We sure do love our farming simulators, don’t we? We’ve always have a soft spot for them ever since the days of the original Harvest Moon, likely because they tend to stand out compared to the rest of the gaming landscape. But with the success of Stardew Valley and the rise of “cozy games” in recent years, it can be tougher for notable farming games to catch anyone’s eye. But Serenity Forge’s upcoming game Homestead Arcana managed to find various ways to stand out, such as its 3D third-person gameplay, charming art style and graphics, and the main hook of being a witch that can use magic when it comes to farming. So when given a chance to try the game out at PAX East, I was prepared for quite the creative farming game.
I wasn’t exactly prepared for the deadly miasma, though.
Yes, I had kept myself in the dark when it came to many details about Homestead Arcana, wanting to be surprised, and as such kind of missed a key plot and gameplay detail. See, in order to properly heal the land around their home, your farming witch has to deal with a miasma plaguing the land, heading in and finding ways to deal with the source of the problem. At first, you’re able to only go into this miasma for a short time, at least until you can gather the ingredients for and craft an upgraded mask, at which point you can survive for several more minutes. And now that you can dive deeper into the miasma, you can find ways to craft a special fertilizer that clears up areas that blocked you from heading in even further, and from there find other ways to survive even longer.
At this point, you should be noticing the effective gameplay loop that forms here, as each run into the miasma sees you trying to grab whatever you’re able to and get back in time, as each time you collapse, everything you’ve collected goes back to its original place. And later on, it becomes even tougher as ferocious creatures emerge. Luckily, you can whip up or purchase various potions to help you, including one gives you the juice needed to cast spells. The most useful spell here being one that not only highlights items to pick up and interact with, but also highlights dangerous areas, like an enemy’s line of sight. This made for one effective and tense moment in a later section, where you basically have to use the spell in order to decode a safe path through what is basically a minefield of traps. It’s fun, effective stuff.
Oh, and there’s also farming in this farming game, in case the miasma distracted form that. One of the things you can gather in the miasma is seeds for various flowers and food, from corn to lavender. Your crops end up having many functions, from being the ingredients in various crafting recipes to providing you with nourishment in order to keep your hunger meter at bay, or just giving you a source of income as you sell your veggies to the travelling merchant that drops by during the day. While Homestead Arcana clearly prides itself on exploration and adventure, the farming elements are well-done and relaxing, letting you hand-pick your goods and use magic to make plants grow quicker through little mini-games. It’s nice, calming and enjoyable stuff.
Homestead Arcana clearly has major ambition behind it with a lot to do and see it in it, and I haven’t even gotten to stuff like the story bits that you can discover through various notes or via discussions with Huckleberry, your cat familiar or the various side quests that can be unlocked by checking your mailbox. But as the game comes out soon, being set for an April 21 release for PC and Xbox platforms (including Game Pass), it’s probably best to leave some things to be properly experienced in full. But even with just a peek at things, it’s clear that Homestead Arcana could easily end up being a unique farming adventure not to be skipped.
