Fae Farm on Switch
The cozy game phenomenon is a hard one to pin down. More than any single gameplay mechanic or genre setting, it’s about instilling in the player a specific feeling. Fae Farm is perhaps the first game to look at the entirety of the diverse array of titles that fit under the cozy games umbrella and distill them into something definitive. It succeeds, mostly, but falls fatally short in one of the defining elements of the cozy experience.
Inheriting your plot of land from a recently deceased relative has always seemed a little morbid as a starting point for games that are supposed to feel calming and safe. Fae Farm’s opening is more aspirational, with your character adventuring to the land of Azoria upon finding a message in a bottle. This heroic answering of the call to action may be switching one trope for another, but it’s a welcome change that sets the tone for the game and the role you’ll be playing in it.