Touhou Farming: Minoriko's Homestead Harvest

About Touhou Farming: Minoriko's Homestead Harvest

Touhou Farming: Minoriko's Homestead Harvest is a simulator with visual novel elements, set in the Touhou Project's Gensokyo. Developed by Studio Hexeye, it launched on September 6, 2025, for Windows PCs. You play Minoriko Aki, a harvest god competing to boost her influence by growing crops and managing a shrine. The game blends farming tasks like planting and harvesting with dialogue-driven interactions with youkai and gods in a newly built resort town. It's a quirky mix of time management, character relationships, and light role-playing. Fans of pixel art farming games with a side of anime lore will recognize the humor and absurdity.

Gameplay

Each day starts with tending your farm: watering crops, picking ripe produce, and battling rogue pests. The core loop involves balancing shrine upkeep, crop rotation, and socializing via dialogue trees. Combat is rare but present, featuring button-mashing minigames against rival deities. Youkai Mountain offers exploration with resource collection and minor quests. The visual novel segments pause gameplay for branching choices that affect relationships and story outcomes. Controls are point-and-click with a UI cluttered but functional. Sessions feel methodical, requiring 1-3 hours to cycle through seasons and festivals. The challenge lies in optimizing farm efficiency while juggling social obligations.

What Players Think

83% of 1,200 PlayPile users rate it positively, with 72% completing the base story. Average playtime is 22 hours, though 30% extend to 40+ hours chasing achievements. Community moods are 65% "chill," 28% "nostalgic," and 7% "frustrated." A user wrote, "The farming is satisfying but the combat feels tacked on." Another noted, "Visual novel pacing drags in later chapters." The game has 17 achievements, 12 of which are tied to farming milestones. 45% of players complete the "Perfect Harvest" challenge. Critics praise the Touhou lore integration but cite inconsistent polish in exploration segments.

PlayPile's Take

This is a niche pick for Touhou fans and farming sim enthusiasts. The $30 price tag feels reasonable for the core gameplay, though the clunky combat and slow dialogue may deter casual players. Achievements add replayability but aren't essential. If you enjoy methodical resource management and have a soft spot for shrine maidens with a competitive streak, this offers 20+ hours of low-stakes fun. Skip if you prefer high-octane action or deep visual novel narratives.

Storyline

You are MINORIKO AKI, Symbol of Abundance, one of the eight million gods! The field for harvest gods is particularly competitive, so the amount of faith you've been able to scrape together has been modest at best. However, your time to shine is fast approaching! Gensokyo is growing! As more gods and youkai take refuge from the outside world in this sealed-off fantasy land, more humans are needed to sustain them; thus, many big-name youkai are taking an extended vacation to give the Human Village some breathing room to grow. This is a big opportunity to increase your popularity! Conspiring with the Moriya Shrine, you aim to help the village expand by supplying it with as many healthy crops as your divine, dirty little hands can cultivate. Time to get to work!