Ova Magica

This game is nothing to write home about. The mechanics are all simple, and the grind is kinda annoying. If you want a rather bog-standard cozy game with basic gameplay and a decently cool breeding system this may be for you, but I can't recommend this game overall. This review isn't in bad faith; there are some things I like about this game but overall, I feel like I wouldn't be gaining much value from continuing to play. [h1]The Good[/h1] [list] [*]Town expansion is always a welcome and fun idea, though it feels out of place for a newcomer and farmer without any real influence to be the driving force of expansion.... and as a favor for someone's friendship but let's ignore that [*]The breeding system is pretty nice [list] [*]On top of getting stronger, blobs can be crossbred and can inherit physical features from their parents [/list] [*]You get an incentive to play and physically interact with your blobs [list] [*]Blobs have food cravings and play cravings and fulfilling them gives HP/Energy buffs [/list] [/list] [h1]The Bad[/h1] [list] [*]Progression feels unbearably slow [list] [*]Everything is really expensive [*]Strengthening blobs take forever, at least in the early game. [list] [*]This is made even worse by the early game healing issues [*]Having to unlock the shipping bin (while not that long) didn't help either [/list] [*]Getting new blobs is annoying [list] [*]There's no catching mechanic. You just have a low chance of dropping an egg any time you fight a blob [list] [*]This is especially annoying for blobs that can randomly spawn on your farm as you just gotta repeatedly fight em and sac seeds till they drop their egg [/list] [*]There's an item called Wishing Star that makes it 100% but the game doesn't really explain it existing to you. You get these by smelting 5 shards that you get from the Shooting Stars even [/list] [*]Energy economy is whack [list] [*]As mentioned, you can't really make a big farm very easy without eating energy restoring foods [*]This affects you as well as your blobs, even worse on your blobs as they need energy to battle [*]Generally, energy is balanced around how much grinding you need and this game has some of the stingier energy balancing I've experienced. [list] [*]Granted there are "free snacks" that grow under trees that restore energy and they're not too rare but the fact you gotta eat/forage a lot to do anything significant makes it slow and a chore. [*]It would've felt much better to balance it around having a bigger energy pool and having less "free snacks" to restore your energy around the world like most farming games do [/list] [*]Obviously, you can increase blob energy through various means but a lot of them are locked early on making it feel slow [/list] [*]Everything combined just makes progression feel slow and unfulfilling. [/list] [*]Missing QoL [list] [*]Making a large farm is rather tedious, only specific blobs have farming utilities [list] [*]Would've been nice if we could assign them to work passively like how you can make your monsters do farm chores for you in Rune Factory but instead you basically take command of them to speed up your farming [*]The energy costs for the farming utility blobs are pretty big, making it annoying in the early-mid game [/list] [*]The goal of breeding (beyond stronger blobs) is to eventually make combinations of physical attributes that you like, so the fact you have to stagger the breeding pairs feels unnecessarily bad. [list] [*]If there are more than 1 pair ready to breed the blobs will pair up randomly [*]This can be worked around by setting 1 pair per day, but it feels like an unnecessary annoyance [/list] [*]Team and barn management is a chore. There's no easy menu (at least within the time I played) to manage the team or barns. You have to go to each individual barn and manage each one. [list] [*]There is a team terminal that can let you switch parties, but you can only use it to swap between presets [*]It would've been nicer to have a terminal that could swap blobs from all barns and storage with the [b][i]option[/i][/b] of loading presets, but they decided that a preset terminal was good enough ig [/list] [*]Feeding party blobs and eating gets rather tiresome, would've been nice if there was a menu. I like the ability to physically interact with the blobs, but it gets tiresome really fast [/list] [*]You don't need to give the NPCs gifts to gain friendship which is nice... but they basically switched it out with bribing them with straight money which makes it feel impersonal. [list] [*]A better example of a no gift needed friendship system is Guardians of Azuma where you can instead choose to hang with them in place of gifting. It was awkward at first in that game but being able to choose between hanging out and straight gifting feels right at home with this genre unlike paying someone to boost your friendship with a resident [/list] [*]Getting new blobs is annoying [list] [*]There's no catching mechanic. You just have a low chance of dropping an egg any time you fight a blob [list] [*]This is especially annoying for blobs that can randomly spawn on your farm as you just gotta repeatedly fight em and sac seeds till they drop their egg [/list] [*]There's an item called Wishing Star that makes it 100% but the game doesn't really explain it existing to you. You get these by smelting 5 shards that you get from the Shooting Stars event [/list] [*]Blob Worlds are boring, bland and severely held back by the combat system and the inventory [list] [*]There are no checkpoints, if you teleport back you gotta restart from the beginning [*]You can't really skip encounters, which there are plenty in the connecting hallways, which gets annoying cuz you're time limited [list] [*]I ended up extending how long days are whenever I decide to go blob worlding, which is honestly a problem cuz I shouldn't feel compelled to [/list] [/list] [*]Blob play minigames get old very fast [*]Visuals are subjective but the models are really ugly IMO, they're weirdly proportioned even by chibi standards and it's a huge turn off [list] [*]I was willing to ignore it cuz I heard the game was pretty nice but it was still a turn off, including the fact that the non-brood blobs are all rather basic [*]The art itself is good, but the character models are pretty bad [/list] [/list]

