Early Access Examination: Cornucopia

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: PC (Steam Early Access)

Cornucopia is a new farming simulation game that is currently in Early Access on Steam. Comparisons to Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons are obvious, but the game features a rather unique 2.5D art style, and a more robust lively town than what's seen in most other games within the genre. Even though it's only been available since July, it's seen many updates over the past few months, with some even coming out during the course of me publishing this write-up. Speaking of this write up, this isn't going to be a review of the game, we're going to take a look at the state Cornucopia is in now, and I'll do my best to help you decide if it's something worth grabbing now, something you might want to wait out a bit, or if you're better off skipping it altogether. The crops aren't going to raise themselves though, so let's get right to it!

This is goals right here.

Keep an eye on that calendar!

There isn't a lot of story to Cornucopia in the traditional sense, but the game does start with your character being rescued from a chunk of ice. Said ice was discovered in a local cave, and you're quickly taken in by a farmer who chooses to give you a plot of land to call your own. You can do whatever you want with this land, but cultivating crops, raising animals, and making money are the things you're going to want to focus on. There's a bit more to the story, such as the mystery regarding why you were in that ice to begin with, but it's all rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Your character is intentionally meant to be a blank slate, and it's best to simply think of them as an avatar for yourself. The game features a fairly long tutorial that tries its best to teach you about the various mechanics of the game. It's not exactly the most perfect of tutorials though, but you'll eventually get the hang of all the important tasks like farming, crafting, fishing, cooking, pet raising, and so on. NPC interaction isn't really explained to you, but that's honestly fun to experience on your own anyhow. Throughout the course of the game you'll meet dozens of characters who reside in town that neighbors your farm. Each have stories of their own to experience, and you'll often find yourself slowly becoming entangled in their lives even if you didn't initially see things going that way. Finding yourself a partner is standard in games like this, so if a certain NPC takes your fancy, you can try your shot at romancing them. This is a bit too complicated a mechanic to explain here, basically involving doing tasks for them and gifting them things they like, but with several eligible NPCs, you're sure to find a future partner in short order. Even if you don't particularly feel that way about an NPC, you can still complete various tasks to earn more items and other unlockables, and maybe even participate in some seasonal festivals where you'll get to hang with them in an even more chill setting. This is all standard fare of course, but Cornucopia really excels at how it brings everything together in a cool, new way.

Now you can make all the monies!

She has a right to be suspicious.

As far as I can tell there is still quite a bit more development to go before we get a full release. I find that absolutely crazy though as there is already so much to do. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say that I had to put the game down after I started it up because I was simply too overwhelmed. The sheer amount of options open to me was just a bit too much, and I quickly realized that I needed a break. I look back at that and laugh a bit since the game is totally cozy and chill once you get into the swing of things. The fact that I experienced any level of anxiety while playing it is pretty ridiculous, but that's what happened. That said, the many tutorials you have to go through before your farm becomes functional will probably be at least a bit daunting to first time players. You'll also be picking up dozens of items, most of which will have you scratching your head as to what you're supposed to do with them. Things do get more manageable once you complete these tutorials, but that first stretch can be a bit rough, even if you don't need to take the break that I did. Speaking of rough, I do want to point out now that it's fairly obvious where some things are left currently unfinished. Empty spots on the map are waiting for something yet to come to fill them, some NPC quests end rather abruptly, and many locations, shops, and NPCs are newer to the game than others, and are thus less developed. This is expected for an Early Access game, but it's rather fascinating seeing a title that is near overflowing with ideas and gameplay mechanics, while somehow still being leagues away from being truly complete. I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but I've played many a fully released game that aren't nearly as featured as this one, and I actually thought about just giving it the full on review treatment now. I won't be doing that, but I will be moving on to discuss the gameplay a bit.

Kaho is great.

TFW you give the homie a special treat.

Similar to Stardew Valley, you can engage with NPCs (both figuratively and literally), work on your farm in various ways, forage for items and crafting materials, raise money for new upgrades, fish, explore dangerous areas, and so on. Most of those tasks are secondary to farming, so let's take a look at that first. Would you believe it if I said that farming feels like the clunkiest aspect of the game? Because that's what I'm going to say now. There's definitely a great, well-thought out farming system here. There's tons of variety in the kind of crops you can grow, and how you choose to raise them, but everything about it feels messy. First off is the fact that each square of land houses different soil types. These types of soil favor some crops better than others, and can be augmented further by using fertilizers that you can buy or craft yourself. Cornucopia's press releases actually go on and on about this fertilizer system, and I couldn't care less about any of it. I get that it allows you to min/max in better ways, but it's so needlessly complicated that I can't see any casual players bothering with it. Good luck managing your inventory when you have to shuffle dozens of different types of fertilizer too. Thankfully you can play without bothering with it all that much, but I fear that it may become more important in future updates. I can only hope that never becomes the case.

