Fae Farm

Fae Farm is a farm life sim with role-playing elements.^[2] After being shipwrecked on an island, players are rescued by the mayor of a friendly farming community and given an unused farm. Farming is a major aspect of the game where players can grow crops, provided that they get watered regularly, similar to Stardew Valley.^[3]

Besides farming, players may explore the world, complete quests, engage in combat in dungeons, craft items, and romance the other villagers. Personalizing their house using furniture they craft raises players' attributes, known as cozy ratings which increases the players maximum health, energy and mana.^[2] Combat can be avoided through magic potions that turn characters invisible. Characters do not die when exposed to extreme elements or suffering from other hazards; instead, they are safely returned to town and suffer no other penalties.^[2] It supports up to four players via online cooperative multiplayer or locally through the Nintendo Switch.^[4]

The player discovers a message in a bottle that invites them to an island called Azoria. After encountering a whirlpool, the player is shipwrecked on the island where they meet Merritt, the mayor of a town located on the island. Merritt reveals that it was she who sent the message that the player found. She then provides the player with a house and a farm. They also meet a wizard named Alaric, who gifts them with a magical staff to help eliminate the dark thorns on the island.

During their stay on the island, the player meets a mystical dragon-like sprite named Neppy, who was the one who created the whirlpools for fun. Upon learning that they are threatening humans out at sea, he helps the player stop the whirlpools in exchange for a meal. The player also meets the Wisp Mother, the island's guardian, who provides them with wings and opens the portal to the Fae Realm located in an alternate version of the island, where magical creatures live. Humans used to interact with those from the Fae Realm, but a dangerous mist called miasma has forced them to evacuate and the Wisp Mother sealed off passage to the realm to protect them. The miasma is discovered to have been caused by Boletal, a mushroom-like sprite, who enjoys it but doesn’t realize it was harming others. The player provides Boletal with a meal in exchange for his help in removing the miasma.

They later meet Grell, a frost sprite, and Flammo, a lava sprite. By providing them with meals, they help the player stop a savage blizzard and a volcano eruption in return. It is soon discovered that the whole reason the natural disasters occurred is due to the Wisp Mother leaving the island for some time, while caused the island's magic to grow out of control due to the sprites being left unattended. Once the Fae Realm is fully restored, the humans and magical creatures reunite, and the Wisp Mother vows to be more responsible in the future.

Fae Farm was developed by Phoenix Labs, a developer based in Vancouver. A demo was released as part of the Steam Next Fest in June 2023.^[5] It later released Fae Farm for Windows and the Nintendo Switch on September 8, 2023, the studio's second title after Dauntless (2019).^[6] The first downloadable content (DLC), Coasts of Croakia, was released in December 2023. It is free for owners of the Deluxe version or the Switch version. It adds a new area to explore and creatures that can be befriended. ^[7] The game was later ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, as well as the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 22, 2024.^[8]

On August 12, 2025, it was announced that Phoenix Labs would no longer support online play from September 10, 2025 as well as ending future updates.^[9] This was followed when Phoenix Labs ended the servers for their other title Dauntless three months earlier and laid off most of their studio in January 2025. It will remain playable in single-player mode. Fae Farm has also been quietly delisted from the Epic Games Store.^[10] Five days later, on September 15, 2025, Gambit Digital acquired the rights to Fae Farm and announced plans to continue game support, including reinstating online features.^[11][12]

Fae Farm received positive reviews on Metacritic, where both the PC and Nintendo Switch editions are rated 75/100.^[13][14] Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 61% of critics.^[15] It is considered to be a cozy game by some critics,^[2][4][17] although some also criticised the game's $59.99 price tag.^[18][3] The game was nominated for Family Game of the Year at the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.^[19]

GamesRadar+ called it "a low-stakes, inclusive, and supremely cozy farming sim". They praised the lack of grinding, but they said it "may be too chill for some".^[2] RPGSite's reviewer said it is "one of my favorite relaxing games of the year".^[4] RPGFan said it "can flip-flop from feeling new, fresh, and polished to an Early Access title that needs some refining". In particular, they disliked the combat system, which they felt to be too barebones, and they said they encountered many bugs. They expressed hope that it would become "the next go-to game in the farming sim genre" after post-release updates.^[17] Gamereactor has said that the game keeps the player mostly engaged with it, but also noted that it gets repetitive over time and notices the similarity with the popular life sim game Stardew Valley.^[20] Siliconera noted that the game prioritizes "completing quests over farming and living a virtual life", unlike Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons.^[21] Although Nintendo Life said the social dynamics were unimpressive and felt a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of things to do, they said it is a "gloriously thoughtful and beautiful farming game that's packed to the brim with details and charm".^[16]

While TouchArcade noted that the quality of life improvements makes the game stand out and not wasting players time, they commented on the fact it costs $59.99 to buy it on the Nintendo Switch, compared with $39.99 on PC, and called it "a premium game". They noted that the game justifies the price tag, as it was in a "polished and content-packed state at launch", despite expecting it to be free to play.^[18] Another review from PocketTactics has also pointed out about the games "steep" price, and that it is steep even for Triple-A games like Pikmin 4 (2023).^[3]