Tales of Seikyu Review - My Hoe Got More Action Than I Did

Bit of a full circle review, this one. Tales of Seikyu’s Early Access debut was my first review for this channel of ours, and now, just over a year later, this farming life sim is dropping version 1.0, promising to bring lots more cozy goodness to the genre, with an added shapeshifting flair. But has this year in early access created something special, or has it failed to transform into its best form? 

Tales of Seikyu is a cozy farming sim that stars a whole bunch of half-animal/half-human hybrids known as Yokai (as well as a few just regular humans), all of whom are meant to look conventionally attractive so that when you get further down the line, you can make one of them your boo and get them to help you out on your mystical quest to find your parents and the rest of the fox clan… or just get them to water the plants/feed the chickens if you can’t be bothered doing it yourself. Actually, I don’t know if they’d do that; I didn’t have enough time to get any of them to fall for me. The best I could get was a little hug from a guy who sometimes turns into a cat, which… I would love, to be honest. 

The story is, of course, a bit more in-depth than I am allowing, though not so in-depth that you’ll be scrounging around for theories and lore across all corners of the internet. You play as a customizable character who, along with their sister Kon, who is a fennec fox, has followed a scrawled note from their parents to the Island of Seikyu, the ancestral home of the Fox clan, and now home to a quaint village full of quirky characters who seem not too bothered that they have essentially put a car park over the ancient ruins of a long-lost civilization… colonialism at its finest. 

Kon and I got settled into the last remaining fox dens, welcomed to the island and tasked with farming, fishing, and fighting our way through day after day as our neighbors request item after item from us with absolutely no regard for our plight at all. I am being facetious, of course; you don’t have to do any of their quests…but if you do want to make some money, friends, or have something to do in between heading down into the ruins, you’ll probably find yourself doing a lot of them. 

You’ll attend gatherings, donate chunks of money to the casino build, find fox holes (oi oi) dotted about the map to uncover secrets of the past, and, as you explore the fox ruins, gain new animals/creatures to transform into that will make exploring and farming that little bit easier. 

Of course, like other farming sims, there are boxes to put produce in, collections to add to, and expansions to pay for, but Tales of Seikyu has tried to set itself apart with this ‘Fox clan’ narrative and the transformation abilities, which I am not going to lie, I forgot I could use outside of just exploration almost constantly. 

Transformation, tool selection, and inventory selection are on three separate wheels to choose from, and maybe it’s a controller issue, but you bet your ass I was accidentally consuming everything in my inventory near constantly because it’s all on the D-pad. You’ll need to use your transformation skills to do a whole bunch of stuff; your Boar will make the farmland plantable, your water slime allows you to travel through bodies of water, accessing new areas and allowing you to water crops faster. Your fox familiar allows you to solve ‘puzzles’ with its ‘control’ ability, and of course, the big bird allows you to fly across to different areas. 

These transformation skills do allow for some fun gameplay changes and often are the only way forward, which would be great if the game offered a little bit more guidance in how you got there. One of my big issues in early access was the lack of a guide to progress; once you get past the first set of story quests, NPCs start asking for items you can’t get, you’re told to keep looking, and things aren’t very clear. This has not changed in the full release; yes, I stumbled into the transformations eventually, but it did feel a lot more like a lucky break than anything else, and with so many opportunities to assist players in story quests, or at least better mark them on the map, I would’ve liked to have seen the earlier stages of progression a little more fleshed out after a year.

There were a few other bugs and glitches that seemed to pop up a few times, most of which I would’ve assumed would be ironed out by now. Occasionally, button prompts to talk to NPCs didn’t pop up, leaving me circling around them to find the one tiny sweet spot that little B prompt would appear. Plus, on Sundays, our lovely villagers all take the day off; the shops aren’t open, and the usual places we can find our pals change, which is fine; Sundays are, of course, the lord’s day. But when this continued onto the next day, when nobody seemed to want to leave their house to go to work, I had to restart the game, as until you’re a high enough friend level, you can’t go into anyone’s houses and thus can’t complete any quests. 

Speaking of friendships, every day new quests may appear from various townsfolk, something the game tells you on the calendar so you’ll make sure not to miss them. With every quest you complete, you’ll increase the heart level with the quest giver. At 3 hearts, you’ll become pals who can hug, and by 5, you’ll be able to date any romanceable NPCs. If you play your cards right, you might just end up having a Mr. or Mrs. Strange Fox Person. I unfortunately didn’t manage to get anyone higher than 3 hearts during my time with the game, but from Early Access reviews and Reddit threads, people are loving getting their kisses in.

There are a few boss fights in the game, mostly against the tricksy Tanukis that keep stealing the transformation scrolls. These are pretty easy and can be taken down in a matter of minutes, especially once you get higher-level weapons. So while people may be put off by the combat in Tales, stick it on easy and you’ll have no problems. 

There is no voice acting in Tales of Seikyu; all dialogue is via text boxes, which I am totally fine with. I can pretty much imagine what these anime fox girls sound like without the game having to tell me. Overall, the music is nice, a perfectly quaint backing to the colorful, cozy world they have built. However, once or twice there’ll be some cutscenes of events where our neighbors are busting a move, and these scenes have the exact same backing tracks over them, which feels a bit jarring when my gal Mayor Yui Oda and Shuten are clearly dropping it down and I’ve got ‘cozy farm music’.mp3 playing over the top.

The game looks great; it's colorful, whimsical, and full of charm, even if some of the enemies do still look a little bit familiar. The character models also have a lot going for them, with a ton of detail in both their 3D and 2D visages. There has been some discussion online about whether their 2D drawings are AI, but with no solid proof, I am choosing to believe these were all created by talented illustrators.

Other than the few issues I mentioned, the game runs well, thankfully a bit better than the Early Access version, mainly in that I didn’t see any T-posing NPCs sliding around the map. There are very few loading screens, though when they do pop up, the animation almost never works, freezing after a couple of seconds, which isn’t that deep but is worth noting. 

Overall, I STILL think Tales of Seikyu is a decent game. What it offers is done well, and the twists it puts into the farming life sim genre do add a lovely variation on the normal slow-paced gameplay loop. I do like the addition of the fox clan narrative; it at least gives those of us who need a little structure and story something to get into, even if some of it takes a bit of brute force to find. It looks great, the music is nice, and the gameplay loop is inherently satisfying to complete, but whether that makes a great game, I am not sure. 

I didn’t mind my time with Tales of Seikyu, but I can’t say it particularly wowed me. 

I’m a fan of a cozy game, and I have played my fair share of Stardew Valley and the like, but with so many similar games dropping left and right, I think it’ll take a little more than a transformation gimmick to convince me this game is worth checking out any more than its cousins. The Steam reviews for the Early Access are very positive, and I am glad so many people enjoy this game. It is definitely improved for its 1.0 release, but I personally feel Tales of Seikyu’s full release only earns itself a Bronze Genie Lamp of approval.

GOOD