I have had my eye on a cozy farming simulator game called Village in the Shade. I was asked to be a part of an event to show off the game, and I agreed so I could see the gameplay in action. Lets go on a trip to this village in the shade.
The Village in the Shade
During the day, it has normal farming sim rules. You can water your lawn; you can find animals to take care of. You can sell your crops for money. Just like any normal game that goes for the farming simulator standpoint. During the nighttime, supernatural activities occur.
The village has a Curfew at 11:00 PM. If you are found breaking it, there will be consequences. A lot of those consequences are usually the actual activities that happen at night. The curfew is meant to protect you from whatever is going on in this village. Or at least that is the vibe I got from this particular preview. Let’s talk about the actual gameplay we got to see.
Gameplay
This was a hands-off playthrough. It was day 14 in the game. So still early on. 7 AM every day you will get a knock to wake you up in the morning. The player character was a bit weirded out waking up and going to their farm, as there was still an egg outside. The day prior, the player’s only chicken was killed and found dead in the morning.
As you fulfill challenges and work on building up your farm, you will reach milestones. These milestones will reward you with gifts and money in your mailbox. You can use the money to upgrade your equipment.
You have stamina that is shown as a bar under your health. As you use your equipment for fishing, farming, or mining, it decreases your stamina. If you don’t have enough stamina to use your equipment, you can eat food. Food will increase your health and stamina.
The layout of the house and the layout of the farm can be customized by crafting objects at the workbench. You have a variety of ways you can make your farm look. It makes the farm in the village unique to the way you play the game. As well as creates a house that you can customize however you see fit.
Every few days, a merchant will be in town that offers items at lower prices than the normal town shops. You can put items in a notebook from the shop if you want to buy them in the future. You can also put objects in the notebook you need to purchase other things.
To get on the good side of cats, you need to give them fish. Otherwise, if you try to pet them, they will run away from you. Mine stones and ores with pickaxes. You can go down a good chunk of floors in the mines at the village.
Sunday nights, the whole town goes to the local restaurant at the same time at night. Eating a meal three times at the restaurant gives you the recipe. If you want a new recipe, it will even show you the number of times you have eaten a dish. This makes it easy to figure out how to best use your money at the restaurant. Then you can make these same dishes at home.
The bulletin board changes every few days with new requests. If you have a closet or vanity, you can customize your character’s appearance. You can find outfits in stores. You can also change your hairstyle.
Night Time
Most nights you are able to explore the town, but on certain nights you will be guided along certain paths to escape big ghosts. In this demo demonstration it was a linear night. It had the player character have to run constantly to not get caught by a large ghost. Story events at night happen the same, but nighttime does have things that happen at random sometimes.
There will be a mode for casual players called Village in the Sunshine. The Village in the Sunshine mode removes the supernatural parts of the nighttime activities. Also will changes events in the village. Items you find at night will also be able to be found during the day in this mode. If you are worried about the nighttime supernatural activities, then this is a mode for you.
Nighttime may have foxes you can follow. If you follow the fox, it will take you to a special shrine that can give you items that can enhance your character. When we asked the team about the ratio of daytime activity to nighttime activity in gameplay, they gave us a 75% ratio for daytime activities. This leaves the nighttime activities at 25%.
There will be multiple endings in the game. There are no romances in this game, as the main character is just a child. You can still make bonds and friendships, though.
When we asked about Mouse mode controls, we were told that they are not confirmed. They were not denied either, so it is still up in the air whether Village in the Shade will support Mouse Controls or not. When we asked about any plans for a demo, NIS America just mentioned that there will be a Demo build at PAX West for hands-on. There will be no public demo for the game.
My Thoughts
I do find Village in the Shade to be an interesting title. I am excited to see more about how it deals with its supernatural elements. Also to see how the other villagers deal with living in a place that has a lot of supernatural elements. I liked the art and the village’s aesthetic. I do think when I do play this title, it will be with both daytime and nighttime activities both being around. If I don’t like the nighttime aspect, I can just remove it, but I feel like part of the village might change alongside that aspect.
Village in the Shade will be released on October 27th, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
