Song Of The Prairie

I was initially looking for a cute and cozy farming simulator with casual and relaxing gameplay. SoP caught my attention with its colorful visuals so I decided to give it a try without paying much attention to the reviews. What to say, I like this game so far. There is obviously a lot to work on, but generally it is more than playable already now. At least it was enough for me to spend over 50 hours in it.
WHAT I LIKED:
+ Well-balanced economy. You will always earn enough coins to get all the needed upgrades and expand your farm.
+ I liked the fact that all the NPCs are completely different. Each one plays their own role in the life of the town. They also have personal traits and interests, likes and dislikes, which makes it a lot more realistic.
+ Many quests and occasional side activities like festivals, contests, fairs and so on will never make you bored and keep you busy throughout the in-game day.
+ Original relationship system that you unlock step by step by interacting with each NPC (helping with their quests, exploring ‘the inner world’, making gifts, going out on a date etc.).
+ Materials found outside your farm respawn pretty fast.
+ Vast transportational system with multiple Piggy express stations in and outside the town makes the gameplay much more comfortable.
+ Fishing is easy and fun, you don’t have to bother about different types of lures for different types of fishes like in some other games.
+ The design of nature, pets and buildings is colorful and pretty. The music is relaxing and unobtrusive.
+ You are able to skip the dialogues you are not interesting in.
WHAT I DISLIKED:
- Quite unattractive disproportionate NPC models (which I got used to eventually). I liked the clothing though.
- Multiple unnecessary animations unavailable for skipping, like riding an animal or getting out of the hot spring, will frustrate you occasionally.
- Random bugs following you like sudden hair disappearance, inability to cut a tree, Piggy express taking a false route on the map etc. Restarting the game fixes some of those, but not all.
- I really wish they would add more quest markers for better navigation. There are not that many guides for SoP and some quests take too much time to figure out.
- Poor and most likely automatic translation. There are also some separate NPC lines, windows or buttons that haven’t been translated at all and remain Chinese until today.
- Stamina consumption during mining, woodcutting, fishing and some other activities seems too fast to me. I mean, what’s the point in upgrading your tools to the max level? Should’ve at least reduced stamina consumption with that. Or, perhaps, make a hot spring restore stamina faster?
- I wish there were more customization options for the farm and the player’s house.
Overall, even though SoP definitely needs some crucial improvements, I can still recommend it to those who love casual farming and grinding games like I do. I really hope that there are more patches coming out later. As for now, I just enjoy a couple of hours at my farm every day which is a pleasant and relaxing experience – just as expected.

I am really enjoying this game. I played it a little while ago briefly before the 1.0 update and started a new game after the update. There are both negative and positives for this game, but overall I'm enjoying it and would recommend it.

The good stuff:
-Super cute characters, animals, landscapes, everything.
-I like the animals not being a "real" animal but a real animal tweaked a little (bubble cows, gugu birds, etc.).
-I like the mines. It's a little different than the standard smash rocks until you find the hole. I like the islands and the fact that you can always jump off a platform losing some HP to get to the next level if you're really stuck.
-I like that you can unlock a whole new section of town later, although so far it only looks like houses for helpers? Unsure as of yet.
-I LOVE the fact that they give you so much space in your backpack (not even sure there is a limit, if there is, I haven't hit it yet) and don't make you buy backpack upgrades all the time. It makes going to the mines and forging so much more fun when you don't have to decide which item to drop to make room.
-I like the helpers, but you'll see below, they have issues. I like that I don't have to worry about planting, watering or collecting crops anymore though.

