From Cauldrons to Controllers: Exploring Witchcraft in Video Games

     I'm a gamer, and I'm a witch, so it's probably no surprise that I love when those two combine! I have a bunch of witchy games that I love to play, and even more on my list to check out. So, while I was stuck on the couch with a pain flare-up (I was working on my Wylde Flowers review, speaking of witchy games...), I thought I'd make a post about some of them!

    And to be clear, there are plenty of great games that are fantasy-based with extensive magic, and I love many of those, but this list is focused on games that bring the feeling of witchcraft to them -- herbology, potions, divination, etc. I will probably make another list of my favorite fantasy magical games -- I've got a lot of those, too! But for this, I wanted to keep the vibe on the "slightly more realistic" side of things.

    This post is divided up into 3 sections: games I've played or am currently playing, games I want to check out or are in my backlog, and upcoming releases that I've got my eye on. (A note on the last two: I am always interested in review keys from developers... but as a disclaimer, most of these, I've purchased with my own money.) Is there a game that belongs in this list but I've neglected to mention? I'd love to know about more, so feel free to leave a comment about any other witchy games you've played and enjoyed -- or want to play!

    Reading not your cup of tea? Check out the video instead!

 Games I've Played and Enjoyed

Little Witch in the Woods

    If you're yearning to escape society and go live your cottage core dreams in the forest, Little Witch in the Woods is the game for you! In this game, Ellie does exactly that, and fills her day with gathering herbs, making potions, and helping to rebuild a charming little village. It's a calm, combat-less game with endearing dialogue, simple puzzles, and lots to explore. Help your new neighbors, decorate your house, and learn all about being a witch in this charming game. Little Witch in the Woods is available on Steam and Xbox, and plays great on the Steam Deck. Check out my full review here! 

Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator

     If you're interested in herbology, look no further than Potion Craft! A very relaxing game with faux "old world" aesthetics, mix various ingredients together to discover potions and help the residents of your village. Unlike a lot of other games that have potion crafting as an element, this focuses on it. I love that you actually stir the ingredients yourself, and adjust how much heat you give any individual potion. There is so much experimenting to be had in this process, and in my opinion, it really feels like I'm making the potions -- or messing them up, as is often the case with my experiments. If you're interested in potions, definitely don't miss this game! It is currently available on Steam and will be available on all consoles. As a bonus, it plays great on the Steam Deck!

Wylde Flowers

    A game that I'm still exploring, Wylde Flowers merges together witchcraft and farming to create a cute hybrid game that caters specifically to me. Tend to your garden by day, learn magic by night -- and yes, use that magic to help your garden grow! The game is more story than sim, at least as far as I've gotten so far, but that's fine with me. I'm having fun learning secret magic as the town divides into pro-magic and anti-magic factions. (Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this game from the publisher, and a full review will be coming soon!) Wylde Flowers is available on Steam, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. I hear that it plays well on the Steam Deck, but I haven't had a chance to play it much there yet, so that will also be included in my full review.

Cartomancy Anthology

     Cartomancy Anthology is a collection of 22 short games that explore the major arcana of tarot. It doesn't get more real-life witchy than that! Each of these games provides soul-searching opportunities to bring clarity to your life, and can even be used as divination if you want to. I've done a full review of this game before, so head over there if you're interested in more! I definitely think that any witchy gamer should check it out.

Games on my Wishlist/Backlog

Strange Horticulture

    I picked up Strange Horticulture a while ago, but it's gotten stuck in my backlog. But the premise sold me instantly! You tend to and grow plants, and have a cat companion! Oh yeah, and there's a plot too, I guess, but you had me at plants and cats. Wander the woods nearby to discover new species, use your herbology skills to identify them and their uses, and try not to delve too deep into dangerous territories while gathering specimens. Doesn't it just sound great? This is definitely near the top of my list to get to! 

Witchy Life Story

    I just recently picked up Witchy Life Story in a Humble Bundle, but it had been on my list for a while before that. And, while I'll say that the title isn't exactly unique or creative, it does get its point across -- it's a life sim, where you play as a witch. Tend your garden, practice magic, befriend the townspeople. Simple, straight forward, and exactly what I want -- in a game and real life! Oh, wait, I already do the first two, does that mean I should actually talk to my neighbors? Eh, maybe I'll just start up this game and talk to those neighbors instead. 

Wytchwood

    Wytchwood takes its influence from the witches of fairy tales -- you play the morally dubious witch who crafts potions and meddles in people's affairs to "teach them a lesson". Yes, you can turn people into frogs and curse those you feel really deserve it. We don't always have to be the "good witch", and it sounds like Wytchwood is a delightful take on this. Personally, I'm a huge fan of fractured fairy tales, and this seems to be in line with that concept, so I'm really excited to check it out! I love unique takes on fairy tales, and the few movies that we've gotten from villains' points of view, like Maleficient, only fulfill the need a little. I think this game sounds great for that!

