Review of the village in the shade

It would have been easy for Village in the shade being just another farming simulation, but with a twist. The genre is a dime a dozen these days, and while not every dog ​​has had its day – it’s hard not to think that Square Enix may have doffed its hat a little too early with Harvestella, for example – it’s clear that there’s an insatiable desire on the part of players to imagine a comfortable farming life. Carefree, beyond the simple need to tend your crops and feed your animals; no real problem in sight.

In typical NIS fashion, Village in the Shade is decidedly not that type of farming game. Although there is a “Village in the Sunshine” mode that does one, it’s a trap; What makes Village in the Shade special are the moments where the game looks directly at the player and asks you what drives you to lead a peaceful farming life, and exactly what kind of friction you would be willing to face in the name of that peaceful existence.

That’s not to say that the game is slacking off on its farming simulation chops, or that it’s simply using it as a setting for the nuanced story it’s trying to tell. Farming in Village in the Shade does more than just the bare minimum. You don’t just have basic tillage, but multiple levels to suit specific crops; you have composters that can be used to fertilize the plots, you have the possibility of making rice fields to grow rice and other specialized crops. You can craft machines to process materials; for marinating vegetables, smoking meat and eggs or brewing alcohol. You can create watering systems to help water crops for you; discover magical scarecrows that will allow crops from different seasons to continue growing around them. You can improve your house and furnish it as you wish, in Animal Crossing style.

When it comes to animals, yes, you have your cows and chickens, but you also have ducks and other more exotic livestock. These even have their own unique attributes; While you can grow food on your farmland to save time and avoid having to manually feed animals directly inside their barn or chicken coop each day, ducks, for example, will also feed on the weeds that infest your rice fields when left free during the day.

Even at a basic level, Village in the Shade is an excellent farming sim. I have a few minor gripes with the controls – I wish we at least had the option to use the Dpad instead of the analog stick, as the game’s perspective can make managing vegetables a little less intuitive than it might have been with a more decisive input method – but even if you ignore my advice and wanted to pick it up just for the Village in Sunshine mode, the game still gets a hearty recommendation.

But what elevates it is everything else. This includes hunting with your bow in the mountains – players can purchase hunting licenses to hunt anything from squirrels to bears – as well as mining and fishing, but what really sets Village in the Shade apart is everything that happens after the sun sets. In the usual farming game fare, once night falls, you have no choice but to go to bed; take too long and you’ll usually lose some of your precious daylight the next day. Things are not so simple here.

Much of the story of Village in the Shade revolves around the meaning of each of the rules of Kagatsu Village. The first to be deciphered is the one which stipulates “do not go out after 11 p.m.”; the answer is simple, Yokai and all other forms of spirits inhabit the village and its surroundings. Set foot outside after dark and you’ll have a short interlude to let you know what kind of spirit you’re dealing with here. Perhaps it will be Daruma, perhaps it will be lurking lanterns; Regardless, they all have their own gadgets and resources that can be scavenged while avoiding their wrath.

Find enough cursed items and you can donate them to the shrine outside your farm for upgrades; new crafting recipes, or permanent improvements to things like the selling price of specific items, or an increase in how quickly you’ll develop affection for your pets. In each season, players can find a fox who will guide them to an ethereal sanctuary; donate requested items – which include seasonal crops, forage plants and more – and you’ll receive the aforementioned magical scarecrows. Complete the request for a shrine before the end of the month to receive a permanent boost to your stamina, which will be essential for both agricultural work and further exploration of the mine.

Fish at night and you might find a cursed fish; Plant the mysterious seeds you find for a chance to grow a cursed crop. After unraveling the method, these can be spent to permanently improve your health. While most of these nighttime excursions are aimed at avoiding conflict or finding a specific trick for chasing away spirits – books discovered overnight and which can be donated to the library after it opens include folklore stories that give a clue on how to deal with spirits if you can’t discover them on your own – key story moments include boss fights, so it’s worth seeking out these upgrades.

Instead of being two separate experiences, Village in the Shade fully understands how the things we keep out of sight actually impact our daily lives. This applies to both story and gameplay; and that’s what turns it into something truly special. It’s almost frustrating how easily he’s able to go from showcasing the beauty of a hand-drawn rural Japanese mountain village to reversing the script once the lights are turned off and how unsettling that same location can be. Combined with what is easily my favorite soundtrack of the year, even at around 70 hours long.

Do I have my complaints? Of course. Although I enjoyed the boss fights, I found some to last a little too long. The story, while genuinely amazing once it gets going, takes a while before it starts to take off – and once it does, I’ll admit that it starts to get in the way of the core gameplay. That’s part of the problem, and I won’t say it’s a bad thing, but while it’s a great farming sim aside from my complaints about the controls (which could certainly eventually be fixed or resolved with a mod on PC), I could see how anyone just looking for a farming sim might feel frustrated.

Some of my favorite NIS games are the result of the team wildly choosing something different from their usual fare; Labyrinth of Refrain and Mad Rat Dead come to mind, but I’d be hard-pressed to argue that the team hasn’t surpassed their previous work with Village in the Shade. This might be the best game they’ve ever released; This is definitely one of the busiest fall 2026 game releases that you won’t want to miss.

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