Welcome To Elderfield was provided by Kwalee for review. Thank you!
Welcome to Elderfield is one of many games this quarter I’ve had my eye on, and when our head asked if I wanted to review it, this is how it went:
The Head: Do you want to review Welcome to Elderfield?
Me: Of course! Huh, how many farming sims have I reviewed this year?
The Head: People die in this one. And we know how much you like killing things in video games.
Me: Where do I sign?
There is a possibility that I have a problem. Ahem. Moving on! We’ve got a ton of great games releasing in this all-out brawl, and Welcome to Elderfield was a farming sim I definitely wanted to play. Developed by Chris Cote, Elderfield blends together traditional farming sim gameplay with a stunning atmosphere and some welcome quality-of-life changes to create an excellent competitor for the genre.
As the name suggests, Elderfield brings a darker, eldritch setting that enhances the usual gameplay of the genre. Taking place in the run-down town of Ederfield, your character runs across a strange cult that is growing in power in the area, bringing the attention of ancient, dark gods. The story is pretty interesting as the player avatar learns about the growing danger to his home and slowly restores life to the place.
There’s also some dangerous combat that follows a turn-based system rather than real-time combat, which we rarely see in the genre. The combat system is fairly in-depth with a wide range of occult monsters to fight, and it feeds into the constant danger that lingers around every corner. Even looting containers comes with a dice roll event system that can cause damage to your character, although some equipment can improve your odds.
The atmosphere is the true strength of Welcome to Elderfield. We don’t get many farming sims set in such a dark, miserable place, and you can almost smell the decay through the screen. Elderfield is grim and dangerous and does not care whether you live or die. Don’t let the pixel graphics fool you because everything is beautifully animated with strong sound design to back it all up. The whole place is dripping with vibes, and exploring the world brings an awesome mix of challenge and awe. Even going to sleep at night carries risks, with tons of random events playing out that can benefit or cripple you. Sometimes little demons will steal items from you, or one night you might get lucky and have a dark god provide you with money like a demonic version of the tooth fairy.
Combined with the amazing setting, we also get a delightful cast of oddball characters and some great writing. There are some seriously deranged NPCs in this game, and they bring some quests that are certainly… let’s call it refreshing for the genre. On an early quest, I came across a lonely old man who asked me for his help in ‘building’ a wife with dark magic. I did not have that planned for my typical Tuesday night.
The usual farming life sim mechanics are at play here. You farm crops, you fish, you craft, and you mine resources while building up your little hamlet where you call home. There are taxes to pay with dire consequences for failing to pay, so there’s more incentive to get your act together and build up an economy. Every day, television and radio ads reveal more of the world and provide new opportunities for the player, which only adds to the amount of things to do.
I love the little quality-of-life features Elderfield brings to the table. You automatically use the tool that’s needed rather than having to constantly go into the inventory and equip the damn pickaxe again. There is also fast travel via the bus stops, a nice bicycle to ride out of the gate, and you can save at any time by returning to your bed, much like Doloc Town does. The map, while not gigantic, is significant enough that a faster way to get around helps a lot.
Honestly, I have very few criticisms of Welcome to Elderfield, and those I do have are more nitpicks than anything else. The game had a few bugs, which I expected given this was a pre-release several weeks in advance. When waking the Deck up from sleep with the game running, it often hung for a while before registering what I wanted. Finally, the technical performance, while fine overall, is a little heavier than I expected. Welcome to Elderfield is not the most intensive game out there, but it has some impressive lighting and weather effects, so the game is a lot more immersive than most 2D farming sims out there. Also, expect a lot of loading screens. Welcome to Elderfield, which has lots of them as you move between sections of the map.
Welcome to Elderfield is Verified according to Valve on the Steam Deck, and it's fairly playable on the Steam Deck, boasting full controller support out of the box.
We don’t have any real options when it comes to graphical tweaks, which is unfortunate. The only thing we can do is cap framerate to 30, although for some odd reason there’s no way in-game to cap to 60. The only two choices were 30 or unlimited, which is strange. Welcome to Elderfield plays well overall, though the intensive environmental effects and lighting caused a few frame dips.
I tinkered with TDP settings to see how well Elderfield scales, but I recommend just keeping everything on default. It’s strange seeing a 2D pixel game perform like this, especially when competitors like Stardew Valley and Fields of Mistria play great at a 3-4W TDP. I kept the settings at a 50FPS/50hz framerate lock to keep things as smooth as possible while gaining a bit more battery life in the process. On power draw, Elderfield averaged 10-12 watts for me with these settings, with occasional spikes to 15 watts during more intensive scenes. Expect an average of 4 hours of battery life on the Steam Deck OLED.
Welcome to Elderfield is available in English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. While the game doesn’t have much voice acting, only English has the full audio in the radio channels.
Elderfield’s accessibility options are somewhat lacking, although there are a few things of note. You can change language in-game, toggle autorun, show the sell price of items automatically, adjust brightness and saturation, camera zoom, and text speed. You can also change keybindings, which is nice, although there’s no UI scaling in the game currently.
It is very hard to stand out in video games as a whole, let alone in the farming sim genre. Welcome to Elderfield takes the main gameplay loop of the genre, dips it in grimdark horror, adds a dash of excellent sound and aesthetics, and the result is something that feels truly impressive.
