Review – Farmagia – Gamerview

The new game developed by and released by , arrives with high expectations as it promises to mix farm simulation with RPG elements, magic and many references from other major franchises. , which arrived on Nintendo Switch and PC in October, created high expectations with its trailers promising to offer an enchanting world and character designers full of charisma by the hands of Hiro Mashima, the author of Fairy Tail and Edens Zero.

Think of a mix of Harvest Moon, or Story of Season and Rune Factory, from XSEED Games itself, with Stardew Valley, but without all the complexity of managing resources or building your farm. Now add a “feel” of Pokémon due to the different magical monsters that you use throughout the game, as well as a format that resembles a visual novel to develop the entire story. Of course we can’t forget the combae, with gameplay that’s very reminiscent of Pikmin and Wonderful 101. That’s it! This is the basic formula for the development of Farmagia.

Agro is pop and magical

In a magical world known as Felicidad, far beyond heaven and the mundane plane, the ruler known as Magus died, paving the way for Glaza, one of the generals who commands the territories of that world, to become a despot and consolidate his power over the world. all the regions, the other generals and the inhabitants. The player will need to take on the role of Ten alongside his Farmagia friends, people who can plant and cultivate magical beings, on this journey against an oppressive tyrant and usurper of the title of “new Magus”. With a good narrative construction amidst the simple but fun story, we have the challenge of facing the generals of Oración Seis, who joined Glaza’s evil army, to free the people from the cruel clutches of this villain.

Everything in Farmagia has a very shonen style, including to justify the presence of Hiro Mashima and his caricatured characters, with the stereotypes of Natsu, Gray and Erza, from Fairy Tail, as well as Shiki and Rebecca, from Edens Zero. Of course, Happy couldn’t be missing, with Lookie-Loo following his adventure as a counselor, letting out an “eye-eye, captain!” sometimes. Join Leii, Arche and Chica, Ten’s childhood friends, alongside Emero and Anzar, to accompany General Nares, ruler of Avrion and one of the Oración Seis, but who rebelled and decided to fight against Glaza.

Let’s go straight to the game’s main new feature and mechanics: the farm simulator. Ten gets a piece of land to cultivate his monsters and assemble his team with up to four different types of creatures to use in combat. Justifying the name of the game, Farmagia combines the Farm Game style with magic, as plants can grow faster with enchantments and potions can improve the harvest. It’s a shame that the game limited itself to allowing you to plant the little monsters as the story progresses, in addition to offering a very simple experience of this “magical farm”, far from the fun or complexity of other titles of this genre released by XSEED itself.

By cultivating the creatures, you can assemble your magical team to explore the dungeons as the story progresses. In a kind of Monster Taming style, Farmagia allows you to coordinate groups of monsters, allocated to each of the four main buttons, to face enemies and bosses. Just press A, B, X and Y to send your small horde to perform melee attacks, ranged attacks or even cause some negative condition. Unfortunately, combat is simple and boils down to analyzing the enemy monster’s weakness to choose which of your creatures to send, far from having the interactive depth of Pikmin or Wonderful 101.

Ten can use his teams to defend himself, including a perfect defense mode, contributing to the counterattack, as well as a special move called Legion Attack, in which his creatures merge to cause greater damage or stop the enemy attack. , and a special attack with the fusion of monsters carried by your party, with the other characters accompanying Ten participating, to create an even bigger and stronger being. Even with a visual mess and some camera problems, the fights are fun and the score for each fight helps with engagement.

A rebel alliance between friends

Farmagia manages to work very well with its characters and villains, exploring the stereotype of Glaza, Lisan, Manas, Corpus and L’Oreille, all members of Oracíon Seis, throughout the narrative construction and how the game’s 12 chapters guide you through the continents of Felicidad . The same goes for the little monsters that, even though it limits the number of combinations or the freedom for you to collect them all, assembling your small army as you wish, just like Pokémon does, Marvelous managed to work very well with the diversity of visuals and combat style.

The same goes for activities throughout the game, going beyond farming and history. With different levels for dungeons, Ten will feature the Fairy Dens, in a kind of shop and crafting, for you to create your own build. The player will have temporary abilities offered by the fairies Charlot and Arvielle in the Magic Shop, either to buy or to be created with loot obtained in dungeons. In addition, you can also train your creatures to become stronger, gaining unique characteristics in their status and improving teamwork.

At Shuffling Sheep, the tavern in the city of Centvelt, several side missions await you, but don’t expect to visit locations that are very different from the ones we see throughout the story. The only difference is that, in addition to the Magic Challenges during exploration, you can accept some tasks to get extra rewards during the dungeon stages. Nothing very complex and which the player can naturally accomplish without much effort, but which increases the content for completionists.

When we think about Farmagia, it is impossible not to talk about Hiro Mashima. The mangaka, famous for Fairy Tail and Endens Zero, proved that his character design style is versatile enough to go beyond his work and enrich the world of games. Just like Akira Toriyama managed to do, his characters are visually captivating, his creatures add personality to the environment, and his style carries the charm that attracts anime fans and new players alike.

The art direction offers vibrant, colorful and expressive characters, enemies and scenarios, with great care for details that manage to reflect all the magic of Felicidad. The same goes for the soundtrack, which in many moments is reminiscent of Fairy Tail, making it clear that this is a very authentic and unique magical universe, managing to be engaging within its proposal and lore.

Even with the limitations of Marvelous’ development and performance on the Nintendo Switch, Farmagia manages to create good ideas while proving to be a fun game with a good story.