Meh stuff:
-I'm torn about the animal pens. They are outside with no shelter, but the animals don't care, so why should I? But I wish they could all be in one pen or barn instead. It's kind of a pain to place all these pends everywhere and I have yet to figure out how to expand them.
-I wish the mines refreshed once a week instead of 2x a month, but not a deal breaker overall.
-The helpers... I'm confused about these sometimes too. Especially ones that help animals. Really all they do is collect animal products and I think pet them? Seems kind of a let down to be honest. I do like that they help with farming and collecting and can do multiple things (logging, collecting, farming, etc.) as long as it's within the range of the seat thing. I hear that you only need one collection box, but I'm unsure if that's actually true or not.
-The stealing thing... that's different. Although they don't call it stealing. And honestly I have no idea how to shear sheep, so it was the only way I got my 3 little thunder wools for the task.
-Translations are kind of wonky, but not awful. There are a couple spots that aren't translated at all, including at least 1 task so far that I've seen from Becky (but I figured it out!)
-Becky... what the heck is that about? I'm still confused, all I know it's a curse. Is she a bird in human form? Is she a human in bird form? Is she a bird and a human stuck together? Not sure, stay tuned as we figure it out I guess!

The bad stuff:
-The tutorials/instructions are not great. I have done a lot of Googling and since it's relatively new, there's not a whole lot out there for assistance.
-I didn't understand (still don't truthfully) the inner world part. I like it, just don't understand it's purpose or how to use it properly. I kind of just click around and see what happens lol
-Overall we need more information on how helpers work. I got a task to assign someone to the guild, after many hours I think I figured out how to do it, but now it says to assign that guild helper to the fair... and I just have NO idea how to do that. I also don't understand the purpose their skill sets. For instance someone with an A in cooking, what are they going it use that for? I understand the normal ones, logging, collecting, farming, etc.
-Now the big one... TASKS. Yikes. There's just absolutely no information in them on how to complete the task. And sometimes even when you do what you need to, there's something broken/glitchy and you cant turn it in or the character that you need has gone MIA. I lost Wallis for about 1-2 weeks in game. During that time the map said she was in the middle of the mushroom house but when you hover over her icon, it says "the competition started" (on non-holiday day!) which was a real bummer because before she randomly showed up outside the guild one day I had 3 tasks I needed to turn in to her.
-Some tasks don't tel you what you need to do. I got a task fr watermelons, and had to Goggle to realize watermelon seeds don't even unlock until you reach a certain farming level. Why give us a task we can't complete? Why not wait until they are unlocked before giving it to us? I also got a tasks for golden tomatoes and silver onions, at the end of their seasons so I didn't have to time to grow them, now I've got to wait until next season or until the greenhouse is unlocked.
-Also some tasks are delayed and don't give you credit for something you already did. For instance I went to the fair and did all the activities when it opened. Then the next day I got a task to do a certain activity. I went and did it again. The another task for a different activity and so one for all 4 activities that I had already done. It would be nice for it to give you credit for it if you already did it instead of making you repeat it.
-Some tasks are stuck. I have a task to eat the vegetable stew you get very on. Either I missed the task or it was delayed, but I do not have any vegetable stew (not sure if I ate it or sold it) and I can't find a recipe in game or online for vegetable stew, only vegetable chowder. So now I cant complete the task. I did try to make the chowder and it did not complete the task. If I sold it why isn't it locked from being able to sell it if it's required to complete the task and you can only get the one? I'm 50+ hours in and I can't get rid of this early game task because of it (and I hate having tasks sitting there that I cant do).

There are still a lot of improvements to be had, but don't let that sway you, it's still a good game! I would buy it again even given the complaints. I can't wait to see how they improve it, I think it's only going to get better.

Overall it's a game that I would recommend to others but it definitely has some aspects that aren't super ideal.
pros: it's cute, the skill system is fun, it has great characters, the questing mechanics are fun, the inner world mechanic is AMAZING, and much more.
cons: it's very grindy. for starters, i'm on year 2 and still can't date any characters (let alone marry them) because of how much effort it is to raise these friendship values. you can give them their favorite gifts and get the best results on dates and it can still take seasons to make any real sort of progress on it. Similar can be said for gathering the different rare woods and gems. the floors they spawn on in the mines are randomized ever 2 weeks so you have to explore the entire thing again to find them which makes farming them a massive pain. Finally, i know a lot of people probably like this aspect of farming games, but having to manually collect products from over 100 animals kinda drives me insane after a while.
It's a great game but could definitely use some quality of life updates >.<

