Review: Kynseed Packs a Lot of Life Sim Into One Switch Game

In most farming life sims, we follow our one avatar throughout their life, living vicariously through them. Maybe we get as far as raising a family, also living on our homestead with a partner and a kid or two. Kynseed does more than that. More generations, since you can continue on as your kids. More to do, since part of it can also involve different kind of shop and facility creation and management. More elements to consider, since blessings and curses come up. That also means more complexity, which may be good or bad depending on how much you want on your plate.

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Kynseed begins with a pair of orphans living in The Shoe. (As in the old woman who lived in a shoe.) They don’t stay there long, however, as an uncle named Bill came to bring them home to his home in Quill’s Vale. After spending a summer living with your family and learning about life on a farm, you’re given the Kynseed by the Fae Mr. Fairweather. This allows you to continue not only playing as yourself, but as your children and their children. It also is the start of you getting more involved in the world and not only maintaining your homestead, but aiding Quill as a whole by doing things like slaying a Jabberwock, dealing with Hags, and visiting Tir Na Nog. If you keep it up, you may gain enough Renown in the world to end up a certified Legend. 

Kynseed feels a lot like other farming life sims and, in many ways, works similarly. You go day by day performing various actions to increase your Renown around Quill once your character comes of age. This can involve farming, fishing, tending animals, crafting, combat, and shop management. There are lots of different areas to explore, quite a bit of lore is involved and tied to fairytales, mythology, and fae in general. It’s very involved, and there can often be a number of steps to accomplish everything that may or may not be well explained.  By visiting and getting to know people in-town, you can eventually build up relationships and perhaps even get married. Which is encouraged, since part of the mechanics are designed to feel like it might take generations to get certain abilities or build things up. 

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Because of all the different ways to build up Renown to unlock additional stories and get more involved with the fae around Quill, Kynseed can feel quite open and varied. If combat is your thing, that’s way, but so is completing missions, running a store, or becoming involved with the community. The map is quite large, and you’re encouraged to unlock the Goddess Statues so you can use apples to fast travel. (Though it is also possible to use Rootway Doors to fast travel if you get Mr. Fairweather’s Wooden Key.) Like Fields of Mistria, progressing means new quests and story elements, as well as notoriety. The stories involved can be interesting, with some dialogue and lore that’s genuinely well written. Though, if you are getting to some of these elements after the first generation, it can be a bit weird to happen upon situations that don’t seem to acknowledge the fact that you aren’t the original character and are instead their child (or grandchild). 

The thing about Kynseed is that sometimes I feel it can get a bit too complex and unwieldly to be really relaxing in the way games like Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons do when I play them. This applies both to general actions and inputs, as well as gameplay itself. It’s like I need to constantly think about things. For example, actions don’t involve pressing one button and being done. There is a whole menu of possible interactions when talking to people, as well as additional menus to select topics during conversations. Lots of quests can pile up in your log, but it isn’t always easy to parse and determine level of importance regarding what happens or is a reward if you complete them. While the Story of Seasons series is great about letting you know when important things happen thanks to someone usually flat out telling you “this is going to happen tomorrow” and people in town changing up dialogue to reflect it, that won’t happen here. If I step away to play another game and don’t completely focus on just Kynseed for a bit, I’d find I’d need to take time to remember or relearn how to do certain things since sometimes you are sort of left to suss things out. It ended up feeling like I was on a second job at times, especially when it came to cooking items since the minigames for recipes aren’t really explained and often aren’t enjoyable. (Which can mean wasting ingredients.) 

Likewise, there’s a lot in here! It’s manageable enough most of the time, but I found sometimes I’d need to take notes to remember what I was prioritizing or even do in general. Like okay, what kind of shop was I working on? What were my priorities for my family members in the Family Scheduler? Which one of the goddesses was I trying to make regular offerings to? Oh, and I needed to remember I was working toward rebuilding some stalls and meeting the requirements for them. This is in addition to normal farming life sim elements like farming, livestock management, and socializing. I’m still haunted by when I forgot to fill the Brounie Bowl after not playing for a few days. It didn’t hit me until I’d gotten to the fourth punishment for ignoring it and realized I both wasn’t getting milk and kept failing when trying to fish. That’s to say that sometimes I almost felt like the game is so massive and all-encompassing that it almost felt like it needed to be the only thing I was playing… or else.

I will also warn that Kynseed, by its very nature, isn’t the sort of life sim that you play if you enjoy getting really connected to your possible love interest and look forward to building up a little family and story with them. You can marry pretty much everyone of age (including people who are already married to someone else), but the nature of character designs and direction meant that I didn’t connect to them in the same way I did love interests in games like Stardew Valley, Fields of Mistria, and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. They don’t have the same degree of personality or connection. Couple that with the generational aspect, and it doesn’t feel like romance is as much of a priority. Especially since once you get to the next generation, as I mentioned earlier, people seem pretty nonplussed about suddenly dealing with your kid instead of you.

On the plus side, the Switch port of Kynseed works rather well now that it’s been out for a bit and gotten a patch. I actually waited a bit on this review to ensure that an issue with crashes had been resolved. It seems to run rather well at the moment! I did notice if the weather is anything but sunny, there may be times when it isn’t as smooth, yet on clear days it is absolutely fine. It looks great on the console too, whether you play it docked or in handheld mode. The font is also quite readable if playing on the go, which is sometimes a concern in these types of titles. 

Kynseed is a lot, so much so that it can feel like it monopolizes your time, but that might be exactly what a farming Switch player might want. There is a lot to do! It’s complex and filled with ways to approach legendary status. But sometimes it won’t feel intuitive or might be so full of ideas and gameplay elements that you could get lost if you step away for a while. There are interesting ideas for sure, but I don’t feel it’s as easy to approach as other games in the genre. It 100% requires an investment, which could mean it may only appeal to the most dedicated.

Kynseed is available on the Switch, PS5, Xbox One, and PC. 

Kynseed

Kynseed is a lot and can feel like it monopolizes your time, but that might be exactly what a farming Switch player might want. Switch 2 version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.