Welcome to Elderfield Review - A Not So Cozy Retro Farming Horror RPG

ScrambledAshton
41 minutes ago
8 min read

https://youtu.be/6dLE1KUTG0U?si=w_9rRNI1O6yxWBjw

Welcome to Elderfield

Steam/PC

9/10/26

Chris Cote/Kwalee

Farming sims like Stardew Valley, Fields of Mistria, and Coral Island pop up nearly constantly in the indie scene, all chasing the rabid cozy-gamer fanbase who simply want to spend their evenings planting virtual seeds in virtual dirt and flirting with virtual townsfolk who may someday want to become their virtual spouse… it’s me, I’m a rabid cozy-gamer. But for a long time, these dime-a-dozen farming sims haven’t done anything really special. Sure, sometimes the inhabitants might have a bit of intrigue about them, and hey, maybe there is some underlying plot you can discover after you’ve played it for 20 hours, but mostly, they follow the same formula. Except perhaps, Welcome to Elderfield, the newest entry into the genre that takes everything we know about cozy farming sims and flips it on its very dark and spooky head, bringing gore, eldritch beasts, and turn-based combat to our usually pretty cookie-cutter worlds.

Welcome to Elderfield is the newest Kwalee-published game from developer Chris Cole, and unlike normal farming sims, this one doesn’t have you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Instead, it gives you that cold feeling like someone you can’t see is standing right behind you. You’ll still do all the usual fare: farming, mining, gathering resources and money for upgrades, etc., but you may notice the inhabitants of this strange town are a tad bit more quirky than those we are used to… oh, and there are also the turn-based battles against some genuinely horrifying beasts and the tentacle-faced cultists who are up to no good.

The story of the game is simple: you’ve recently moved back to live in the town of Elderfield, and everyone is seemingly okay with the wandering skeletons, the grim reaper in the sewers, and the haunted mall full of zombies… hey, I guess we can’t judge someone else's culture!

We take over the running of the local farm after the farmer stripped himself of his skin and began to grow into a terrifyingly huge skeleton that can no longer fit out the door. Upon beginning our journey to cultivate the weird seeds and veg that grow on the land, we discover a series of mysteries, strange creatures, and a cult who are endeavoring to bring about the rebirth of a god that was long sealed within a tower on the farm.

Every day, the TV tells us of a mystery or anomaly that can be found about the town that day, ranging from mysterious ghosts at the lakefront to blood trails that should or should not be followed to a mysterious phone number that (once you’ve found the phone) you should only ring at your own peril.

You’ll meet a colorful cast of characters, all of whom (well, those with skin anyway) have sunken eyes and a general sense of something sinister having happened to them, all with their own strange quirks and weird hobbies. You can build your friendship with them all by talking to them every day, gifting them things like hot dogs you’ve cooked up at home (or found in a bin), and doing the occasional quest for them. Eventually, you can marry one of them in the totally normal deity-worshipping church… which is also where you should pop along every Sunday to pledge your faith to one of the gods (you can pick who) and receive a cheeky little buff for your time!

Buffs help gameplay in a variety of ways, predominantly in combat, which happens when you get too close to one of the little monsties in the town and those little pixel art blobs morph into a truly horrifying beast. Buffs may affect the total of your damage, how high your defense is, and whether you’re going to get your shit rocked by a beast with multiple heads. Buffs and debuffs may also appear during combat; certain ghouls have attacks that could curse you both in and out of combat.

Combat encounters are surprisingly deep, with certain skills and abilities granting you stats that can help you in each battle. Strategy is pretty important; aside from managing your attacks, equipping weapons and clothes to increase damage, and making sure you’re keeping an eye on any curses or debuffs, you’ll need to make sure you’re stocked up on healing items because unlike other games, any damage you take doesn’t get healed when you take a little nap… that right is reserved for the bath you can take at any point, though be warned, upon getting a good soak in, any monsters you may have already dealt with pop back up and you’ll need to kill them again.

Taking inspiration from TTRPG games like Cult of Cthulhu, occasional events require you to roll a dice to see how lucky you’re going to be. Searching through the bins like a little raccoon requires you to roll to see what, if anything, you find. Some interactions and mysteries may also take an unfortunate turn if you find yourself rolling a 1, but the biggest worry comes as you shut your eyes for the night, with each night’s roll potentially being the end of your journey… at least since you last saved, which can also be done before bed. Rolling high may mean your day is that little bit easier, but a dreaded nat 1 could result in a battle with monsties that you are wholeheartedly unprepared for.

Obviously, there are also your usual farming sim mechanics to contend with. You’ll need to make sure your crops are watered, buy and upgrade scarecrows to keep the birds from scoffing your haul, go fishing, explore the mines, and gain resources to upgrade tools, cook meals, and build effigies to ancient beings that are set to return and destroy the world… ya know, the usual stuff. Also, like other farming sims, there is a museum in which you can donate items, fish, and crops you’ve collected to unlock haunted paintings (and some rewards).

