Fae Farm Nintendo Switch preview: Lots of fun to discover

Pros

There’s a lot of good here. A lot of the set up for everything is really easy and has a lot of quality of life options. For example:

• If it hits midnight and you’re not in bed the day just ends and you wake up in bed. No penalty for not making it back in time meaning you’re not killing the last hour of your day trying to get back to your bed like a weird game of tag.
• Finding the characters on the island, especially ones that walk about, is really easy. You can select them on the map and then you’ll have a real time compass pointing you to where they are even if they relocate.
• A jump button. I can’t believe how few of these games let me actually jump.
• A lot of farming and mining can be held instead of having to tap the button over and over.
• The main story and the side story travel at different times. While there are things on the calendar like flower festivals that happen based off what day it is in the game, the main quest goes at whatever speed YOU go at so it never feels like you have a vitally important deadline hanging over your head.

Cons

The game still has a while before launch and there’s always room for improvement and updates in the future, but here’s a couple things I saw that I wish were different.

• Character relationships. While you can get into romantic relationships with several of the characters it feels somewhat empty. You don’t really get to know the characters like you do in games like Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia. They don’t really seem to have much by way of backstory and friendship is built up by talking to them every day despite the fact that a lot of the times they’ll just say something about the weather.
• Collecting bugs, fish, and other critters feels a little empty. While it’s cool to catch them and have an entry in the encyclopedia the game supplies you with, I’d love to see a museum like in Animal Crossing where I can actually see my progress in a more interesting way.
• Items on shelves. I don’t really like the fact that, instead of placing an object on a shelf, you have to craft a shelf with that item on it. I have a stack of books, I have a shelf, but I need to craft a “writer’s shelf” or a “book shelf” in order to have a wall shelf with books on it. Seems odd that empty shelves can only ever be just that unless you use it as a crafting ingredient.

Beyond my nitpicking though, there is a lot of fun to discover here and I can’t wait for the full version so I can play more of this game. It adds a lot of fantastic elements and great designs I’d love to explore more of.