Development studio ManaGames announced their upcoming game Farnia Village on October 28 for the PC (Steam, DLsite). Development is currently underway, alongside a Kickstarter campaign that was launched on the same day.
Following the story of an amnesiac hero who remembers nothing but their own name, Farnia Village is a life-simulation/action RPG in which you’ll get to start a brand-new life in a peaceful fantasy village. Aside from tending to your crops and working around your house, you’ll also have the chance to go on adventures and explore the world, smith equipment, cook, fish, raise pets, and maybe even find your soulmate. However, as the developers explain, what sets Farnia Village apart from other farming simulator games is that it offers a much more bountiful endgame – the title will allow you to keep progressing and living life in your world even after completing the main story.
Fans of the genre might notice some resemblance between this title and the Rune Factory series, and that is because the new project is led by ex-Neverland Company developer Shinichi Manabe, who directed Rune Factory 4 and worked as the lead programmer for Rune Factory 3. As both Rune Factory 3 and 4 are highly acclaimed titles in the series, it will be interesting to see where Farnia Village will stand as their spiritual successor.
However, we might need to wait a bit longer until we get to see what the finished game looks like. As the development team at ManaGames is rather small in scale, they intend to take their time producing the title. Farnia Village is apparently being developed by Manabe and one writer, who was also in charge of writing the scenarios for Rune Factory 3 and 4, with Manabe himself taking on most of development work.
Tackling such a large-scale project with a comparatively small team, studio ManaGames decided to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to support development. The game has already reached more than 2 million yen (around $13,000 USD) at the time of writing, and is a bit less than halfway to reaching its 5-million-yen goal (around $33,000 USD). The first 100 backers who pledge 2,500 yen (around $16 USD) will be getting a Steam key for the game upon release.
While the game is currently set for release on PC, it is apparently being optimized to run on hardware such as the Nintendo Switch, which means that announcements for a console release may not be out of the question. However, judging by the estimated dates when the Kickstarter rewards are set to be sent out, the game will go in early access around September 2027, with a full release slated for September 2028, provided the campaign goes as planned.
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