• Price: $16.99 USD (digital – currently on sale for $14.44 until March 28th)
  • $34.99 (physical)
• Developer/Publisher: rokaplay
• Release Date: March 7, 2025

A review code was kindly provided by Mark Allen PR on behalf of rokaplay. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

I love playing farming sims, so of course I was interested in checking out Sugardew Island, which is “inspired by the timeless magic of the Harvest Moon DS game.” The screenshots look super cute, and I liked how the description says that the game is meant to be a stress-free experience with no rush.

Starting the game, we get a lovely animated opening before we get into the character creation phase. Character customization is one of my favorite features in games, so I was excited to be able to do it in this game as well. Players can choose between:

• 5 face options
• 4 skin & eye colors
• 7 hair styles & 4 hair colors
• 6 clothing styles
• 4 hat styles
• high or low voice

I did want more hair style/color options, and perhaps some additional eye colors as well. But you can at least change your appearance later if you want.

Now, the story goes that long ago, humans, animals, and nature spirits “lived in perfect harmony.” This resulted in the growth of a Harmony Tree, which stood as a symbol of their unity until the humans’ greed led them to try to cut it down. Frightened animals fled the island, and humans were forced to leave after a special guardian protected the tree.

With the island in ruins, that guardian now waits for someone to come and restore the harmony that was lost that day, removing the “Thorns of Disharmony” that surround the Harmony Tree and bringing back the animals and humans. You’ll restore Harmony by completing quests for the Harmony Tree that provide you with different rewards for bringing back the animals.

Your capabilities are somewhat limited at first; grow some crops like you usually do in a farming sim, and then put them on display in your farm shop. The store can only be opened once a day, and closes once you’ve sold out of everything, lost all of your stamina, or if you want to just close it once you’ve earned enough Harmony for a quest.

The nature spirits on the island will be your customers, and you’ll earn both Sugardew currency and Harmony from selling your wares in the farm store. Most of them seem pretty decisive and will just buy whatever they bring to the register, but a few of them won’t be sure about their purchase. You can offer them a discount or give them a sales pitch to get them to buy it at full price – plus a tip!

I thought that the store was a cute idea, although I wish we could open it more than once a day, and I didn’t love how working in the store depletes your stamina. It was inconvenient having to close my store after I earned enough Harmony for my current objective because I didn’t want to waste my goods on further sales that would not provide additional Harmony at that point.

The first quest for each Animal Island only requires you to earn 25 Harmony, which doesn’t take long at all to obtain. The animals will slowly return to the island when you complete the next quest for their island. Not only will you unlock new seeds, tools, livestock, and facilities when you complete these quests, but the animals who return will also provide you with free seeds multiple times a day!

Those animals are really cute, as are the livestock that you can purchase from your mentor Tomte, a nature spirit. It seems like his livestock inventory changes every day, so you can get cows, chickens, and more in a fun variety of colors. Pet your new livestock and feed them using the silo to get them to produce byproducts for you the next day.

You can also adopt up to 2 pets by purchasing them from Tomte. Most of the friends you’ll make on Sugardew Island will be the animals, but you can also befriend a few nature spirits – and possibly date them – by completing their requests from the bulletin board. You unfortunately do not earn any Harmony from these requests, but they do give you a lot of Sugardew in return (plus an increase in friendship).

I think that Sugardew Island is a pretty chill game as described in its eShop summary, as there doesn’t seem to be any kind of time mechanic or deadlines for anything. You can just complete tasks every day until you’ve run out of stamina.

I did think that the game was a bit too simple for my tastes; there’s a decent variety of crops, but I found myself running out of stamina fairly quickly each day after tending to them. It felt like it took a decent amount of time to really accomplish anything after the first task for each Animal Island.

With the amount of crops requested for each nature spirit’s request, and the required Sugardew to buy an upgraded backpack or even to craft tool upgrades, it took too long to grow crops and earn enough Sugardew and Harmony to make progress in a timely manner. I wasn’t expecting instant progress, but I think they could’ve lessened the Sugardew requirements – especially for the expensive pets.

I also experienced some technical problems. While the game loads quickly and smoothly between screens, I was soft locked several times at the Harmony Tree and became unable to move. The game crashed on me once or twice as well.

I did appreciate how adorable everything was, and the music works well for the cozy gameplay. Being able to decorate the farm with a small variety of objects is nice, too. But I wanted a bit more depth to Sugardew Island, as we don’t have much to do besides taking care of crops and livestock.

We don’t have fishing, mining, or cooking to keep us occupied, and there’s very little socialization with other characters. Simplicity can be a good thing when done well – I just think this didn’t quite work for me. But depending on your preferences, it could still appeal to you.