Veil of Dust: A Homesteading Game

I essentially played this for 8hrs straight. This is a project that is very obviously created by a small team, so expectations must be tempered. However, this is not a critique, just a reality. And undeniably, Veil of Dust oozes with love. You can see it in the writing. Each line, each relationship, each dynamic is explored with a level of care and devotion, to make the characters feel human, rather than just spamming gifts to your chosen spouse to make them love you.
In all honesty, the true pull of the game isn't the potential sweethearts, but the love between a sister and a brother who have been profoundly shaped by trauma. Don't get me wrong, I loved getting the wives together, but you cannot beat a hug mechanic between family members who truly love each other.
As for gameplay, I am legitimately impressed by how much content there is. Of course, some of it is repetitive, but no other farming game has made me actually take care of my crops or my animals quite as much as Veil of Dust has. They know thie genre, they know you're gonna be gunning to get married, but you need money to do so. And the stamina debuffs from not eating, while not unfair, will end up punishing you. Not by making you lose progress, but by making you lose time. Which is effective. I'm an impatient person. If I lost my items, I would have gotten frustrated. Forcing me to slow down however? Worked much better.
My biggest critique is that Veil of Dust will leave you wanting more. There's plot points I would like to see expanded upon, relationships and dialogues I'd want to see deepened. This is not because the game is shallow, it is just VERY obvious that these devs are passionate and had an awful lot ot ambition for the game. Killing your darlings has to be done during a project on a limited budget. My hope is that this game gets the attention it deserves, so the devs can expand more on their vision.
Writing that can make you feel very emotional and then in the next line of dialogue make you laugh is something special.
TL;DR This is worth your time if you want a narrative based game that's full of love, but also forces you to obey mechanics in a fair way.

This is a farming sim first, a story about your relationship with your sibling second, and a romantic visual novel third. I don't say that to imply I'm unhappy- I specifically bought the game for the grumpy brother energy and the hugs. It's to set your expectations about what you'll be doing most of your time in this game. I played the sister, Aine, and romanced Prince Laan and he was a tall beautiful blushing cutie. The romance felt very natural. BIG TIP: As soon as chapter 3 hits, focus on your love interest and get that completed before completing the mystery, as it is all wrapped up by ch 5** I liked my brother experience, and I appreciated that their story had a lot to do with processing grief while simultaneously being very loving.
The story is gated behind your brother's affection and your ability to leave the farm and move it forward. Which means there isn't a lot of rush, you are completely in control. There isn't an arbitrary date to complete everything by .You have to feed yourself, your sibling and take care of yourself. And that takes a lot of your focus. At least for me, I finished this game in 22.5 hours, and then played another hour to make sure I really had played to the end of all possible story. That was 142 in game days. And I didn't leave the farm much until day 30. The only tweaks I would make is having Arthur available sooner. He didn't stand a chance when I'd already advanced the other two options far enough along that trying to bring him to the same level as the other two just sounded like work.. ** Another minor complaint is that completing the story breaks the brother. He no longer slept at night in his bed for me, and the stamina drain on him was huge. The beasts still show up even though they shouldn't anymore, which is another good reason to get your romance settled before end game. That way you feel a satisfactory end and feel no urge to play after story completion. You can smooch your LI, hug your sibling, and close it out on a high note. And then move on to another play through with all the things you learned! I am curious to see what it plays like from the brother's perspective.
More practical tips:
The money maker is pickled black eyed peas. They take two days to grow. If you have the crafting station (not the loom) you can make every 3 black eyed peas into a pickled jar. Then sell for 0.08- 50c every two days if you do your whole patch in black eyed peas.
Barley feeds everyone: as feed for the animals, and to make flour for small cakes. That and egg custard are mostly gonna be what you live on for the stamina buffs. But the real star of the stamina show is Dandelion tea. You can drink as much as you want, never get full.
Onions are a waste. They take a really long time to grow, they sell for pennies. After your house upgrades, the only thing you really need is stamina-and the recipes onions are in don't contribute to stamina. They also only satisfy 3 hunger as feed for the animals, when they lose hunger in increments of five. Boo.
Cows are for making money (cheese wheels sell well) and Chickens are for making Egg Custard and Small Cake (the best bang on stamina that exists in game). I considered having 3 cows but the burden of feeding them would have been far too high (30 food a day, when you already have your brother and possibly your LI to feed.)
And if you switch the brother from water duty by 10am, he should go to town right after. So you get him doing two jobs instead of just one per day. I didn't find it that useful to use him to hunt hares or materials.
Wish list:
1. I would have liked to have had friendship paths with the remaining LIs, they seemed to freeze narrative wise as soon as I locked in the LI I wanted.
2. It would have been nice to see Shane attempting a romance on his own. Maybe it could be randomly selected so no canon was implied, but I'm bummed out that he stays lonely. And then thinking that Aine won't find a love of her own when I play Shane is a bit sad too.
Another reviewer mentioned how mouse heavy it is. I agree, it is mouse and keyboard heavy. I recommend keybinding the run key to a different one right off the bat. I recommend the game! :) But there isn't a story mode.

A game I couldn’t put down!! I enjoyed just about every part of it, from the storyline to the farming mechanics, to the cooking, and most of all, the dialogue and romances. I had such a blast getting to enjoy such great dialogue. Dialogue is usually a make or break for me and this was definitely a make. Please play this game! You won’t regret it!