I love Ova Magica; I do. Coming off the back of playing the infinitely more popular and well known "Wylde Flowers" vs this is night and day. I have also recently replayed Coral Island, a game I love and keep playing due to its freedom and depth of how you approach it. The way I see life sims is this, there are two kinds- the very indepth, sprawling, highly detailed games like Stardew Valley and Coral Island- and the more focused, simpler, boiled down games clearly made for all ages like Wylde Flowers. Ova Magica certainly falls into the second category; but where Wylde Flowers failed for me, Ova Magica has been succeeding in droves. Now, straight off the back I must say I am a kickstarter backer, which naturally may lead for some changed perceptions- but I have played many of my own kickstarter games that failed in my eyes, even if they reached commercial success. One thing that always worried me about the game was its graphics- even back in the kickstarter days. It feels Chibi and overly cutesy to the point of where I was afraid I just wouldn't take it seriously. Right off the bat I must say that in-game I don't have that problem. The game, while cartoony, matches its setting and gameplay perfectly without feeling overly childish. The screenshots do not do it justice, but it isn't nearly as childish in game. Gameplay wise, it is rather shallow, the battle mechanics are simple- but also fun and rewarding. The daily grind is repetivie, but sprinkled with many different item rewards, foraging tasks and some of the best heart events I have ever seen in a life sim. Unlike many games, where heart events are just sequences- this game has a surprisingly deep number of interactions with the heart events. Some contain small quests or items to bring, they may span over multiple locations and even reveal things about their friends and families along the way. Most importantly they all involve you explicitly, and doing each one is fun- rather than a chore. This is an important distinction too, because doing these heart events is directly tied to the games main progression. You can't actually progress in the battle league without befriending everyone at least a little. Honestly, this is likely one of the weaker elements because befriending everyone to 2 hearts, while it works for me and the way I play, may not be the thing for everyone else. But doing so does allow for more interesting interactions in the heart events so I'm not sure. The main thing isn't the farming, but the combat and mystery dungeon style exploration. Every day after talking to everyone, you can battle them. Battling is important as it gives you item/gold rewards, but also powers up the other NPCs in town. This helps you get more powerful blobs to train with, AND in the case of the "friendables" even more power for your dungeon explorations. The dungeons - or "blob worlds" are diverse and contain a lot of unique items and interactions. At the time of writing I have just visited the third world, the candy world, which introduced a whole bunch of things I wasnt expecting. This dungeon not only has the normal items, of most dungeons, but even its own currency for buying things from a giant gumball machine. The pirate world may have fish traps you can empty and even the original magical forest world offers new unique loot and fun things to unlock and explore. Honestly, the game itself is full of exploration, unlocks and surprises. Beyond the dungeons, as the friendship levels increase you begin building a number of new buildings in town. Inspired by the whims and dreams of the people you are befriending, you literally start to bankroll the town's construction. Each building adding new NPCs to talk to, new things to do, and changes to the personalities and routines of the characters involved. Even the non-friendable NPCs have their own little storylines you can follow over the days, and it is really interesting to see the world development and unlocks the further you go. Wylde Flowers never sat right with me because it felt like it was holding my hand to the point of no matter how much I explored and progresed, I could never do anything in my own time, but the game's time instead. I would finish everything, then I HAD to finish the main quest to get new things. I hate that about a game, I like being able to really focus on something and be rewarded for it. This is where Ova Magica strides; depending on what you do, where you go, there are so many things to buy and do in your own order, sometimes I feel I am able to through skill and perseverence go further than I was "meant to" and this feels really good. Being able to beat a boss early, get a new tier of equipment faster than the game expected, it all just feels fun and reactive. Honestly, while it is a very simple and accessible game on the surface, it really scratches that Cozy Games itch, I could talk longer on all of these things but let me just say; Ova Magica while not my favourite life sim, is certainly incredibly good at what it does, and I am very happy I backed it.

