We all have our genres that we just love and cannot get enough of. By now, we should all know it’s farming sims for me. So, when we got the opportunity to review Fae Farm by Phoenix Labs, I eagerly volunteered as tribute.
Set on the enchanted island of Azoria, Fae Farm is a farming sim with a magical twist. Wild magic has brought peril and danger to this lush, fertile land. It’s our job as the new farmer on the block to restore balance to this beautiful place, with a little help from the friendly residents, of course. Sound like your kind of thing? Well, read on, as I share with you the cosy gameplay, quality of life mechanics, and the gleeful time I had playing this gem.
Fae Farm Breakdown
Fae Farm does an excellent job of providing familiar mechanics and genre tropes that are presented in a new and fresh way. You are brought to the island of Azoria by a mysterious letter in a bottle and encounter dangerous whirlpools that leave you stranded there. Then, you are met by the mayor, given your tools and farm, and asked to help restore balance to the island. It’s a familiar formula, but instead of working to appease grandpa’s ghost, you’re working to make the island better for everyone. A similar framework, I’m sure you’d agree.
Familiar and similar is good though, as it frees up brain space to enjoy the new and shiny. Like many farming sims of late, Fae Farm has RPG elements. In addition to tending your farm, raising cute animals, and befriending or romancing the locals, you will be tasked with taking on the island’s wild magic problem. Regular everyday items have become animate, attacking when approached. These are called Jumbles and have largely been pushed back to the mines and dungeons. There are magical thorns blocking off routes and areas around the island. You’ll need to develop your skills and tools as the seasons progress to unlock all the secrets of Azoria.
The Daily Grind
The first day of gameplay serves as a tutorial, teaching you the mechanics of farming, tool control, and such. Oh boys, does this include a quality-of-life feature I never knew I needed. Storage space is always sparse at the beginning of these games. Not only does Fae Farm have your tools not take up active space in your tiny backpack, but they are automatically selected as you approach certain objects. Need to cut down a tree, the axe will appear in your hands. Crops to water? Lo, a watering can! My day will not be wasted toggling through tools.
From the get-go, Fae Farm expertly balances the farming sim and RPG genres. You are given quests to complete, from sowing your first seeds to defeating ten Jumbles in the Saltwater Mines. So far, no time limits have been imposed on the main story quests, nor are they anchored to the seasons, leaving you free to balance farming and RPG gameplay as you like. I often find my days are spent farming in the morning, then exploring the further reaches of Azoria in the afternoon. No rushing, just playing at my pace.
There’s plenty to do, as well. In addition to your basic tools, you are quickly given a net, fishing rod, and magical staff. The net is used to catch the various critters on the island that you can sell on, or put in a critter conservatory to make potion ingredients. With the fishing rod, you can fish at the various bodies of water around Azoria. Once again, you can sell what you catch or use it in your cooking. The magical staff is for fighting jumbles and casting spells – which will help you on your farm and in combat situations. Just make sure you have plenty of mana potions!
Customise, Customise, Customise!
One of the first great stand-out things I noticed about Fae Farm is the customising. Straight off the bat with character creation, you are not limited by gender with how you craft your character. There is a wide range of skin tones (including green!) to choose from, numerous hairstyles that can be any fun colour, and you can pick your pronouns. You even have a choice with how your character sounds, ranging from musical to no sound at all!
This scope of customisation follows you into the gameplay, too. Beyond building your farm up the way you like it, Fae Farm actively encourages you to customise your homestead. I am terrible for just “decorating” my farmhouse with the various rewards and items you amass over play. With Fae Farm, however, your home’s cosiness directly affects your health, stamina, and mana. The more you decorate your house, the more health, stamina, and mana you have to work with – thus enabling you to farm, forage, mine, and explore for longer!
One of the vendors even sells book wallpaper, so obviously I am saving up for that so my farmhouse can match my office!
The Almanac and Crafting
With great customising, comes great crafting. Like many farming sims before it, Fae Farm is bursting with machines that convert your raw materials into craftables, like lumber, ingots, and even meals. The food is for replenishing stamina, but the craftables are used for creating home décor, upgrading your tools, and making useful items.
Everything you can find, cook, or craft can be found in the Almanac, broken down into helpful categories, from forage-ables to Jumbles you can encounter. Anything you can craft will list the ingredients needed, so you can easily keep track of what you need to find or make. New items are marked with an exclamation point, and are earned by reaching certain skill levels, rewarded in quests, or even found across the island. Discovering a scroll will never not be exciting, and I will go out of my way to pick them up. Even if it means jumping off a cliff.
