A lot of friends recommended Wylde Flowers to me because of my love of cute farm sims and relaxing games. Right from start Wyld Flowers had me hooked. You play as Tara, who has left the city life to come try out farm life. Her grandma Hazel is a great guide for the start of the game explaining how to plant crops, how to fish, the importance of getting to know her neighbors, and how to make magic potions and spells. That's right. The small town of Fairhaven is home to witches and that includes Tara's grandma.
 |
| Tara ready to learn farming from Hazel. |
The fact that there's magic and a coven of witches adds an interesting layer to Wylde Flowers. I loved being able to gather wild herbs and flowers for crafting potions in my cauldron. You can unlock more spells and recipes as you go. There's also cooking in the game and as you improve friendships and work on a romance, sometimes they'll give you their favorite recipe to try. Speaking of romance, I felt so seen as a queer Asian person seeing the diversity of all the characters and the queer romance options. I appreciated the understanding that there are all kinds of people in the world and Wylde Flowers showcased this in such a beautiful way.
 |
| Crafting some magic things! |
I did like that you could adjust the settings for how fast time goes. In the normal setting, it goes by pretty quickly, but in the relaxed setting you can take your time getting your daily tasks done and talking to everyone. You can adjust it at any time so if you need to speed time up to get certain events to happen you can.
 |
| Having a walk in the town square. |
One issue I feel the game has is a bit of slow pacing and a bit of unbalance when it comes to upgrading your farm. It takes a long time to even get some of the materials and money needed to rebuild things on the farm such as a chicken coop and a bigger garden. There's a lot of logging and mining involved which is fine. However, I found I ran out of energy really quickly and would have to either replenish it with food or just call it quits for the day. You can sell a lot of the cooked dishes you make for a nice chunk of money or you can do some odd jobs on the community bulletin board which will give you money or items you need for things. Sometimes I would have no idea what was needed for things so I would have to look it up and at times that could feel a little frustrating, but the game's story and ambience is so charming I didn't mind that much.
 |
| Chopping some trees to build some things on the farm. |
There are of course all sorts of cute animals in Wylde Flowers including an adorable cat and yes you can pet them and all the animals. The cat is the first animal that shows up and you can feed and cuddle them. The chickens are the easiest animal to get after that once you have the chicken coop built. The story itself is interesting with a bit of a mystery to solve thrown in. Wylde Flowers had me invested to the point I kept telling myself let's play one more in game day. With all the things to do, the story, the characters, and the relaxing vibes Wylde Flowers is an indie gem that is delightful to play.
 |
| Yes, you can pet the adorable kitty. |
*Wylde Flowers is available to play on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Apple Arcade
Join our community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer
