I’m at the point in Fields of Mistria where I’ve started talking to my dragon statue, Caldarus, and telling my pink dog to do chores. If that interests you, even without context, then you probably have a lot to look forward to. Fields of Mistria is the type of farming sim I wish I had in my youth – it resembles early 2000s cozy classics from Harvest Moon to Animal Crossing, all mixed together into an anime-coded concoction. The world of Mistria is brimming with lore and its villagers have distinct personalities that shine through in their dialogue. I can tell I still have a while before I’ve seen everything its newly released 1.0 update has to offer, but I already can’t wait to learn more about my new home and neighbors.
This fantasy farming sim takes place in a pastel pixel art world where mythical creatures and magic exist, but not in a way that dominates the otherwise down to earth tasks that are asked of you. I sometimes forget I’m in a magical world when I’m just farming and talking to villagers, and those humble tasks are plenty amusing as is. However, when I walk into the bathhouse and see a giant witch’s cauldron bubbling in the open, it sets me straight. It feels like a farming sim with a fantasy RPG skin over it – similar to Rune Factory, but less overt – so most of my attention goes to the actual farming loop.
Fields of Mistria is about the farming first and foremost, asking you to care for crops, till soil, chop wood, and so on. It’s neat that you can also catch fish and insects and donate them to a local museum like in Animal Crossing, as well play with enticing cooking and crafting systems that I have yet to dig into. While a lot of this might sound fairly standard, you can also improve your capabilities by giving spiritual currency to Caldarus for power-ups, like the ability to sometimes get seeds back when you harvest plants or replenish energy when watering.
I saw these activities as a way to speed toward my goals: to revitalize Mistria and grow my farm. However, I couldn’t rush toward that target immediately, and I’m glad that’s the case. I had the urge to start grinding for gold right away, but I was too broke to buy seeds and didn’t have the equipment to clear sticks and rocks from my farm. Instead of having access to all tools and skills from the beginning, I unlocked them one by one, and I appreciated how that forced me to slow down and really take notice of the town and its inhabitants.
A day in Mistria can last as little as 12 minutes and 30 seconds in real-world time. My average day took at least 20 minutes, though, because I talked to every single person I passed and often paused to flip through menus (inventory, relationship journal, etc). I spent my first few days completing requests for villagers and ended up getting to know many of them, even ones I wasn’t particularly interested in. These requests, which seemed like simple fetch quests at first, impressed me with the little stories that sometimes came with them. Need some lilacs? Well, you may have just signed up to be a lab experiment.
Some farming sims make me feel like I’m watching a performance, where the characters only exist in my personal bubble and don’t do anything outside of that. Fields of Mistria does the opposite. Seeing characters interact based on a shared history with each other made me feel like an actual newcomer who had a lot to learn about the relationships and unique quirks that this town had to offer. I especially appreciated Friday nights at the Sleeping Dragon Inn, which gather every villager into one spot for what feels like the whole day. It’s those moments that convinced me these people actually do talk to each other and have lives when I’m not actively witnessing them.
Their personalities stand out the most. Even for characters who are based on anime stereotypes (like March, who is unapologetically a tsundere), developer NPC Studio finds a way to enhance them through effective dialogue. Even when I’m mad at March because he insinuated that I’m a leech for accepting a free pickaxe from his brother, I can show up to the bar on Friday and he’s suddenly buddy-buddy with me after a few drinks. Meanwhile, the little girl at the inn told me that she would put the local Blackfire lookalike in jail for making stinky potions. Sometimes, their words just make me laugh, and it’s worth mentioning when a game like this actually makes me want to read all the dialogue and not just skip it.
Another interesting quirk: the villagers actually react to you. For example, someone may go out of their way to tell you where to find a particular item for your fetch quest, or mention something that happened in the past. I haven’t seen anything mindboggling yet, but it’s still a nice touch to add immersiveness to the world.
I do have a few gripes with Fields of Mistria so far, but they are mostly tied to my current progress in the storyline. It can sometimes feel like a chore to run back and forth between my farm, especially when I haven’t upgraded my inventory yet and my tools take up half the space. Also, for some reason, my character will occasionally swap to an awkwardly slow pace while moving. As far as I know, that’s a bug that pops up under uncertain circumstances, and I haven’t found the right sweet spot for my setup yet.
I’ve played a lot of farming sims, even bad ones, for many hours. At this point, I have faith that I’m still climbing towards the peak of what Fields of Mistria has to offer, especially since the completion of the Town Repair Storyline and marriage were just added with the 1.0 update. It’s so early that I have yet to fill up a heart for any character, let alone a love interest. And yet, I’ve had more than enough time to know I really like what I’ve seen so far, and I’m eager to keep going until I’m ready for my final review.
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