Ova Magica is yet another farming simulator. It features all the standard activities like farming, fishing, foraging, and friendships. The games special sauce is in the blobs, these creatures you hatch from eggs, are able to breed, and can help in the various activities if they have an ability that allows them to.
The demo is extremely short, taking place over a set amount of game days, giving you about an hour of active playtime at the default day length. It’s a nice thing that you’re able to configure within a range, though with the demos limited length, you’re not able to really take advantage of a longer day for much. If you’re trying to collect materials to build your house, you’ll easily run out of energy and food to replenish it, and getting the coins in that short amount of time doesn’t seem reasonable. The demo is just to give you a taste, with most of the days eaten up by tutorial-style activities and a holiday where you collect eggs.
You don’t really get to harvest any of your crops you’re told to grow, you don’t really get into the battle aspect aside from the brief tutorial on how to do it. It’s not well explained if you should be challenging other npcs at level 1 and the only “wild” encounter I had via fishing was (as advised) well beyond my teams level and wipes you, which knocks out your day as well.
Ova Magica’s already out in early access, with a base price of 24.99 usd. It’s cute and fun enough, and I wish the demo was just a bit longer. Maybe double the days, just so you have some time to really sink into anything. Just to see a single harvest of your initial crops, or have a chance to get your house built or anything.