Most of your time with the game, however, will be spent exploring the town of Elderfield and the mightily confusing buildings that it contains. There’s the church, the sewers, the police station, the mall, an apartment building, and a school, as well as a whole bunch of other creepy locales to adventure through. Some areas are winding and confusing on purpose, some more straightforward, but nothing in Elderfield is ever as it seems, and you might just uncover secrets and mysteries hidden deep within these walls. Luckily, you’ve got a hand-drawn map to help you navigate, but if I am being honest, I would love a little bit more detail in some of the task location indicators, because I STILL don’t remember which house was whose and which weirdo gave me the quests I have been completing!

Welcome to Elderfield is great, really great in fact, and such a refreshing contrast to the usual farming sims, but it is not without its flaws… or bugs.

I accidentally played the game on what I will call ‘easy mode’, and that isn’t me admitting I didn’t read the difficulty settings before picking it. No, there was in fact a strange glitch where I suddenly had 3 full stacks of 999 seeds, which I sold and made an absolute mint, so money quickly became a non-issue for me. There was also one other occasion, which annoyingly happened when I wasn’t recording, where upon interacting with a random tree on day 2, the game shot me to day 10, took all my stuff, and gave me an axe that was 3 levels above the starting one. Neither was recreatable and both were when playing on the Steam Deck, so it may be an issue with that build, but weird nonetheless.

There are a few other issues I have with the ease of progression. Getting new tools and upgrades isn’t very clear, and I found myself frustrated when I wasn’t able to mine better ore or deal with bigger trees because my tools were too naff, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get better ones for absolutely ages. I’m not asking for any hand-holding; I’m a big girl, I can figure it out with a little bit of signposting, but there isn’t much in the way of directions, which can extend beyond just the tool upgrades. Tasks don’t always update with new information, and if you miss any text from quest givers or people you encounter on your journey to finishing the quest, the only way to get that information back is to return to whomever you got it from and start the dialogue again. A small annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless!

The best way to describe the visual design of Welcome to Elderfield is to say ‘Stardew Valley but you’ve turned the saturation all the way down and the gore all the way up’. That is to say, this 2D pixel world, while vibrant and alive…well, in some places very dead… is dark, dreary, and full of unspeakable horrors which mostly are quite polite, if I am honest. There are places of intense gloom that you can brighten with decorations and torches, but the pools of blood, melancholy, decrepit areas, and horrifying monsters tend to harsh the whimsy you try to inject into the world.

The monster designs wouldn’t feel out of place in a terrifying 2D horror game where a bunch of nightmare monsters and Lovecraftian beasts are on their way to ruin your whole day. There are more terrifying beasts than you would feel necessary in a game about planting crops and going fishing, and yet every single one of them is horrifying in its own right. My personal least favorite has got to go to the crop heads; those guys are RANK!

I know some people listen to Stardew’s soundtrack to relax or get work done, and I am pleased to say that Welcome to Elderfield’s can also be that for you if you’re looking to mix up the playlist…though these ones have a slightly darker vibe than what you may be used to. They may be darker, but they sure do make for a wonderful backing to the world around you, towing the line between full-on horror and cozy farming sim just as well as the rest of the game.

If you fancy playing Welcome to Elderfield like one of the many other farming sims, you can enjoy this creepy world on ‘cosy mode’ where monsters deal less damage and you don’t have to worry about luck being on your side, but if you like to live life on the edge, even during usually cozy situations, you can crank things up to 11 and play on the ‘Old Gods are waiting’ difficulty…and if the normal mode is anything to go by, they won't be waiting very long!

The game runs well on both Steam Deck and PC, and while I did have a few bugs and glitches here and there, there were no crashes or major drops in any other capacity.

CONCLUSION

Welcome to Elderfield is such a breath of fresh (if not slightly moldy) air, and I think it does a lot to bridge the gap between the traditional ‘cosy gamer’ and those gamers out there who like a bit of spice with their gaming chips. You can play Elderfield in whichever way you are drawn to, whether that is focusing on the farming sim side, ignoring any and all of the pure nightmare fuel you can stumble into, or watering your plants every morning, and then adventuring off into the haunted woods or deep into the mine to test your combat skills against some truly horrid creatures.

Chris Cole has created something that I think is truly special, and for that, they should be commended. Every inch of this game has been created to put you ill at ease while you try desperately to remember what you’re supposed to do about the horrible crop beasts in your average farming sim. In some ways, this game is the perfect parody, but in many more ways, it's a brilliant game in its own right. And it is for that reason I am set to give Welcome to Elderfield a Gold Genie Lamp of Approval!

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