Only 65 reviews? More people should find out about this game, that's for sure.

I didn't want to play Princess Farmer for a long time. For a very long time, even. I've seen it again and again in my recommendations, but I simply waved it away. At some point I gave up and added the game to my endless wishlist. And then I bought it. And then I played it.

Why the hell haven't I played it for so long? Shame on me, seriously.

As you can probably tell, I loved Princess Farmer, and I actually consider it one of the best game I've played this year.

The basics
This is a match-3 game, and you've probably played one at least once in your life. But this is not the type where you can take any element and swap it with its neighbor — here you have to match elements by moving them up and down only. Very easy to learn, but for me it took some time to actually master.

The game doesn't become boring over time, because the rules and goals change a bit in each level. Also you can choose your play style for every episode:
- action bunny (if you don't really want to think over your every move)
- puzzle bunny (if you want to have a little extra time)
- balanced bunny (a bit of both)

Thanks to all that, levels feels fresh. I've played through half of the game in one sitting and still wanted more.

The plot and everything nice that goes along with it
The plot is nice but I do not consider it to be the strongest part. I won't tell you anything since there's not much to tell anyway. The dialogues are good, and I think that's all that matters in this case.

The characters are great! Each one of them is so cute, it's still hard for me to pick my favorite. Also, I like that your answers in dialogues have an effect on your relationships, even if it's not that big.

Other stuff I want to mention
❤️ 1. Character customisation. You can choose your outfit, a dye, and sparkles. Btw, the transformation animation changes a bit depending on your outfit! Extra cute, love it. You can buy new things for the customisation in a shop, which is available at all times even outside of levels. And during the game you can go back home at any point if you want to change your looks.
❤️ 2. Great art and the colors overall, the music is good too.
❤️ 3. The whole magical-girl anime aesthetic. And as a person who loved Sailor Moon as a kid, I really appreciate Tuxedo Masc!
❤️ 4. The game was designed so that you would feel good. Every part of it corresponds to this goal: from the light and simple storyline to accessibility options. The devs worked hard to create a comfortable gaming experience for every player.
❤️ 5. Fun fact: the game was created by a wife/wife team. Talk about relationship goals!

💔 1. Some dyes are too expensive, I think. I understand they were added for players who would want more goals in the game after completing it. Maybe in the future I'll find my way to earn more currency, but right now it feels I have to spend a lot of time getting more dyes for the achievement.
💔 2. The controls feel a bit awkward if you don't use gamepad. Who actually uses B on a keyboard to close something? That feels counterintuitive.

Steam Deck
Princess Farmer and Steam Deck were made for each other. Works perfectly well!

To sum up
As I said, this is a great game and I'm really surprised not a lot of people have played it. Get this the first chance you get — I promise you, this is a perfect game for a cozy evening. And also, it's very gay, so this is a wonderful choice to celebrate Pride Month ❤️

The plot
You are a witch and you have a job to go to some village and help with a harvest festival. There you meet 6 characters who play a serious part in creating the festival. Each one of them has some problem that you help with for a duration of 2 weeks. I want to say there's more, but that's it, everything else is not significant.

Your character and your choices
I really liked the customisation! First of all, I like the style and that there are a lot of fun and pretty clothes. And the hats! There are so many nice hats, aww, I want to wear everything from this wardrobe. The only bad thing I can say about clothes is that there are not that many masc options. For me personally it was not a problem, because I always make my characters very femme, but if you want to create someone more masculine, you'll probably end up disappointed.

In terms of an actual character you won't be able to express yourself. The choices are shallow and don't influence the ending at all. The only thing they influence is romance — sometimes you'll see an option with a heart symbol. If you always choose them, you can go out on a date in your ending.

The main problem with the main character is they are always annoying and unnecessarily rude. I get that it's part of the plot, and in the second part of the game they change and become friendlier. But it's just so hard and boring to read, ugh.

