Homestead Arcana Review: Groundhog Day
The life/farming sim genre is becoming hard to track. It seems not a week goes by when I don’t see the new efforts to penetrate the genre drop. With that in mind, while it’s a genre I absolutely adore, something needs to really go out of its way to grab my attention, or else I’m just going to go back to slaying and farming in Rune Factory 5, or hanging out with my favorite Disney pals in Dreamlight Valley.
Enter Homestead Arcana, published by Skybound Entertainment and developed by Serenity Forge, which sees players taking control of a plucky young witch named Billie, heading off into the mountains with her cat Huckleberry to create a new life for herself and hopefully assist in the fight against a mysterious plague referred to as the Miasma. Billie’s world has been overcome by the Miasma, with the only safe haven being a community that has taken shelter in a relatively untouched base on the mountaintops. Through a mixture of dungeon crawling, farming, and of course, sprinkling in a little bit of witchcraft, the player will join Billie in her quest to get to the bottom of the Miasma and the mystery behind it.
Familiar Territory
If you’ve played a cozy life sim before, you’ll have seen most of what Homestead Arcana has to offer. There are crops to be planted, materials to be harvested, items to craft, and of course, there’s that central mystery to get to the bottom of. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a few trick’s up its sleeve, though.
Being a witch, Billie can channel her powers and witchcraft to focus the plants and crops that you’ll be planting over and over again, increasing the efficiency of the speed they grow, in turn allowing you a greater deal of control over the rate at which you can gather resources. While crop manipulation isn’t new to the genre, I appreciated the more involved process that Homestead Arcana presents. Whereas something like Stardew Valley would just have you throwing down soil-enhancing fertilizer, I loved that Homestead Arcana puts its own thematically fitting spin on the mechanic, even if it does remain functionally similar. There’s also the risk that you use too much magic on a crop, which added a nice little element of risk versus reward when tending to my fields.
If you’re not farming, you’ll likely be crafting or delving into the plethora of story quests that Homestead Arcana offers. Crafting presents another familiar loop, with more complex contraptions becoming available as you get access to rarer resources, in turn, allowing you to process your materials in different ways, creating consumables and equipment that then feeds into the exploration side of the game.
It’s the exploration that really got its hooks into me. See, in order to progress main and side quests, Billie will frequently have to venture into the Miasma, which takes the form of a ghostly purple fog that envelopes the land below the mountaintops. In order to do so safely, Billie equips a mask that allows her to traverse freely – for a fairly short amount of time, at least until you unlock further upgrades that enhance your survivability while out in the Miasma. Should you fail to make it out in time, as I frequently did, you’ll lose all your equipment. Add onto that the fact that you’re also managing a hunger meter, and Homestead Arcana begins to feel like less of a cozy farming sim and more of a survival game. It never gets as brutal as the difficulty the survival genre is known for, but it does give Homestead Arcana a slight edge over the competition for those wanting something that feels a bit more oppressive. I love that this side of the game is entirely mandatory as well if you want to see the best of what the game has to offer. Venturing into the Miasma is going to be required if you want to access rare resources, and, most importantly, progress the main story and cleanse the land of the Miasma, creating ruptures that have appeared all over.
Combat Free
If you’re sitting thinking that this all sounds a bit much for such a cozy genre, then fear not, Homestead Arcana is really not that difficult, with there being a total absence of combat which should satisfy those who rather focus on exploration. There are enemies and various threats out in the Miasma, but, being a witch, Billie uses her know-how to evade rather than engage, using spells to enhance stealth and traversal to avoid threats. At first, I questioned this decision to go with a complete lack of combat – I’m playing a powerful witch, so it’s understandable that I’d be eager to obliterate enemies with my magic and spells, right? After a while, though, it actually became one of the major appeals for me. There is an abundance of life sim and farming games out there that have a combat component, so Homestead Arcana taking a more thoughtful approach against the many threats Billie encounters does a lot to help set it apart from the competition.
Patchy Performance
Overall, Homestead Arcana has a fantastic cel-shaded art style that lands somewhat close to the direction Nintendo took with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. It can look great, but admittedly, that’s largely when the game is in motion, and you aren’t stopping to focus on the low-detail foliage and basic textures. Performance can also be pretty hit-and-miss, with the game rarely remaining at a stable framerate, especially when out in the Miasma. While disappointing, it never completely pulls you out of the experience. Homestead Arcana is never overly demanding, and the pace is fairly relaxed the vast majority of the time, so the technical hiccups are more forgivable than they otherwise would be.
Outside of performance, my other big gripe comes in the lack of meaningful side content. Being a life/farming sim, the main hooks for me are often decorating my house’s interior, and building out friendships with the townsfolk. Unfortunately, Homestead Arcana has neither of these, which does mean that once you’re done with the main quest, you’re likely to be finished with the game. That won’t be a bad thing for everyone – not everyone needs the genre to consume their life the way I like it to. It does leave the world feeling a touch bland and lifeless, though, as you rarely feel like you’re putting your own stamp on it.
Conclusion
Homestead Arcana is a welcome addition to the cozy gaming space. A complete lack of combat, interesting magical farming techniques, and rewarding yet tense exploration that focuses on using spells to outwit your opponents rather than destroy, all contribute to an experience that manages to elevate itself and stand out. It may lack the engaging side content that ultimately keeps many around games such as this once the critical path is completed, not every game needs to be a time-devouring behemoth, and some may actually appreciate the breezier experience that Homestead Arcana presents. If you’re looking for a distraction from the genre’s heavy hitters, then the adventures of Billie and Huckleberry are well worth experiencing.
Final Verdict: 4/5
Available On: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series S/X; Publisher: Skybound Entertainment; Developer: Serenity Forge; Released: April 21, 2023; Players: 1; ESRB: E for Everyone 10+; MSRP: $16.99
Full Disclosure: A review code was provided by the Publisher.