Teacup

     Teacup is an adorable game about planning a tea party. Okay, from that premise, it doesn't sound explicitly witchy, but bear with me here. First of all, you are the CUTEST frog, and we all know witches and frogs go together. I mean, I just talked about them in Wytchwood! Also, there's a whole questline about getting magical ingredients for your tea, from magicians of course! But really, I'm including this because... is there anything that is inherently more magical than tea? I mean, I did a whole episode about tasseomancy and the magic of tea for Celestial Cafe, the podcast I was on! Tea is good for the body, good for the soul. Combine different herbs to create different effects -- it's just alchemy! And this game is all about making the perfect teas for just what your friends need. The restorative power of tea is magic, and this game embraces that at its heart.

Upcoming Releases I Can't Wait For

REKA

     Now, it's time to talk about the games that haven't released yet but I'm excited for. That backlog isn't going to grow itself! Well, okay, sometimes I think it does, but still. REKA tops this list of anticipated games. I can't stop talking about it -- I work at a witchcraft book publishing company, and I've gotten literally everyone interested in playing it... when it releases next year. In this game, you play as Baba Yaga's apprentice, learning magic as you help people with herbology in the 19th century. You live - and travel - in a chicken-legged hut that you design and decorate yourself. It's truly a witch's dream, especially a witch obsessed with decorating in games like me, and I can't wait for its release -- but I have to. But rest assured that I'll definitely be reviewing it when it releases!

Grimoire Groves

    Grimoire Groves is a delightful (and colorful!) magical take on farming sims. In fact, it's technically not a farming sim at all -- its official genre is "rogue-lite dungeon crawler", but farming is a part of it regardless! Use the power of magic and the different elements to make your garden grow, in addition to exploring secret, magical forests with unique spirits. Help and befriend a siren, dryad, basilisk, and other magical creatures as you explore the procedurally generated forest and strengthen your powers. There's a demo available on Steam, and I've had so much fun playing it already!

Witchbrook

     Who hasn't dreamed of going off to a witchcraft school? You can finally live that life with Witchbrook, a cute life sim that's all about learning magic, making friends, and discovering mysteries. Enjoy all the staples of sim games like gardening, fishing, and romance, and work hard on your assignments to graduate at the top of your class -- and maybe have a cute date to the prom! All this sounds pretty great, right? I've been keeping an eye on this game for years, and although it's been a while, it's developed by indie team Chucklefish so I'm sure it's going to be worth the wait. (Side note: if you're itching for magic school life in the meantime, check out Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times! It's an interesting take on "Animal Crossing goes to magic school" and I love it!)

Magical Delicacy 

     I learned about Magical Delicacy through the Wholesome Direct, and was instantly sold on it. Kitchen witches, this one's for you! And for those of us who fantasize about being kitchen witches, it's for us too. I hate cooking but I love the idea of kitchen witchery. If you understand that sentiment, check out this game where you use the power of different ingredients to fulfill townsfolk's needs. The game promises a robust cooking system, with plenty of room to experiment and make your own creations to satisfy customers, so the creatively minded kitchen witch will love getting their digital hands dirty coming up with all sorts of new recipes. It will also feature platforming to explore areas for ingredients, a shop (and home?) to decorate, and lots of characters with their own stories to learn about. Additionally, the developer, skaule, is working hard to bring a variety of accessibility features to the game so players can play in ways that work for them, including high contrast platforming and adjustable UI scaling. Seeing developers address accessibility in a proactive manner like this, instead of waiting for players to raise concerns, is such a great thing to see, and makes me very optimistic about this game. I'm very excited to keep an eye on this one as development continues! 

Sustainability Meets Fantasy: Exploring the Solarpunk World of Loftia

    Let's talk about Loftia! Loftia is an upcoming cozy MMO with a super cute art style and unique gameplay that's currently in development, and it has an active Kickstarter right now! I first saw this game in the Wholesome Direct in June, but I really checked it out when a friend messaged me saying she'd love to see me cover it. So, thank you for the recommendation, because I am indeed VERY excited, and can't wait to share it all with you! So, let's take a look at the unique elements of this life sim that promise to make Loftia a great experience.

(Psst, video more your style? Check it out here!) 

    Loftia is based around solarpunk, a sci-fi subgenre that is community-oriented and focused on conservationism and living sustainably in a modern/future world. Already, they've sold me with this idea, as environmentalism has always been close to my heart. I was unfamiliar with solarpunk as a name, but it's everything I've ever wanted in sustainable living, and I'm excited to explore it in this game. Additionally, solarpunk being the core of Loftia's gameplay means that it'll be a fresh take on the life sim genre, especially farming. Learn about true sustainable living with hydroponic farms, wind turbines, and solar panels. The developers did a lot of real-world research on these, including traveling to a solar and wind farm to learn more!

