Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: Marvelous
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch
Tested on: PS5
Farmagia – Review
We love games such as Pokémon, Palworld, and other creature-collecting games like Shin Megami Tensei. When we initially saw early footage of Farmagia, we thought it would be another interesting addition to the genre, and we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it. A few days ago, the wait was finally over, and we found ourselves collecting so-called buddies to use in hectic battles in a universe shaped by Hiro Mashima. For the most part, we enjoyed ourselves, but the game did have quite a few rough edges.
Story
Felicidad once knew peace, at least until its ruler passed away. Now, Glaza, has become the evil overlord who believes that everyone should be judged by how strong they are. He believes that the weak should serve the strong and that his power should be absolute. The Oración Seis used to enforce peace, but now most of them are following Glaza’s every command. You’ll be playing as Ten, a Farmagia. Farmagias can command monsters, or so-called buddies, to fight for them. You’ll have to fight with your allies from Avrion, while also trying to gather more friends that will help you overthrow Glaza’s evil regime.
The story isn’t anything we haven’t already seen in other games before, but the writing is quite good. The game introduces a lot of interesting characters, and everything feels as if you’re playing through an anime-like visual novel. To us, it felt like a story that was great for both younger and older games.
Graphics
Farmagia failed to impress us in terms of its general presentation. The visual novel-esque dialogues look quite good, but they are too static and characters barely change their poses or even their facial animations. With someone like Hiro Mashima at the helm of this project, we expected a bit more, especially given his other work. The in-game graphics look very colorful, and there is quite a bit of variation when it comes to the different types of buddies you can use in combat and those you’ll be fighting. Variation aside, however, things look very dated. All these buddy models look very rough around the edges and the different locations look almost deserted. There’s hardly any stage variety per different island you’ll play on, and even then, there is no asset variety and all areas are simply straight corridors or square-like arenas. We would have loved a bit better dungeon design here, as after a few levels, you’ll have seen almost everything the game has to offer. The same can be said about your farm, which also looks a bit bland and uninspired.
Sound
The game’s sound design fares a lot better than the dated 3D visuals. For example, every key dialogue in the game is fully voiced, and the performances are great. We loved the character interactions, and we were always looking forward to how the story would progress and what new characters would pop up. The supporting soundtrack is also quite good, even though the track variety is somewhat limited. Nonetheless, the music never got on our nerves. The SFX are decent, and these provide great audio feedback during the game’s hectic combat segments. The farming sounds were perhaps a bit basic and underwhelming.
Gameplay
It’s hard to pin a specific genre onto Farmagia, as it is part action RPG and part farming sim, with both of these main aspects not fleshed out entirely. The RPG elements are fairly barebones, and so are the farming sim components. Even so, the offset is straightforward, as you have to collect so-called buddies to either help you in combat or allow you to collect research points. The latter allows you to upgrade your character and farm, meaning you’ll have to divide your time between combat and farming equally. Why equally? Well, you have to plant the seeds of the buddies you find to reap the benefits. It’s a bit odd at first, but it turns into a fairly rewarding grind after a while. Base mechanics are kept rather simple, but there is some micro-managing involved if you slowly want to unlock more research points and get better battle buddies as well.
Combat is extremely simple when it comes to the base mechanics, but things do get trickier if you want to guard against enemy attacks without losing any of your battle buddies. You’ll have four types of buddies that can accompany you during combat, namely close-range attackers, long-range attackers, support units, and formation units. While each of these units has its own specific set of skills, they are also needed as every enemy you encounter has a weakness against one of these battle buddy types. It’s a bit of a rock-paper-scissors system, where one unit trumps the other. Attacks are as simple as tapping the corresponding button for that unit type, and they will rush to the enemy you’re currently locked on. The more times you tap the button, the more of your battle buddies will rush the enemies. You’ll always have to think about how many battle buddies of each type you want to bring along, as you’ll have to stay under a specific unit count. During combat, you’ll have to keep your wits about, as you’ll have to guard against incoming attacks, you’ll be able to perform Blitz Attacks, you can thrash enemies who are temporarily weakened, and so on. Your units can be leveled outside of the dungeons, but you’ll also find fairies inside the dungeons that power up your battle buddies during the course of the dungeon you are currently in. It’s all fairly basic stuff, and there is nothing truly complex to be found here, but the overall combat gameplay loop is enjoyable and the fast-paced nature of the battles prevents things from growing dull too quickly. Even so, Farmagia is best enjoyed in short bursts to prevent things from becoming repetitive.
To get new buddies, you’ll have to literally plant their seeds on your tiny farm. You’ll have to follow all the right steps, such as plowing the field, putting seeds into the ground, and of course, watering said planted seeds. After this, you’ll be able to harvest new buddies when you have come back to water the seeds every day until they are ripe to be harvested. As stated above, you’ll have research buddies and battle buddies. Research buddies grant you research points from the first three harvested buddies of their type, which will allow you to unlock upgrades for your farm, but also for your battle buddies. Harvested battle buddies go to your ranch and these can be used in your loadout for different dungeons. When your ranch is at its maximum capacity, you’ll sell the excess battle buddies when you harvest them. Once again, it’s a simple and straightforward gameplay loop that gets some extra depth when you can start aiming for new buddies and when you add things like fertilizers to the mix.
For the most part, this is what Farmagia has to offer. There is no real gear system in play, except for different types of Blitz Attacks and upgrades that can be unlocked for your Fusion Attacks. While we would have perhaps loved an actual gear system, it does keep all the different gameplay elements manageable.
Conclusion
Farmagia is a fun title that is best enjoyed in short bursts. While we played the PS5 version for our review, we can imagine this title being an absolute blast for Switch players on the go. It’s easy to actually make progress in the game, even when you only have roughly half an hour of spare time. Farmagia is accessible and offers engaging gameplay, but it is quite rough around the edges. If this title came out a decade ago, it would have received a much higher score. Even so, the gameplay is enjoyable, and the story is engaging enough for players to press forward.
No Comments