I was introduced to farming games in 1997 (yeeeesh) after renting Natsume’s Harvest Moon from my local video rental store. I wish I could say it was love at first sight, but as a 9-year-old, the gameplay associated with running a farm felt foreign and overwhelming (what do you mean I had to manage money?!) and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Thankfully, my aunt Patty – who I miss every single day – had coincidentally become enamored with Harvest Moon and knew ALL the tips and tricks which she excitedly shared with me. I’ll never forget her best piece of digital farming advice: “The first thing you do is buy a bag of seeds.”
Thanks to her, nearly 30 years later, cozy farming games are my bread and butter. It’s the genre I turn to when I need help decompressing or when I’m going through the toughest times. These games reliably make me feel good and I sink an ungodly amount of hours into them every year. But, for better or for worse, there’s oversaturation within the genre, and when I’m choosing my next let’s-disassociate-from-the-world game I’m always looking for something different, something unique.
Enter Grave Seasons. At a glance, you’ll likely infer it’s a picturesque farming sim that features charming pixel art. And if you look a little closer you’ll see the customizable character, teases of small-town romance and VIOLENT MURDERS. MURDERS EVERYWHERE. YOUR NEIGHBORS ARE BEING BRUTALLY MURDERED, DISFIGURED AND TORN APART.
Developed by Perfect Garbage and published by Blumhouse Games (nooow it makes sense) Grave Seasons doesn’t feature a cute story opener like “Aww you inherited a farm from your Pawpaw!” – oh no, your story begins with your character breaking out of jail and taking refuge in Ashenridge: a small town surrounded by woods, mountains and a sandy coastline and is home to over 30 residents. The fixins’ are all here too – you’ve got a bar, community gardens, commercial businesses and even a town square where events are held throughout the year.
If you’re well acquainted with farming titles, Grave Seasons’ gameplay should feel familiar enough. You’ll have a field to clear, soil to till, seeds to plant and items to forage. You can fish, mine, craft items and befriend the locals. So far, pretty standard stuff yeah? But here’s where things get very different: When players begin a new story – known as a campaign – a murderer will be randomly selected from a pool of characters, each coming with a bespoke story. And yes, these are the same characters you share a town with. The SAME characters you say hello to every day. The saaame characters you woo by giving them unwanted junk. Dude, you can UNKNOWINGLY ROMANCE THE KILLER. Oh, the drama.
Each campaign lasts a total of four seasons, which equals one in-game year. Every season a new resident will be murdered unless you prevent the killer from succeeding. But hey, if you can’t be bothered to help thy neighbor you 100% can give nary a single flying fuck as those around you are slaughtered and the campaign will continue on. But if you want to save your fellow residents, prepare for physical, mental and social detective work. Be kind and get to know the townsfolk and maybe they’ll spill juicy info. Keep an eye out for clues or abnormal behavior from the locals. Use your farm to grow what you need so you can craft protective items. Have I mentioned your trusty crowbar? Use it to break into homes and snoop to your heart’s content – and, yeah, maybe look for evidence while you’re at it. (Is this a safe place? Can I admit I’m excited about breaking into their houses?) At the end of the year, if you’re successful, you’ll save lives and identify the killer.
And then you can do it all over again by starting a brand new campaign, which will assign Ashenridge a new killer and new victims.
The ONLY concern I have at the moment comes down to replayability. Now in theory, starting another campaign with new killers and victims should give players more than enough reason to begin anew. But I would love clarification on what steps, if any, are being taken to reduce monotony from settling in. Like, are we really starting from scratch when we start new campaigns? Are the campaigns different enough to keep us hooked on the third/fourth/fifth run? So I asked about it. And while I couldn’t get a concrete answer out of the lovely staff, I did get: 1) “We very much respect players’ time.” and 2) “We encourage you to keep playing.” I also learned that there are more than 300,000 words of dialogue in Grave Seasons. (For comparison, Hades has a script of roughly the same size.) At this point, I’m putting my faith in the team, as they’re clearly aware of the potential concern. Actually, I’d be willing to bet playing through multiple campaigns will have a huge narrative payoff.
But let’s talk about my 20 minute demo: After fleeing jail and taking refuge in my newfound homestead, I completed a small tutorial in which I planted some carrots and spoke to a hunky dude named Hari. After a few in-game days I was prompted to visit the mayor, Fitch, so off I went. Well, I certainly found the mayor!
He uh…has seen better days, I’m sure. The above screenshot is somewhat similar to the scene I stumbled across, but in my demo there was a LOT of red blood and I swear the body was far more mutilated. EITHER WAY I SWEAR I DIDN’T DO IT. The staff from Perfect Garbage made sure to emphasize that what I saw was a “tame” murder in comparison to others in the game. Gnaaaarly. After my shock wore off, I was able to observe the crime scene. Interestingly I found fishing bait and algae strewn about the office, and this info was automatically added to my in-game journal. I was ready to haul ass to the beach, find whoever lived there and shove my crowbar up their ass but then…the demo ended. *shakes fist*
I didn’t need those 20 minutes with Grave Seasons at Summer Game Fest to *know* it was a day one purchase – I already determined that the moment I laid eyes on it in 2024 – so now that I’ve actually played it, I’m even more feral. Perfect Garbage recently pushed its release date from August 14th to just “Fall” of this year, so while it sucks we have to wait a LITTLE bit longer, I’m confident it’ll be worth it. Hopefully I can wait that long. Maybe I can, like, go buy a crowbar at Home Depot and that’ll make me feel better.
Grave Seasons will release on Steam, Xbox Series S|X, PS5 and Switch.