     Due to the nature of all these sustainable themes, gardening isn't standalone in this game, which I love. In farming sims, what you do (or don't do) on your farm largely doesn't matter to the rest of the town. But in Loftia, your farming is an integral part of the entire community, helping to build a better future for everyone. It's more than just a means to make money; what you do and how you do it matters in Loftia.

    I just love this entire theme of building a community together. I mean, that's what MMOs are all about, right? I don't want to feel alone in an MMO, I want to feel like I'm actually a part of something. I've made some great friends and memories through other MMOs, especially Elder Scrolls Online, and I'm excited to do so in a game that's centered around the theme of community.

     In this vein, the Loftia team has spoken a little about community events in the game, and I'm definitely excited for them! There are already plans for community projects where the entire server works together to accomplish a goal or restore an area, and I love the sound of this! And if you want something more low-key, Loftia will feature unique community spaces like a study cafe, where you can hang out with friends while each doing your own work. I have a feeling that I'm going to be utilizing this a lot when I'm editing videos!

    Additionally, Loftia's ideals about community don't exist just in game. They've created a great, fun, and welcoming discord community, and host lots of unique events like bingo nights, coloring hangouts, and study sessions. I love these – it was so much fun to learn early Loftia trivia through bingo, and co-working sessions is just what my ADHD brain needs sometimes. Okay, most of the time. I love that Loftia is providing these gently productive spaces both in and out of the game. Oh, and they're currently running a fan art contest, so get in the discord if you haven't already! Link is down below. We'll see if I manage to finish my entry in time... but it's a secret for now!

    Okay, all of these things are great, but let's talk about one of the things I'm especially excited about: pets! They have so many different pets planned – from the common pets like dogs and cats, to ducks and capybaras. And Loftia's art style is already cute, which I love, but the animals are super cute! You'll be able to dress them up, take them around town, and own as many as you want! I'm definitely going to collect them all, starting with the two kickstarter exclusives! I love collecting pets and mounts in MMOs, and Loftia is already starting off strong in this regard, with even more species of pets to be revealed in time!

     Alright, it's time to talk about the big one. The thing I'm most excited about, and if you're familiar with my content, this should be no surprise: housing. Living in Loftia comes with your own house to decorate how you want, and with the game's cute art style, I can't wait to make my Loftian space so pink and cozy! The devs have previewed some furniture themes already, including goth and cyberpunk, and have been gathering more suggestions in the discord. Personally, I'd love to see dark academia themed furniture sets, so I'm holding out hope for that. But we all know, as long as you give me plenty of plants to decorate with, I'll be happy! Plus, I'm getting the bio luminescent furniture pack from the kickstarter, so I'll already have some great themed furniture at the start!

     Thanks to making a kickstarter goal early on, Loftia will be expanding the community aspect to housing too, if you want. You can share a house with a partner or friend and decorate together, both having all permissions to make the perfect co-habiting space. Additionally, a stretch goal for club housing was just unlocked – similar to guild halls in other MMOs, you'll have a space to gather with friends and decorate together! I'm so excited to see how this comes together when the game releases.

    Doesn't all of this sound amazing? If you're interested in getting the game for a discounted price, head over to their Kickstarter to see what rewards you can get for supporting its development. Personally, the rewards were so good that I increased my pledge from what I'd initially planned, but I'm just so excited for it all! And look at the amazing stretch goals they've already met – aquaponics, relic collecting, club housing, and more! And there are still more exciting goals to reach for – I'm personally hoping we hit the goals for animal conservationist and more biomes. But regardless, everything they've shown us and planned for already looks to be amazing, and I can't wait to start playing when it's ready for alpha next year!

     What do you think? Are you excited for this cozy MMO? Are there features you'd love to see that haven't been mentioned yet? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Relax and Farm: A Guide to Daily Activities in Palia

     Palia is now in open beta, and I'm so excited to finally be able to share this world that I've been exploring for the past year! So, what can you do in this relaxing MMO? Let's take a look at some of the many activities you can do to fill your days! And remember: this just went into beta as of August 2023, so there will be plenty more things to be added as the game progresses. With a plethora of activities, it'll be hard to get bored here!

 Check out the video if reading isn't your style!

Chopping and Mining

     One of the first things you'll do upon given a housing plot is clearing the land. Like many farming sims, you'll be given a basic axe and pickaxe, and told to get to work. Gather wood and stones while you create space for your farm, tent, future house, and plenty of other things! As you level up these skills and upgrade your tools, you'll gather a wide range of materials like iron, gold, and palium, not to mention be able to cut down the big trees on your property. As you might expect, these materials are used in a lot of things, so hold onto them as much as possible! You'll spend a lot of time in Palia cutting down trees and splitting rocks, especially if you like crafting like me, and thankfully it's not a terrible chore -- being able to hold the mouse button down instead of clicking each swing individually makes this a relaxing chore rather than a boring grind.

