Early Access Check-In provides brief updates on Early Access releases and shares impressions of what's available to play today.
There's something very cozy to me about '90s anime. The feeling of being introduced to shows like Rurouni Kenshin and Sailor Moon on a cousin's tiny CRT TV, in a summer-dampened room, with a popsicle in hand; of waking up at 5 a.m. for class, eating a tiny bowl of cereal as I catch the early morning anime that snuck onto Cartoon Network.
And thanks to the cyclical nature of the world, 30 years later, '90s anime is back in vogue in a big way. Indie devs who grew up just like me are making games and bringing the aesthetic and vibes back from that era, and nowhere does it work as well as in Fields of Mistria.
With their Early Access launch, NPC Studio has a farming sim that captures the vibes of '90s anime, nails the fundamentals of the genre, and is easy and fun to play.
Just the Facts |
Developer: NPC Studio |
Publisher: NPC Studio |
Platform(s): PC - Consoles TBA |
Price: $13.99 |
Release Date: August 5, 2024 |
Review key provided by developer. |
Fields of Mistria is actually all about the friends you made along the way
NPC Studio is a team of farming sim fans based out of Chicago who, after five years of work, are ready to introduce their take on the genre to the world. Like many farming sims, NPC Studio takes to Early Access to sow its seed and cultivate it with the help of the community... but hopping into Fields of Mistria's Early Access launch is more like adopting a fairly grown sapling than watching a seed slowly grow.
Metaphors aside, Fields of Mistria has one of the most robust Early Access launches I've experienced in a minute. With over 40 hours of content, all of it fairly polished, and such a perfect understanding of what makes a farming sim work, Fields of Mistria is one of the easiest farming sims to lose hours to that I've played in the last few years.
In its broad strokes, Fields of Mistria has a familiar story setup: a town is facing a painful downturn after an earthquake cut them off from their nation's kingdom; they've not got enough help to pull them out of it, and so they offer a plot of land to any willing adventurer looking to help rejuvenate the town. Enter the player, a helpful hand who looks to bring the town of Mistria back to glory and maybe make a few pals along the way.
Over the 20 hours and two seasons I've experienced so far in Mistria, the main storyline take me with restoring the town, tapping into the region's magic, and communicating with a dragon spirit that lives in a tucked away statue on your land. It unfolds fairly quickly, with story quests coming one after the other, and that may be a product of the Early Access period rushing players through what they've already built and eventually adding in more as time goes. I appreciated the constant guidance, but the breakneck pace was also jarring in some ways.
Mistria exists in a realm of magic, but the real magic NPC Studio pulls off with its farming sim narrative is its focus on community. So many other games in the genre tout the feeling of community with their NPCs but then script the same five lines in day-to-day interactions, dedicate their focus solely on the "heart events" you can unlock by befriending and romancing them, and fail to make their towns feel genuinely alive. You're left to fill in the gaps, to imagine the moments they share, or piece it together through one-on-one interactions that tell you the story of town friendships and more.
Mistria exists in a realm of magic, but the real magic NPC Studio pulls off with its farming sim narrative is its focus on community.
Fields of Mistria shows a dedication to portraying its community as one that only functions because they work together, because they like each other. And it never feels like you're the only reason anything is happening here. (The memes about Stardew Valley's farmer being mad at the town for not helping renovate the Community Center come to mind.)
As you bustle around, you'll run into groups chatting in the museum, kids plotting some silly activity outside of the woodworking shop, or the town leader workshopping ideas with one of the local business owners. These conversations are ones you can just listen in on, and it helps make the world feel like it doesn't revolve around you alone.
Once a week, the town comes together at the local inn to connect and partake in fun activities, complete with evolving scenes that take all season and multiple inn visits to see to completion.
There are D&D campaigns that show each character's personalities in the way they play, poker games that show the aloof blacksmith stumbling his way to victory, and friends drinking at the bar that gives you a glimpse into the way these folks interact when you're not around. And they change with the seasons: D&D changes DMs and gets new players, poker turns into an art class, and two of the drinkers branch off to gossip about the townsfolk from the balcony overlooking the bar.
There's so much writing here to fill in the gaps that other games like it are missing. Even the small gameplay-driven lines — references to things you donated to the local museum, for example — feel more personal and more linked to each character's personality in meaningful ways. Taking the extra care to write this much unique dialogue is appreciated, and this is just what's there in Early Access. It'll likely only get better over time.
This is, of course, all in addition to the game's 10 stunning marriage candidates: Adeline, Balor, Celine, Eiland, Hayden, Juniper, March, Reina, Ryis, and Valen. Two more have been teased to be added at a later date.
