Confessions of a Literary Addict

Harvest Moon Grandma strikes again!

As you may or may not know, I’ve been a sucker for farming games since the summer of ’04, when I first got my grubby little paws on a copy of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and thus lost myself forever into the abyss of virtual farming.

Naturally, that means when a new farming sim is popping up on my radar, I’m usually all for trying it out. (There are a LOT around thanks to the Stardew Valley boom, some of them I’m still waiting to buy since I’m a little broke thanks to the whole pandemic deal.)

Today, we’re going to look at a farming sim that’s on sale on Steam at the time of writing this: Orange Season! Or, well, I think the full title is “Fantasy Farming: Orange Season”, but that’s a little bit of a mouthful, so I’ll be calling it Orange Season for the entirety of this post.

Developed by a company called Tropical Puppy, Orange Season is an RPG-style farming sim currently in Early Access on the Steam Store. It’s definitely a good pick for those of you getting bored waiting for the Stardew Valley update (which is fine! take your time, Eric! we love you!), or, if you’re like me and you just play every farming sim you can get your hands on. Do be wary though, as it’s going through development changes right now, so things are shifting with each new update. There are also bugs, of course, but, from what I’ve seen, not to the point where it’s unplayable.

I’ve played a season in the game so far, but I’m having a good time! At the start, I was a little confused by the controls simply because I started right off the bat with a controller and the mapping of that can be a little wonky at first. I will say the UI is somewhat clunky, but since the game is still in early access, I’m willing to give it a pass since that could easily be altered in the future.

The art is very nice, and the range of characters is (as a white girl) somewhat diverse compared to other games on the market, so that was (again, as a white girl, take it with a grain of salt until someone more qualified gives an opinion) something in the game’s favor. Still not the MOST diverse, though.

I do especially love what will eventually be the marriage candidates, as marriage isn’t implemented in the game just yet. Dating has just been introduced with Update 0.6, so it should be coming soon! It’s stated that there will be rival marriages, but without predefined couples, so I’m really curious what that’ll end up being like.

The music is pretty nice, too. I can see it eventually getting on my nerves like game music is prone to doing, but at first listen, it’s pretty! I also enjoy a lot of the dialogue in the game, the writers are funny people. I can’t wait for modders to get into this game, because I bet it could be a powerhouse. The developers allowed for a modding system, too, so that’s awesome!

Another thing I like, while also being the absolute BANE OF MY EXISTENCE, is the fact the map is HUGE. HUGE. I got so lost my first day in that forest to the left that I ended up staying up all night. And then, to my horror (but only in that moment), I didn’t get shoved back into bed when the new day started. I was right where I was when the day turned over. Normally, I’d love that feature, because I hate the whole “passing out” thing that happens in all the other games like this, but this ONE time, I was a little salty.

A really neat feature that I haven’t seen in the other games though is the ability to nap basically whenever and wherever you want and regain stamina? You have this pillow “tool” in your inventory, and it allows you do just… nap. And it’s super useful. I really like it!

Also, farm customization. I think I’ll have fun with that once I can figure out wtf I’m doing.

Things are changing CONSTANTLY in this game right now as it’s still in development, and I’m loving it! I will definitely be dabbling in it as each update is dropped, because lord knows I have way too much time on my hands nowadays.

(Now I just have to hope patiently for a Switch port, because my favorite way to play is in bed with the covers pulled up to my chin and the lights out, and PC just doesn’t quite cut it.)

You can buy the game on Steam right now, if you’re interested! (That’s the link, btw.)

Thanks for reading!