[h1]Introduction[/h1] I played a lot of farming/creature collector games out there and many of them failed to satisfy me. I dunno what it is about the the Stardew x Pokemon formula that makes it so hard, but I think I finally understand why. A lot of those games tried to incorporate ALL the features of farming life sims and creature collectors in order to bring out a "complete experience" for the player. On the other hand, Ova Magica (which I affectionately nickname as "Blob Farm") does the opposite. Ova Magica cuts the annoying parts of both genres to fuse together what is the ideal mix of farming life sim with creature collector that elevates the genre mix to its heights and stand above the others. [h1]Gameplay - Creature Collector[/h1] Gone are the complex aspects of creature collectors. Instead of a million different elements, there's only three. Instead of a bunch of stats and hidden stats to focus on, there's only a handful and they're all visible. Moves no longer have all these weird interactions. Here, they either do damage, buff, debuff, or a combination of them. There's no evolutions, blobs shouldn't evolve anyway since that's how they stay cute. The simplicity sounds like a downgrade at first, but the more I play it, the more I realized how creature collectors bloated themselves with mechanics to the point where it's unfun. Ova Magica, instead, takes several steps back in order to stay in the fun zone and that's where it chooses to stay. Breeding is fun, no need to hunt for ideal parents with IV's and all that stuff to pass down. Just find two cute blobs, fuse them together, and get something even cuter. Blob appearances can be practically anything with how the breeding system works. You can breed any blob with any other and get something that's a mix between the two. I bred a turtle blob with a fox and ended up getting a turtle with fox ears and fox tail. It's the most adorable thing ever. [h1]Gameplay - Farming Life Sim[/h1] Just like with the creature collector aspect, the farming life sim had a bunch of things gutted from the typical slog, too. Seed planting and all that stuff is still there but gone are the crop quality variances. No more pickling. No more turning things to wine. You can no longer gift the love candidates, but IMO, that's fine since having a wiki open just to know who to gift what isn't a great way to play. Instead, you can challenge them to Blob Battles and get extra social points that way. A great replacement for gifting IMO. No more randomized mine diving. There's still a mine you dive into, but it's static and the nodes all produce a number of chunks of ore at a time. So as long as you know your mining pattern, it's just in and out and not a total day waster like it is with other farming life sims. Crafting structures on your farm/in your house/barns is done straight from the work bench onto the field/room. No need to turn it into an inventory item and lug it around personally to place it. However, the part that makes Ova Magica stand above the rest of the farming life sims x creature collectors is how it incorporates the blobs into the mix. For most of the competitors, the farming life sim and creature collector aspect feels hugely divorced and do no interact with each other. For Ova Magica, that's the complete opposite. Blobs are a major part of the farming system as they have abilities that help water crops, till the soil, plant seeds, harvest en masse, etc. The thing that impressed me the most were the Blob Barns. Normally, I disliked animal husbandry in most farming life sims as they require a ton of work. Blob Barns here can become hugely automated. Not only that, the range of products the Blobs produce surprised even me. You've got your standard milk, eggs, wool (yarn in the game). But then you also have Blobs that generate butterflies, coal, candy, even coins, Each new Blob type found became a surprise if it's a boon to the barn or farm fields. [h1]Graphics / Music[/h1] The PS2 era graphics combined with cute anime art really fit the vibe of the game well. It felt like I was transported back to the golden era of gaming and chilling on my couch while I played this game. The music is soft and cozy. Overall, the presentation is super healing. [h1]Quality of Life[/h1] Ho boy. This game is jam packed with quality of life stuff. Right off the bat, you get a town map with where all the bachelor/ettes are. There's a fast travel system. You get a global storage right off the bat, it has organization tabs, and there's a global storage near every fast travel structure and then some. There's little icons on corner of shop items and cooking recipes to tell you which things haven't been submitted to the museum yet or claimed as a recipe. There's a lot of QoL features disguised in the form of Blob abilities, too. Such as the angler fish Blob's ability to greatly increase the bite rate of fish, or the ability to put some wild Blobs asleep and get past them. All in all, the game dev knows what frustrates people with farming life sims and aims to reduce that frustration through a variety of QoL features. To that, the 60 hour of gameplay time I've had with this game has been a massive joy. [h1]Gameplay Loop[/h1] Most games of this genre typically have divorced gameplay loops. People either do only farming or creature collecting when it best suits them. Instead, here, they're very much intertwined. Farming is boosted by the Blobs you collect through either their farm yard abilities or their barn production. These fuel the money and resources used to go diving into the Blob Worlds, a series of randomized dungeons with a different variety of Blobs to capture. Upon coming back, the new Blobs have more farming or barn abilities to utilize and the loop continues. The game gets more and more comfortable the more you play and progress. On that note, for the life sim side of things, heart events can unlock new structures for you to build. This is something I've seldom seen in other games where Heart Events in most life sims. The majority of life sim Heart Events are just cutscenes and nothing else. Here, they have purpose and give a very strong incentive to get the Heart Events of all the major candidates in the game. On top of that, the writing for these cutscenes are top notch. The structures are the bait, but the writing is the real hook. There's some tear jerkers, heart string clutchers, and straight up goofy moments to laugh out loud at. Incredibly well done by the game dev. The game's pacing is fantastic IMO. Seasons didn't feel too long or too short and there were just enough festivals to keep things interesting. Due to how the Heart Events unlock new structures to be built, there's a steady introduction of new things to do in the game and new mechanics to explore. [h1]Negatives[/h1] There really aren't many and I admittedly have to go out of my way to find some. The only thing that really comes to mind is that it's a bit cumbersome to feed Blobs in your party and use their abilities (where you have to hold down shift, move next to the Blob, highlight the item in your inventory, and press F). However, it offers more of that nostalgic PS2 experience where there's always that one weird clunky mechanic to make you take a deep breath but still smile at because its feeding animation is amazingly cute. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] All in all, I had a very unexpected good experience with Ova Magica. While the life sim and creature collecting aspects of the genre mix are greatly simplified, they were simplified for the better in order to let the strengths of the game play out. The aesthetics are super charming, the gameplay seldom got old for me, and I absolutely love the writing. Looking forward to more from the dev, either as DLC or as a new game.

