle that talks of the far-off land of Azoria, you’ll adventure off in search of it in a boat, and after going through some pretty turbulent moments, land yourself in this whimsical world.

Once there, you’ll find a lot of freedom in how you traverse it: You can jump, zip up into the air by bouncing off of sparkling purple mushrooms (the animation for this is fantastic, by the way, and a recurring theme found throughout Fae Farm), swiming around bodies of water, and there’s even a few whirlpools that’ll jettison you up into the air if you get too far out into the ocean. 

There’s a lot of verticality on offer too, and one of my favourite things is that it’s pretty free of restrictions, meaning you can jump onto rooves to explore and collect hidden recipe scrolls tucked away to unlock new craftables.

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Déjà vu

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That's the common thread in Fae Farm: While most of what you’ll be doing you’ll likely have done before in other games, it knows who it is and has fun presenting things in a unique way (when picking a vegetable from the ground, there’s a satisfying ‘plop’ after the player character has wrestled it up from its plot, for instance.)

When furnishing your home, some items with be a ‘cozy furniture’ item, which when placed will boost the ‘coziness’ of your abode, providing an increase to your stats’ regeneration rate when there depending on the particular piece you’ve set down. Each one then ties into a particular resource, with a round woven stool being a ‘relaxing cozy item’ that boosts your energy regeneration, and a stack of books being an ‘inspiring’ one that boosts mana regen.  

There’s a Market Table in the centre of town where you can place items you no longer want to sell for profit the next day, and a Produce Stand where additional items can be popped on right outside your home for selling - perfectly suited for any budding farmer. 

You’ll even need to be aware of the weather, too: drinking a cup of hot tea will remove the negative effects of cold weather temporarily for example, as does diving into the ocean when it’s baking outside (or by drinking a cooling iced tea). 

Fae Farm’s fantastic animation quality comes into play again here, too, with your character appearing visibly uncomfortable in the heat on a hot day if you’ve not given them a particular drink or had them take a quick dip in the sea.

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You can catch critters with a net, swing at flowers with your scythe, and chop trees and mine with an axe and pickax. What’s cool about these tools - and where the magic of Fae Farm comes in - is that certain alloys contain mystical properties, meaning that an iron pickax can bestow a skill that causes you to strike a particular area to mine everything within it in sacrifice of a little mana, one of Fae Farm’s resources outside of energy and health.

Health, you say? Yep, there’s combat in Fae Farm too. While food and drink that can be cooked restores your energy, mana, and health potions will restore those resources, the latter of which will come in use most often in the game’s dungeons.

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Groundhog Day

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Fae Farm’s day cycle is presented through a 24-hour clock, and once the game gets close to midnight, you’ll get a warning to wrap up what you’re doing. 

Ignore that and you’ll be teleported back to your home with the day forcefully drawn to a close. Here, you’ll see some facts about the day that has passed, including the day and season, your home’s coziness, whether you’ve got any mail to open in the morning, and how much your produce has sold for. 

This effective ‘time limit’ is one of the most frustrating parts of Fae Farm, and something I found myself tiring of quickly - particularly when exploring the Saltwater Mines, a dungeon system comprised of different levels. The Saltwater Mines dungeon system has 25 levels to explore, each containing other minerals to mine and, the further you get in, enemies to defeat.

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These are known as Jumbles - magical artefacts that have been locked away that nobody wants, and they’ll attack you if you get too close. These range from pocketwatches to a ship’s anchor to a helm that spins around the area faster than a teacup ride at a fair. 

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Combat in Fae Farm feels quite barebones - using your magical staff (which can also thwart back mystical thorns in the world a la Disney Dreamlight Valley) to click, attack, and chain a combo. This can get frustrating at times, as your character will attack in a different direction than you intend them to, opening you up for one of the enemies’ charge attacks that’ll stun you.

Thankfully, combat isn’t too much of a struggle and you’ll often vanquish these magical objects without breaking much of a sweat. 

It’s a grindy life, for us

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Sadly, Dungeons in Fae Farm are not for me. When first unlocking the Saltwater Mines to explore, villager Cleo - “a semi-retired adventurer with stories to tell” - even alludes to the grind of them in light-hearted banter, and it’s a recurring theme that had me rolling my eyes halfway through the process of rushing to collect ore to craft seals and keep doors to the next stage of a dungeon unlocked before the day ended.

I’m very aware that this may be a very personal criticism and not something that everyone will find as much of an annoyance as I did, but by the end of those 25 dungeon levels, I was absolutely ready to shelve Fae Farm for a couple of hours.

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You’ll also come across quests that are ‘collect x amount of’ which can also add to the grind, meaning that you’re often dashing from place to place to collect things, and if you’re interested in the narrative like I am, that can often cause a bit of a headache - especially when waiting for this or that to finishing crafting.

Aside from these elements, the content on offer in Fae Farm is enough to keep one occupied for a good while as you forge friendships or romances with villagers, build up your farm, pet and look after Chickoos, navigate the different seasons, and explore the world of Azoria in all its brightly-coloured glory.

The Verdict

Fae Farm is an incredibly cute cosy game that makes for a great title to play alone, and while we didn’t have the opportunity to play multiplayer, we’d wager it’s even better when exploring with others, too. 

From farming to cooking, decorating, getting to know and build relationships with NPCs, and a beautiful art style that gives Fae Farm plenty of individuality, there’s likely something here for everyone.

While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel and some activities like fishing and navigating dungeons can feel a bit of a slog, this is one cosy game that knows what it’s trying to achieve and something fans of the genre should absolutely check out.

3/5

Reviewed on PC. Code provided by the publisher.