Fae Farm is one of those farming and life sims that also includes action-RPG elements. However, while you do gain “levels” in certain skills like farming and mining, this doesn’t affect your avatar’s stats. Rather, Phoenix Labs does something I found fascinating. How you decorate your house in Fae Farm determines how much health, magic power, and stamina you possess. It made me feel like it was home decoration feng shui, where what you managed to put in place directly affected your life.
Basically, this is handled in three ways. When you go into your home and enter build mode, you can head into the Decor section to bring up the Construction section. Here, items end up grouped into Cozy Furniture, Crafting, Decor, and Rugs & Paths. It’s the Decor section that’s fascinating. Each piece of furniture here is tagged as a Comforting Cozy Item, an Inspiring Cozy Item, or a Relaxing Cozy Item in Fae Farm. The Comforting ones increase your health, the Inspiring items add to your MP pool, and the Relaxing stuff builds up your stamina. So how much you do to your house and the effort you put into it determines how effective you’ll be as you go about your business in Azoria.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Part of what’s fun about this is how much sense it makes due to Phoenix Labs’ execution. The comforting items are all things you’d use to basically sit back. There’s a tub. There are sofas, benches, and chairs. You have pillows. Meanwhile, the relaxing furniture seem to be ones that involve eating and sleeping. A Cute Bed, Cute Chair, Round Table, and Washbasin all fit in here. As for those Inspiring pieces, they’re tied to activities or even artistic endeavors. This section includes a Small Bookshelf, a Painting Easel, a Gramophone, and a Tall Vase. There’s a sense of practicality there.
Also, you also can’t just spam certain pieces of Fae Farm furniture to increase your health, MP, or stamina when you decorate a house. I tried that with Rustic Stools. Only the first one netted a bonus. Subsequent ones didn’t help me “game” the system for cheap health buffs.
Screenshot by Siliconera
I found it interesting too that though this isn’t tying Fae Farm health, MP, and stamina increases to levels, it does still link it to progress. When you first start the game, you’ll probably only be able to place things like the Comforting Rustic Stool for 6 Beech Logs, a Painting Easel for 2 Beech Lumber and 1 Copper Ingot, or a Cute Bed for 1 Copper Ingot and 5 Oak Lumber. You won’t get those additional items for higher buffs until you unlock places like Floating Ruins and Scorched Caverns. You need to put a lot of effort in to get the 3 Ancient Lumber, 3 Orichalcum Ingots, and Polished Garnet for a Washbasin, Gold Ingot and 2 Polished Diamonds for a Tall Vase, or two Ancient Lumber and five Silks for a Sofa.
To be honest, the way in which the system of building up my health, MP, and stamina in Fae Farm was tied to how I decorated my house ended up being the driving force for me to keep playing the game. I bounced a bit off of other features due to their execution. But the fulfillment that came from finally getting the materials I needed for new pieces of furniture, crafting them, and placing them in my house helped give me a sense of purpose in Fae Farm. It drove me to keep taking part in tasks I would have otherwise abandoned due to their repetitive nature. I really appreciated it.
Fae Farm is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC.
