Little Rock may look familiar in old pictures. But this isn’t the city it once was. Restore balance as part of the Homestead Arcana program.
Magic can inspire one to do wonders. As we understand it, most of what we see is sleight-of-hand. But, as part of the Homestead Arcana program, one will help restore Earth to its former glory. Only by utilizing one’s powers as a witch, will humans once again freely roam a green planet. From Serenity Forge and Skybound Games, comes a new magic take on our own reality. Hear familiar names and fly to places once thought to be familiar.
A corruption known as the Miasma had spread across the planet. Earth looks nothing like it once did. In the future, humans have resorted to the magic of witches to fight back against this threat. Known as the Homestead Arcana program, witches are assigned to an area to farm the land and help bring it back to life through magic spells. So far, the program has met with great success.
As a new participant in the program, one will have to venture into the Miasma. For many spells, the ingredients required can only be obtained from dangerous territory. There may also be other dangers besides the Miasma. Only time will tell. Prepare to wield the might of magic against an ethereal threat.
Becoming a member of the Homestead Arcana program is no easy feat. Without the ability to farm, no witch possesses any power to heal nature. It becomes evident quickly that farming is is a cornerstone of the program meant to heal the Earth. Planting things like corn and tomatoes was relatively easy. One would search the inventory with the Tab button. After clicking once on a specified crop, the Witch could plant their item near the Dust Eater.
A Witch must farm their crops for food just as they would for spell ingredients. The hunger meter never waned below a certain amount, so seeing it zero out was never experienced. Like most other games with a hunger mechanic, I imagine it wouldn’t bode well for the Witch.
Dust Eaters, as they are known in Homestead Arcana, are special trees that consume the Miasma that plagues the land. Just as mysterious as the dark clouds that hover everywhere, the Magic Academy makes it a point to show how important the tree species is to their work.
A great deal of crafting components were hidden throughout the Miasma in Homestead Arcana. Because of its volatile nature, the destructive cloud would severely handicap a witch’s vision. It wasn’t hard to figure out a general direction to head in. However, important items could only be seen using the Ripple spell. This spell, like many others, can only be activated when fueled by the corresponding potion. To obtain the Ripple potion, one is required to mix an ear of corn and two pieces of silver.
Ripple served two purposes during Homestead Arcana gameplay. Firstly, it allowed the witch to take notice of important items that were otherwise obscured. When Ripple is active, anything that can be picked up or interacted with, is highlighted in yellow. The second use of this power was to highlight enemy rat creatures. Without the Ripple spell, the only indicating these creatures are nearby is the holes scattered across the ground.
Seeing with the spell felt a little like ‘bat vision.’ When active, Ripple would pulse with both light and sound, much like a radar. Keeping it on for too long would severely drain the mana pool. But it could be kept on as long as something like Lavender Tea or Saffron Tea was used to restore mana.
It is possible to to get past the hoppers quickly in Homestead Arcana. Doing this required using the Shadow Potion/Spell. Toss tomatoes, boiled cabbage, and silver into the cauldron. Lasting only four minutes, it might be a good idea to map out a path with Ripple before proceeding past the creatures. Homestead Arcana’s creatures are not kind to the Witch to stays nearby for too long. After being hit enough times, my Witch took a dive and woke up back in their first tent.
Coming back out of the Miasma with my bounty was always rewarding. That is, of course, when the trip was a success. If one passed out, either from the Mask filter timing out, or enemies draining health, each item acquired inside the Miasma was returned to where it was found. All that hard work and exploration with nothing to show for it.
After healing the third Dust Eater, and freeing the second ‘Mother’ Dust Eater, an encounter with the Hermit is triggered. Her identity is not revealed, but her Mask, which glows with the purple light of the Miasma, shows that she possesses hidden valuable hidden knowledge. There isn’t much to the encounter, save for her statement of the Witch being ‘different’ from others she’s encountered previously.
Seemingly out of the goodness of her heart, the Hermit left my Witch the gift of a broom. And what’s a witch without their trusty broom? This made traveling greater distances in Homestead Arcana a breeze compared to running. It allows quick farming of important potion/food ingredients out in the wild. Traveling over water was also made possible thanks to the broom.
While the broom was fun to experience for Homestead Arcana, it was extremely wonky at times. Turning at the wrong moment would cause the Witch to literally skip across the ground while riding the broom. Even after slowing down, the avatar had a chance of getting temporarily stuck staring in one direction. An adjustable speed or a button specifically pressed from ‘braking’ might improve the broom’s mechanics.
Developers chose to go with a cel-shaded look for Homestead Arcana. It was an interesting choice, and this style made certain sequences that much better. It made zeroing out the Mask’s filter a psychedelic experience. Each of the characters had a nice color palette chosen for them. But the environment, once purified, should have had a bit more color.
The sounds of Homested Arcana were alright. But they were nothing one might call spectacular. Huckleberry the Cat, the Porter, and the Hermit were the only characters that had any voice lines. Voice lines should be added for the player character as well.
Homestead Arcana is a farming simulator at heart, inspired by the myths and legends of magic. If you’re looking for a magical challenge, running through the Miasma is certain to provide that thrill. It is a cute casual adventure RPG that is sure to keep any fan of anime entertained for hours.