Your quests and your new friends
Almost every day you'll receive a few letters where your new acquaintances explain their problems and ask for help. You buy stuff you need, tend your garden, and collect flowers to make a potion, incense, etc. Every flower is associated with a planet, theme, and a color, and you'll have to choose your ingredients based on that. It might sound difficult, but in reality the game creates recipes for you, you simply need to follow instructions. The mechanics are so easy, they become boring very fast.

After that you deliver the orders to your clients. Of course, usually you also spend some time with them. The dialogues are okay, nothing special, because the characters are pretty dull.

Looks and sounds
These are perfect in every way possible. I want to praise the people who drew everything in the game because I was looking at every piece of art with freaking heart eyes. People, the garden, the village, tarot cards, potions! Potions are especially pretty... Just look at the screenshots, you'll get what I mean.

Random stuff I want to mention
❤️ 1. You can customize your altar. I've never known I needed this this hard! You can choose the crystals, the flowers, the tarot cards. There is not much need in that, but I loved this anyway.
❤️ 2. There is a tarot-spread option. Cool!
❤️ 3. Closer to the end the main character educates their friends on some practices which are good for your mental health.

💔 1. Autosave only. Why?? It's very uncomfortable if you want to replay the game from a certain point. You messed up with some orders and don't want to get a bad ending? You'll probably need to start a new game.
💔 2. Strongly connected to my previous point, but I want to talk about this separately. You want to collect all of the achievements? You will have to replay the game at least SEVEN times. You will have to do the same orders again and again, skip the meaningless dialogue again and again, tend to your garden again and again. This is just cruel, guys.

I'm a person who likes to collect all of the achievements, and I spent so so much extra time collecting them in this game. I'm not new here, I've even tried messing with save files to load the one I need manually. Couldn't do it, unfortunately.

Steam Deck
Works perfectly fine. In the beginning you'll have to use keyboard to enter your name and then to press some button during the tutorial. Other than that you can use touchpad or customize the layout, as I did. I also liked to use the screen and simply tap the stuff I need, it was easier that way.

Conclusion
If you still want to play this, probably wait for a sale. And if you're a achievement hunter, be ready for some pain as you'll become close acquaintances very fast.

Esther comes to the woods searching for something she needs really bad. You see, she has a fatal disease called Pale Cachexia. If you don't know what cachexia means, fret not, I didn't either. Basically it's a syndrome which causes weight loss and muscle wasting. “But about the Pale part”, you might ask. That you will find out later.

So yeah, Esther is searching for the cure, but instead she finds a girl named Seina. Together the girls are trying to solve the mystery of the disease. At the same time, Esther learns more about her new friend and the mystic manor that she's staying in.

I like this novel but I think it's not for everybody, because it is very slow, even painfully at times. And it takes a while before you really sink in into the story. There are some parts where you'll probably feel like nothing is happening and you're just wasting your time. But I thought it was okay, because the coolest thing here is the atmosphere, not the plot.

By the way, about the atmosphere — the art here is simply amazing. Sprites of the main characters are super pretty. The background art is also great and adds to the feeling. Of course, the last part of this mix is the soundtrack — chef's kiss. It's quiet piano music which helps create the vibe but at the same time doesn't take your attention away from the story.

I'm still not sure what is my opinion on the ending. On one hand, it's fitting for a story like this. On the other hand, I was craving for something much more vivid, and I think the ending would be more satisfying if it had more drama.

To summarize, Pale Cachexia is great on a technical level. The art, the music, the menu design — everything is gorgeous. Plot-wise the novel is not that great, especially in the end. I recommend buying it only if you're a big fan of visual novels and/or gothic stories and want to expand your library a bit.

P. S. I almost forgot — I've played this on Steam Deck (which I'm obsessed with, but we'll talk about it another time). The novel works perfectly fine, but I had to change layout a bit so that I could use buttons instead of a pad when using the menu.