In 1996, a new genre of gaming was introduced by Yasuhiro Wada when he released the first iteration of Harvest Moon. While the game was popular for the time, the farming sim genre didn’t gain real traction until 2016, with the release of the intensely popular Stardew Valley. Stardew has since become a staple of cozy gaming, with roughly 80 to 100 thousand players still active in 2025, almost 10 years after its initial release.
I’m not fussy with games, and I can usually find a reason to enjoy anything I play. But as much as I loved the idea of Stardew Valley, I could never really get into it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good game — if I thought otherwise, I’d probably be blacklisted from reviewing a game ever again — but for me, it felt like something was missing. Maybe it was that I didn’t warm to any of the villagers, or my own lack of an attention span, but I’d more or less decided that farming sims weren’t for me.
That’s when I came across Fields of Mistria. Developed by NPC Studio, an indie team based in Chicago, Mistria entered early access in August 2024 to a positive reception on Steam. After skimming the store page, I found myself drawn to the art and nostalgic aesthetic and knew I had to take a chance on starting my own fantasy farm.
Spring
It’s the beginning of the season — a time for fresh air and fresh starts. You, a lone adventurer from the Capital’s guild, decide to take on a new request. In a town ravaged by earthquakes, an heiress is pleading for help to restore her once-flourishing home. The reward? Why, of course, it’s your very own farm!
With mysteries to solve, mines to explore, and a farm to run, your cozy adventure begins. As you build your new life and delve deeper into the history of the town, the magical origins of Mistria will start to reveal themselves.
Summer
Fields of Mistria fits the bill of exactly what we’ve come to expect from a farming sim: chatty NPCs, cute animals, exploration, customization, and an enforced bedtime.
Everyone gravitates to different play styles in cozy games, and there’s a lot to choose from in Fields of Mistria. Maybe you focus on foraging and filling the museum, maybe you wish to explore the mines and restore the town, or maybe you just want to make your farm look pretty.
Personally, I’m impatient and tend to blast through the story like I’m doing a speed run. But Fields of Mistria surprised me because, for the first time, I found I didn’t want to. I enjoyed the little routine of watering my crops and feeding the animals, then heading into the town to chat with villagers or attend events. It was just the relaxing escapism I was hoping for, and I was in no rush to run out of things to do.
Most of the quests in Fields of Mistria are fetch quests from the request board, where NPCs ask for different items in exchange for recipes or money. As you increase the town’s ranking and delve deeper into the mines, main story quests will pop up. And, if you build relationships with the locals, you can experience the occasional Stardew-esque “Heart Event” cutscene, during which you spend time with an individual character and learn more about them. The game as a whole is paced well, and you won’t go too long without some kind of quest or cutscene to keep you going.
As you’d expect, each year in Mistria is split into seasons, which affect the feel of the game by changing up the music, aesthetic, and available items. There are a few annual events too: the Spring Festival, Shooting Star Festival, Harvest Festival, and Animal Festival. You don’t have to participate in any of them, but they’re good fun if you do. My favorite is the Animal Festival competition (I’m not saying it’s rigged, but I am upset that my bright purple duck somehow lost).
Every week, a few visiting NPCs will appear for the Saturday market. You can grab a few recipes and cosmetic items here that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. But Friday nights at the inn are where the social aspects of the game are at their best. All the locals frequent the inn at this time for drinks, food, and conversation, and the dialogue between them is genuinely entertaining. This is true for the entirety of the game — each character is unique and interesting to talk to, and it’s obvious that a lot of effort has gone into making them that way. Reading the dialogue while the locals play “Dragons & Drama” (definitely not a reference) is absolutely the highlight. I’d recommend going to the inn just to read that, if nothing else.
As you progress through the game, magic becomes an increasingly prevalent feature. There are spells and perks to unlock via the ancient dragon statue on your farm, new areas to reveal, and even enhanced tools and weapons. It all adds to the mystery and intrigue that the game provides, while making things a bit easier with spells such as ‘Full Restore,” which refills your health and stamina.
Fall
Fields of Mistria uses pixel art, which fits with the intended “nostalgic” feel of the game. The sheer amount of furniture items, craftables, and artifacts is staggering, and each one is beautifully illustrated and unique. Every character’s outfit is detailed and suited to their personality, and changes with the season so that they fit the environment. My only gripe with this is that the player outfits aren’t as fun, so I get a bit of fashion envy.
Whenever you speak to an NPC, an animated image of them will pop up in far more detail than their sprite, making them feel lively and dynamic. It makes a lot of sense that the art has so much character, given that the co-directors of Fields of Mistria, Claire Belton and Andrew Duff, also created Pusheen the Cat, a realization that admittedly had me gaping at my computer screen for a solid minute.
The game’s sound design captures the feeling of nostalgia perfectly. The music is catchy, relaxing, and reminiscent of old Nintendo games, as are the sound effects. If I were sitting opposite someone playing Fields of Mistria, I’d assume they were playing a much older game, in a good way. The main theme in particular perfectly encompasses the feelings of relaxation, magic, and adventure.
Winter
The scale of Fields of Mistria is awe-inspiring, especially when you consider the story of how it was built. NPC Studio is just 15 people (plus some past contributors) and, to make it even more impressive, Fields of Mistria is their first game. Everything feels polished, and I can honestly say I haven’t personally come across a single bug after 57 hours in the game, despite it being in early access.
When Fields of Mistria launched in August 2024, NPC Studio had originally planned to keep the game in early access for around a year to allow the team to easily hear and respond to player feedback. Now, 15 months later and with no 1.0 launch in sight, it’s clear the team is taking even more time to polish the experience.
It seems to be working well for them. The majority of the game’s Steam reviews are “overwhelmingly positive,” with the developers listening to and acting on whatever feedback they get. The game boasts several features commonly missing from other farming sims, such as the ability to jump and swim. As someone who gets massively frustrated by the lack of quality-of-life features in most farming sims, it was a pleasant surprise to discover I could finally hop over my fences!
If I had one negative complaint, it’s that feeding and checking on animals gets a bit repetitive when you’ve got more than two barns, and it’s nigh on impossible to feed them on what you can source alone, so buying food gets expensive. There are various forms of automation to make farming more efficient as you work your way through the game, but there’s definitely some room for improvement to avoid the gameplay getting tiresome. I also think there’s a lot of potential for multiplayer, if the studio decides to add it as a feature further down the road.
Final Thoughts
Since the game is still in early access, I can’t comment on the ending of the main story in Fields of Mistria. So far, though, it’s just the mysterious, intriguing, and magical story you’d want from a fantasy farming sim. As a complete game, Fields of Mistria will absolutely rival others of its genre, and I’m very excited to see it finished.
If you enjoyed Stardew Valley, Pokémon, Terraria, or essentially any other cozy game, I can’t recommend Fields of Mistria enough.
