I often wonder why I play so many farming simulators. Mechanically, most of them are exactly the same—you farm, you sell crops, you romance townspeople, rinse and repeat. Fields of Mistria does not differ so much from this formula, but it is one of the best expressions of it that I’ve played in a long time.
Fields of Mistria could be uncharitably described as Stardew Valley with magic, but that’s not what makes this game special (and besides, adding magic to a farming sim is already a sub-genre, with many examples). What I keep coming back to is the richness in the writing, especially in the characters who fill out the town of Mistria. Because these kinds of games are all so mechanically similar, they really live or die based on the storylines you can explore with each of the people who live in town. (Which I should know, because I am writing a romance novel set in a farming simulator called Level Up For Romance! coming in 2027.)
The citizens of Mistria start off as broad archetypes, but become unique over time. I like fan favorite March, who has a bad attitude but a soft center, and Ryis, the sweet boy who apprentices with his uncle at the carpenter’s shop. But there’s also Juniper, who runs the baths and teases the player constantly, and Valen, the no-nonsense doctor. The child characters, like the aspiring entomologist Luc, also have robust characterization–in other farming sims, kids can often feel incidental, because well, they’re just kids. But no one is “just” anyone in Fields of Mistria. It never feels like this town was waiting for you to arrive. It has a history; the characters have pasts and interconnect with each other.
I love how this is expressed every weekend in-game, when characters all meet at the Tavern on Saturday nights. There are various ongoing plot lines you can check in on. One group of characters is playing a Dungeons and Dragons pastiche, initially not taking it very seriously but getting more and more into it each week. At another table, some of the characters play cards, cheating, complaining, and taking each others’ money. These stories don’t stay static—the player character isn’t the only one who can change as time passes.
There are some tiny mechanical differences from other farming sims that also make the game less of a hassle to play. Shops don’t open and close on a schedule, so you don’t have to run your errands at particular times. When you craft things, your materials are all sourced from your chests, so you don’t have to carry crafting materials around all day. The combat—because there’s monsters in the mines where you can also scavenge for crafting materials—is also a little bit more involved than spamming the attack button. There’s something Dark Souls-esque in the way you have to pay attention to character animations and get locked into an attack animation as soon as you press the corresponding button.
All these mechanical changes are nice to have, but I keep playing because of the people of Mistria. It’s an achievement to make a fake town feel like a real place, and I love spending time there.