When it comes to crops, you're pretty much given free reign, soil types aside of course. You can pretty much plant anything you want anywhere, but you'll want to grow a more organized group of crops as soon as you can. Wild seeds can only get you so far, and you'll want to invest in proper seed crops once you have enough money. From the planting stage you'll then have to water and tend the crops, and harvest them once they're fully grown. A crop reaching full maturity is indicated by it sparkling, so be sure to keep an eye on them every day. Sounds normal enough right? Well, since the entire game takes place with a slightly angled view, as if the game is a stage play you're watching, it can make picking anything out of rows of closely lined crops difficult. You can't rotate the camera or zoom in as far as I can tell, so this is something you'll just have to deal with. Also, remember that soil and fertilizer thing? I'm not totally sure they're the sole reason, but some crops mature much faster than others, even if they're the same type. It's such a pain to harvest a couple crops out of an entire row, as selecting them feels far harder than it should. Good luck replanting that single space in between them too, it's practically an impossible challenge. Watering is also a pain as the sprinklers are some of the worst I've seen in a game like this. There are later upgrades that help water your plants for you, but be prepared to do just about all of it by hand in the early stages. Oh, and I didn't mention this earlier, but you have to clear the plottable land before you plant anything, and these stray object will slowly try to reclaim the area. This means you'll also be carefully weeding, pickaxing rocks, and chopping stray wood as it appears, all while trying to not destroy your extremely fragile cash cows. I don't want to make the system sound broken, but it definitely needs a lot of tweaking to be truly enjoyable. There's still time for that though, so let's move on to some other things.

There's adventure in those mines though!

An example of a dialogue tree.

Within your first 2-3 hours you'll find yourself overwhelmed with dozens of items you have no idea what to do with. You have very limited storage at your disposal, so you'll find yourself selling things and hoping that you won't need them later. This is one of the most daunting aspects of the game as you'll constantly be filling up an inventory that isn't even easy to navigate. There are some auto-sorting options available, but they don't seem to work correctly all the time. I found myself just giving away items to random people to pass the time as I just couldn't deal with my constantly-full inventory. Actually giving items to other characters is a bit too easy I think, there were several times where I was simply trying to talk to someone and I realized I had just accidentally gave them the ore I was hoping to bring back home. That's all right though, as I found the cast of characters the most endearing aspect of Cornucopia. I immediately had favorites, ones I was hoping to woo, and some that I didn't like at all. It's just like living in a real small town! The game even shows you where they are most of the time, and you can get to learn their schedules if you really want to. From what I understand there will be more characters to be added soon, and I can't wait. I just hope that they rein it in a bit when it comes to the items. Or at least give more options when it comes to storing or sorting them.

There's a lot more you can do in your farm, and most of it involves refining raw materials into something more useable, usually items used for crafting. You'll want to harvest wood to make planks, soil and manure to make fertilizer, rocks to make ores, and so on. Some of these refining processes can be a bit confusing as you need a certain amount of the raw material to get anything out the other end. This can sometimes lead to failure if you decided to throw in something more generic with rarer materials. Save scumming isn't really a thing here, so you'll want to be more careful with these things than I was. Or you can just be me and forego most of that, sell your raw materials, and just buy most of the important things you need in town. Not exactly the best way to go about things, but some Cornucopia's systems clearly still need work.

You get prizes upon each level up.

Seriously, what is the deal with this soil?

There's lots to do outside of farming here too. There's a collectable card system to get into, auctions to take part in, places to explore, and even fishing. Fishing is standard in the first half, where you toss out your line and hope for a bite, but then switches to an odd Plinko-style minigame that determines what you've caught. It's actually pretty fun, and adds a big touch of RNG into the mix. I just wish bait was easier to come by naturally. Pets are important too, and you'll find yourself feeding them more than you do the girls you might want to eventually marry. You have a dog that joins you early on, and can even talk, but you'll quickly take to pet chickens, cows, etc. Basically the "friend not food" model in action. Auctions take place at set times for both animals and items, but I never seen to have enough money to make these really worth my time. The card system is a series of collectables that come from loot box-style card packs. Thankfully these don't cost real money, but do take real inventory space, so I never really bother with these either. Seasonal festivals are fun, and I love seeing the entire town in one spot, but many of the minigames they'll eventually hold aren't completed yet. The game even has an arcade, with similarly incomplete games for you to play. If you're looking for a more Action RPG experience, you can even fight enemies here and there, but this is something I didn't experience much during my time with the game. There's just so much to do that you'll spend hours and hours without seeing everything. There are still some NPCs out there that I haven't met, even though I've sunk over a dozen hours into the game. I don't know if I've made it clear yet, but there is an insane amount of game here, more than I can outline in just a preview. I guess the saving grace of this Early Access look is that I can skip a lot of this in my eventual review proper and just link everyone back here. Thanks for that Cornucopia developers!

Oh yeah, there's an arcade.

What's the seed, Penelope?

