I recently got a chance to play around five hours of Village in the Shade on the PlayStation 5 Pro, thanks to a review copy provided by NIS America.
You can find my gameplay video below:
You can find my first impressions of Village in the Shade below:
Pros:
- Beautiful hand drawn backgrounds.
- Interesting and mysterious villagers.
- Nighttime survivor horror twist.
Cons:
- Slow paced beginning.
Overall:
Village in the Shade is a farming simulator with some light horror elements.
The first thing you should notice right away is the beautiful hand drawn background. When paired with a pleasing soundtrack, the presentation in this game is a clear notch above other farming simulators.
The other twist in Village in the Shade is its survivor horror twist. When you arrive in the mysterious location, you will soon learn about its strict rules, which include not wondering about at night.
When you get deeper into the story, you will soon find out why as there will be numerous monstrosities haunting the village.
The game does a great job at building up the mystery and tension. For example, the villagers you meet will give you a cold shoulder at first before slowly warming up to you. Not to mention that each of them has their own unique agendas and goals.
If you just want to focus on the farming aspects, then you can skip all the nighttime horror elements. By doing so, however, you will miss out on a big portion of the story.
My only real complaint is the slow beginning of the game. As you can see from my playthrough, the first five hours is heavy on expositions and tutorials. In fact, I haven’t even been able to explore at night or unlock a majority of the shops.
Outside of the slow start, Village in the Shade is a very polished farming simulator with a story filled with plenty of compelling characters. If you are a fan of farming sims, then make sure to check out this unique can’t miss title.