Deiland Pocket Planet Edition Nintendo Switch Review
Summary: A relaxed and simplistic farming adventure with cute graphics and easy gameplay
3.1
Good!
Deiland Pocket Planet Edition, is a cute single-player, farming adventure, that revolves around a young boy named Prince Arco and his tiny planet – Deiland. With over 100 quests, 12 unique characters, and plenty of enemies to defeat. You will find yourself immersed in a tale about growing up, helping others, and revealing the secrets that lie on the heart of your planet.
After waking up on your tiny planet you are greeted by Mûn, an explorer of the interstellar patrol, who is here to help you build your settlement. She is your main source of contact with the outside world, providing you with stories, instructions, and guidance. Each day or two, you will randomly receive quirky merchants visiting from far away places offering up quests and resources. But we quick! If you don’t clear a space for them to land, then off they go, but don’t worry too much as they will be back… eventually. I loved receiving visitors, however, the time they spend on your planet is very limited (one minute), and your gameplay is based on when (and who) lands, in order to complete the various quests.
Gathering resources is pretty straight forward. You can break rocks, cut down wood, harvest fields, fish, craft items etc. Basically, all the main things you would expect to find in a farming sim adventure game – think Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. But Deiliand offers a more simplistic version with less depth. You do not have a small inventory (I’m look at you Animal Crossing!), but you do have to wait a while for your harvests to grow (and grow in the right season too). This can become a bit tedious, especially as you need the crops to craft items for quests and to build up your tiny planet. To pass the time, I would repeatedly run around and break all the rocks my energy bar would let me, before Prince Acro told me he needed to go to bed.
From an angry mushroom to large bumblebee, there is a large variety of enemies you face on your tiny planet, but the fighting is extremely basic. Enemies are simply dispatched and easy to deal with and honestly don’t add that much to the experience. But perhaps that’s the point? The game is about your cute planet and making it your home, and the enemies make for a small ‘something different’ and an opportunity to collect some random items after your victory.
The controls are simple and intuitive and never get in the way of the gaming experience. I love that you can rotate around your entire planet which looks really cool and always makes me feel a sense of ownership of my planet and an attachment to what I am building and how it is growing.
The soundtrack is perfect for this game. It is serene, calming and very relaxing. Simply rolling along in the background to help you go about your business, with a minimum fuss, as you enjoy the rotating world and everything you are creating there. The graphics look really good for a ‘farming sim’ type of game. In fact, they would look great on any Nintendo Switch title. Whilst maintaining the cartoon look we associate with these games, it is elevated beyond that. It looks crisp, clean, and provides the right level of detail to help the player feel attached to the world, and the quirky characters that visit your planet.
Final Thoughts?
Compared to animal crossing and other farming sims it is relatively basic. There isn’t that much to do and I found myself spending a lot of time waiting… I love the graphics and soundtrack and I really did enjoy playing Deiland. But felt it was more appropriate as a pick up and put down type of game rather than one that involves longer gaming sessions.
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