We always talk a lot about story here at VGG, but Mistria's earns the extra focus by having the kind of world and characters that enhance the gameplay experience and make its by-the-book play experience feel fuller.
By the book but better than ever
Fields of Mistria offers a farming sim experience that will feel plenty cozy and familiar to anyone who's played the likes of Stardew Valley, Coral Island or Harvest Moon. Cultivate your farm every day, give gifts to make friends, go mining and fight off monsters, fish and forage, and donate seasonal items to a giant museum that fills up as you play — all in service of making the town you live in bigger and better for all.
It's all the basics, all the fundamental pieces of a farming sim presented in the way you'd expect, but also in a way that just makes it so easy to slip into that "one more day" mentality that drives these games. It at times genuinely feels like a PSX Harvest Moon spinoff that I somehow missed, but with tons of small quality of life upgrades to make it something more modern. There aren't any major game-changing differences or some major unique quirk to twist the formula, just lots of small benefits that make it easy and fun to play.
Watering cans don't need refilling. You run around faster than any farming sim has ever let you run (Stardew is so slow y'all). And information is not withheld from you; this game has communication skills off the charts. What does that look like? When you level up skills or relationships, the game tells you instantly above your head. When you go into a new day, the game tells you right away if a special event or birthday is happening that day. An audio cue lets you know when it's getting late in the day so you can plan your route home before the pass-out time at 2 a.m. (and better yet, someone immediately tells you that you need to be in bed by 2 a.m. rather than the game requiring you to learn it the hard way).
Fields of Mistria makes a lot of small changes to the formula that add up to an extremely frictionless experience. In an age where too many games still rely on the existence of Wiki-searching to keep track of things or learn simple details, games like Fields of Mistria are a breath of fresh air. And it manages to do all this without ever feeling overwhelming.
There are a few things NPC Studio does to freshen up the pot: making crafting and cooking initially something you can only do off-site, not just offloading the entire slate of your usual tools from the jump, and slowly introducing magic spells that do things like restore stamina and grow your crops instantaneously, to name a few.
For some who are turned off by the farming sim genre, it's because of a feeling of pure overwhelm. There are so many things you could be doing on any given day. But Mistria's main story quests constantly offer obvious goalposts to work toward. If you've felt that past farming sims are too slow or clunky for you to enjoy, Fields of Mistria makes everything feel so smooth. And if you like the aesthetics of '90s shoujo anime, you need to meet the inhabitants of Mistria immediately.
A look at some of the single villagers in Fields of Mistria. ;)
Short and stocky meets shoujo and sparkly
If Fields of Mistria does one thing to standout from its contemporaries in the genre, it's the fact that they leaned hard into another of NPC Studio's inspirations: '90s anime. From the shoujo sparkly cute character portraits to the slapping '90s bass riffs on Hidehito Ikumo's soundtrack, NPC Studio has made a game that captures the vibes of a very particular style of anime — where blushing when your love interest is nearby and finding friendship under the warm glow of a summer day take priority over becoming the strongest in the world.
The community-focused narrative and mystical storyline are further proof that this era of anime was built into the DNA of Mistria. Even the short and stocky chibi pixel art that makes up the actual in-game art feels reminiscent of the era; art that squishes things down so much that catchable bugs like ants and beetles can sometimes feel made up of less than ten pixels a pop.
This combination makes for a game that's easy on the eyes, enhanced by a bright and sunny color palette and a handful of subtle details that make its visual style pop. One of my favorite examples is the way the game world starts desaturated in the early morning, gaining more vibrant colors as the sun rises and then warmer tones as it sets in the evening.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, of course; NPC Studios still has some work to do. There are some cumbersome issues with navigating through your toolbars, particularly on controller. And the jarringly quick pace of the main storyline will need to be ironed out over time.
But the foundations are so solid here with Fields of Mistria that I'm confident the team will listen to community feedback and be able to find the sweet spots to make their eventual 1.0 release a worthy contender for the farming sim throne for years to come.
(Before my outro, I also want to shoutout Fields of Mistria's Steam Deck experience. The chibi pixel art feels made for a handheld and I did a solid third of this initial playthrough on my Steam Deck. Moving forward, I honestly see myself playing this primarily on the Steam Deck because of how natural it felt to play it there.)
Fields of Mistria is easy to look at, easy to play, and easy to fall in love with. In an era of games made to push players to their limits, something like Fields of Mistria is like vacation. It respects your time and offers a farming sim experience that nails the fundamentals. Whether you jump into its 40 hours of content today or wait to see how much is added in the (projected) year it'll be in Early Access, Fields of Mistria is a delight for gaming farmers of all types. We're in a golden era of farming sims and I'm so happy to be living in it.
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