Mirthwood Review | A Diamond in the Rough

Mirthwood has everything I love in a game. It’s cozy, it’s charming, it has farming, foraging, relationship mechanics, and even combat. That sounds like the perfect combination, right? All the ingredients you need to bake up an addictive game that will hook you for hours.

But Mirthwood isn’t quite the cake complete with a cherry on top that I was hoping it would be. You could even go as far as to say that the cake isn’t even iced yet. But not all cakes need to be iced to be tasty!

Pure Vibes

There are a few downsides to Mirthwood, but there is a lot to love about it as well. And that stuff is more fun, so let’s start there. Mirthwood is an adorable, quaint, and cozy RPG/life sim that certainly does not lack charm. The picture-book art style is one of the things I love most about it. It truly makes you feel like you stepped into the pages of one of your childhood fantasy books.

The art, coupled with the medieval tavern-style music, creates a great atmosphere. You can almost hear the crackling fireplace behind you and the feel of the pages of that picture book turning underneath your fingers. It’s a world that I definitely like being in, and it complements the story well.

A Story Masterfully Told

The story is one of the high points of Mirthwood. Without any spoilers, you are sent on a quest to uncover the secrets left behind by ancients. With the help of elves, these ancient people constructed a series of shrines and monuments throughout the Free Lands that hold many mysteries of their own, and, of course, it’s up to you to discover them. The story is enchanting and weaves into the world seamlessly to create some surprisingly deep lore and a compelling narrative that motivates you to dig deeper and learn more.

I often found myself totally enthralled by the story and entirely ignoring my farmly duties. Thankfully my animals forgave me, but it was hard not to get sucked into the main missions and simply forget about everything else. The call of the story is hard to ignore.

The World of Mirthwood

That introduces the most appealing part of the game – the exploration. Exploration is really what Mirthwood is all about. And it’s not always a walk in the park, either! Not only do you have to survive in combat with any number of the imaginative bad guys lurking about, but you also have to just simply survive – full stop. Running out of food or getting too tired can be tragic in the wilderness.

And while the world may be littered with makeshift beds, most merely taunt you. The only beds you can sleep in in the wild are at the Campsites. The Free Lands alone is a massive map filled with nooks and crannies to explore, every one of them harboring something interesting to find, but don’t get too carried away. You still have to look after yourself.

The world is packed full of little secrets, from notes that help you catch a glimpse into the lives lived around you, to treasure hunts, thrilling enemies to defeat, and rainbow-colored feathers that you can use to boost your skill points or expand your inventory. There is never a dull moment exploring in Mirthwood, and it truly is the highlight of the experience – although it is slightly marred – but we will get to that later.

You have total freedom in Mirthwood, not only in terms of exploration but also in terms of who you want to be and who you want to get to know. The complex Morality system allows you to truly live on your own terms. Do you want to be a hero, or will Mirthwood be the start of your villain arc? The choice is yours. You could always masterfully walk the line and give offerings at the many altars around the land to get back some of the Morality points you lost from your dastardly deeds.

A Quaint Life on the Farm

The other shining gem of the Mirthwood experience is the farming aspect. The mechanics are classic but solid – at least in concept. The farm you are given near the beginning of your play-through is rough at first, of course, but it really cleans up nicely, and getting it to that point is so satisfying.

I particularly enjoy the fact that you are free to shape your paddocks however you wish, and you’re not restricted by a 2×6 block or something of that nature like you are in some other farming sims. You can truly create a beautiful farm in Mirthwood, and watching it all come together in the quaint picture-book art style is something that kept me coming back for hours on end.

Mirthwood’s Shortcomings…

There is so much to love about Mirthwood. There is a solid foundation there, a great skeleton. Or cake, if you will. But the execution is lacking. Mirthwood is plagued with skipped frames and freezing, sometimes leaving you hanging for up to three seconds before the game finally catches up with itself and you regain control of your character.

This doesn’t happen one or two times throughout your play-through, either. It is consistent. Every time you enter a new area, a new weather system approaches, the day transitions into night, and even if you encounter an enemy, the game will freeze anywhere between one to three seconds. It is quite severe.

There are also a few other small glitches and errors, like map markers not appearing and things of that nature. Another, more serious example, is when you are tilling soil on your farm. To till your soil, you have to hover your mouse over the spot you want to dig. There is a small animation confirming the placement and everything so you know exactly where your hole will be dug.

But sometimes, the hole ends up ten feet behind your character in some other random spot. Crops can be destroyed by tilling back over the same location they were planted in. So, while I do want to make it clear that my crops were never destroyed by any rogue holes, the prospect did make me a little nervous.

Fighting For My Life

I also find the combat mechanics rather clunky and hard to deal with. While you do have a wide range of movement when you’re running around and exploring, you can only swing your sword to the left and right. Not up or down. That means you have to situate yourself on either side of your enemy in combat rather than above or below them.

That’s easy enough to deal with out in the open. It’s not ideal, and it’s not intuitive, but you can get used to it. It really becomes an issue, however, when you’re exploring caves and other tight places. Cave systems in Mirthwood often have long, narrow corridors that you have to weave through to access different areas of the cavern.

These narrow passages are, quite often, leading upwards into the cave. And if an enemy follows you into one, it can be a recipe for disaster. Since you can only swing left and right, and there is no room to work your way around to the side of an enemy in a tight passage, you’re not able to defend yourself. I often found myself swinging my sword in a passageway to no avail while getting mercilessly attacked from above or below. You’re essentially a sitting duck until you can escape out the other side of the tunnel. I found this quite frustrating.

There is Hope

If you are someone who gets easily irked by performance issues in games, perhaps Mirthwood is not for you. However, if you are a more relaxed person who can look past these sorts of things, there is a lot of potential here. The narrative is gripping, the farming mechanics are addictive, and the world is an absolute pleasure to explore. While the glitches and skipping undoubtedly break your immersion and can be rather frustrating and unpredictable, the core elements of Mirthwood still shine brightly through.

Not all games are perfect when they are first released, and I am sure that Mirthwood will continue to be supported throughout its launch and beyond. Many of the creases will surely be ironed out in time, and when Mirthwood is stable, it will become an incredible experience. There will just be some growing pains to deal with first. At the end of the day, life sims are meant to be relaxing. It’s not like you’ve got anywhere to go fast, so much of the skipping and freezing is tolerable to an extent. This will be especially true if you are distracted while playing with your friends.

Mirthwood will be introducing multiplayer features, which I was unable to dabble in pre-launch. But I can only imagine how enjoyable the game will be once Mirthwood’s issues are laid to rest and you can start farming with your friends. That is sure to be the icing on the Mirthwood cake.

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