A Bit Too Casual

Tired of city life, you move to the country to learn farming from your grandfather in My Dear Farm from HyperBeard. The chibi-style graphics can make any gamer go ‘aww’ and gameplay is pretty easy to follow. After choosing your characters basic look (hair style, hair color, skin tone), grandpa coaches you on farming. However, there isn’t much to the story beyond that, and players are left to their own devices. This kind of make-it-up-as-you-go play style might work with some games, but definitely not with this one. Without proper direction, My Dear Farm is all aesthetic and no substance.

Easy Earnings

The basic way to play is to buy plants from the Farm Shop and plant them. There are many different plants to choose from, such as cabbages, onions, mushrooms, and various colorful flowers. Keeping with the cutesy theme, all plants have little faces that tell you how they’re feeling. Fully grown the plants will have hearts around them, meaning you can start harvesting. Doing so earns coins and sometimes gems, both of which can be used to buy more plants, decorations and clothing items. Unfortunately, outfits and clothing items can only be bought with gems, which is rather annoying. In addition, you’ll get a random reward in your mailbox every few minutes, plus watching a few ads also gives free items.

Beyond this is a minigame called the Farmer’s Market, the only exciting part of My Dear Farm. Up to 10 people request certain crops, and you give it to them before their satisfaction meter runs out. But there’s more; sometimes you only have a silhouette to work with, or you have to wait for a request to load. Try to give people what they want quickly so they’ll pay you the most coins. Spending coins on basically anything earns exp and eventually levels you up. On level three, for example, the chance to have a pet becomes available. For some reason, the first option was a shark.

Boredom Arrives Quickly

As cute as this game is, it gets boring fast. Without much direction, you’re listlessly waiting for your crops to grow and for the farmer’s market to open up again. No quests, not much of a story, not a lot to do at all. I feel like My Dear Farm was relying too much on its art style to get player’s attention. Not to mention it takes forever to level. You have to keep buying things to earn exp and eventually your farmland is full. The only way to expand is if you have 20 gems, and those are a bit hard to come by. You can only get five with an ad in the shop, the rest has to come by chance. I know this is a casual game, but even casual games have some direction and purpose. This wastes your time, but not in any way that’s good.

Cute But Bland

My Dear Farm, while sporting adorable graphics, ultimately doesn’t have much to offer. There are many opportunities to earn rewards and the Farmer’s Market is a challenging minigame. But that’s the only interesting part of this casual game. Players are given no direction on what needs to be done to succeed and are left just waiting around most of the time. If you’re looking for a game with substance, this isn’t the one for you.