My Fantastic Ranch – When a management game meets the “relaxation corner”

Two game genres that’s more and more popular each day are the farming simulator and management types of games, and this great fusion of success can be explained by the bright phenomenon of “Stardew Valley”, indie game inspired by the classic “Harvest Moon” franchise, as well by other titles inspired by the success of this game, such as “My Time at Portia”, “Slime Rancher”, “Potion Permit” and many others. And from that fusion, also comes “My Fantastic Ranch”.

Even if not necessarily in the same pace or gameplay, games in this style have great public and reflects on the simple management games from the past, even the ones who could be played in the browser and in social medias by apps or by games portals using Adobe Flash technology. Nowadays, certain types of these games are even more popular on smartphones, tablets, app stores and similar.

“My Fantastic Ranch” was released for PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch and features elements of genres previously quoted, with farming simulator in some parts and management of the main focus of these games: some cute pets, like magical unicorns and dragons, to train them, feed them and even take them to tournaments.

During this, you have to take care of the economies of your ranch, hiring employees and receiving visitors, who can became steady students to stay during some periods in the farm, paying a determined value. The classes/training with the animals, who are also offered to the visitors/students, can also make money to the farm.

Finally, the game have the function of putting decoration and construct/upgrade buildings for the employees, visitors, students and the animals to stay in.

“My Fantastic Ranch” is a nice background for a conversation with your audience

In the streaming side of the game, “My Fantastic Ranch” is interactive and, mainly, relaxing, but suits more as a “background” for a conversation or interaction with the chat and that is, really, something exciting.

Not necessarily a bad thing about the game, but this is a title where the player and the public are mostly observing actions and the days passing by and what these interactions can become in some specific moments.

One highlight is the subtitles and dubbing of the game, who are available in many languages and this surprised me positively and have shown a nice attention for details by the developers. This is one thing who also adds and causes a good impression during a stream.

About performance, this game doesn’t show major problems and it’s well optimized, having simple options about quality and resolutions, but easy to moving through.

In the matter of content, the game introduces itself slowly and presents new gimmicks during tutorials, by the same model as in the beginning of the game and its first mechanics, similar to a mobile game.

“My Fantastic Ranch” gives you tasks to advance in levels and, by that, unlocks new structures, more spaces in the ranch, new animals, new functions, a festival mode and many other things. The game shows a lot of content, but a lot of repetition as well, since after a moment, as it isn’t the center of attention for itself, the realization of the game’s patterns and what you have to do to progress is basically the same thing over and over and for most part of the time you’ll just keep watching it.

Ludovicoluka

I have 25 years, I produce content to internet for 4 years and I like retro games, indies and I’m an enthusiast for new launches. I have as my favorite games Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario World, Hollow Knight and Red Dead Redemption II, per example. I like to experiment everything and the more, the better, but I never get sick of my comfort games!