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Game: Kitaria Fables
Release Date: September 2, 2021
Price: $19.99
Rating: E for Everyone (and everyone, indeed, should play this)
Platform: Steam, Nintendo Switch (where I play it), PS4, PS5, Xbox
Story, Setting, and Style
You are Nyanza von Whiskers (Nyan for short). You are an up-and-coming soldier assigned to protect Paw Village from monsters. Coincidentally, Paw Village is also where your grandfather had lived and you inherited his farm and all his farm tools. Yes, you get to be a FARMER as well as a soldier!
Turns out that's not all you inherited though. Your grandfather was also a secret wielder of magic, despite it having been outlawed. Very few people can use magic, and even fewer try to. After being introduced to a very grumpy sage, you discover that YOU also are able to cast magic!
Not a good look for a soldier in a land where magic is illegal.
However, you use the magic anyway. Because magic is awesome. Also, there are a lot of monsters acting crazy and you are the only hope for the land in finding out what is causing it. Because you're awesome like that.
The Gameplay Loop
Essentially Kitaria Fables is an action RPG. You explore the land defeating baddies. You have a sword and slowly learn more and more magic spells. There are a lot of quests to fulfill for people in Paw Village, as well as your soldier duties. I found that completing the quests for the villagers helped me to become both stronger and richer a lot faster than anything else, so that seems to be where I am focusing my time. Plus, who wouldn't want to help a sweet little bunny invent a Monster pudding from slimes?
Then there is also the farm you inherited. You actually don't have to do anything with the farm if you don't want to. You do have some quests that are basically there to teach you how to farm, but otherwise, if you want to focus on attacking the monsters then I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Or you could be like me and farm a lot. I just really enjoy farming in games. That's why Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons, Rune Factory, and others like that are some of my favorite games. So, despite having a bit of a time crunch when I spend a lot of my days in-game farming rather than fighting…I have a great little farm.
This brings me to another point. There are day/night cycles in Kitaria Fables. At the top of the screen, there is a clock that shows you what time it is in the world. During the day it is sunny and bright, and during the night it gets dark, as you would expect. Typical of many games, at night there are more monsters that come out of hiding. However, other than that there doesn't appear to be any negative effect of staying up all night if you are out adventuring. Most of the shops in town close so it makes it hard to farm. You do have your health replenish by sleeping, as well as an automatic save at that time. So sleeping is still a good thing.
Just don't panic if you are out in the swamps when the sun sets.
Well, unless you are panicking because of monsters.
What I Am Enjoying
Let's be honest. I love this game.
Farming, RPG fighting, and you are a cat. What's not to love?
The artwork and characters in this game are absolutely phenomenal. The little stories are hilarious (such as trying to help get one of the little kids to eat more veggies and less candy by grossing him out). The entire game is just a fun distraction from real life. It is simple enough that children would have a blast with it, but entertaining enough to hold the attention of a child-at-heart grownup.
What I am not Enjoying
Loading screens. Of course, I understand why they are there. However, on my Nintendo Switch version of Kitaria Fables I am finding a lot of them. Every transition from one area to the next has a loading screen, and although they aren't incredibly long…they are long enough to cause some annoyance. You are passing to different areas a lot. Perhaps this is not a problem on other platforms? Hopefully.
Final Thoughts
If you are still reading this and it looks at all interesting to you…play this game.