Fields of Mistria Review

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“Start your new life! Build the farm of your dreams as you discover a world brimming with possibilities. Magic, romance, and adventure all await you in this nostalgic farming / life sim RPG!” – Steam Description

Fields of Mistria is a girlypop, 90s shoujo inspired farming sim. Just in case you have never played a farming sim, farming sims are a genre of games that started with Harvest Moon and also had a huge revitalization with Stardew Valley. A farming sim is a game where you have a farm/homestead and you run a farm. You typically grow things, take care of animals, cook using your crops, have some kind of museum to turn in items you found, ability to mine, cut down trees, fish, gather items, and fight in the mines (this has become more common after the success of Stardew Valley). Another big feature of farming sims, which really got me into them, is that most of them have a mechanic where you can date some of the townsfolk, marry them, and sometimes you can have children.

Part of the reason Stardew Valley got so big is because its very affordable, the game can run on pretty much any gaming system due to the graphics being 2d, and it has a crazy dev that never stops updating the game. Fields of Mistria meets two of the three things I mentioned, it’s reasonably priced and theoretically run on any system due to the graphics. As far as I know Fields of Mistria does not have a crazy dev that is gonna do endless updates, but the developers have mentioned that there are plans to keep updating the game even though they have launched 1.0. There has been no mention of porting Fields of Mistria to consoles, but I would be very surprised if the devs do not eventually port it or hire someone else to port it. They are loosing out on a ton of money if they don’t. Personally I have been playing mainly on my Steam Deck, and it runs wonderfully, so this game would do great on consoles.

Character Customization

A big reason I love farming sims is that I absolutely adore being able to customize my character and if there are outfits for me to play dress up even better. Fields of Mistria has a ton of character customization. There are so many skin tones, hair options, hair colors, outfits, and pronouns (for real, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many pronoun options in another game). At any time in the game you are allowed to updates these items, your name, and the name of your farm.

Starting out you have a limited number of hairstyles and clothing options but you unlock more options from stores, finding them in the mines, and completing quests. Personally I wanna find all the clothing options and hairstyles even though there’s not an achievement attached to it.

Romance! Romance! Romance!

I mainly play Farming Sims because I wanna date a character and get married. It’s also why I love Otome visual novels and Bioware games. I’m the type of person who focuses on getting to know all of the villagers rather than focusing on making money. There are a total of twelve characters to romance (6 men, 6 women). Two of the characters are secret and they have to unlock by progressing through the mines story, which I love the mines in farming sims. The rest of the bachelors and bachelorettes are in the town from the beginning. There are up to 10 heart levels you can increase with each bachelor or bachelorette, and there are heart events. Once you get high enough you can either choose to become best friends (not romantic) or you can start dating. Dating is pretty fun because you go to little places like the bathhouse with each person. You can also kiss you people you are dating. It’s super cute.

There are other townsfolk within in the town that just want to be friends with so they have little gemstones to represent friendship level but they do not have any friendship events. I do hope this gets added in future patches. Something that is also fun about the townsfolk in Mistria is that they interact with each other. Occasionally you’ll see people standing by each other and you can listen to the conversation they are having. Also during the season the townsfolk have different outfits which is pretty fun to get to see their personality shine through more.

So much to do!

Throughout early access, Fields of Mistria added a lot of content to the game. You got farming, gathering, wood chopping, mining, fishing, archeology, cooking, ranching, woodworking, combat, and smithing. As you complete activities you gain essence and levels which allows you to unlock perks to help with your adventure. Each skill has a cap of 60. Since I enjoy combat and exploring the mines, I decided to make all my tools and armor. So smithing quickly became my highest skill.

The mines have 100 levels. They are the way to unlock the two secret characters though one unlocks around level 60 and the other unlocks after you finish the mines story. You destroy rocks to find the ladder to the next level and your progress is saved every 5 levels. At different level sets you unlock the better ore for the different metals which you’ll need to upgrade your tools (you can buy these from Olric/March once you reach that area but its expensive) and armor. As you progress through the mines, you unlock different zones (like the lava floors), and you face stronger enemies. There are chests to find and occasionally you’ll come across mimics too. The combat is pretty basic but I’m enjoying it. You have a sword and you can use your magic, so that’s enough to keep me entertained since its kinda like an old school SNES Zelda combat.

The one skill I have procrastinated on it ranching. It’s my least favorite activity in farming sims typically but a main quest did require me to get cows and chickens. Eventually you can unlock more animals such as capybaras. I’m enjoying the ranching in this game more than I have in others. It’s pretty easy and its nice to get shiny pebbles from my animals when I feed them berries. The shiny pebbles can be used at the chicken statue to unlock random prizes. It’s a little bit like a gacha because you get a bunch of junk but occasionally you get some cook accessories to put on your animals. Another cute thing about ranching is that you can breed the animals to unlock different colors. i am really enjoying the pink and purple cows since those are my favorite colors. Eventually you do unlock mounts and you can ride your different animals that you have bred. So you could run around on a horse or you could ride your cow.