Hunting and Foraging

    Step outside your plot of land to enjoy the ancient pastime of hunting and gathering, just like our ancestors! Grab a bow and some arrows and go find some chapaas -- Palia's squirrel-like pests -- or, for a harder challenge, chase down a skittish sernuk. When you want a breather from the animals, stop to smell and forage the sundrop lilies, mushrooms, and seashells that are found throughout the world. There are many different things to find, so check out each area to see what unique flora and fauna it may hold!

Fishing and Bug Catching

    While you're out hunting and foraging, you'll probably come across some bodies of water. Whip out your fishing rod and see what you can catch! A relaxing staple of sim games, the fishing mini game in Palia is one of the best I've ever seen, and I think a lot of people will like how it's implemented. And you'll want to fish a lot -- especially early on, it's one of the best and fastest ways to make money. As a tip, buying worms at the general store for bait is totally worth it! And if you want to stay close to home to easily dump your catches into your shipping bin, there's even a pond on your housing plot that you can fish in!

    If you'd rather be scouring the land than the waters, try your hand at bug catching! Use smoke bombs to stun insects before you approach to scoop them up. It's a unique mechanic that I'm still not completely sold on -- I much prefer bug nets and sneaking up on bugs that way -- but hopefully it'll grow on me with time. Still, there's a lot a variety in what types of bugs you can catch, often influenced by the time of day as well as location, so you'll want to be ready to catch something new when you come across them. Do you like this new method of bug catching, or would you rather have a traditional net? Let me know in the comments!

Farming

    While Palia isn't exclusively a farming sim, that does feature heavily in the gameplay. Okay, you might be able to ignore it completely after the tutorial -- let me know if any of you do, I'm curious! -- but it's kind of a main feature. The farming system brings things to a new level that I've never seen before -- not only do you visibly till the soil, but different plants have different benefits when planted. You can throw seeds down willy-nilly, but you'll save a lot of time and hassle, not to mention make more money, if you strategize placement. Optimize your garden plots so water is retained, weeds never grow, and harvests are bountiful! Watering all my crops is my least favorite part of any farming sim, so you know I'm planting a ton of plants that take care of that!

Crafting

    Okay, you've gathered lots of wood, mushrooms, clay, and crops. What now? Time to make things, of course! In contrast to watering crops, crafting is one of my favorite things to do! And you can craft a lot in this game -- upgraded tools, delicious food, entire furniture sets. Some crafting recipes, you'll naturally earn as you level up skills, while others you purchase when you have the coin. There are a ton of recipes, so get learning!

    In addition to the rather simple crafting of gathering materials and selecting a recipe, the game adds some more mechanics to cooking, and I find them to be a lot of fun. As you level up and unlock different cooking apparatuses, recipes will cue you to chop, stir, and more. These mechanics are simple enough -- at least in the beginner recipes I have unlocked -- but add a little extra to make cooking more enjoyable. I don't know why stirring a soup in game is more fun than in real life, but I know which one I'd rather do! But for those of you who like "set it and forget it" activities, there are basic recipes that don't involve multi-step processes, and cooking is, so far at least, the only type of crafting that uses this mechanic. So if it's not for you, that's okay!

Housing

    So, you've got all those crafters and so many materials. Now what? Well, now it's time for my absolutely favorite part of any game: housing! While you're initially given a tent to rest your weary head (although there's no sleeping in the game), you'll soon be prompted to build a house. It begins as a little one room cabin, but you can expand it a lot -- as long as you have the gold, which... the expansions are expensive. I'll get there one day! Check back in 6 months to see what my Palia dream house looks like. But in the meantime, I'm happy with my little cabin.

     And, of course, you can adorn both the inside and outside with furniture and decorations galore! Purchase writs with renown to expand your land and have more space to spruce up! The basic cabin furniture is easy to unlock -- every time you craft a new piece, you unlock a recipe -- and is pretty cute for a starter house. There are lots of other recipes and furniture pieces to find and buy throughout Palia, and even gold-star bugs, fish, and food can be used as decorations. Want a head start? Use my referral link to make your account, and you'll get a free fruit basket as a welcome gift! Additionally, as you progress, you'll unlock customizing furniture, letting you truly create your own unique space in the color palettes you choose!

    Tired of your house but don't want to raze it to the ground to start fresh? Palia lets you have what is essentially different saves of your land -- load one to try out a whole new aesthetic! They truly knew my weakness is housing when they created this feature.

    Well, I can go on about housing for a while, it's my favorite thing, but I should stop here. I hope this post helps get you started on daily life in Palia, and keep an eye out for part two, where I'll talk about all the social activities you can do in this world!