Cornucopia (2023) [PC] review

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
– Masanobu Fukuoka

If you couldn’t tell from my Moonstone Island review, I am a big fan of farming and life sims. However, as we all know, ever since the success of Stardew Valley, devs large and small have been trying to do the same with their own sim. One has to be somewhat picky, otherwise you’ll end up with dozens of farming and life sims that aren’t all that different from each other. When I’m looking at a new one I’ve found, I consider one thing: what sets this game apart from Stardew Valley? Where does it shine on its own?

For some games, like My Time at Portia, it’s the gameplay, doing things other than farming. For others, like Cattails, it’s a unique concept. And then we have games like Cornucopia, where the gameplay and concept aren’t that different from Stardew or Harvest Moon. These games have to have something else that makes them stand apart, a strength entirely on their own to copy a familiar premise and make it fresh and exciting. The question we have to ask is, does it?

The Premise

Cornucopia begins like many other farming sims: sick and tired of your dead-end job, you inherit a farm from a beloved family member and-

Wait, no, that’s not right.

Cornucopia begins with your frozen body pulled out of the town’s nearby mines. You’ve been trapped in a giant block of ice for who knows how long. Somehow, after thawing in a hospital, you’re still alive. You’ve lost your memory, though, so the kindly folks of the town of Cornucopia let you live on an old farmstead while you figure out, well, everything. You’re a local mystery and local celebrity after all. It would be rude to turf you out, and they’re all curious about your history, too. You may even catch glimpses of a sneaky paparazzi snapping photos while your back is turned. Who they are, well, you’ll have to play to find out.

As well as being handed a farmstead, you’re also left in charge of Munger, a very good boy with a large vocabulary for a bulldog. Don’t forget to feed him and throw the ball around a bit. Keep your talking dog happy.

It’s a goofy and refreshing concept that sets the tone for much of the rest of the game. What you will experience will be familiar, yet different. It’s expanded and changed in a way that makes a game filled with common mechanics feel brand new.

What’s So New About It Anyway?

Let’s look at some of the basic gameplay elements and what makes Cornucopia so different from other farming sims.

First off, the most prominent element, the farming. As is usual in these kinds of games, your farm is a disaster. It’s covered in rocks, trees, and weeds and in desperate need of some TLC. You use the standard farming sim tools to clear it: a scythe, a hoe, an ax, a pickaxe, and a watering can. You also get bombs, and you can find them in unexpected places, like someone else’s mailbox. How’d that get there?

There’s one more tool you’ll want to keep in your pocket: fertilizer. Yes, that’s a common part of other farming sims, but not quite the same way. In other sims, the fertilizer is an item you throw on to make things grow better. In Cornucopia, the soil has a ground type (clay, silty, etc) and nutrient qualities: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and bioactivity. Each plant has different needs to grow successfully. Tomatoes, for example, prefer clay-based soil with a low range of 4 nitrogen, 4 potassium, and 4 phosphorus. They’ll still grow in places that aren’t ideal. They’ll just grow better if they are. It’s up to you, clever farmer, to adjust the soil level properly before planting.

How About Fishing? Mining?

Other major elements of farming sims are, of course, the other material gathering methods: foraging, fishing, mining, and combat. In Cornucopia, some of the methods are familiar, while others have new twists. Mining is pretty standard video game mining. Hit a rock with a pickaxe, get more rocks. Combat is fairly standard, but you can bring your farmyard friends along to help. Bessie the cow or Henrietta the chicken can come along to kick some butt if you want one of them to.

Where Cornucopia really splits off from the norm is fishing and foraging. The act of foraging is standard: approach the bush, tree, or plant you want to harvest and push a button. Some plants, like apple trees and blueberry bushes, give you their specific fruits. Flowers and mushrooms, however, are more random. A generic red flower may turn into a purple iris once you pull it out of the ground. The classic amanita style red and white mushrooms could be a shiitake. It’s entirely random what flower or shroom you get, if you get one at all. Sometimes it’s just spores or plant matter.

Now, the fishing. As a fishing minigame a-fish-ionado, I thought I’d seen it all. From the simple “press A to haul in” to mini-game based fishing like Stardew Valley, I generally know what to expect. I never expect to be surprised with something I’d never seen before. And then I went fishing and the pachinko game popped up.

The concept is simple: drop a series of balls into the fishing machine, and you’ll get one of the prizes at the bottom. If a majority land on one space, you’ll get that prize. If they’re all spread out, you’ll get one of the prizes randomly.

Pick a Card, Any Card

A major element to Cornucopia I’ve never seen in another farming sim is the prevalence of cards. Now, I don’t mean deck-building. I mean scratch cards and effect cards. Very early in, you’re handed your first card packs. Opening them gives you a randomized assortment of cards that will either give you prizes or effects. Scratch cards are themed and will give you random items if you’re lucky. Ores, fish, bait, you can win them all. Some scratch cards even give you new cooking recipes.

The other kind of cards give you effects when you activate them: random side quests for rewards, change of weather, better harvests, and more. You can have four active cards at a time, and they generally last a week of game time. At least, all the ones I’ve found so far have. Load up on harvest boosters before you pull your veggies. Improve your ore drop rate before you go into the mines. Use the cards in conjunction with your plans for the week and get the most out of them.

Final Thoughts

Cornucopia is unfortunately still in early access, so it still has a lot of growing and improving to do. For example, there’s no season-limited plants for the farm yet. You can plant anything anytime, which some people are finding overwhelming. A future update should provide time limits on planting seasons. There are also more seasonal events, weapons, and locations still to be added.

Storywise, it feels a bit as if you’re dropped into the middle of a town that you already live in. Entering town for the first time, many people introduced themselves when I said hi. Others started cutscenes that treated me like we were old friends despite having never met before. I’d hope there’s a bit more establishment of self in the full release. I want to feel like the lost newbie I am and earn that trust with the townsfolk.

That all said, the game is still loaded with plants to plant, minigames to play, and people to meet. It also already has a bunch of quality of life benefits, like a large storage shed that your overflow items automatically go to. No leaving loot behind here. If this is only an incomplete sample of what’s to come, I can’t wait to see what the 1.0 release will look like.

PIXEL PERFECT