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Farmagia
Farmagia (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese action role-playing video game developed and published by Marvelous, with character designs by manga artist Hiro Mashima. It was released worldwide for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Steam on November 1, 2024. An anime television series adaptation produced by Bridge premiered in January 2025. Gameplay  Top: Ten sows a seed that will grow into a "Fang" monster. Bottom: Leii commands the party's monsters to attack an enemy. Farmagia is a single-player action role-playing game and farm life sim in which the player grows monsters from seeds acquired from dungeons called mazes.[1][2] On the player's farm, actions such as tilling and watering cost stamina called Farmagia Points (FP), which is replenished upon completing a maze.[2] Fertilizers are purchased from the game's magic shop to improve monster growth and shorten the number of in-game days until harvest.[3] The player grows two types of monsters on the farm: Battle Buddies, which are used to battle enemies encountered in mazes; and Research Buddies, which award points used to purchase additional skills and benefits in farming and battle.[4] Additionally, Agri-Buddies are crafted from the game's magic shop to perform farming actions without consuming FP or resources.[2] Once harvested, Battle Buddies are trained on the player's ranch to boost their individual stats. The effectiveness of training depends on the monsters' motivation, which decreases with every stat increase, and is recovered by feeding the monsters with treats.[5] In mazes, the player controls a team of four characters with up to forty to sixty Battle Buddies divided among four different units: close-range attackers, long-range attackers, buffing and debuffing support units, and formation units focused on healing and protection.[2][5] Each unit is assigned to a button that prompts them to attack a targeted enemy, decreasing their health and stamina.[5] Besides attack and defense, Battle Buddies are used to perform Unite Blitzes, which combine one unit into a stronger United Buddy; Legion Attacks, during which all of the player's monsters attack a target simultaneously when its stamina is depleted; and Fusion Summons, which combine all units into a Fusion Buddy that damages all enemies on the battlefield.[2] Additionally, player characters and monsters receive temporary benefits by equipping Fairy Skills, which are acquired from fairies found in fairy pods or purchased from the shopkeeper Charlot, and are reset after the player exits a maze.[6] The game's story is divided into twelve chapters, featuring 2D visual novel-style cutscenes.[2][7] As the player progresses through the story, they form pacts with Elemental Spirits that unlock access to more Fusion Buddies. The game also features in an affection system in which the player upgrades their Fusion Buddies by deepening their relationships with a certain Elemental Spirit.[1][2] PlotSetting and charactersFarmagia is set in Felicidad, a fictional land in the underworld where its human-like denizens magically farm and grow monsters to use in battle and society, with these farmers known as Farmagia. Denizens live atop continent-sized monsters that serve as Felicidad's landmasses, with the town of Centvelt on the "continent" Avrion serving as the game's central hub.[2] The continents are protected by the six Elemental Spirits, who strengthen any Farmagia with whom they form a pact.[2] The game's player characters are a party of young Farmagia consisting of Ten (Paul Castro Jr. / Kōhei Amasaki), their bold and reckless leader, and his childhood friends from Centvelt's orphanage: Arche (Deva Marie Gregory / Ayane Sakura), a cheerful yet sickly girl; Leii (Bryson Baugus / Reiō Tsuchida), Ten's self-conscious best friend; Chica (Suzie Yeung / Inori Minase), Arche's pacifistic friend; Emero (Darrel J. Delfin / Hiro Shimono), Chica's older brother figure; and Anzar (Chris Hackney / Takuya Satō), the group's admired senior. A fairy named Lookie-Loo (Joe Zieja / Atsumi Tanezaki), who lacks conventional Fairy Skills, is also part of the group. They are guided by Nares (Kira Buckland / Mikako Komatsu), Avrion's noble-minded ruling general, and Dentro (Jamieson Price / Shigeru Chiba), the orphanage's elderly caretaker. The primary antagonists are Nares' fellow generals from the Oración Seis, who govern the other continents on behalf of Felicidad's ruler, the Magus Diluculum (John Patneaude / Kenjiro Tsuda). The group's leader is Glaza (Doug Stone / Ryūsei Nakao), a tyrannical archmage who rules the continent Nadeyat'sya. The other generals are Lisan (Laura Post / Yoko Hikasa), a bewitching newcomer to the group who controls no continent; Manas (Khoi Dao / Koki Uchiyama), a mad scientist who rules Perfectus; Corpus (Sean Burgos / Tetsu Inada), the brutish yet honorable ruler of Rahatluk; and L'Oreille (Erin Yvette / Sayaka Ohara), the treacherous and sadistic ruler of Sonrisa. StoryFollowing the Magus Diluculum's death, the Oración Seis general Glaza establishes an oppressive regime over Felicidad as its new Magus, while Nares leads Avrion in rebellion against him. Ten battles Glaza's legion when they invade Centvelt, but is defeated by their masked commander, Zanas. Nares rescues Ten and accepts him into Avrion's army alongside Leii, Arche, Chica, and Anzar. After Ten's party drives Zanas' forces out of Avrion, Nares entrusts them with liberating the other continents by securing their Elemental Spirits' shrines and eliminating their ruling Oración generals. They also reunite with their missing friend Emero, now a soldier of Perfectus, who defects to Avrion after learning that Manas has been turning his subjects into mindless