Ooblets is a game created by the American indie studio Glumberland. The game was first released in early access on July 15, 2020, but had a full release this September. Ever since the first trailer, the game garnered a lot of hype for its cute aesthetics and interesting genre combination.

Ooblets combines farming simulators such as Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley and creature-collecting games like Pokemon. This game became immediately hyped by people who are into the kind of game movement of “Wholesome Games“.

A Game Oozing in Charm

I think the one element that will make or break your perspective on Ooblets is the game’s vibe. If you are not into quirky internet humor or cutesy aesthetics then this game is an automatic pass. A lot of the game is carried on this.

However, if you love a game with charm then I would proceed. The gameplay has low points and drags quite a bit, as farming simulators tend to. Everything in this game is on a day or multiday timer, and the farming portion is the core part of the game.

Every facet of the game goes back into your farm in one way or another. You grow your creatures on the farm, you get resources to battle creatures from your farm, and you get resources for missions from your farm.

The progression of the farm is pretty good, and you can automate the farm fairly quickly if you work on it. The next problem is if the rest of the game is worth the effort of the farm.

The Rest is a Mixed Bag

The creature collecting element of the game is very interesting. The spin on the mechanic is that you have to offer each ooblet their favorite thing. Once you have the item you engage in a dance battle, and on victory, you receive a seed of that ooblet.

Each of the Ooblets is very unique in both design and gameplay. The combat has a lot of layers, and you can develop tons of synergy between the different ooblets. However, finding the best synergies is too easy. This makes battle kind of a joke once you find that combo.

Another portion of the game is the story and town part of the game. I think the townies are very shallow characters, and once you learn their personality quirks you reach the end of them. However, the story is very all over the place.

The story revolves around turning on Oobnet towers in order to message the Ooblet High Council. This requires you to go to different areas and complete a series of different quests. Some of the quests are just to win a battle, but the ones that stick out fetch quests.

If you do not have the items on hand then it will likely be several days before you can progress. This causes the game to drag on, as you end up just waiting to have any kind of progress.

The areas you go to are all pretty cool, but I lost interest in the story around the halfway point. The pacing is just very off, and if it didn’t unlock areas with new Ooblets I would have just ignored it completely.

In Conclusion

Ooblets is definitely a mixed bag in terms of content. The collecting aspect is good, and a lot of it seems passable. However, the bad parts bring down the game.

It is a complicated game to give a score to because so much of this game will resonate with a certain audience. However, I think a good portion of people will find this game kind of lackluster. The game isn’t bad, but I also think that the game isn’t great.

6.1

If you really need a new farming simulator game then I would check this out. However, if anything I said turned you off from this game then I would skip it. Not for everyone.