Hey zusammen ! ^-^ Ich habe das Spiel inzwischen sehr lange gespielt: 107 Stunden, 30 von 43 Erfolgen freigeschaltet, und es macht mir immer noch mega viel Spaß! Am Anfang muss ich gestehen, dass mich die Grafik etwas abgeschreckt hat. Die könnte wirklich noch verbessert werden, bitte! Aber davon abgesehen ist das Spiel absolut empfehlenswert. Es fühlt sich ein bisschen an wie ein Mix aus Trainer-Spiel und Stardew Valley, macht richtig viel Laune und die Geschichten sind spannend. Nicht nur die der NPCs, sondern auch die Hintergrundgeschichte der Welt selbst überrascht immer wieder. Sehr gut finde ich auch, dass man kaum etwas googeln muss. Das Spiel erklärt vieles selbst und liefert einem die nötigen Lösungen direkt mit. Ein kleiner Kritikpunkt ist die deutsche Übersetzung. Die müsste an einigen Stellen noch einmal überarbeitet werden. Außerdem werde ich in Dialogen manchmal als Mann angesprochen, obwohl ich eine Frau spiele. Das ist etwas schade. Zusammen mit der Grafik ist das für mich aber bisher der einzige wirkliche Nachteil. Bis dahin spiele ich das Spiel weiter und genieße es :)

Leaving this review at over 600 hours clocked on this game. I wanted something gentle paced and visually relaxing with enough adventure and poke around content to stay busy. Instead I got a nicely polished baby with all the genes I love from both pokemon and Stardew Valley plus some adaptations that I would consider an improvement and I am so happy. A couple of dialogue typos here and there but no major glitches or broken saves from my experiences. Please make more content! More blobs, more towns, more leagues! I'll give you money.

