Ova Magica

Ova Magica is literally the game of my dreams! During pre-release, I played over 40 hours and completed multiple in-game years. So, should you check out Ova Magica during Early Access, wait for Full Release, or skip?
As a fan of both Farm Sims and Creature Collectors, Ova Magica is a must-purchase for similar fans of any of the two genres.
The game does pacing very well, with having 3 seasons, each being 5 weeks long, and each week having only 4 days. Year has 60 days.
Being able to cycle through weeks means that you play Festivals frequently, and you can unlock season-exclusives (like finding Penguin Blobs in Frigus) much quicker than having to wait the typical 100-ish days. In theory, this sounds very quick, but when you play, it feels just right!
Gameplay content at Launch is more than fulfilling. You can unlock more than 30 base blobs, access a very in-depth cross-breeding system (I managed to breed a 4-blob hybrid to make a Pink Ballerina Blob), festivals, friendship events, town buildings (Museum is super cool), farming, Fishing, Cooking, and two Blob Worlds.
There is an extremely fun gameplay loop, and whether you want to collect blobs like Turtle to help you water plants, or eager to breed a strong blob to take on the Clover Cup, the game will keep you entertained.
One thing I really enjoyed is that content is not locked behind any play style. You can skip most mini-games at festival and still purchase rewards, or you can ignore the friendship dialogues and instead increase it by paying Jet some money to influence your relationship. The puzzles and mini-games all felt accessible, and even the festivals were rather simple to complete.
I'd also like to highlight on the quality of the game. Ova Magica is by far one of the most polished games I've seen at launch, especially for an Early Access. The bugs I encountered were minimal and not game-breaking, and Claudia (the dev) has quickly patched those up before the release. Throughout the Demo and pre-release, the game has been updated multiple times with improvements from Player Feedback, such as UI Icons for shops, improved collission (making it much easier to forage), and introduction of controller key remapping and reduced flashing lights.
Future updates will mainly focus on introducing new blob worlds (and base blobs), additional friendship events (which are super cute), and additional cosmetics and features, like Fusion Blob to allow you to customise the Blob appearance with more ease.
Overall, the game for me is a 100/100 (even in it's current state), and based on the the quality and motivation of the team, you can trust the game to continuously get updated before Full Release in 2025, and have further updates based on player feedback.
Video Review here:

This is a pretty fun farming sim / creature collector + battler, a nice mix of stardew valley and pokemon. It's still in early access at time of writing so there are plenty of things obviously unfinished, e.g. several quests marked as not completable yet, friendship levels capped at 3-5 for various people, side dungeons not yet ready, etc. What's there already is fun, and I've played a good 40 hours and still have more content to reach, so there's plenty of content.
There are some downsides. The most major one for me is the combination of childish character designs and often childish dialogue making the dating sim aspect of this game very squicky. The oldest of the dateable characters -- Charoi and Garnet, along with most of the boys -- look no older than 16. The youngest -- the twins Ruby and Jade -- look 7 and 10 years old. The base playable characters also look around 10 years old.
Some characters, especially Lazuli and Ruby -- who again, looks like a 7 year old -- also act especially childish. I've noticed a repeating trend that these characters frequently remind people, or are reminded, that they are "grown women". That makes me think the creator is aware of how young they look and is trying to deflect. In a farming sim with obvious dating sim aspects, I think the character designs are very problematic.
If you can get past that, the game is incomplete but fun. Some things I'd like to see improved before release:
The controls are heavily geared towards controller and playing with a keyboard and mouse feels unnatural, like you're using the keyboard as a controller.
Chest organisation is clunky; I had to do a lot of manual organising of the different pages and I'd like to be able to quick-transfer items with less effort. Sorting a chest also sorts your inventory at the same time, including your tools
Using blob abilities is especially clunky; having to juggle your blobs in and out of barns every day to use the sprinkler effect etc. almost defeats the point in having the abilities. I do like the sprinkler item you can unlock later, though, that makes life easier.
The breeding mechanic isn't really fast enough or useful enough to be worth the effort right now; you can breed in combinations of useful mutations and/or abilities by breeding, but having to wait days for a randomised result and then train up the resulting blob to match the level of your main team makes it a bit of a fruitless endeavour. I'd like to see mechanics to make it easier to bring your newly bred blobs up in line with existing ones, and especially powerful unique abilities or advantages which only come from breeding, to make the breeding mechanics more worthwhile.
Boss blobs feel a bit OP at the moment
I'll also call out some things I particularly like:
Being able to speed up battles to 3x speed reduces the grind, very handy
Steam board is very handy (but I want those Charoi upgrades that Jasper promised!)
The way you can interact with not only all the characters but also their blobs, is pretty cute. The blob designs are also pretty cute.
Where the dialogue isn't too childish, some of the stories, and character back stories, are quite engaging. I'm enjoying Charoi and Saphir's stories especially.
Overall it's a good 8/10 for me, but the character designs really need to change because currently they feel very questionable.

