Kitaria Fables (2021) [PC]

Time spent with a cat is never wasted.

-Colette

I make no secret of the fact that I am a massive supporter of the Wholesome Games movement. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good 60 hour AAA title or violent shooter (Ask me how many times I’ve played Fallout: New Vegas. Just don’t ask me how many times I’ve beaten it.) But my favorites have always been the bright, cozy, cheerful games, and as indies have become more prevalent, I’ve found an even deeper love for these games that have been labeled “wholesome.” Farming and life sims, exploration, experimental, point-and-clicks, 3D platformers, wholesome games are fitting into a variety of genres. They’re games that let you take your time, that give you a chance to breathe, that don’t cause stress. I’m all in. Load me up. So when I first saw Kitaria Fables in September 2020, my immediate reaction was “I need it.”

The trailers all showed a bright world filled with adorable animal people, your little cat protagonist, and a promise of crafting, farming, and adventure. As a fan of Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia, I wanted more. When the demo released, my perspective changed. Farming and crafting seemed to be more to the side, while the name of the game was adventure, stylized somewhere between A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. It satisfied a different need. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to dig into the whole game, that little taste the demo gave me evolved into a whole plate of tasty game.

The 8-Bit Review

Visuals: 9/10

Easily the best part of this game, Kitaria Fables is gorgeous. It’s bright, cheerful, and vibrant, even in the swamp. All the characters are the cutest things in the world. Yes, even the bears. There’s nothing unpleasant to look at, nothing ends up looking “same-y”. The only thing I could possibly complain about is that the foreground or trees and rocks can sometimes get in the way, making it hard to see when you’re fighting, which is problematic when the cues to dodge attacks are centralized on your character. Though there’s some fade away when you’re behind things, it can be finicky, and it depends on the type of scenery you’re behind. However, most of the world is open and clear, so these issues only rarely come up, and they’re more likely to hide treasure chests than monsters.

Audio: 8/10

The music is exactly what it needs to be: epic adventure on the title screen, telling you what you’re about to get into; properly pastoral on the farm, dramatic in the dungeons, tranquil among the trees (shut up, there’s no F word for “peaceful” to match with “forest” and I had a thing going). And don’t get me started on rainy days; you could fall asleep to the sound of rain. It’s all the kind of music you can listen to on repeat and not get tired of, which is exactly what a game needs. Warning: the game starts at a base level of HOLY LOUD. Keep your sound down until you can adjust the volume to your liking.

Narrative: 5/10

You are Nyanza “Nyan” von Whiskers, soldier of The Capitol, assigned defender of Paw Village as the Calamity threatens the world at large for a second time. Monsters have grown aggressive and dangerous, and it’s up to you to protect your assigned town, where your late uncle used to own a farm. The local reclusive sage has some information about what may be behind the reappearance of the Calamity, and you have been recruited to help him. In exchange for helping, the sage tempts you with forbidden knowledge: magic, long banned by the king.

If you think “this sounds familiar,” yeah, well, it is. The story’s nothing new on any counts, and the often generic names for the “just off screen” elements like the Calamity and the Capitol don’t help. However, there’s comfort in familiarity. You know what you’re dealing with. Inherited farm, nameless threat, personal turmoil as you dabble with magic behind the backs of your superiors. You know exactly what you’re getting, and Kitaria Fables delivers. If you’re looking for fresh and new stories, then consider looking elsewhere. However, if story is 2nd to gameplay, then you’ll probably get along just fine.

Gameplay: 7/10

Okay, there’s a lot to pack in here, so here we go. Kitaria Fables pitched itself as an adventure game with crafting and farming. A lot of stuff smashed together into a small game. You typically see this kind of combo in a 60-100 hour game like Stardew or Rune Factory, but Kitaria Fables cuts down on the sim elements in favor of the adventure. You’re not building relationships or solving people’s problems aside from a few side quests. All you’re doing is saving the world. (Yeah, only, right?) 

Adventuring

Let’s start with the adventuring. Like I said before, the game design is a mix between 2D and 3D Zeldas, with a semi-top-down camera and the world cut into small chunks of areas with transitions between (get used to the loading screen). The controls are a little unusual, but easy to adapt to and can be altered to your liking. You have your choice of bow or sword for weapons and can swap between them at will, as well as change your magic spells to suit your needs as long as you’ve learned them. I attempted to go minimal magic for a while, but eventually wound up using it just as smoothly as the sword. There’s no level system or class system. You can play as you want without locking anything out. Higher stats are gained by improving your weapons and armor at the various shops, and again, you can mix and match as much as you like to find the playstyle that works best for you.

Farming

If you’re hoping for farming like Stardew or crafting like Portia, you’ll be somewhat disappointed. Your farm is a 19×19 plot of land where you’re limited to fruits and vegetables. However, since farming isn’t the primary gameplay mechanic, you’re not limited by a stamina meter like many other farming games. Your stamina is purely for dodge rolling, and in the day-night cycle, you’re never forced to bed. Farming, tilling the soil, planting, you can do as much as you like in a day, any time of day. If you forget to water for a day, that’s fine, your crops won’t suffer one bit, they just won’t keep growing until they’ve had their daily soak. There’s no season changes, so you don’t have to worry about planting something at the wrong time either. While it’s not the game’s primary mechanic, farming is your main money maker, and upgrading your gear gets expensive, so don’t neglect your little farm.

