REVIEW: ‘Tales Of Seikyu’ Frustrates Amid Its Fun And Whimsy

Tales of Seikyu is a cozy farming sim/action adventure game from ACE Entertainment and Fireshine Games. It first launched a year ago in early access and is now launching its version 1.0 on PC. The game provides all manner of fantastical fun, beautiful visuals, engaging gameplay elements, and interesting lore. However,  in its current state, some elements leave a lot to be desired.

Tales of Seikyu takes place in a fantastical world with creatures such as Yokai and demihumans. The story follows your character, a demi fox, and their sibling fox, who were given a letter by their parents to visit Seikyu. The two siblings head to the town and are greeted with a warm welcome, where the city’s inhabitants reveal that foxes are revered and are a respected clan.

However, the town has not had foxes for quite some time, so the two siblings decide to go on a quest to find their parents, uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of the foxes and humans, all while also trying to live their regular daily lives, interacting with the town’s inhabitants, farming, building, exploring, and more.

ACE Entertainment’s Tales of Seikyu offers up a fantastical world.

The game’s narrative is incredibly simple and light-hearted. The characters have wholesome but admittedly tropey personalities, yet they’re all distinct from one another. The game’s best narrative element is the lore of Seikyu and its yokai. This is explored through the mystery behind the disappearance of the foxes, subtle hints left behind suggesting the existence of humans, the influence of the Fox god Inari, and much more.

However, it’s obvious that the narrative takes a back seat to the gameplay, as main missions and story segments are drip-fed to players. They serve as occasional breaks to the meat and potatoes of the game: the farming, building, gathering, and exploration elements.

Players won’t even get main quests dynamically until they explore and talk to characters to trigger events. There’s also no voice acting whatsoever, though that isn’t as big an issue as one would think. Dialogue is never long enough to feel the absence, which further proves the sparse storytelling structure.

The game features several nods, references, and adaptations of Yokai folklore, including foxes and their fabled ability to shapeshift into other living things. This aspect is excellently represented in Tales of Seikyu through its gameplay. As players progress through the game, they’ll gain the ability to shapeshift into animals and other fantasy creatures, from boars to Yuki-onnas.

This portrayal is not only cool but also an excellent way to distinguish the game from its counterparts. When players aren’t farming, expanding their properties, and participating in several other extracurricular activities the game has to offer, they’ll go on quests, explore the map, and fight several enemies.

Players can use several weapons and transformations in combat against enemies. Each form is unique, even if combat abilities are limited compared to the average action game.

While light in mechanics, combat is fast and fluid, and it gets even more fun when you unlock all transformations and upgrade them to their max. A major part of combat is Action Points. Instead of the usual stamina bar, the game incorporates an AP bar.

Attacks take points to execute, so players must eat or drink several items per fight to keep their AP up, or their character will become immobile and virtually useless. However, since items that fill your AP bar are easy to find, this element only succeeds in being more tedious than it is challenging.

Tales of Seikyu isn’t terribly difficult, but it ultimately lacks variety.

The game is quite easy in general, unless the difficulty is set to the highest option, which then makes the experience more akin to your average action game. The only other issue with combat is that enemy variety is sorely lacking. Players will run into the same variety of enemies in every region, which is disappointing.

Combat aside, when not taking on main missions and fighting enemies, players will cultivate their farm, gather materials and items, cook food, craft items and furniture, decorate their houses, and much more. These elements are the real appeal of the game, as they’re excellently crafted and satisfying to interact with.

Every newly crafted item and unlocked tier in cooking and crafting feels like an accomplishment. Players can also take on side quests, which give them various items, gold, and even get them closer to characters in the process. Most of these quests require players to engage in farming and crafting.

However, a frustrating part of Tales of Seikyu is how it leaves players to their own devices to a fault. They’ll have to learn most of the basics and intricacies of gathering, farming, and crafting themselves, which can be incredibly frustrating.

Right from the start, players will get side quests tasking them to find items they have never encountered. They won’t know where to get them until they explore the entire map, but the problem with that is that every side quest is timed, and as days go by quickly, players don’t have much time to gather these items.

Additionally, players will sometimes be tasked to acquire an item that can only be obtained through crafting or by crafting tools or devices that will then let you get them. While the game tells you what materials you need to get to craft them, you won’t know how to craft them or even have the ability to do so until you look up the details.

Sometimes there are too many steps to accomplishing a generic fetch quest, and being timed makes the experience of taking them on much less enjoyable. The process of getting closer to characters, platonically or romantically, is quite vague, inconsistent, and grindy. Growing bonds takes a long time, and opportunities to get closer to them through random events are sparse.

Even with its drawbacks, Tales of Seikyu is still a fun time to keep busy with. 

Negatives aside, Tales of Seikyu is still a very fun game. Keeping busy with farming, fishing, and building, unlocking new items and tiers, building furniture from scratch for your home, and even some boss fights, exploration, and combat elements are amazingly engaging and sometimes even addictive.

The game also feels incredibly cozy when players focus solely on crafting and farming. This feeling is also enhanced by its dynamic time and weather system, which is further supported by the great dynamic soundtrack for its day and night cycle. It’s just a shame the soundtrack’s track list is a bit limited.

Tales of Seikyu sports amazing visuals, too. The 2D animations are fluid, the visual effects are striking, and the characters have attractive, unique designs and looks. The game’s frame rate can be choppy at times, but it is pretty smooth for the most part.

All in all, while having some very noticeable drawbacks, Tales of Seikyu is still incredibly engaging and can be very satisfying and fun at its best. While many of its negative aspects need to be addressed in future updates, it still offers an enjoyable experience in its current state, especially for fans of the genre.

Tales of Seikyu is out now on PC.