I won't lie, I bought this game because the English translation looked so terrible and I thought it was funny. Devs, your updates ... they're um, not super well written in English. I probably wouldn't have bought the game if I wasn't a very particular audience. That being said, I'm writing this positive review, so ...
This game is, as you'd expect, a standard farming game, with several romanceable characters, a mining system not unlike Stardew, fishing, animals, logging, etc. In that regard it doesn't build a ton on what's already in the genre; the characters are ... strange, with many speaking in third person and one who is .. a bird? ... but I don't mind that and they can be pretty charming. (Are they weird because of translation? Maybe, but I can't read Chinese so your guess may be better than mine.)
I think the big selling point of the game is that there's a mechanic called Inner Space, which is essentially you getting a look into someone's headspace and investigating them as a person from there. You can interact with them differently there and learn some interesting things about them. You can also befriend your farm animals in the wild and just take them home rather than buying them. There's also a prestige system a bit like Fields of Mistria, and you can hire folks for your farm, upgrade the town buildings, or simply up your own production to improve the town. As the mayor, you also get to make town decisions.
People in the reviews are, fairly, concerned that the game is slow paced, and it is. I feel like I've done very little in over 10 hours. There are probably better farming games. But this one is somehow charming, with some new takes, and I think, especially if you buy it on sale, it's worth a try.

When I first played this game, I only lasted for 2 hours and then didn't touch it for about a month. Now, I have 80ish hours after playing it for a week and I'm really enjoying it (it just took some time getting use to)! Having experience with similar games (MTaS, Stardew, Coral Island, Fields of Mistria, Sun Haven) I can confidently say that Song of the Prairie is much more clunky and could definitely be better in that entire aspect. There have been quite a few complaints about the translations, but I honestly find it goofy and it isn't too terribly bad. As long as you're okay with occasionally getting stuck on a few side quests and not being able to find help online since the fan base isn't large (you'll eventually complete the quest, I'm sure) then I would still recommend this game to others. I'd say it's a solid 7/10 and is perfect for scratching that itch if you've hit a wall on what to play next. Hopefully the devs will continue with updates on making it better and with adding more content for the future!

It's heavily flawed, full of bugs, and content that isn't very straightforward and frustrating (like the Romance system, with the character events needed to initiate a romantic relationship). But, the core gameplay loop is satisfying, all the characters are charming, there's a lot of life and whimsy in this world that excites and delights me, and I like the emphasis on spending time and getting to know others over throwing valuable items at them to build friendships.

A family member gifted me this game way back in EA and it was in a rough state. So I was excited to hear it had it's full release.
Yes. The translation is pretty rough, at times, laughably so. The random swearing during the begining was a poor choice of translation but it made me laugh. If you are not someone who can look past grammar mistakes and odd translations, then pass on this. (I've heard other languages are in far worse shape)
Gameplay loop is what you would expect from a farming sim. Don't expect industry changing mechanics.
Performance: I'm lazy and wanted to sit on my couch so I tried this on my Steamdeck. It works. There is some long loading times (every so often I was worried it froze but just be patient it just takes a while occasionally) and the frame rate does sputter pretty hard, especially at the beginning of the day. I haven't bothered to play it on my PC cause, again, I'm lazy.
Pro: unlimited inventory right from the start
Con: what the heck and I'm doing with the inner world (social) system. It's weird.
NPCs are pretty generic or INSANELY irritating.
No same sex marriage due to censorship issues with the devs (though they did say they would like to implement it). But you can date everyone.
Overall it's a fine game. Just fine. It's killing some time for me while I wait for other games to release.
Too bad steam reviews are only yes or no they really need a "meh" option. Anyways, hitting recommend because I enjoyed it for what it was and got some hours in to it.
TLDR: an average game, steamdeck compatible, rough translations