Crafting

As for the crafting, well, after recently putting 100 hours into My Time at Portia, it’s a bit underwhelming. This is what you might call a hoarding game. Every enemy drops items, always commons, and often rarer. All of these items and all of your farming harvest can be used to make healing and buffing food items or upgrade your armor and weapons. You have one path for swords, one path for bows, one path for heavy armor, and one path for light armor, always improving the item below. The only non-pathed are your hats and accessories, which have a little more variety, but only a few options each. You’ll also need some items to buy your spells. Basically, hold onto everything you find because you might need it. If you happened to sell something you needed, though, no worries. The drop rates are pretty generous, even on the rarer items, and the game never asks for more than a handful of the boss-guarded treasures (though it may take some time to both find them and figure out the best strategy for the boss.) 

All in all, this is an adventure game with farming sim elements and a very light crafting mechanic. If you’re coming hoping for a deep farming or crafting sim, look elsewhere, but if you want an adventure game and don’t mind keeping up a little bit of property and grinding for upgrade materials, then this is one for you.

Accessibility: 8/10

The Kitaria Fable devs have clearly put a good deal of time and effort into making a game that most people can play. There is a decent variety of options for sounds, visuals, and effects you can alter as needed for your enjoyment, and the controller and keyboard options are 100% remappable (though a bit oddly tucked away in the Item/Quests/Skills menu versus in the options menu).

Dying is generous: no item or equipment loss, you just wake up back in your bed the next morning, dragged there by some generous soul (most likely your pink partner Macaron, though they have yet to gripe at me about it.) However, if an item drops and you don’t pick it up before you cack it, it’s gone when you return. Still, it’s an unexpected kindness if that’s all you lose for not taking closer care of your HP, especially considering how easy it is to die. One-way teleporters litter map, with several prime checkpoints as the destinations. While they’re not perfect, you’re generally never very far from one.

The only complaint I could say towards accessibility is that there are notes of red, such as aggressive enemy names and an icon that shows the direction of nearby enemies on the map, that might be difficult or impossible to see for someone who’s red/green colorblind.

Challenge: 8/10

Kitaria Fables’s cuteness hides a surprisingly challenging game. If you follow the gameplay philosophy of “everything dies if you hit it fast enough,” you’ll find yourself back at the farm pretty quickly. Dodging is a major and necessary mechanic that you must master if you want to win even the simplest fights in the early game. While it’s relatively generous in that many monsters, including bosses, are passive (they won’t attack unless you hit first), if you bite off more than you can chew, you’ll get taken out faster than you can say “Dead Cat.” You’ll have to learn how to pick your battles, especially against large mobs and bosses, as well as keep track of what items you need to craft your next weapon and armor upgrades and get them as soon as possible. Unless you enjoy the challenge of having 40 HP and losing 120 if you fail to dodge a single poison blast, in which case, go for it.

Multiplayer: 7/10

Wait what? Multiplayer? In MY adventure game? Indeed there is. Much like Cat Quest 2, Kitaria Fables allows two players to team up in their quest to save the world. Double your Nyanza, double your fun. While it’s only local co-op, you can use any save file you like to run it, so if you want to bring someone into your established game, you can without any trouble. I was somewhat concerned that the screen would be overly busy with the overlay for two players, but it’s pleasantly unobtrusive. However, the game treats player 1 as the main player. When player 1 roams to the edge of the screen, player 2 will be immediately teleported to their position. When player 2 roams to the edge of the screen, player 2 will be immediately teleported to player 1’s position. Despite this, though, neither player is permitted to leave the area unless both are there. Basically, while in co-op, you’re encouraged to stick together rather than adventure off on your own, but the fact that it’s an option at all is a pleasant surprise.

Personal: 7/10

Kitaria Fables is not a large game and not a unique game, but it is, undeniably, a fun game. Though it does require some grinding for crafting items, the grind is always surprisingly fast. The world feels a little empty and less lived in than I’d like, and side quests aren’t very prevalent (or the unlocks required for them aren’t obvious. I’ve got a good deal of them left based on items I can’t make yet at the shops, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what they need to trigger.) That said, the gameplay is smooth and enjoyable, the characters likeable, and the game is relatively glitchless. For as small a team as is behind Kitaria Fables, I can’t help but be impressed, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future offerings from the Twin Hearts team. 

We would like to thank the devs and publisher for supplying us with a copy of Kitaria Fables for this critique.

Aggregated score: 7.4

Maggie Maxwell spends most of her days buried in her fiction writing, only coming up for air to dive into the escapism of video games, cartoons, or movies. She can usually be found on Twitter as @wanderingquille and @MaxNChachi or streaming on Twitch with her husband, also as MaxNChachi.