Farming sims are only getting more popular as time goes on, across the indie space and with larger developers. After spending some time with Yangyang Mobile’s Spirit Rancher at PAX East, I think the devs are onto something good. Like any other expanding genre, it’s important for newcomers to offer something unique, or a twist on the familiar to stand out, and I feel they’re doing just that.
I’ve seen and played my share of farming games with spirit or magical companions, such as Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. One thing I like about Spirit Rancher, though, is that the spirits are the farming component, as living crops. You don’t plant and grow potatoes or chop trees for wood; you collect and nurture potato and wood spirits, and they share their resources with you. This is a fun way to bring creature collecting into farming, in a way that’s both extremely approachable with little explanation and still fresh enough that I haven’t used a system that feels quite like it. Also, who could say no to a farm full of potato spirits (seen below)?
This mechanic alone would entice me enough to want to explore Spirit Rancher further, but there’s more to it. Collecting spirits involves besting them in real-time combat, which is a little more varied than in, say, Stardew Valley, as collected spirits give you different moves both in and outside of battle. A grass spirit will give you a different type of “cut” move that can more efficiently chop greenery, and may have been more effective at attacking certain spirits (though I can’t say that for sure). The coal spirit attacks by spitting a small projectile, while the wood spirit has a close-range, area of effect stomp move. Once you collect these spirits, you can assign them to a hotbar (separate from your inventory bar) and use these same moves for yourself, adding variety to the ways you can interact with your farm and tackle stronger spirits in the wild.
As I collected more spirit types, I learned that many depend on others for food and resources. Wood spirits would drop wood so I could build out fencing, food troughs, and other structures, so I definitely wanted some of them. But to produce resources, each spirit has another thing they need to consume. Wood spirits want to eat coal to produce wood, while coal spirits need another thing, as do grass spirits, potato spirits, stone spirits, and so on. As I played, all of this came up organically, making it clear that the idea is to put complementary spirits together to create miniature ecosystems where you supply food or water, and they all take care of one another while helping you get more resources to put back into revitalizing the landscape. It’s a very cool system, and it feels great when you see the spirits all working together.
This gameplay ties into the mythical nature of Spirit Rancher’s world, with a friendly Kitsune named Zinnia who guides you. I also appreciated that, given this spiritual and earthly vibe, I didn’t see any human-made currency. I unlocked some new recipes to expand the farm and offer more perks to my spirits by earning and then trading in karma (visualized by a cool purple flame). That even the currency aligns with the design of the world is a nice touch that I appreciate.
Since I only had a short time with Spirit Rancher, and the game has a long way to go before release, I only got to explore the farm and the adjacent forested area. I wasn’t able to get into spirit fusion, meet and interact with villagers (who, like Zinnia, are based on mythical creatures), or dig into the lore and deeper mysteries of the world. Ultimately, I wanted to see more, and I wish I hadn’t discovered the game on the PAX show floor on the last day!
Still, my impressions are very positive so far. A rep for the game told me they hope to release Spirit Rancher in 2027, as most of their resources are currently devoted to High Times, which is set to release within the next couple of months. (Read my impressions on that one, if you haven’t!) After High Times releases, they’ll be able to devote all their time to spirit raising.
That Spirit Rancher was almost framed as a secondary project surprised me. The pixel art is beautiful and highly detailed even for an “early” game, the animations are nice, and the underlying gameplay structure seems pretty solid! The only oddity I noticed was that I could drop water for spirits to drink, but if I didn’t move away after 1–2 seconds, my character would automatically pick it back up. So I got into the habit of only placing some water and quickly moving away to avoid that. No doubt this will change before release.
Other than that, Spirit Rancher already feels great to play, so another 9–18 months (at most, if 2027 holds true) of development will only improve it. I’m looking forward to learning more about this world and seeing what else the devs have planned to ensure Spirit Rancher offers something unique in the genre while still being approachable and delivering gameplay and atmosphere to satisfy fans of farming and cozy games.
Spirit Rancher is planned to release in 2027 on Steam (Windows and macOS). Based on the devs needing to finish their donut shop dating sim first, I imagine we may not hear many updates on Spirit Rancher in the immediate future, but when we learn more about it, we’ll share it here on RPGFan!
Big thanks to the team at Yangyang Mobile for making time for me to play both of their upcoming titles at PAX East!
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