Campaign Ends: November 25th
Platform: Steam
Sometimes everything is awful and horrible, and you want nothing more than to run off to a small mountain village and grow your own food while playing darts with the local hermit. Thankfully, video games are here to help. Settle into a cozy and beautiful rural sanctuary in Delphinium, a narrative-focused farming game where connections are as important as crops. Friendship is a priority when there are only nine of you, and even more so when the outside world is falling apart!
Follow a month in the life of Haiyan, a twenty-six-year-old woman who returns to the small settlement of her childhood after escaping the chaos of a failed revolution and the iron grip of a tyrant king. Unlike most farming games, the game is set to end after a month, and won’t feature a sandbox mode; it’s a tight, story-focused experience. During this time, you’ll tend to your crops, complete helpful tasks, make your own furniture, build relationships with the other villagers, and maybe even pet some little animals! Overall, the developers describe Delphinium as a cozy and bittersweet experience, exploring themes of identity, hope, and friendship in a collapsing civilization. Will Haiyan find fulfillment in a tiny village, or end up returning to the treacherous world outside?
Delphinium features a fun RPG-style growth system, where you’ll earn experience in several non-combat skills by doing everyday tasks. These skills include vitality, which helps improve your daily stamina, dexterity for cooking and other manual activities, and most importantly, the skill of communication. Many tasks, such as crafting and fishing, involve fun little minigames that add a bit of extra challenge for the day, but nothing too stressful.
I hope you enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles‘ Affinity Chart, as Delphinium embraces a similar feature, as conversations and relationships are key. As you link different characters, locations, and concepts, you’ll open up more dialogue options and lines of questioning! Needless to say, the narrative will change based on both your decisions and which relationships you decide to nurture. Remember that you can’t be everywhere at once; you’ll have to choose which characters you spend your limited time with, and leave the rest for another playthrough.
Development on the game is mostly finished, and rather than traditional stretch goals, extra Kickstarter funds will go towards further compensating the team members, hiring more staff, marketing, and perhaps adding some more musical tracks.
Delphinium feels very timely, considering all the chaos in the world and our own tyrannical “kings.” We can all use a cozy distraction from the news! On the technical side, the mostly brown and green 2.5D graphics give the game a lush and relaxing vibe, and I honestly love the shorter length and focus on story. Endless sandbox games can feel overwhelming! Australian studio Cinnadev definitely has something special in store, and any fan of farming or cozy games should keep Delphinium in mind when it releases in late 2026!
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