I was never much into Farmville or the like, and here I am, micromanaging a farm. And that is my keyword right there: micromanagement. Family Farm Seaside is heaven for that and multitasking.
The game begins slowly introducing you to the basics. Place plots, plant, harvest, transform raw ingredients into other products. There are plenty of crops available, from grains to flowers, vegetables and fruits, and a number of trees to populate your orchard. You then use your crops to feed an assortment of animals and create other items in the wide variety of machines, and maintain your own market where you sell things to your neighbors.
It took me a few weeks of playing to actually understand everything and get into the rhythm of things, and even now (it’s been a few months) I feel like there is more to learn. For something that is initially simple to get into, Family Farm Seaside can get pretty overwhelming!
There are always missions going on in your task list, with special ones appearing for a limited time only. There are several resources at your disposal, aside from cash, and the different currencies can get a little confusing. RC is purchased with cash, or earned by leveling and from random activities or achievements. This can then be traded into TC, which is used to purchase special items. There is also a number of colored mystrons (tickets, so to speak) which are in turn used to buy other special items in the Mystery Store. Aside from currencies, there are other things such as lucky wheel tokens, fertilizers, watering cans, gasoline and more.
If this isn’t enough, there is a kitchen to make dishes in, pets that dig up treasure, a guest center that brings in people who order items from you, a daily order board, fishing, special tech from the lab, workshops, and another entire farm in an island with even more stuff to do! In fact, there is so much to talk about that I could probably start writing a guide about it.
Overall, I am having fun with what the game has to offer, and after seeing how people react to it (in-game and through social media), there is a lot of bashing over the RC and real cash to purchase certain things. Personally, I think the game is still enjoyable and has plenty of value without having to spend real money. I get that people get angry because some missions require RC to complete, but you can get one per level and one per day from the Mystery Store (either costs green mystrons or rarely cash) and at random from completing missions or from helping neighbors, and the company has to make their money somehow! I wasted some RC foolishly in the beginning (always by tapping by accident), and I am now getting my daily dose of mystrons from the ad balloon, and at the same time it’s my way to support the company. I can definitely view an ad here and there on my own terms to keep playing.
Socializing is a big part of the game as well, as it encourages you from early levels to get neighbors and help them out, as well as ask for their help to complete tasks. Initially you are paired up with random players around your level and two of the game’s NPCs who also have their own farms. The more you interact with your neighbors, the more friendship points you get, and eventually you can become buddies. Unfortunately, you can only have 15 buddies, but these will have special perks like buddy trees that you help grow and get care packages from and borrowing pets.
There is a little bit of story, which is presented through a comic type of layout. The art style is bright, colorful and cute, and I do love all the little details that go into each animal, building and machine.
There is no shortage of things to do in this farm, and if you like micromanagement this will probably be more than a casual game. I’ve noticed an hour or two go by when I intended to just harvest and re-plant. But one thing leads to another, and it’s like a chain of events that just keeps going as I expand, rearrange, plant, cook, craft or help neighbors with their orders.
Of course, there are improvements to be had. There is no trade system so to speak, so when helping out a neighbor with items, all we can do is put them up for sale in our market and hope no one else gets it. There are also certain items that can only be up for sale once per hour, usually rarer ingredients that are required for specific missions or expansions, which gets frustrating when we have a limit of how many we can put up at any given time.
A lot of machines are also completed with RC, which brings me back to the topic of real currency to purchase it, or the slow process of leveling and completing other tasks to raise enough of it to finish building.
All in all, Family Farm Seaside is a pretty good Android game for a casual distraction, be it for 15 minutes or for two hours in a row. And best of all, it’s free! For the most part, anyway…
Find out more about Family Farm Seaside at the official site.