Fields of Mistria (2024)

My friends and I decided to play Fields of Mistria together so I launched it for the first time today (we're not gonna talk about how it was gifted to me over a year ago). As a farming sim fan, I hardly needed convincing to join the fun.

Just look at that start screen! I love the art style so far. It definitely has retro farming sim inspirations but also mixes in shoujo fantasy elements that I very much enjoy and I think any Sailor Moon or magical girl fan would too.

I haven't played a farming sim in awhile so I don't recall there being any decision or choice-making during conversations with NPCs so I thought this was a nice addition to add some oomph to character interactions. Also Balor is giving Fire Emblem protagonist energy and I don't mind his company one bit.

I'm enjoying the change from the typical land inheritance to an earthquake messed up the region and you've been hired to help with the revitalization of the town, free land and home included.

The humble beginnings of my farmhouse (I love the retro emoticons). What isn't pictured is the character creation screen that includes all the staples such as skin color, hair style, clothing, eye color, eye shape (none of which are gender locked) and the quickly becoming normalized pronoun selector which was quite robust. Of course you got to name yourself and your farm too.

Upon waking, I met the cover art star, Celine! Shortly after, I'm introduced to mechanics that will be famliar to farming sim veterans such as hoeing (heh), planting crops, and watering. As you can see the farm is overrun and needing lots of work but after planting my few starter seeds, graciously given to me by my kindly neighbors, I set off into town to explore instead. And this is where I spent the majority of my day.

After picking up my first quest, which required introducing myself to all the villagers, I explored every building available in the main town area that was open. Some of them were boarded up and it left me wondering how much the village would expand over time. Most of them were open to exploration and I got to meet a bunch of new characters. I appreciated that the non-romanceable NPCs had a relationship marker as well. The romantic NPCs have jeweled hearts next to their name and the platonic NPCs have square gems instead. I also appreciated the diversity in characters.

Even when the characters were nowhere to be found, I enjoyed learning about their interests via investigating points of interest. It added personality and environmental storytelling that varied from amusement to adorable.

Perfection needs no descriptors.

By the time I finished exploring the town and speaking to its citizens, it was quite late so I headed back to my farm to do some last minute planting and weed cutting. I got too into it though and pushed my character to exhaustion so I'm gonna start day two with a rough (and late) start. Oops!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my first day on the job in Fields of Mistria. :))

Been looking forward to this one for a long time, and it's finally got a demo! If Stardew Valley is the polished and quest-focused, indie version of Harvest Moon, Fields of Mistria is the exact same thing for Rune Factory. There's farming, mining, crafting, and a bunch of villagers to meet, now with some magic spells and fantasy set dressing.

It's hewing extremely close to the template set by Stardew, but the visuals and music are lovely, the controls and UI are snappier, and the writing for the villagers all seems pretty charming so far. Wish the demo covered more than the first 3 days, and it doesn't sound like the full release is coming out til late 2025 at the earliest, but what little's here feels super promising.