Mirthwood Review – Bury Me in the Sandbox

While a popular genre in the last few years, there is nothing easy about the development of a “life simulator” RPG. Stardew Valley focuses mostly on farming aspects, and Fable tries to take on a bit of everything at once. The new game by Bad Ridge, Mirthwood, is intent on mixing the two together – but promising the player quite a bit of freedom, too. Does Mirthwood accomplish this ambitious idea or does it falter and fall into a ditch? Let’s find out.

The game sees you fill in the shoes of someone thrown out of their war-torn land, ending up in the apparently quiet land of Mirthwood. There, they will have to find out what hides behind a mysterious ancestry and discover the history of the Valdin, an ancient race. It is the trite story of the “chosen one”, destined to restore balance (or not) to the land. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before and, with the narrative beats being very separated by increasingly difficult combat, they won’t be of much interest.