You can grow bonds with your villagers, build homes for new arrivals, and take on delivery tasks for them. The village is bustling and there are lots of things to buy, and sometimes special events like festivals will take place there. Butterflies will still be everywhere at night, or even during a storm, which feels a little strange.Įxploration is generally limited, and the island you inhabit is extremely small. There are bugs all over the island, but strangely they don’t seem to react to the change in weather or time of day. Fishing is basic, and all the fish I sold were far less valuable than the bugs (which are easier to catch in comparison). However, collecting them can be pretty menial. There are bugs, fish, and fossils to collect, and a neat section in the journal showcases everything you’ve found. Thankfully, the game offers other ways to spend your time. If you want a nice home, you’d best be prepared for a lot of work. It feels like the developers were overthinking it a little when designing the building/crafting mechanics, and Staxel fails to stack up to its competitors in that regard. Certain things like animal pens or new homes require you to place markers which limit the area you can work with. Crafting items is just too fiddly, and I was uninterested in building as a result. This leads an otherwise relaxing game into disappointingly-annoying territory. It’s less intuitive than Minecraft, and it takes far too many steps to find what you need in each menu. Inventory management and menu navigation are both needlessly frustrating too. A simple crafting menu would have made more sense, but, as it stands, you’ll have to move between these different stations constantly every time you make a new item, and this gets tiring fast. You have to use different work stations depending on whether you’re sawing, assembling, carving, or constructing, which is a pretty big over-complication for something many games have done better in the past. The aesthetic of the game is simple but pleasing enough.īuilding is a little less enjoyable, and the way it’s executed feels needlessly convoluted and irritating. You can also play with up to three friends, which can be fun if you’re able to find people to share your village with. You can play at your own pace, and the music is pleasant too. There are no enemies or hunger meters to contend with and no way to die or lose progress. Providing a very relaxing feel, fans of more laidback titles will appreciate the vibe that Staxel aims for. You can sell your crops or produce for currency or use them to bake certain dishes in the kitchen, though you’ll need various cooking stations to chop, boil, or bake your items. Animals like cows and cats are a cute addition, and it’s fun to see them mooching about your farm throughout the day. Planting crops, watering them, and expanding your farm creates a nice gameplay loop, albeit one many players will have experienced before.
The farming is the most enjoyable component of the game. Village life is quaint, and you’ll have lots of time to grow crops and expand your home. In fact, Staxel takes ideas from these titles like they’re an all-you-can-eat buffet, resulting in a game which tries to do a lot but doesn’t quite manage to perfect any of its features. The gameplay feels like a blend of that game, Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley, with a dash of Animal Crossing sprinkled in too. Visually, it’s obviously inspired by Minecraft, with the same basic blocky aesthetic we’ve all grown used to seeing over the years. You start out on a small farm with a rundown house, but before long you’ll be able to turn it into a fully-fledged home with your own array of crops and cattle to tend to. Staxel is a building/farming simulation set on a cute, colourful island. Will Minecraft have to moo-ve over, or is this game a load of old crop?
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