Farming simulators are a dime a dozen these days, as countless games try to cash in on the runaway success of Stardew Valley. But an interesting wrinkle has emerged in the farming genre, as more studios take chances and redefine what a “sim” game can be.
One such example, which has already sold over 100,000 copies in Japan, is Village in the Shade — a fascinating fusion of cozy farming and folk horror. From the development studio behind the horror series Yomowari, Village in the Shade is one of the most unusual and riveting farming sims that I’ve ever played.
During the day, you go about your business as usual in the peaceful Kagatsu village: fishing, mining, harvesting crops, taking care of adorable animals, etc. Everything you’d expect. But the village also holds some deep, dark secrets, and at night, horrifying creatures and spirits plague the town, seeking to ruin the peace you’ve created.
Village in the Shade is split into two halves: cozy sections during the day, with horror-esque elements weaving in at night. But on top of that, Kagatsu is guided by a series of “rules,” that you have to abide by, or something awful will happen.
And after playing Village in the Shade, it has all the nuts and bolts you’d want from a farming sim, with a deeply unsettling current that runs underneath everything. Both tonally and aesthetically, this is one of the most dynamic games I’ve seen in quite a while, packed with unique ideas for how everything in a sim game clicks together.
To dig into the game’s ethos a little more, I talked with Village in the Shade director Yu Mizokami and producer Mio Katsumata about how the rule system came together, why there’s no romance, and more.
I’m curious, what was attractive to you about making a farming sim with horror elements? Why was that a fusion you wanted to do?
Mizokami: After working on the Yomowari titles, we thought we wanted to take some of those elements and put them in a different kind of game. And so, looking at the farming simulation genre – it felt like that was a good combination, in the sense that there’s not a lot of it. And those elements are also disparate, which offers a compelling contrast.
So in that sense, we thought it would make for an interesting combination. Horror is our specialty, so wouldn’t it be interesting to take that and apply it to something people wouldn’t normally expect?
Farming sims are usually peaceful, relaxing experiences. And the horror of Yomowari is typically pretty unsettling, more of a sense of unease. How important is it to create that sense of unease in Village in the Shade? How do you create a game that feels both relaxing and unsettling?
Mizokami: Looking back on Honogarashi no Niwa (Village in the Shade), in particular, we have that sort of peaceful setting. We know that’s going to appeal to certain people who don’t normally play horror games, and so the horror is scaled back a little bit to make it more appealing for those players.
At the same time, the game has a general pop-horror feel that leans heavily on classic Japanese horror and folk horror. You can really feel that in the game. It doesn’t rely much on splatter horror or jump scares, but more on the sense of unease that comes with classic pop horror.
Katsumata: I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the movie Midsommar. Before we came here, even when we were still in Japan, we were thinking about, okay, how can we explain the tone that we’re going for to Western audiences, and how people respond to that. One of the things we landed on was “pop horror,” But you can also think of it like Midsommar – it’s an interesting bright vibe, but with a dark underbelly.
One of the elements I find most fascinating in Village in the Shade is the rule system, where you have to abide by the town’s rules. Where did the idea for that system come from? And did you consider adding more rules at any point?
Katsumata: We actually wanted to create a lot more than we did. That’s fun, right? Being able to build this sort of little system. The way we went about it was because players, particularly in this kind of life simulation game, they don’t tend to like being hemmed in so much where they don’t have a lot of freedom.
To open that up a bit more, we approached the rules by creating something that ties into the story and its themes, without making it feel like players’re being roped into a single path. So those rules are more directly tied to the game thematically, rather than restricting the player.
There are a lot of farming simulators out there; it’s become a very popular genre. I’m curious, did you feel like there was a checklist of certain things you had to have? Like, did you have to have crops, taking care of animals, exploration, etc?
Mizokami: We both play a lot of farming simulation games ourselves, and we’re very familiar with the genre. So from the beginning, we thought, okay, we want to include everything people expect. That was there from the very start. But on top of that, we were thinking, well, we have this unique mix of genres, so what else can we do? Taking some of that horror flavor to make it stand out just a little bit. Things that we could only do in this game, that others might not.
For example, meat is not a common thing in farming sims because they like to avoid the, well, you have to kill the livestock to get the meat. That was something where we’ve got this hard flavor. We can do a little bit of that. We toned it down a little – it’s not like you chop them up and get the meat, but you can basically send them off to be processed, and you’ll get the meat back.
Related to the last question. One of the key elements in life sims recently is dating and romance options. Why did you decide not to have that as an option? Did you consider it?
Katsumata: That was one of the things we considered at the outset. But with the life simulation or farming simulation genre, it kind of feels like, in a lot of these games, the point ends up being getting married. That’s like the end game. But it didn’t really sit well with me, so the thought was that shouldn’t be the end goal. That was carried over into how we decided to approach it.
For us, the real goal was unravelling the mystery of the village itself, and we felt that should be the real endpoint of the story. So we moved away from the romance aspect and focused more on that. But there is still a connection we wanted to form with the villagers in the game, and it’s not necessarily friendship, or camaraderie, or passion, but more of getting them to accept you. It’s not the main thrust, but that became more of our approach to that kind of connection.
After making Village in the Shade. I’m curious how you feel about the farming genre as a whole. Do you think it’s oversaturated? Do you think there’s still room for new ideas in the genre?
Mizokami: Yes, absolutely. I think there’s plenty of room. I actually get the feeling there’s going to be a lot of innovation in that genre, in particular. Not just us, but other companies as well. And not just functionality improvements, but also building on interesting ideas that go outside the norm.
Do you think Japanese and Western players have different experience and expectations of what farming sims should be? Do you think there’s any sort of cultural difference in the genre?
Mizokami: Yes, definitely. I think there’s a difference in perception there, and I’m very interested to see how people over here will take the game.
Because I think with farming simulators, in particular in Japan, the tendency is that you think of it a bit like My Neighbour Totoro. That country setting has this nostalgic appeal that I think, when Japanese people imagine a farm setting, that’s what they’re thinking about. It’s almost like you’re expecting Totoro to pop out at any moment – and I’m curious to see just how receptive the Western audience is going to be to that.
Village in the Shade launches on October 27 for PS5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