A fun, refreshing take on monster raising and farming-sims! Worth every penny. If you are on the fence, buy it; you won’t regret it!
If it has farming or monster raising in it, I’ve probably played it, so when I say Ova Magica is one of the better iterations of the genre I’ve got about 30 years of videogames behind that endorsement. The devs are clearly fans of genre and it shows in every corner of the game.
Farming handles a lot like Paleo Pines down to multi-step ground prep and (eventually) a stable of pets that can do watering, plowing, and more for you. The handling is much, much smoother than Paleo Pines, though, so kudos to the devs for making a good mechanic in the genre even better.
Combat mechanics play a lot like the Grandia JRPGs where timing your attacks or defense matter to juggle incoming damage and turn order; it’s a touch more complex than the typical turn-based RPG combat, but easy enough it still a casual-gaming experience. Personally I love it because it rewards attentive play and keeps you from spamming the same button presses every combat. It’s so good I’ve stayed up two nights in a row after purchase to keep playing! (I am writing this review right now instead of sleeping, it’s so good.) Also, there’s a dungeon/rouge-like mechanic a la Fae Farm’s dungeon crawls which shows great promise for longer-lived gameplay, and not everything in them is purely combat or smashing resource nodes to get stuff; you can encounter puzzles and more, which is a lovely change from the norm.
Leveling up your monsters is a breath of fresh air in the genre. The game lacks concrete levels and XP thresholds. Instead, day-to-day care (in the form of feeding and mini-games) increases HP and Energy by a handful of points. Speed, attack, and defense stats are increased by a point here and there as you use moves in combat. Really, it handles more like the (terribly ancient) Digimon World, which I have been dying to see something emulate for 20 years now. Well, Ova Magica scratches that itch! It really makes the game feel more like you’re raising animal buddies with distinct wants and needs and not playing yet another an RPG.
I cannot praise the festivals in the game enough! Participation earns you festival-specific currency to spend on food, recipes, items, and even new monsters, but unlike Stardew Valley and other Harvest Moon clones there’s no way you can earn enough to buy everything in one year. I’m already looking forward to when the events roll around again to pick up what I couldn’t last time! And, amazingly enough, I still managed to walk away with enough goodies each festival that I still felt like a ”winner” even though I didn’t have enough to buy even a third of what I wanted! That is a hard balancing act but Ova Magica does it very, very well.
Town growth is directly tied to interaction/friendsip with major NPCs. I love this, because it makes the town feel alive and altered by your presence. Many games in the genre say “you’re making a difference around here” but don’t really reflect it in map design/changes and services available. Not Ova Magica! What you do makes a real and tangible difference over time that you will see every time you zoom into town on your fancy steam-powered skateboard.
Graphics are colorful, simple, and cute, sporting a chibi-like aesthetic with high quality character portraits for major NPCs. Think Fae Farm or, if you’re an old-dog like me, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody. The colors are cheerful and uplifting, and the devs made toggling the saturation easy and upfront, allowing you to pick what works best for you on a scale from eye-poppingly bright to cooler tones. The blobs are surprisingly expressive in cutscenes given the limitation of the models. They also have a large variety of critters in the game so your stable won’t feel stale after a few dozen hours.
Again, I’ve been playing games for about 30 years and this would rank up in my top ten most satisfying game purchases ever. Considering that this game is still only early access I am thrilled to see where it goes from here; I’d have been satisfied paying what I did for the content currently available. It’s an outstanding game that is far, far more than just another paintjob of Stardew Valley meets Pokemon. It plays like the devs love farm-sims/monster raising to death and set out to fix all the complaints leveled at every new iteration of the genre that’s come out in the past 10 years.