What Did We Think?
It’s safe to say, my thoughts on Fae Farm are all positive. You can tell this was a passion project, born out of a great love for farming sims. It really shows in the quality-of-life features, too. Two particular favourites are not being confined to the path and character tracking. I like to take shortcuts, so being able to run across roofs and use the bouncy mushrooms to access new areas is a feature I will be taking complete advantage of. The character tracking is a godsend. Fae Farm has a rich and varied cast, all moving to their own schedules. Being able to track them means I am not constantly switching between the game and a wiki, trying to figure out where they are. A small icon of their face appears on screen once selected and points you in the right direction. Lifesaver!
Fae Farm gets a lot right – not just its mechanics. The cast is effortlessly diverse, and no one really plays into any stereotypes. Everyone just is, and it’s beautiful. This accommodation for diversity is well reflected in the settings, too. On my first playthrough, I easily found the accessibility settings which included a simple fishing mode, colourblind options, and turning off screen shake (a must for this nauseous nelly). As someone who generally sucks at fishing, I am keen to try the simple version, too.
Beautiful Location, Art, and Music
I have spent a lot of time gushing about the mechanics, but what about the look and feel? I am a big fan of colourful and fun art, and Fae Farm hits all the right notes. The island of Azoria is absolutely beautiful, the 3D model providing rich detail and honestly, I just want to visit Azoria myself. So far, I have seen the main island dwelling and the spooky forest. Both have distinct aesthetics, really transporting you to each location.
The soundscape complements the art style, too, with its lilting, almost bardic vibes suiting the magical themes to a tee. I have already listened to the whole soundtrack on Spotify! The best farming sim soundtracks don’t impose, they merely fill the space with chill tones to enhance the relaxing gameplay. Fae Farm’s soundtrack has this down.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Fae Farm is a very enjoyable farming sim experience. It balances all the elements well whilst letting you progress at your own pace. If you want to spend a couple of days focussing on your farm, making sure Hen the Chickoo and Chim the Cottontail get settled, then have at it. (Why, yes, I am naming my animals after 911 characters.) Equally, you can spend the day tackling the various dungeons and living your best explorer life. It’s your simulation, you live it!
I am very excited to continue playing Fae Farm, discovering all that Azoria has to offer. I have barely scratched the surface – I mean, I haven’t even picked out my future spouse yet! That’s something I usually settle on fairly quickly. The only romanceable character I have found so far likes frog sweat…
Love and romance aside, I have an almanac to fill, island to explore, and farm to develop. This is going to be me for a while, now!
My final parting thought is: I feel seen.
What Platforms Can I Play Fae Farm On?
Fae Farm is available to play on Switch and PC, via both Steam and Epic Games Store. Personally, I opted to play on the Switch, I find farming sim controls work best with dedicated buttons. Plus, it’s a cosy game, I want to play it somewhere cosy!
This magical farming sim is available to play from September 8th 2023.
Is Fae Farm Multiplayer?
According to game director, Isaac Epp, “Multiplayer is in the DNA of Phoenix Labs.” So yes, Fae Farm can be played as a co-op adventure, either locally (Switch only) or online. You and up to three friends can explore Azoria, raise animals, and fight Jumbles! (Guess who has three sisters that also love farming sims!) Plus, there are five save slots in the game, so you can have different multiplayer adventures with all your farming sim fanatic friends.
Even better, Fae Farm supports crossplay between the Switch, Steam, and Epic (online only)! If your friend is a console heathen like me, you can still enjoy a magical farming sim experience with them.
Fae Farm Official Specifications
You’ve got your starter tools, your first batch of seeds, but is your gaming PC ready? Here are the official specifications for Fae Farm.
| Component | Minimum Specs | Recommended Specs |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit |
| Processor | Intel Core i3-4160 AMD A8-7600 | Intel i5-2100 AMD FX-6300 |
| Memory | 8GB RAM | 8GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 AMD HD 6850 Intel UHD620 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 AMD Radeon HD 7870 |
| DirectX | Version 11 | Version 11 |
| Storage | 5GB available space | 5GB available space |
Best PCs to Play Fae Farm
With fairly moderate specifications, it’s likely that your gaming PC is more than capable of playing Fae Farm. But just like your basic tools, there is always room for an upgrade or two! I’ve picked out a selection of gaming PCs that will be great for playing this magical farming sim and all your other cosy favourites. If your farm requires a different upgrade, be sure to check out our full collection of gaming PCs and laptops for the right tool.
