Luma Island by Feel Free Games is an isometric farming simulator game with co-op aspects tied to the multiplayer allowing players to divide the tasks more evenly. The game itself being a farming simulator akin to games like Stardew Valley feels akin to that but a little bit slower paced. This is due to the job system in game with the developers focusing on providing the player a sense of agency and mindfulness. Aside from that the game’s graphics combine several well-known styles such as anime, pixelated, and with the game being predominantly 3D. As for what ties the game all together is the overarching narrative that provides the player an overarching goal to strive for. This all culminates into a pretty relaxing game, and a perfect game to just relax with a bunch of friends after working a long day.
Luma island gameplay wise is similar to Stardew Valley, Rune Factory series, and a bit of Harvest Moon. The game itself is a farm sim with some role-playing elements that focuses on resource management. This is because the player will need to make money to progress the story. Moreover, one of the main reasons why the player needs money is because of purchasing plans and other items. This is quite similar to how other farming sim games work. Moreover, while there is an overarching narrative for the game revolving around a mystery, the player can focus on getting their bearings by making money over time.
As for one of the main ways for how the player can obtain money, they can take on jobs encourage the player to craft items to sell at the store in town. By allowing the player the agency to have a job allows them to immerse themselves in the role and have a goal to strive for. This is then compounded with the narrative of the game being tied to the job system in game as the player will gain some more upgrade materials to further increase their tools performance and gain certain pets. This interlocks gameplay and narrative allowing the player to grow as they develop their jobs.
It utilizes some pixel-based graphics for certain key elements providing a nice change in pace for the player by having a mixture of 3D and 2D designs. This allows the player to have a break visually as to prevent the player from staring at a monotonous environment. Moreover, by having certain things be pixelated highlights key points in the environment and ensures that the player(s) will pay close attention to the game. Aside from that, the character portraits in game are very anime inspired, and meld wonderfully with the aesthetics of the game itself.
The more anime inspired portions of the game come from the character designs and npc character portraits. As for the rest of the world it would not be too farfetched to say that some of the elements feels reminiscent from Rune Factory, and Dragon Quest Builders in some parts of the game.
As for the story there are overarching jobs that all relate to the narrative as a whole and focuses on the player uncovering the secrets of the island while taking on jobs. Without delving too much into the game without revealing too many spoilers there are various job-based puzzles. While this can be seen as artificially inflating the life of the game it is more relative to the multiplayer aspect of the game where various players can take on certain specialized roles. This does not change to much for the narrative as it as written vaguely enough to allow for multiple players to take on the chosen one role.
Luma Island is a relaxing farming simulator, that feels better with friends to play with. Playing the game solo, while fun at the start can feel a little tedious due to taking on various tasks that can feel overwhelming for those new to the genre. However, while it may feel overwhelming the job system in game tries to smooth out the experience as it makes the player’s focus on certain things that they can do. Aside from that, the graphics for the game feels fitting for the game as whole being cozier as opposed to abject realism. Moreover, the narrative while being a little behind the scenes still plays a part in the grand scheme of things in how the player will naturally progress to obtain better items. Luma Island by Feel Free Games is a solid 8/10 game when playing with friends and can provide a pretty good way to de-stress for the group after playing something more strenuous of competitive.
Luma Island is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Kyle Manila
I would describe myself when interacting with games as a strategist with a pension for stealth and loud explosions.
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