The game is a lot of fun. Not enough daylight hours in my opinion, but that's normal for farming sims. XD There's so much to do, between farming, raising/breeding blobs, mining, romancing characters, fishing, exploring blob worlds, battling, and events; there's just not enough daylight hours to get it all done. Game is still lots of fun, you just have to pick and chose what to do in a single day cause some things take all day.

This game has been a lot of fun. It has both the theme of most of the farming games out there (dig garden plot, plant seed, water a few times and harvest. Repeat.), and the creature collector so many people enjoy (don't let the 'slime' appearance deter you, it's actually a nice setup for growth and power up). As well as the addition of randomized monster/blob maps in the ruins for leveling, the ever present mine, fishing, and town building.

So this one is guaranteed to keep you occupied for many weekends. 5 stars and it's still in early access (paying them to beta), worth the money. They are promising a lot more content, but this is still worth what I paid for it, in its current limited format. Looking forward to the finished game.

To Dev: Might consider adding a class at the coliseum for how to acquire new blobs. It took a while for the first egg to drop in a battle (I think the frequency of drops is perfect), and spent a good number of hours running in circles trying to build a team, without knowing where I would acquire a new blob. Happenstance allowed the first egg drop, but players are going to want to know how to add to the one blob we get at start of game. Especially as we are commonly attacked by 3 enemy blobs at a time.

Bought Ova Magica as part of a bundle on the Backerkit store accessible through the Ova Magica Kickstarter page a couple of years ago at least, and I can definitely confirm, best decision I made with a game in recent times.
Ova Magica definitely lives up to its' inspirations listed down on the Kickstarter page for it. The farming is very simple but very satisfying because majority of the crops we can plant give more than 1 of the crops at harvest (2-4 depending on what you plant). That helps a player stock up on cooking ingredients and any potential blob cravings. Plus, the farming will definitely become your main source of income once you reach a certain point in the game, via cooking (cooked dishes for the most part sell for far more than the component ingredients) and growing flowers. Though be warned that after a certain point, the planting will feel very tedious, while the tilling, watering and harvesting will get easier with the help of the blobs we can find in the game.
Speaking of the blobs, they were my #1 reason for supporting Ova Magica's dev, Claudia, by buying several things on Backerkit (regretfully missed out on the initial Kickstarter). Here's why: they are adorable, several have abilities that can help make farm work easier like I mentioned earlier, and ultimately when breeding them, they can take on a mixture of traits from the parents making the breeding honestly feel more special than what we get with say Pokemon. Fair warning though: if you want to start breeding for better stats combined with the look you want for a blob, be prepared for a grind of massive proportions, since the blob breeding is like a roulette wheel, the move pool and look of the resulting offspring will be a random mix between the parents, especially if they are different elemental types.
If you're a fan of exploration and some dungeon diving in a game, Ova Magica also has you covered. As of now, there are 2 blob worlds, with plans to add more for a total of 7 worlds by the 1.0 release, players can visit to gather resources and hunt for new blob eggs. Some advice and warnings: always bring the return wand with you, the only other ways to get out of the blob world without it are to be defeated in a blob battle or when the in-game clock reaches Midnight. Always carry healing items with you, especially the ones that can also remove a status ailment like poisoning. Also, even though it will be quite expensive all around, make sure you upgrade your backpack, because you will end up collecting quite a bit from exploring in the blob worlds.
Yeah, I have a lot to say about Ova Magica, both praise and feedback.
For players: if you enjoy farming, cute critters and battles similar to Pokemon, Ova Magica might be up your alley. If anything, try the demo out and see for yourself if this game might be for you before you go through and purchase.
For Claudia: You did an amazing job and are continuing to do an amazing job with improving Ova Magica. I have only 1 regret, and that is that I didn't find out about the Kickstarter until it was too late to pledge my support. A bit of advice: please add in a way for a player to plant seeds faster in either the 0.7 update or a later update, planting really feels tedious once a player reaches a certain point in Ova Magica. Also, please make it so that if we go into the non-blob world mines, make it so wild blobs stop following us after a certain distance because the 1 time I went into the mines deeper than what we initially access, I got so fed up with being swarmed that I told myself that next time I go anywhere for ores, it will always be in the blob worlds because the wild blobs stop following you after a certain distance.
Otherwise, Ova Magica definitely is a gem and already feels more complete and polished than certain 1.0 releases.
EDITED: The 0.7 content update added a lot that answers a lot of my feedback. If you want to see what it's about and what other content updates have in store in the future, check out the news section on the Ova Magica store page. Or don't if you want to avoid spoilers.

