My New Favourite Obsession

I have always been a simple girl with simple tastes. When it comes to games, I have clear favourites. Uncomplicated game play, third person camera which is easy to control, and button mashing. This is why some of the golden oldies remain some of my top played games. Final Fantasy IX will always be my favourite, hence why I am super excited to that there's been a TV show announced! But there is a genre which fits the bill perfectly.

Farming simulators.

Now, I don't mean the kind where you drive a tractor using high-end gear designed specifially for driving traactors. (Oh yes, they exisit.) I mean your Harvest Moons and Story of Seasons, where you spend your day caring for your animals, watering crops, digging in the mines, and finding acceptance from the locals.

I've grown up playing Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on PS1 and more recently I bought Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. My tactic is to grow as many things as possible and marry Ann. Or the closest person I can get to Ann. Given the similar art style and gameplay of these games, I am really confused by the fact they are not the same franchise or from the same publisher... It is all very odd, but if more people want to give me farming sims, then who am I to question where they come from?!

Considering how much I loved SoS:PoOT, I lent it to Carole because I knew she would enjoy rearing bright pink bunnies and wooing the town introvert as much as I did. But I had to fill the void while it was away. Happily, there was a sale on the Nintendo eShop and I managed to pick up My Time at Portia for less than £4. Essentially what I am ramping up to here, is a review of my new favourite obsession.

Title: My Time at Portia

Publisher: Team17 (yes, of Worms fame!)

Story: You have taken on your father's abandoned workshop in a small city called Portia, to work as a builder. Set in a distant future, technology and living is relatively simple because of a catestrophic event in the past. With your help, they mayor of Portia wants to develop the city and make it a travel/commerce hub of the free cities. You need to mine resources, grow crops, and befriend the citizens of Portia to help make this dream a reality.

First Impressions

Farming? Tick. Resource gathering and management? Tick. Eclectic citizens? Tick! From the trailer alone, I was convinced I was going to love this game. And I was right. It satisfies all my needs while offering some varied gameplay and story on the traditional farming sim I am normally drawn too. What's more, the characters (my lady included) have voices! Even with PoOT, it was all texted based talking, so it's fun to get to hear all the different voices of the characters.

The artwork is the right level of cartoony, too. Everything is very stylised, to fit the blend of futuristic yet simplistic lifestyle. It's bright and colourful, without being childish. The townfolk are very individual while the monsters you fight are imaginative and, at times adorable. I knew I was onto a winner with this game.

The Right Level of Bonkers

A lot of the gameplay is gathering resources, then transforming them to make machinery, items, and such to fufill commisions. You get commercial jobs and ones which advance the story, all of which earn you money and rep points. (You want to be the very best, like no one ever was.)  On top of that, there are ruins to mine, dungeons to dive, and locals to woo. All very standard stuff. What's makes this game barmy is the fact it is sent in a distopic future where our tech is all in ruins. The church sees them as bad, the research centre sees them as good, and I need them all to make my things.

Still pretty tame? Ok. A robot fell out of the sky and I fixed his leg with a plunger. See? Barmy. I also dispatched of a royal rat family because they kept sabotaging the town by stealing things and polluting the water. Monsters include Panbats, Madcrabs, and Slowgooeys. Yes, they are all adorable and I feel super bad for killing some of them. But I need the things, ok?!

Much like other farming sims, there are holiday and town events. One of which was a horse race. Where chillis made you go super fast. I guess that logic tracks? Also, there was a town-wide brawl because it is actively encouraged you spar with your fellow Portians!

The Townsfolk

The people of Portia are a fun mix. There's Django the restraunteur who trains with his sword before opening shop, there's snobby Gust the architect, and there is even a scientist called Merlin. The farmer who lives opposite me is called Emily and I honestly nearly decided to marry her purely based on her name. (Who you calling a narcissist?!) Instead, I decided to go for Arlo, the captain of the civil corps. He's ginger, got a looovvveeellly voice, and he likes spicy spaghetti. Plus, he keeps making my chracter go for runs so he is accidentally the digital version of my fella! We have been on two playdates so far, and he just keeps mocking me because I can't shoot straight. (There are some mini games you can do.)

My favourite resident though, is Pinky the stray cat. I am determined to befriend him enough that he becomes my familiar. When he does that, he moves in with you. At the moment we are strangers. But if I give him fish, he will follow me about for hours. It's hilarious, I'll be running around gathering resources and this cat will randomly appear! I live for the day when he moves in and follows me everywhere.

All in All...

I love this game. If you happen to see me in the flesh, I will corner you and talk your ear off. I am obsessed and not ashamed to shout about it. To be fair, is it at all surprising that I like farming games? They satisfy my desire to be at one with the planet and the earth, without risking my anti-green thumb killing all the crops. I am all for this "things grow in three days" life too - I don't have the patience to grow real food. 

If you are looking for a farming sim with a twist, then I definitely recommend My Time at Portia. It doesn't hold your hand as much as the Harvest Moon-esque games can and the addition of dungeon crawling really varies up your in-game days.

Come to the darkside, we have Panbats.

Just a note, none of these pics are from my game. They are on the Switch and I do not know how to get them onto my computer. See also, I am still in my first year and nothing looks that fancy on my workshop!