Start getting those leave requests in, friends: you’re going to want to make sure you have September 20 free to play games all day, because that’s the release date Studio Drydock announced today for the Switch and Steam versions of cozy magical farm life sim Wylde Flowers.
A quick, back-of-the-envelope pitch for Wylde Flowers is “like Story of Seasons but you’re a witch”. It’s a game about moving from the city to a small town to help your grandmother run her farm, while getting to know the locals, enjoying the atmosphere, and maybe falling in love. The difference is that this time, you’re not just a farmer, but also a witch! Farm by day, cast spells and brew potions by night, and use your magic to help your crops and your friends.
Wylde Flowers also stands out with its narrative focus. An authored main character, Tara, takes centre stage instead the of the silent, player-made protagonist you usually find in games like this, and through her eyes, the game unfolds in a more plot-driven fashion. Indeed, according to Drydock’s release date announcement, Wylde Flowers has more than seven hours of cutscenes, over 215,000 words, and 20 hours of voiced dialogue from a cast that includes a number of BAFTA winners like Cissy Jones (Firewatch) and Erika Ishii (Apex Legends). (Also, can I just say how much I love that we’ve reached a place where “look how much cutscene there is in this bad boy” can be used as a marketing point?)
A couple of hours with the Steam Next Fest demo last month was enough to show the potential of this premise, casting the usual social aspects of the genre in a different light and teasing some intriguing mysteries unfolding in and around Fairhaven. If you’re curious to check it out for yourself, that demo is available once again.
If you really can’t wait, Wylde Flowers is already available on Apple Arcade, where it won the Apple Design Award for Inclusivity earlier this year. Otherwise, the September 20 isn’t too far away, now—and cuddling up with a cozy, witchy farm sim on Switch (or Steam Deck, I guess, for those lucky enough to have obtained one) seems like a perfect way to ring in spring.