Gotta Hatch ‘em All!

Ova Magica is a delightful indie game that blends the cosy farm life of Stardew Valley and Bokujō Monogatari (Harvest Moon!) with the cute monster battles of Pokémon. I’ve been waiting for it since the kickstarter and now that it’s in EA, it’s the perfect time to dive in!

Gameplay:
The character creation is charming immediately, and it’s always a great sign when a game lets you pick any hairstyle or outfit, no matter the character base. The game also offers excellent accessibility options, including turning off flashing lights and lowering colour saturation, making it welcoming to a wider audience. You can even speed up events or skip them entirely, though so far I haven’t wanted to bypass any of them.

Anyone who’s started a farm game will be familiar with the beginning premise: Manage your farm, befriend the townsfolk, get that money! Most importantly though is raising and battling with blobs! These round little friends, with their elemental typings and various skills, are not only essential in combat but also assist with farming tasks. For example, a storm (water) blob can help water your crops and has the edge in battles against magma (fire) blobs. It’s a great genre combo that means there’s ALWAYS something to do!

Art Style:
The art in Ova Magica is super cute and fits the vibe of the game perfectly. Portraits and 3D models match perfectly. Character designs are adorable, with some butts made for egg-hatching, and each blob I see makes me want to add a new one to my farm. (I’m after the cheetah blob!) The environment visuals are all very colourful and vibrant!

Characters:
I already love the diverse cast of townspeople, each with distinct personalities and their own blob partners. A lot of them have great matching names too like the reporter “Jet” and his blob “Pack.” While plenty seem to be recognizable archetypes, it’s never a bad thing. Plus I highly suspect that raising heart/friendship levels will lead to unlocking some more aspects to everyone. Picking who to romance (in a future update) will be a tough choice!

Mechanics:
Ova Magica shines with its various QoL features. Improving social links is always a priority for me in games like this, and it’s more rewarding than ever here. Raising friendship levels earns you skill points to level up your abilities! It’s a very clever combo that means you don’t have to choose between the two while you play. The calendar is short, which means frequent events and lots of activities! Magical storage that you can access just about everywhere? Check. Bug catching and fishing? Check. Cooking? Check. I haven’t even entered the wild “Blob World” yet where there are dangerous wild blobs!

The pacing of farm and blob trainer life is well-balanced, allowing you to accomplish a lot in a single day while always leaving you wanting more energy to do just one more thing.

The timed battle mechanics initially seemed intimidating, but I quickly got the hang of it. Blobs have different desires every day, and catering to their needs by feeding them the right food or playing with the right toy helps them level up. Just like with your human companions, building bonds makes you more powerful!

Conclusion:
At only 6.4 hours in (but so ready to get back into it), I'm still learning and discovering new mechanics, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the journey. Ova Magica combines satisfying elements of farming sims and monster battlers, wrapped in a package of super cute visuals and endearing characters. It’s a game that is very clearly made with love! Start life in Clover Town and lead your blob team to victory!