When I played Mirthwood’s demo a couple of months ago, I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until I grabbed myself a full-release copy. Having completed all the quests before time ran out, I was giddy at my computer, waiting for the day the game would come out. Now, after a pushed-back release, it’s finally here. Mirthwood, developed by Bad Ridge Games and published by V Publishing, is an RPG full of townsfolk, farming, and adventure.
You awaken to your village burning. Raiders have attacked, and while your family is safe, though your mother is injured, they urge you to go to the boats where you can flee and continue to live for all of them. So you do and arrive at the Free Lands. Here, you’re greeted by a stranger who tells you to take over an old friend’s farm. Now, with extremely overrun lands and a house that looks like it could collapse at any second, you must survive, taking quests to find out who this Stranger truly is, and what he wants from you.
In Mirthwood, you start with creating your character, as one usually does for RPGs such as this. It isn’t anything too crazy, but you get to customize your skin tone, hair and hair color, and you can pick an origin, a class, and a profession. One of the five origins gives you a character trait, such as agreeable or introverted. One of three classes gives you one perk and one disadvantage. For example, if you pick peasant, you’re not very social, but your energy runs out slower. Lastly, one of seven professions also gives you an advantage and disadvantage. Though certain combinations make no sense story-wise, you’re free to choose whatever you want. I’m personally just a lowly farmer, but if you want to be a royal criminal who grew up in the desert, then more power to you! But aside from that storytelling aspect and the stats changes, none of these decisions are game-changing. And once you start, there’s no way to see your choices or their impacts again.
After making your character, you’re put into an interactive and fairly quick tutorial, where you can loot a few items and get some backstory on why you fled to the Free Lands in the first place. You learn about the morality and renown system, as well as combat and stats such as health, hunger, and stamina. Then, once that’s over, you’re free to explore as you please.
Exploration is definitely rewarded in Mirthwood. Every time I thought, “Whew, I’ve finally been everywhere,” there’s another location being unlocked, more chests being found, and more skeletons hanging around. Socializing is simple enough at the moment, as you get options to chat to the townsfolk. It’s very much like The Sims, and while the social aspects are usually something I love to explore, I didn’t find myself as captivated this time around. It could be because the social bars seemed to move up unbearably slowly. There is a lot more to do in Mirthwood than you might originally expect. There’s quest after quest popping up, both one-offs for townsfolk and a main quest to follow. Though the main storyline is quite simple, I really enjoyed where it took me. Aside from quests, there’s farming and husbandry, combat, finishing, cooking, and foraging.
Mirthwood has an interesting 2.5D art style that works well with the world and its time period. The beautiful, hand-drawn art style paired with the constant ambiance, the catchy music, and the gorgeously voiced narrator, make the game fun to be a part of. A few more simple things I enjoyed were the map, the unlockable fast-travel, the trading for more inventory slots, and designing my lovely little home.
The combat in Mirthwood might be my least favorite thing about the game. It’s simple and real-time, but the controls are clunky, and even with the added button to make combat easier, I really found myself struggling. Enemies will dodge more than half your attacks, and whether you see your sword physically hit them or not, it will only go through. That got old pretty quickly for me and made combat something I’d start running away from rather than pursuing. It also feels less skill-based a more, how strong is your weapon and armor?
There were also a good amount of bugs. While not all of them were necessarily game-breaking, the constant lags, freezing, and the two times my game closed completely, were a bit frustrating. There was one moment near the end of the main quest where I was locked behind an area with no way to get out (that I could find), because the door I used my quest items on locked again. I had to use cheats to get those items back and get out. I’ll also note that while you can save whenever you want, there’s only one save slot per playthrough, which felt pretty constricting for a game like this. But, I have to give many props to this development team as the many issues I encountered on my first attempt before the release date was pushed out have been solved. The developers made the right choice by pushing the release date back, and the quality of life has improved immensely and hopefully the bugs I encountered in this version will be patched out too.
I was so focused on the quests that I didn’t explore much of the homesteading aspects, which says something because that’s usually my favorite part. But I like that you can take your time with things. Now that my journey is done, I can settle down, properly fix up my homestead, and build a family…ish. There’s still a festival update and baby boom update coming out that I’m excited to explore. Right now, though, after finishing the main quest, things feel a bit empty. I do wish there were daily or weekly quests to take (such as growing or forging certain items, cooking certain foods, or killing certain enemies) for better access to cash.
Despite the bugs and any complaints, I genuinely had a blast playing this game. The developers are still working hard, and I truly believe that once future, content-filled updates are added, Mirthwood will become a game people won’t be able to put down.
Inanna reviewed Mirthood on PC with a review code.