Finally 1.0 Complete

Fields of Mistria went into Early Access on Steam on August 5, 2024 and, two years later, it released it’s 1.0 on August 5, 2026. Personally I did not play Fields of Mistria a ton during early access because I wanted to wait until more of the game was complete. But I do know of several people who played the game a ridiculous amount.

Things that were added with 1.0:

The Town Repair Questline can now be completed!
The Town Renown Cap has been raised to 100.
The Mistril Town Rank Event has been added to the game.
NPC Heart Level Cap has been raised to 10.
10 Heart (Proposal) Events have been added to the game.
Wedding Events & Marriage have been added to the game. (I’m torn between marrying Eiland and the secret bachelor)
Children have been added to the game. (The child is based on the character you marry)
The “Saturday Market Plaza” Quest has been added to the game.
The “Repair the Bell Tower” Quest has been added to the game.
Stillwell & Zorel join the Saturday Market.
The Museum can now be completed. (This is hilarious because you just put the fish and insects on tables. Probably a little most realistic but I was expecting there to be an aquarium)
Steam Achievements have been added. (I’m super excited to try to 100% this :3)

With 1.0 releasing I do feel like I can really get into the game and not worry about having to restart (looking at you Tales of Seikyu). Unfortunately I’m not close to finishing the main quest or hitting the town renown cap but I’m excited to get there.

You can now get married to only one person. They will move in with you and give you some furniture that you need to place. Personally I am super torn between Eiland and the secret bachelor, so I haven’t gotten married yet. But I should note that if you have been dating everyone, they will send you breakups letters. Thank you reddit for letting me read them. With the breakup you will no longer be able to date everyone. There is a setting you can turn off so that once you get married, you will not be dumped by everyone. In this situation you will be married to one person and get to date everyone else but you will not get to have children with them. I kind alike this though I do think it would be fun to have a huge house while being married to everyone and having kids with everyone. One day a farming sim will do this, its just a matter of when.

You can also have a child with your spouse. How the child looks, their gender, and their name are set based on who you marry. The only thing that changes is that they may have lighter or darker skin tone based on your skin tone. Right now the kids are only babies but you can see your spouse carry them around. The babies sprites gets carried by your spouse’s sprite and to be honest the way some of them are carrying them is hilarious. I do believe there is a plan to have your child age up some later but that is currently not in the game. I do hope that having the name and gender set will allow them to craft a set personality for the kid and we get to see them interact with the town.

Graphics – I absolutely adore the graphics in Fields of Mistria. The very pastel pixel art and shoujo sprites are just making my inner 90s child go crazy. Like this game is super girlypop and I love it. Like this game was made for me.
Gameplay – Fields of Mistria has the standard farming sim gameplay but it also has several quality of life features in it like having the characters shown on the map. Probably the only thing that is really different from your normal farming sim it that you do have magic to water your crops, fill up your health/stamina (this has been a godsend for the mines), and shoot out flames.
Sound – I love the music, its super relaxing to listen to and I haven’t gotten tired of it. I wouldn’t say its super memorable. Like there is game music that I can think of and the sound plays in my head.
Controls – You can use keyboard/mouse or a controller. personally I prefer using a controller. Most of my time playing has been spent using my Steam Deck and it runs absolutely wonderfully on it. I have not noticed any issues with any of the controls such as lag or input delay.
Story – The basic story is that Mistria has suffered through an earthquake that partially destroyed the town and caused many people to leave. You are given a homestead for free but in return you need to help the town rebuild. You also end up discovering magic, so even though Adeline needs a ridiculous amount of resources, you still come out ahead. The story is fairly standard farming sim story but I do like the charm that the individual characters add to it.

Final Thoughts

Pros:

If you pass out, it doesn’t cost any money.

There is no fishing game.

The breeding system to get the pink, purple, and other colored animals.

The Friday night at the end is such a fun time to see the character interact with each other.

You can kiss characters you are dating.

You can put little hats and accessories on your animals and pets.

You can jump, swim, and dive.

Character customization is really good, and there are a lot of outfits to collect. So fun to play dress up in it.

Cons:

Stamina Bar. This is more of a me issue cause stamina bars are pretty standard for farming sims, but I hate them.

Steam only (I’d really love to see this come to the Switch for my friends who only have a switch).

No multiplayer (not a big deal for me, but it has become more normal in the genre).

You can only marry one person.

Olric is not romanceable 🙁

I absolutely 100% recommend Fields of Mistria. Currently it is my favorite farming sim.

I consider myself a Farming Sim connoisseur, especially the last few years as we have seen a ton of fun, indie farming sims get released. I do believe every farming sim has its charm or something that really stands out, but Fields of Mistria is that just hits everything I want in a farming sim. Like when I play Stardew, I feel like I need to mod it, but with Fields of Mistria, the only mod I want is to put in my custom character sprite. Either way whether you are a long term fan of the farming sim genre or you are new to the genre, I think Fields of Mistria is a good entry especially considering its only $14.