#cryophagee

Ok, so I wrote a review for this game. However, I feel like it's not my best work, and I don't want mid-tier writing to represent this game.

So I'll just say this:

WitchHand's core gameplay mechanics and ways every element becomes interconnected create a fantastically engaging experience that has stolen hours of my time in the best way possible.

Despite what criticism might cause one to believe, flaws in a game’s design do not prevent one from enjoying said game. A few players can overlook flaws and enjoy a broken game like the 9th generation of Pokemon games, but a game’s best aspects can occasionally overwhelm the disappointment brought about by a game’s poorer elements. FaeFarm achieves this phenomenon by centering its design around inclusivity and improvements to the typical farming simulation gameplay despite the issues posed by the game’s story and presentation.

FaeFarm’s greatest strength comes from of its commitment to inclusivity on several fronts, like diversity and representation. Not only do a few of the villagers represent groups like people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community, but the character creator provides plenty of options that also deliver much-desired representation! The customization options could admittedly go more in-depth- color selectors for a few of the customization options only feature washed-out colors, as one example- but acts as a great standard for future character creators.

FaeFarm also becomes more inclusive for casual players via quality-of-life features. Most farming sims require players to fidget with a bucket-full of equipment that takes up inventory space and contend with a daily time limit that punishes the player for staying awake too late. FaeFarm trashes these archaic design choices by giving the player constant access to tools and automatically switching to an appropriate farming tool for harvesting purposes and only ends the day without consequence if the player stays up too late.

One final boost to inclusivity comes from how ways the game encourages several playstyles. For example, the menu option that helps players who manage to get stuck and the ability to jump allows players to explore as they please without fear! Meanwhile, the game encourages players to do whatever they want in a day as they receive means of extending their daily energy in the form of energy-boosting pickups, cooking, and magic spells!

The cooking system also provides a desired improvement to similar yet complex mechanics seen in other games. Whereas farming simulations require the player to obtain several specific items to cook dishes with little benefit relative to the time spent on acquiring said meal, FaeFarm reduces the complexity of these mechanics and makes cooking as easy as throwing everyday items into a fire. These design choices exhibit a thoughtfulness towards the player not usually seen in most modern titles.

It is a shame then, that Faefarm suffers from jarring performance issues. Whenever the game loads something, the game may freeze up for a moment. These moments where everything locks up can last long enough to make one wonder whether the game crashed. The feeling of momentary brokenness only becomes accentuated when villagers seem to slide across the ground without moving their legs after the player converses with them.

Additionally, the story mode feels unfortunately restrictive and streamlined. While most farming simulations feature a railroaded storyline or unlockable features, they reduce linearity by implementing mechanics like Stardew Valley’s community center and Potion Permit’s multiple quests. Instead of following the philosophy of the prior examples, FaeFarm opts to bluntly present the player with a linear series of quests. In the early game, this linearity can cause the experience to feel like an extraordinarily lengthy tutorial. Of course, a linear story-driven farming simulation could work flawlessly, but the quality of such an idea depends heavily on the plot.

Unfortunately, FaeFarm fails to give its plot some panache by leaning towards telling, not showing, and failing to do either at times. The player usually witnesses important story events via a series of impact-lacking drawings, which can cause one to feel like their efforts amounted to almost nothing. Additionally, a sparse handful of events lack immediate explanation, like the sudden appearance of fairies throughout the village after the player clears the first dungeon.

Despite these flaws, the game still manages to feel fun to play! Cultivating plants, taking care of animals, exploring dungeons, harvesting resources, befriending townsfolk, and all the other common features of farming simulations all appear and feel extremely enjoyable. Additionally, FaeFarm adds unique mechanics that streamline previously arduous processes and make the overall process more fun. Crafting new items draws from the player’s inventory and their storage, harvesting items, and breaking rocks becomes effortless thanks to magic abilities, and one can receive stat increases simply by building furniture!

            Additionally, the game adds to the fun by giving players a sense of constant achievement. Whether this accomplishment comes from the unlockable crafting recipes sprinkled throughout the land, the frequent level-ups one receives for their skills, the immense number of unlockable crafting stations, or the implementation of seals used to unlock fast travel to each floor of the game’s dungeons, FaeFarm provides a constant stream of engagement with the player.

The game also features multiplayer, albeit with a few caveats. While players can join their friends’ worlds and play through the game together, one must create a new character to do so. This makes sense on paper- as the ability to bring late-game materials into other worlds could wreck the game’s linear nature- but comes across as a pointless restriction in execution. FaeFarm is not a competitive online game that could become devastated by higher-level characters giving weaker characters strong equipment, it is a story-driven farming game. The experience of other players would remain enjoyable despite their friends bringing in random items.