demi-beasts in experiments to create the Farmagia Hyperion, the ultimate life form. After killing Manas and Corpus, Ten's party learns that Glaza has placed a deadly curse on Arche to blackmail her into deciphering Diluculum's grimoire, which is written in ancient Heavenly Scripts only Arche can read. Arche warns that the grimoire contains knowledge of the Harvest Festival, a spell that reaps the souls of every denizen and monster on a continent. During the party's operation on Sonrisa, L'Oreille murders Lisan and betrays Glaza in an alliance with Zanas, leaving Glaza to be killed by the party, which lifts Arche's curse. In the process, Zanas is unmasked as Anzar, whom the party learns has been secretly working against Glaza and L'Oreille for his friends' protection. L'Oreille performs the Harvest Festival on Nadeyat'sya and absorbs all its souls before being killed by Ten's party, ending the war. In the aftermath, Diluculum reveals himself to have faked his own death and consumed the Oración Seis' souls to restore his youth. Abducting Nares and resurrecting the other generals, Diluculum transforms all but his knowing servant L'Oreille into demi-beasts and sends them to rampage across Felicidad, forcing Ten's party to kill them while he prepares the Grand Harvest Festival, which would reap all souls in Felicidad. Through clairvoyant dreams experienced by Arche, the party learns that the archangels Diluculum and Eleonora created Felicidad and its denizens alongside Dentro—their seraph friend—after a failed uprising against God, who would consume human souls to amass power; when God afflicted Eleonora with a curse that rapidly aged her to death, Diluculum consumed her soul to keep her vital connection to the Elemental Spirits intact, which also passed her curse onto him. Driven mad with grief, Diluculum intends to strengthen himself with Felicidad's souls to kill God, having created the Oración Seis and its candidates—including Ten and his friends—to further his goal. Diluculum successfully casts the Grand Harvest Festival after Dentro allows him to absorb his soul. Ten survives the spell by drawing strength from his friends, which transforms him into the Farmagia Hyperion; meanwhile, Diluculum's strength quickly deteriorates due to him consuming Dentro's soul, unaware that Dentro's old age was a slowed effect of God's curse. Ten revives his friends, and together they defeat Diluculum and restore Felicidad along with the souls lost in the Grand Harvest Festival. Ten and his friends then become Felicidad's new leaders, returning the land to prosperity. Meanwhile, God's cherub messenger Chariel—the true identity of Lisan and the shopkeeper Charlot—chooses not to report Ten's transformation to God out of fondness for Ten's party, sparing Felicidad from God's interference. Development and releaseThe game was announced at the Marvelous Game Showcase in May 2023 under the title Project Magia, with Hiro Mashima designing the characters and monsters.[8][9] The current title was revealed at the following showcase in May 2024 along with the game's release year and opening sequence.[10] The game's theme song is "dis-dystopia", an image song performed by Ayane Sakura and Inori Minase as the characters Arche and Chica, respectively.[10] Farmagia was released worldwide on November 1, 2024, published by Marvelous for the PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam,[8] with Marvelous USA handling the game's release in North America.[11] Following the game's launch, Marvelous released weekly "buddy skins" for in-game monsters as free downloadable content throughout November 2024.[12] ReceptionReception
The Nintendo Switch version of Farmagia launched at #8 on Japanese charts, selling 4,296 physical copies within its first three days of release, making it the only new release to chart in the top ten games sold that week.[15] The game received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[13] Reviewing the Switch version, Paulo Kawanishi of Nintendo Life praised the character designs, writing, and technical performance. However, he criticized the farming aspect of the game, noting the lack of variety regarding the designs of its dungeons, monsters, and the farm itself.[2] Leigh Price of Siliconera considered the game to be mediocre, calling its farming and training aspects "undercooked", but enjoyed the story and sidequests for their character writing.[5] Abraham Kobylanski of RPGFan found the game's monster-farming premise to be bizarre, describing the story as both "strange but captivating" and "uneven", and praising the music and dating segments while criticizing the game's farming aspect as an "afterthought".[7] Other media
An anime adaptation was announced on June 20, 2024,[16] and began development during the game's production.[17] The television series is animated by Bridge and directed by Toshihiko Sano, with Shinji Ishihira serving as chief director, Toshizo Nemoto handling the series composition, Toshiomi Iizumi designing the characters, and Shūhei Mutsuki composing the music. The Japanese voice cast reprises their roles from the game.[18] The anime's writing and direction is inspired by the style of Hiro Mashima, the game's character designer, including homages to Mashima's previous works Fairy Tail and Edens Zero.[17] It premiered on January 10, 2025, on Tokyo MX and other channels.[18] The anime's opening theme is "Life is Beautiful" performed by Asian Kung-Fu Generation,[16][18] while the ending theme is "miss-dystopia" performed by Sokoninaru.[19] Crunchyroll is streaming the series.[20] Medialink licensed the series in Southeast Asia and Oceania for streaming on Ani-One Asia's YouTube channel and other streaming platforms.[21] Episodes
NotesReferences
External links
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