TLDR:Veil of Dust: A Homesteading Game is a historical adventure that challenges you to imagine the difficulties, love, and mysteries of the Old West.
This game is a strange, but wonderful, mix of a farming simulator, romance, and light combat.
Brief Summary:
You have the choice to play as either Aine, (sorry, I am missing the accent here) the sister, or Shane, the brother, two new arrivals to Oregon into 1860. The siblings arrive after a series of tragedies to find themselves in charge of a patch of land and the duty to figure out how to use it. However, things on the homestead are more than what they seem.
The first important choice of the game is to choose your player character. In another game, this is just the choice between which gender you want to play as, but in Veil of Dust the question is much more important. The narratives of both siblings follow the same throughline, but we experience the plot through two incredibly different lenses.
As Shane you play the world through the eyes of a man, viscerally aware of your place in society, the racism against Irish Americans (among many others) faced in 1860s Oregon, and the burden of leading a family with secrets when you’re just becoming a man yourself.
- OR -
You can play as Aine, a young woman distinctly outside of even the realm her brother can interact with. She sees the magic of the world, and for her safety, she must find her place in nature, rather than with other people.
Both siblings are treating their homestead as a new beginning, but it becomes obvious that the world around them, and the past they’ve left behind, are more than just the background to their new lives.
What It’s Like to Play:
Balance is key. Each character in your household has mood bars that need to be maintained: Health, Morale, Hunger and Stamina.
Health is affected by potential attacks. Health will recover a little bit per night, but if it reaches zero things become more drastic.
Morale is the true *mood* bar. Life on the ranch can be harrowing. Your characters will naturally wonder if their desperate bid to make a better life for themselves through farming will work out. Characters can get depressed (especially if you feed them certain food), which can affect your stamina. Pleasant conversations and good food improve morale.
Cooking, not just what you plant, but what products you get from animals and nature, means that what you cook and eat matters just as much as how often you eat. Your meals might improve your hunger or stamina, but they could bring down your morale or health. As the player, you have to find the right balance between what you can afford to eat instead of selling, what the benefits are of the meals you can make, and when you feed your household (the player character is responsible for giving food to their siblings). Hunger will always drain over time.
Stamina is your energy to *do* things. Whether that’s hunting, climbing, watering crops, planting crops, swinging a weapon, or any number of physical activities. Stamina improves while you sleep, so it’s worth it to try and get a full night of rest. However, that might mean getting less work done.
While actively juggling your mood bar, your character is also playing the main story. The theme of the main plot surrounds family, outsiders, society, and personal growth. I found the main story compelling and fulfilling for both characters, and I was more than a little sad when I reached the end of the game. Luckily, ending the main plot doesn’t end the game, it just gives the player more time to devote to the other aspects of it.
One of those aspects is romance. Your player can pursue romances with one of three characters (each sibling has three potential romantic interests), which will progress at certain intersections with the main plot. I only played through three of the six total (because of the save system, more on that later), and found each to be impressive. All the romanceable characters reveal another area of this society, what problems the characters might be facing, and what they want out of life. It was great to see these characters grow as individuals and flourish into a healthy and loving partnership.
Another key aspect of the game is the farming simulator. You need to take care of the ranch, both by farming and by making your ranch an actual home (which will increase your statistics and unlock other streams of income). Building and improving the ranch requires certain materials, which you will either need to find or buy. Money is hard to come by, but you can sell your goods at the local store, or work at the store for some additional income.
Veil of Dust unfurls based on your timeline and wishes, but it requires a careful balancing act that highlights the difficulty of what life back then must have actually been like.
So What?
Oh, I loved this game. I didn’t think I would. I bought it on sale many months ago while it was still in early access, but I do get a general sense of nerves when a game tells me I’m going to play as a set character. I start to wonder how strong the writing is, and if it’s necessary to be set in a specific identity. In this case, yes, I completely understood why Shane and Aine were the main characters, and the way they were written not only made me love them as characters but as a family. I found it particularly fulfilling to play the game from one perspective, and then to play the game from the other sibling’s perspective. It made both characters make more sense, and their teamwork felt more amazing than ever. I wish I had a brother to hug after the game was over.
The farming was FRUSTRATING, and I actually LOVED THIS. I was always struggling between how much food I could sell, how many crops I needed to make new seeds, and what I could keep to feed both siblings. Is it better to have my sibling go out hunting, knowing that they might return with nothing, or spend a full day working at the shop, knowing that they’ll have wasted a day and brought back barely any money? Even at my most successful, there was only ever just enough money, (although ultimately my house improved massively). The farming made me really think about the history of homesteading, what was constantly at risk, and how hard it must have been to depend on so many factors that might not ever pan out. However, love and persistence make you want to try your hardest not to fail.
The game is excellently done. Although I do have a short list of gripes!
Three save slots were not enough!!!! Why would you do us this way? I want to play all six routes, but I’m unwilling to fight that big bad again or lose my save slots.
Why do the monsters still attack after the end game? Shouldn’t that be over?
Lastly, I wish that you could play the main game from one sibling’s perspective and then, once they’re married and happy, play the other sibling’s perspective. As it is now, the epilogue leaves me a bit befuddled. I’m not sure if there’s more after the characters get married, or if this is just the opportunity to get that fancy couch I could never afford before. I think it might’ve been a good idea to let us have the option to switch and play as the other sibling for the epilogue so there was more to do and more to pursue! Just a thought.
Rec or No?
I enthusiastically recommend this game!
One more thing! Thanks to the devs for their help when I was stuck!
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I am still working on the game but I will update my review once I am 100%. Do you like magic realism and historical fiction? Do you like farming sims? Do you like romances? Most importantly do like the storyline of a family struggling together that loving each other and supporting each other to the bitter end. Well, this game is for you!

A fun story-driven game. There is no timeline to follow so you can focus on farming/homesteading or in the very engaging story. So far, i've only played with one of the main chars, but the fact that you can re-play it from another perspective it's an awsome concept.
Totally recomendable!

I get such a warming fulfilling feeling from this game. I played a lot of the demo and definitely worth a try. I love the art and the feel of the game world and there's so much more i haven't explored yet!