What happens when you mix farming sims like Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley, or Harvest Moon, and Pikmin style gameplay?  And maybe add a bit of Pokémon and Monster Rancher for good measure.  You get Farmagia of course!  In a fantasy land, Farmagia are people who farm monsters and train them.  Yes, monsters here grow from seeds, and you must plant them and water them until they ripen into monsters.  Then you can train monsters and go out on action filled battle adventures with them.  An evil dictator wants to rule the land, and it’s up to you to grow your monsters and build up an army to stop them.  Farmagia is available on Switch, PS5, and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

You’ll start from a menu screen and more icons will be available as you play.  Icons will appear above the selections letting you know which ones have new things and which will move the story along when you pick them.  You can buy items at the magic shop, take on sidequests at the pub, and talk with the rulers at the castle.  At the farm you’ll grow your monsters.  This plays out most like the field sections of farming sims.  Make sure to water your seeds every day and harvest them when they are done and send the monsters to the ranch.  At the ranch you can train the monsters to level up their stats with items you buy at the shop.  When you are ready, you can venture into dungeon mazes.

In the mazes, you’ll control your character in real time and your monster horde will follow.  Press buttons to tell monsters to attack, retreat and regroup, and use special attacks.  Luckily the game usually tells you which buttons to push.  The game really isn’t bad at all, the only reasons why I lost interest in it is because I’m not really a fan of the Pikmin style gameplay.  I don’t like how the dungeons have time limits, or that you have to play on the defensive a lot.  It’s also pretty hard but luckily after your first failed battle you can set it to Easy.  The anime style characters are kind of cool, though, and if you like farming sims and Pikmin, you’ll want to check this one out.

Kid Factor:

Farmagia is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes, and Mild Language.  Monsters attack other monsters with various blows, and you can get knocked back as well.  Some of the female characters wear slightly skimpy outfits and there are curse words sprinkled in the spoken voice and text.  There is a pub, so I’m sure alcohol references are there, too.  Because of the difficulty and high level of reading involved, I’d say this is best for older kids and teens.

Tags: Game Reviews