Ova Magica has stolen my heart! (Despite some flaws). I backed this game on Kickstarter, but waited to play until the full release. Pros: - Great writing for the characters and their personal stories. - SO MANY CUTE BLOBS!!! - Breeding the blobs is easy and fun, with scaling rewards for generations. - There are many festivals, and they are all really fun and give good rewards. - Progression feels rewarding, and building up the town helps keep the game interesting. - The seasons feel distinct and atmospheric. Cons: - If you love decorating your farm and home, this game offers very little in terms of varied decor items. - The romance/marriage is almost non-existing, which is especially disappointing considering the high quality of the writing in general. - This could be a pro or a con depending on your playstyle, but all the mechanics are very simple with little depth. Example: Growing your blobs skills are either just spamming moves in battle, or feeding them boosters. Neutral: - The character models!! They still crack me up 80 hours in! Their wide hips and diaper butts with no noses and giant eyes dancing are some of the funniest moments, but not the greatest aesthetic look. Overall, I love this game. There is a ton of heart, the writing is really funny, not to mention, the blobs are adorable!! It has great quality of life features, simple but addicting gameplay and with lots of stuff to explore.

とりあえず一年、MOD無しでプレイしました。 グラフィックは懐かしの64を思い出します。Z世代には少々受け入れにくいかもしまれません。笑 ですがチュートリアルがインディーズゲームとは思えないくらい親切です。女性キャラクターの大半が、日本のオタクに媚びすぎてない…？って思うくらい子供が多いです。 ナイスバディなお姉さんが出てきたと思えば、恋愛対象じゃなくて初手でブチギレました。 製作陣が日本のオタクアニメやゲームが好きなのかな？って思いました。 でもギャルゲーのお姉さんはむっちりしてる事が多いんだけどな…笑 男性キャラは、割とさまざまなビジュです。初対面の印象は最悪だったり、難があるなぁ…と感じるキャラもいますが、乙ゲーで鍛えられてる方なら大した事ないはずです。 終盤まで冷徹な王子様がデレた時は脳汁が出ましたね。← 私は大人な男性、女性とお付き合いをしたい派なので、結婚候補が男女含めて4人程度しかいませんでしたが、友情イベントがとても多いし、凝っていなと感じました。翻訳も完璧です。 プレゼント出来ないのがちょっと残念ですが、毎日全員に話しかけて、鉱山や遺跡に潜るというルーティンが苦にならなければ、順調にストーリーは進められると思います。 その辺にスタミナ回復が生えてますし、リーグに勝てばスタミナが増えます。ちゃんと交流していけば、どんどん楽になります。 完全な自動化は出来ませんが、一応スプリンクラーも登場しますし、亀の様なポケ、じゃなかったブロップを数匹捕まえられたらいいですね。 その子達がいれば畑拡大も問題ないかと。私は博物館に寄贈用の季節の野菜を育て、残りは花を大量に植えて、時折鉱石が高く売れる日があるので、それも惜しみなく売っちゃう！また採掘しにいけばいい！って感じで金策しました。スキルツリーもちゃんと解放しましょうね。 毎シーズン、イベントが3回もあります。そこで友好度をガツンと上げたりできます。 セリフも沢山ありますから、翻訳にお金をかけてるんじゃないかな？と感じます。だから64グラフィックなのかもしれません。 ツールもアップグレード出来ますが、ツルハシが…最終アップグレードしたらもう少し楽に掘らして欲しかったな。笑 攻略情報が少ないですが、寄贈する魚はオールシーズンのものと、各シーズンに滝と川と湖(鉱山近く)で2匹ずついます。昼1匹夜1匹。あとは遺跡に2匹ずついると思って下さい。 とりあえず一年で流れを把握したので、もう一度やり直してもいいかなーって思うくらいにはちゃんとハマりました。ちゃんとやれば楽になっていくので、ちょっと昔の牧場物語だと思って下さい。 1日の長さはオプションで変えられます。24時になってもぶっ倒れません。ツールが使えなくなるだけです。 農場と鉱山にある塞がれた場所は、ボム兵みたいな子を捕まえて壊しましょう。 インディーズと考えれば、お勧めできます。翻訳とイラストがGOOD！

Its grindy. Stuff is expensive, blueprints to build stuff and such. It keeps you from beating it too fast I guess but days drag once you dont have anything to do, or are waiting on something to finish

If you enjoy harvest moon and pokemon this game is perfect. The breeding system is addictive trying to make the perfect blob for battling. The only weak point is the character design but it’s still charming and simple. Hopefully we see an ova magica 2 one day it would be an instant buy.