There’s no question that in this generation the popularity of the farm sim RPG subgenre has absolutely exploded in the indie scene. No doubt buoyed by the staggering success of Stardew Valley and some others, plenty of developers have thrown their hats into the ring in the hopes of pulling down some sweet eShop revenue goodness. The thing is, as many previous attempts that have sputtered out have proven, it turns out that aside from being released at the perfect time close enough to the Switch’s launch, Stardew also happened to be an all-around banger of a game that pretty well nobody has been able to even match, let alone try to surpass.

Wind Story joins many other more modest attempts to emulate what has worked in other titles, while at least trying to insert a little of its own personality as well. I suppose the ability to have an unusual-looking pet is an attempt of some kind, and you can tell that there’s an earnest attempt to create an experience that’s somehow at least a little comparable, but sadly there are just to many issues here, both bigger and smaller, that it really gets to be challenging to see any positives that can compensate.

It starts with the herky-jerky way your pet follows you around, essentially floating since their legs are in no way animated. Then your eyes will get drawn to the interfaces that are generally chunky and clunky, even overlapping each other at times in a very sloppy manner. You’ll notice how sounds for things like breaking up rocks sound more like cracking an egg or maybe snapping a branch. Then in areas like the mine, the way it is lit feels inexplicably odd, with you and some items in the shadows but others not even when under the same light source. Then you may simply be doing nothing special and have the game suddenly crash. 

This all makes for an uneven and generally disappointing experience to be sure, and that’s before contrasting it with its competitors, even those on the lower end of the spectrum in the space. Quite simply, this feels like a game that still needs a considerable amount of time going through general QA and bug-killing iterations, not something being pushed out to the public to pay for having the opportunity to play. Perhaps it could eventually get into a more playable state with more time and patching, but honestly the bare bones quality of just about every aspect of its design and play make it unlikely to ever dig itself out of one of the lowest rungs in the subgenre space.