Sailor Moon and Harvest Moon converge in this 'spiritual successor' to '90s farm sims

Fields of Mistria - a character with blonde hair and a furry coat stands in the snow talking to the player near a house

(Image credit: NPC Studio)

My wishlist is already overflowing with "Stardew Valley, but" games, but I've made room for yet another one: the Stardew-but-Sailor-Moon game called Fields of Mistria. This excessively adorable farm and life sim is still in development but I'm already smitten with its '90s anime-inspired character designs.

Fields of Mistria calls itself a "spiritual successor to the farm-sim RPGs of the late '90s & onward," presumably meaning Harvest Moon games, which were of course a major inspiration for our modern touchstone Stardew Valley. And yup, you can definitely see the original SNES Harvest Moon love in those chunky cow designs. Mistria's other '90s inspiration is the magical girl anime of the time. Those character proportions and their tiny little mouths are clear sailor scout callbacks.

Fields of Mistria - Juniper sits in her home full of pink rugs and crystals, saying to the player "I wasn't expecting to spend my hottest years in this podunk town, but here I am." — (Image credit: NPC Studio)

It seems to otherwise be checking off every box in the modern farmlife sim playbook with farming, fishing, a town in need of revitalization (after an earthquake), animals to breed, seasons, festivals, and marriage. Notably, it's also got a cave system with combat and puzzles inside. I've found combat to be the one bit of Stardew Valley that other members of the farm sim family tree are most likely to set aside, so it's nice to see Mistria going for it.

The developers have so far revealed nine of the 12 total marriage candidates, who you can find over on the Fields of Mistria website, and of course they too are just dripping with the '90s anime hand poses and colorful hair of the classics. At least three of them are sporting cloaks and one is rocking the 'jacket draped over shoulders without the arms on' thing. That's the good stuff.

Oh, and the magical girl homage doesn't stop with character designs. Mistria also has magical abilities that you can learn to make your life on the farm easier like calling forth rain to water your crops.

Fields of Mistria doesn't have a release date yet, but I'm hoping that's the next thing it'll announce after those last three marriage candidates. In the meantime, you can find and wishlist it over on Steam.

Fields of Mistria - A player stands outside their stone farmhouse looking at a small patch of radishes inside a fence while a cow and chickens wander nearby. — (Image credit: NPC Studio)

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.