The combination of great turn-based combat, challenging difficulty, an interesting world, and a slew of quality-of-life features turns Elderfield into a game that drips with atmosphere and is deeply compelling. The only drawback is that it could do with a little more optimization, but otherwise, fans of the genre are in for a treat.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Moonlight Peaks was provided by XSEED Games for review. Thank you!
Moonlight Peaks continues to build on the massive trend in the farming-sim genre. For someone who enjoys a little murder in his video games, I’m surprised by how much I’ve been liking farming simulators lately. Between Coral Islands, Tales of Seikyu, Stardew Valley, Fields of Mistria, and Starsand Island, I have been gorging myself. Moonlight Peaks might not feel like it does much to stand out initially, but the setting sets itself apart from its rivals. It’s not revolutionary by any means, but it might just be what you are looking for if you want a refreshing change of scenery from the usual setting.
The setting of Moonlight Peaks is by far the greatest draw the game has, and it comes with a surprisingly intriguing story. You play as a small vampire lass who has run away from home due to your annoying and overbearing father, retreating to a small, old family home near the village of Moonlight Peaks. I got a little bit of Serana family dynamic vibes from the Dawnguard DLC in Skyrim, although this involves less messed-up vampire lore. Upon arriving and meeting up with your eccentric uncle (who is now permanently a bat), the classic gameplay loop unfolds.
With nights spent up exploring the countryside outside the spacious village, the setting really makes this farming sim stand out. The game favors a chibi-esque visual palette for character sprites, which might not be my preferred style, but the NPCs blend well with the cozy surroundings. This is coupled with some lovely music and sound design, and I rather enjoyed myself, watering crops to owls hooting in the background.
I also rather enjoy the characters. There is a wide range of NPCs to interact with and befriend, and Moonlight Peaks does a great job of making them feel real. The dialogue is pretty funny, and the characters range from being wonderful to talk to to ones you want to punch repeatedly in the face with a brick. Looking at you, Noel. The writing and characters might not be on the level of Fields of Mistria, but they are above average for the farming sim genre.
Moonlight Peaks feels like a jack of all trades within the farming sim genre, as far as the core gameplay goes. If you have played any farming sim in recent years, the classic gameplay loop tends to stay the same. There is always a home village with a collection of characters to befriend, do odd jobs for, and often romance. Farming is usually the main focus, but other hard-labor jobs are part of the package, such as crafting, fishing, mining, and some combat in mines.
What matters is that things are done right, and Midnight Peaks has a good grasp of the fundamentals. The stamina and time management were fairly well done, as it never felt like I was being rushed, and I did not run out of energy after chopping four trees. Being a vampire is probably part of the latter, which is nice for lore design. All the other mechanics do their job nicely enough with the usual minigames.
Some aspects of Moonlight Peaks are a little old-fashioned in today’s market, though. It has my hated mechanic of the game saving only when you go to sleep at the end of the night, which can be annoying. Coupled with the slow movement and lack of a jump button, it can feel slow just exploring the map. This is a pretty large world after all, so things can feel a little sluggish. You also cannot run, which is an odd design decision. The movement is resolved as you unlock more spells, but the early game can be a slog.
I also ran into a few bugs (not the cute kind). Occasionally, my little vampire person got stuck, forcing me to reload my progress. Twice, I had a full crash, forcing me to reboot the Deck. While none of these are dealbreakers, they are things to take into account. Also, expect a lot of loading screens. Moonlight Peaks has loads of them, and they can take a while. It might not be Starfield level, but it was something I noticed the more I played.
Moonlight Peaks is Verified on Steam, with ProtonDB holding a Gold rating. Overall, the game plays fairly well on the Steam Deck, although the lack of options means it is not as smooth sailing as I would like.
The good news is that the game has full controller support out of the box and that it works great. The bad news is the lack of options for managing performance, so it gives us little room to work with. Fortunately, the game is enjoyable enough on the Deck.
Moonlight Peaks will feel a little rough around the edges. Hopefully, the dev team can work on the optimization in upcoming patches, because the game will eat up a lot of power. Even with the TDP uncapped, I sometimes found the game struggled to hit 60FPS. I recommend keeping a 50hz refresh rate to smooth out the framerate and improve the battery life, as this is the best balance to go with. There is no way around the tiny text size, however. With no UI scaling options, some dialogue and interface text will be difficult to read on the Deck.
I kept all the settings at default, as I found that dropping the resolution scale did not help much with performance. I also kept the TDP uncapped for the best experience and saw an average power draw of 11 watts. This gave me between 4 and 5 hours on the Steam Deck OLED, which is pretty good. I did try to lower TDP settings, but I found the game suffered horrible input lag past a certain point. For peace of mind, just leave the TDP uncapped.
Moonlight Peaks is currently available in English, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese, including full subtitles and achievements.
The game comes with some accessibility options, including toggling vsync, controller vibration, interaction labels, and text animation. You can also change keybinds, lock framerate, and render scale in the graphics menu. Unfortunately, this is all we get.
In a saturated market, it is hard to stand out. However, Moonlight Peaks has a lot of things going for it. I love the exploration and atmosphere, and the worldbuilding is impressive! The core guts of the game are solid enough while offering some nice twists with the spells and unlocks, and the characters are well designed with some great dialogue.
Slow movement, a couple of archaic design choices, and a lack of UI scaling are only minor pitfalls. If you like farming sims, Moonlight Peaks is up there with the heavy hitters.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
