Game: Tales of Autumn
Genre: Adventure, Simulation, RPG
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developer | Publisher: Hidden Stag Games | RedDeer.Games
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $12.99 | UK £11.69 | EU € 12,99
Release Date: March 20th, 2025
A review code was provided, and many thanks to RedDeer.Games.
In Tales of Autumn, you take on the running of a community ranch, but as well as your normal livestock offering of cows and rams, you can also befriend the local wildlife, some of which are mythical!
Will I be falling for Tales of Autumn? Or will it become a winter of discontent?
Welcome to Autumn
Before arriving in the town of Autumn, you get to create your character. There’s just enough to call it a selection, but I hope more options get added. Unfortunately, there is no way to alter your character from within the game. However, you do get to choose a cat or dog to accompany you on your journey.
The town in Tales of Autumn is run as a community: no mayor, no governor, but all working together for the greater good. As such, the existing residents want to make sure that you will fit in well with town life. You will need to contribute to the town’s running (donations of wood and clearing weeds), join in with local events, and create a thriving ranch. However, one of the key requirements is to restore harmony with the wildlife, creating environments that encourage native species to return to the town.
This interactive narrative start to Tales of Autumn gives background information, as well as introducing some of the residents. It ends with the suggestion of going to find Hal in the library. You are then left to farm, explore, and talk to residents.
Wildlife Tales of Autumn
The ranch consists of four buildings: your home, which contains a bed; a biome barn for wildlife; a coop for chickens and geese; and a barn for cows, rams, bison and alpacas. You get given an axe, pickaxe, and watering can to help clear the land and farm (no need for a hoe). You also get a brush, milker and shears to look after your animals.
Heading into the town, you will find various shops, including a florist (for seeds) and a workshop (for crafting). Walk far enough, and you’ll find the town library. Unfortunately, beavers have got in and destroyed all the books – utter chaos! Once the beavers have been removed, Hal will come to the ranch to explain the biome barn and terrain terminal. As an ecologist, Hal is keen to study the local wildlife and needs your help to encourage the animals back into Autumn.
There are various biome terminals around Autumn. One in each of the stalls within the biome barn and one on your ranch, and others unlock as you progress through Tales of Autumn. In the biome barn, the terminal allows the stall biome to be altered, initially, you will only have dirt, grass and long grass. However, you will eventually get access to water and sand.
Each wild animal has a set of requirements that must be met before it comes to the ranch. For example, the jackalope (a mythical rabbit-like creature with antlers) will need 60 squares of grass on the ranch and no buzzards. In order for them to give you their produce, in this case, an antler, they need to have two fully grown carrots on the ranch. Deer also needs grass, whereas buzzards require long grass.
You’ll have to keep altering the biome settings to encourage different creatures, releasing some or donating them to the wildlife reserve (once unlocked). It’s a fantastic twist on the normal farming simulation.
Farming & Fishing in Autumn
It’s not only the wild animals that need certain soil. Although most crops will grow on dirt or grass, some require long grass, water or sand to thrive. Crops and flowers need to be watered every day and although certain crops grow better in a certain season, they are not restricted to that season. This gives Tales of Autumn a relaxed vibe. However, all crops get frozen in winter.
There’s no cooking, but you can eat your produce for extra energy. Some crops are needed for quests or as favourite gifts and chests for storage can be made at the workshop in town. Nothing sells for huge amounts of gold, but then seeds, food and upgrades don’t cost huge amounts. The economy in Autumn is very balanced.
Animals in the barns and coop need feeding every day. You can make feed once the apothecary is restored, but it costs more in ingredients than it does to purchase. Bison are my favourite animals, as they produce milk and wool more frequently than cows and rams. You can upgrade to get silos, which store and auto-feed the animals.
Thimba will (reluctantly) give you a fishing rod. The fishing mini-game requires casting the line where there is a shadow in the water. Once the fish bites, you need to reel it in. However, the fish will try to escape, and at that point, you need to loosen the line so it doesn’t break. It can be a little frustrating, as some fish are very awkward to catch, even with the added help of lures.
As well as fish to collect, there are insects to find. These appear as little sparkly green stars on the ground. Both insects and fish are seasonal. When you unlock the wildlife reserve, you will also be able to capture small animals. There is a lot to do in Autumn!
Keeping Track in Tales of Autumn
The player menu will keep track of quests, friendship levels, wild animals found and the happiness levels of all your creatures. The town of Autumn consists of the main shops and houses, a forest, dunes and swamp, and access to a port for the weekly trader to arrive. As you complete quests or community projects, other areas open up.
There’s a calendar in town to check when festivals and birthdays are. The festivals are entertaining and varied. You can play Chicken Drop (place a bet and guess the square where the egg will land), or play football with jackalopes. There was no limit to the number of goes at each event, and once you’ve won the trophy, you might get other rewards, like friendship or animal feed.
As the newcomer to the community, you will be rated on your participation in Autumn. I didn’t impress on my first review, but luckily the residents didn’t ask me to leave. After completing more community projects, filling my barn and coop and improving my friendship with the locals, I got an higher score at the end of Fall, although, reminiscent of my school reports: I could do better!
Gameplay
Tales of Autumn runs smoothly, although I occasionally got stuck on a sprinkler or squashed between the bison. It did not require a reboot; it just required some running around until I was free. Generally, the controls are straightforward. However, there are some oddities. Whilst in a chest, pressing B will move a single item rather than exiting unless you’re in an empty space. There’s no touchscreen functionality, but the game plays well in both docked and handheld modes, with the text size comfortably large enough to read on the small screen.
Tales of Autumn could benefit from some quality-of-life improvements. For example, although the guidance square for planting, watering and fishing appears, it is never in the correct place. Planting will start in the previous location, potentially well away from your current location, watering is better, but if you miss a crop it can take a while to locate the right square and fishing will rarely be near a fish and in some locations, very frustrating to line up. Some of the interaction points are too precise – I was always checking the coop feed levels rather than opening the gate and trying to milk the ram as it was standing too close to the cow!
There are a couple of other little issues, whereby not all the items appear on the end-of-day summary, but the total and new pricing are correctly updated. There is a repetition of crafting recipes given in the workshop and the option of installing the same silo twice.
You can have nine instances of Tales of Autumn, but saving is only done when you sleep.
There are multiple settings for how long an in-game day will be. Tales of Autumn defaults to 10 minutes, although time pauses with cut scenes, some conversations, purchasing and peering in chests. However, you can choose to slow down time and make a day take 20 or even 30 minutes. I started with the default, but depending on what I was trying to achieve in the day, I would alter it to 20 minutes. If I found myself outside at night, with the risk of collapse at 2 am, I would alter the speed to 30 minutes per day, in the hope that I would get back home in time!
Conclusion
Tales of Autumn is a really well-balanced farming and ranching simulation with the added interest of creating biomes and befriending wildlife. The NPCs have great characters and humorous dialogue. There are lots of interactive festivals, cut scenes and quests, all of which make Autumn a vibrant and exciting place to call home.
Overall, Tales of Autumn is a fantastic game, but the controls on the Nintendo Switch just took away some of my enjoyment.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 
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