Besides the sheer amount of content, presentation is one of the game's strongest points. Graphics are an interesting topic, as I think screenshots don't do them justice. They look very pixel-y and retro-inspired, which admittedly they are, but they're actually really impressive to see in action. Everything is highly detailed, the animations are great, and the character portraits are all spot on. The game does seem to run a bit weird on my setup at times, but that could just be me. Every item is a unique sprite, everything is colorful, and even empty areas have a lot life, and a certain charm to them. Sound is also really good, with there being several tracks that are earworms. Even the ones that I didn't particularly love suit the scenes they're in, and there isn't a single bad song in the bunch. I looked it up out of curiosity, and there are apparently over 70 tracks in the game. I just might have to grab that soundtrack on Steam now. Also, if you're an achievement hunter, you'll be pleased to know that the game currently has almost a hundred of them on Steam. There's trading cards too. It's just impossible to describe how much content there is here, even when it comes to stuff that isn't necessarily in-game.

I originally wanted to go more into the gameplay mechanics of Cornucopia here, and maybe even give it a full review, but there is just so much of the game I've yet to experience. I'm glad it's in Early Access actually, as I think I need to invest well over 50 hours, maybe even 100 eventually when it's completed, to give the game a proper judging. I've played many Early Access titles where the developers simply give up since they've already been paid, and move on to other projects. That's not what's going on here and I can't wait to see what's in the game's future. There's a lot of content still on the way, and plenty of room for improvement, but you'd be hard pressed to find any other comparable farming sim these days. Let's start wrapping up this look at the game though, and we'll do that by talking about what I think is the game's biggest issue...

The odd fishing minigame.

I eventually got this farm in order.

Arguably the biggest issue I had with the game overall has to do with the most difficult thing one can discuss in writing: controls. Before I get into it I want to state that I'm sure that just about all these issues I encountered can be hammered out over the course of the game's development, and some already have been, but it's still the game's biggest issue in my opinion. Cornucopia seems to be very confused as to what type of game it is. I know that might've been obvious when I said that the farming was the jankiest part of the entire experience, but it also holds true in the control scheme. Unlike genre shifting though, it's more that the game doesn't seem to realize it currently only exists on the PC, and that a console release is quite a bit further down the road. I actually first played the game with a controller since I noticed that a then-recent update had brought in controller support. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and test some new features along with the game itself. That was a mistake, and I can't even begin to describe how clunky everything was. Shifting between inventory screens never seemed to work, there were two different buttons used to move between different the rows of clickable options, and only character movement seemed to work as intended. I actually somehow placed a tutorial-important item into nowhere (like I placed it off the map somehow), and was forced to figure out how to craft a new one despite the fact that I was still learning the literal basics of the game. I was so irked by this that I then switched to keyboard and mouse controls. The problem with that is that the game now seems to focus on playing the game with a controller, with keyboard and mouse somehow feeling like the afterthought. Things that should've been easy to point and click on required a key press, and there were now stray controller button prompts placed here and there. To make matters worse, I now had the reverse issue when it came to the things that bothered me most. Controlling a character who can move in all directions with WASD is far less precise than using an analog stick. Even though I was now able to actually navigate my inventory properly, that mattered little if my character was constantly falling off ledges or platforms. Thankfully there's no fall damage here. It made for a frustrating experience, but once again the core gameplay kept me going at it. I hope that all these control issues get ironed out soon, but they currently stand as my only big gripe with Cornucopia.

I really love Charlotte.

What is he saying?

It's rare that I feel that an Early Access game is totally on the right track, as I've been burned by many that simply give up or take far longer than promised to release new content. Cornucopia almost feels like the opposite of that as I took a break from the game for a couple weeks (due to the overwhelming intro thing I mentioned earlier), and somehow two big content updates released during that period. There is already more than enough content here to justify its $19.99 price tag (Note: This has apparently risen to $24.99 since I wrote this article, so maybe get it now!), but the fact that there is a constant influx of more is just insane to me. The dev team is really on top of this one, and I can't wait to see what the final product looks like. I guess I'll circle around again at a later date for a full review, but I do whole-heartedly suggest that everyone pick this one up now if you're a fan of farming games or life sims in general. It's a great game and seems to just get greater as the days go on.

Check Out Cornucopia on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681600/Cornucopia/

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Pros:
+ A really deep farming/life sim experience that rivals games like Stardew Valley
+ The dev team are constantly adding in new features, content, and more to keep things lively.
+ Even though this is still in Early Access, there is an insane amount of content here.
+ The cool 2.5D graphic style help set it apart from other games in the genre.
+ Pets sort of act like a Pokemon-esque helper in battles, and you can even breed them.
+ The entire game is full of charm and it's easy to fall in love with this world and its characters.
+ The dozens of NPCs mean that you'll most likely figure out your favorites early on.

Cons:
- Both control schemes, mouse/keyboard and controller, can be a bit clunky as the game doesn't seem fully designed for either.
- Cornucopia throws a lot at you early on, and it can be very overwhelming.
- Wish camera controls were a thing as trying to harvest crops that are too close together, or doing other specific tasks in a busy area, can be difficult.
- Might just be something on my end, but there is a lot of graphic errors and screen tearing on both setups I tried this on.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Is this a Final Destination vision of my end?

#Cornucopia