Refract Gaming Jade Pre-Built PC
The Refract Jade is decked out with all the tools you need for cosy gaming and more. With an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 CPU, this pre-built gaming PC can efficiently manage workloads thanks to its innovative Zen 4 architecture. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti will bring Azoria to life, with realistic lighting and shadow adding more depth to this beautiful island. What’s more, with 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD, loading screens and input lag will not be slowing you down as you crawl dungeons or tend to crops.
As part of the Refract Gaming range, the Jade is crafted by our team of experts to provide outstanding gaming at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. Even better, it is pre-tested and ready to ship with next day delivery. The last quality-of-life mechanic? The Jade comes with three years parts and labour warranty, giving you that extra peace of mind.
ASUS TUF Gaming A15 Gaming Laptop
If, like me, your cosy gaming needs a little portability, then the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 is for you. This gaming laptop has a phenomenal WUXGA 16” screen with a 165Hz refresh rate, meaning you can enjoy smooth farming in glorious detail. Sporting both an AMD Ryzen R7-7735HS CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, you have all the latest AMD and NVIDIA innovations at your fingertips. Zen 4 and Ada Lovelace architectures are the perfect pair for gaming, streaming, and work. Plus, with 16GB DDR5 RAM and a PCIe SSD, this gaming laptop will stay running smoothly with fast fetch rates and loading times.
The ASUS TUF Gaming A15 is kept cool with Arc Flow Fans. Their 84-blade and variable thickness design maximises airflow whilst minimising turbulence and noise. Paired with four exhaust vents and a high density heatsink, and this gaming laptop is fully equipped with an efficient thermal solution.
OcUK Gaming Firefly Plus Configurable PC
Fireflies are one of the many critters you can catch in your net, so it seems only fitting that our last PC rec should be appropriately named. The OcUK Gaming Firefly Plus is packed with high-performance gaming hardware to get the best out of your farm. The Intel Core i5-12400F CPU is primed for gaming, sporting eight cores and sixteen threads that expertly handle all your multitasking needs. With the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, you have all the tried and true innovations that Ampere architecture has to offer, including ray tracing and AI-enhanced upscaling.
As fans of crafting and customising ourselves, the OcUK Gaming Firefly Plus is one of our configurable gaming PCs. This means you can adjust the base spec to best suit your gaming needs. On this PC, you can configure the PC case, CPU, memory, graphics card, storage drives, and operating system. Please note that any changes to the spec will affect the price.
Razer Kraken Multi-Platform Gaming Headset
For those that do choose to play this on the Switch, why not pair gameplay with an enhanced soundscape? The Razer Kraken Multi-Platform Gaming Headset is perfect for if you’re playing on the go or chatting to your fellow farmers over Discord. Its custom-tuned 50mm drivers will bring the Fae Farm soundtrack to life, delivering superior sound clarity with a deep and punchy bass. The microphone utilises a cardioid pick up pattern, meaning it will only pick up your voice and not background noise from behind you. Plus, the memory foam padding will mould itself to comfortably rest on your head.
Better yet, this gaming headset works on a number of platforms, including the Nintendo Switch. You can seamlessly take it from your PC gaming to your console.
Need Some Fairy Magic in Your Life?
If you hadn’t figured it out already, I really enjoyed Fae Farm. It ticks all the genre boxes whilst bringing its own charm and features to make it a fresh experience. We’d love to know what all you farming sim vets out there think of this magical take, too, so drop a comment below with your thoughts!
Now, to convince the sisters to get a copy so I can try the multiplayer mode!
PC specs are subject to change.
- 14 min read
Emily Haylock
Author
Emily is a board and cosy gamer, keyboard obsessive, and content copywriter for Overclockers UK. She has been with Overclockers UK for two years, writing about everything from noblechairs to 8Pack PCs. She writes from within her desk nest with a foster pup at her feet. (What, a desk duvet is a totally normal thing!) In her downtime, she likes to play board games, farming sims, and old-school Final Fantasy. IX to be specific. It is the best, and that is a hill she will die on.
Read More >>