Team17 has revealed that its RPG/crafting sim My Time at Portia is building up to a 16th April release on Nintendo Switch. Being the lucky so-and-sos that we are, we were recently invited to the studio's headquarters in sunny Wakefield, UK to spend some quality time with the game, giving us the chance to see what all the fuss is about for ourselves.
If you haven't heard of this one before, or if you need a quick refresher, let us quickly fill you in on what it's all about. Things kick off in the enchanting town of Portia, where you're ready to start a new life and restore your Pa's neglected workshop to its former glory. With just a workbench and a workshop handbook in your arsenal, your job is to gather, mine, and craft your way to making the workshop the best in all of Portia, farming, cooking, fishing, and even finding romance along the way.
The game's inspired by the likes of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and Dark Cloud 2, and we couldn't help but be reminded of Stardew Valley throughout our entire hour and a half play session, too. If you've played any of these before, you're going to immediately feel at home in Portia; everything from your item inventory, your home and its upgrades, the community board full of side quests, and the quirky villagers roaming around town make this feel exactly how fans of the genre would expect.
Within the opening hour, we'd managed to learn the ropes of crafting, met some of the villagers, took on our first side quest, accidentally angered a stray cat by feeding it a berry it didn't like, and came across a joyous pack of wild llamas that seem to just bounce around outside your home. The game's inner workings are clearly very tight and sophisticated, but the pure playfulness presented on the outside is fun, charming, and not afraid to be a little bit silly.
To provide us with a sense of what to expect later in the game, Team17 soon plonked us into someone's save file which boasted a 255-hour playtime (incidentally, we were told to expect around 60-100 hours worth of content from just the main story and a selection of side quests). The changes were pretty breathtaking; gone was the bare little village from the game's opening, and in its place was a huge, sprawling map full of new areas, a desert, other islands, a museum, new villagers, and so much more. Just like the most addictive games of its genre, My Time at Portia feels like one of those games you'll be sinking all of your time into.
Of course, the game is already available on Steam as we speak, so some of you may well be more interested in how it performs on Switch if you're thinking of buying for a second time. We experienced a handful of lengthy loading screens and the occasional frame stutter, but the presentation is otherwise as lovely as you'd hope for. You can likely tell from the images on this page that Portia benefits from a colourful, cartoony vibe, with everything from your fully customisable protagonist to the biggest, baddest dungeon bosses bursting with a cute layer of character.
All in all, then, My Time at Portia is definitely one to keep an eye on. If you're not a fan of this type of game, we doubt the final product will change your mind (everything on offer seems to have been executed very well indeed, but we wouldn't call what we've seen revolutionary), but this could well be a brilliant addition to the gaming libraries of those that are. Our short amount of time hinted at a deeper plot, full of post-apocalyptic undertones and mysterious, hidden relics from the past, and we're looking forward to investigating further and making the town as perfect as can be.
My Time at Portia launches on Nintendo Switch on 16th April, with pre-orders (which include a Housewarming Gift Set) available from today. Are you looking forward to playing it later this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Comments (60)
I'm interested... Just need to get the Ace attorney Trilogy first.
Looks very childish. Might be great....for a child.
Edit: So far 8 users were offended by this comment. If we reach 20 I will submit a new personal point of view for free!
Looks like a fun game, for sure! Also, I didn't realise until watching that trailer that llamas are the only thing missing from Breath of the Wild : )
Sound great! Looking forward to it
I have been craving another relaxing simulation game since I completed Stardew Valley, this one is pretty much a must get for me.
Clearly inspired by Rune Factory too.
Day 1 for sure!
Somehow missed this. I'll keep an eye on critic and gamer impressions. If it's good, it'll definitely fill a gap until AC Switch
Don't waste your money on this game. It is a buggy mess. It should not have left early access. It wasn't ready, and I doubt it will even run well on Switch, as it lagged on my laptop with an 8th gen i5 and a GTX 1050 at 720p.
@Bermanator Just to provide an opposing view for those on the fence with this game - the game ran great on my laptop (Medium setting, I think?) which also has a GTX 1050. I was running at 1080p.
That said, I'm not really a big fan of the game. Something didn't click for me. As someone that absolutely loves Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Stardew Valley, I thought this would be right up my alley, and I really like it graphically. Unfortunately, the gameplay just never really clicked for me, so I quit after about 10 hours or so.
EDIT: I have a Dell XPS 15 9570. The GPU is a GTX 1050ti, not the standard 1050.
Anything to help scratch that Fantasy Life itch I've wanted for my Switch is good and this is looking to do so for me. And just a few days before my birthday too!
@Aneira Never judge a book by its cover.
@roadrunner343 I enjoyed it until I realized some of the design choices.
@everyone Just wait for Animal Crossing.
@Aneira Or it is just a good game.
@Aneira It actually has some adult content... You're able to be gay... For some reason... You can do the 69... Not on screen... Children would not enjoy this, since it may be too much for them.
@Indielink It is actually pretty broken. I stopped playing since I realized how poorly optimized the game is. The 11kHz sword hit sound really bothers me, as it is very out of place. Lots of characters are not voiced, the voices for the protagonist are questionable, the voice quality for different characters is variable. I could go on and on. Just wait for Animal Crossing. Higgins is an A-hole, not in the likeable way. That kind of made me want to stop, because he makes me mad.
How lenghty are these load times? I'm curious but not convinced on this one.
I'm looking forward to this one
If this game have mode for all the seasons such winter, spring, summer, and fall, then its awesome!
This looks superb... but I don't want to get too excited as I had this same feeling about Little Dragon's Cafe... and that was terrible. So, happy thoughts
Zelda ~ Breath of Retirement (from being a knight)
This is bringing flashbacks of Little Dragon's Cafe, can't tell if they're good or bad.
Looks much better than "Harvest Moon" by Natsume or Bokujou Monogatari by Marvelous. 😀
My Time at Portia, Re:Legend , Summer in Mara and Farm Folks are on my radar now.
@Aneira
It's childish but looks good for me.
@benj2687
Forget Marvelous.
They can't deliver great games anymore during harvest Moon 3DS era.
Other indies i knew can deliver more promising contents for Harvest Moon clones.
@Aneira What a ridiculous comment.
@Der The developers of LDC should be ashamed of themselves for the Switch port. I loved playing the game, but the performance was a joke!
@Bermanator
"It actually has some adult content."
It rated PEGI 7
I'm sure the game is still Safe for kids.
Awesome graphics
Art style doesn't appeal to me, but the gameplay looks alright from youtube videos. I'll wait for a sale.
@Bermanator I respect your opinion but there are also many other people who have expressed that it is a very good game. A lack of voice acting is also not a huge deal for me.
I wish I had the time to play this kind of game. I love them, but I avoid them like the devil. Can't even imagine the damage it would deal to my backlog
Still, I bet it is just lovely. Maybe someday
I can’t wait to play this. I’ve held off on the Steam version because I knew it was coming to switch. I just hope it runs well.
I’ve watched a couple of videos of this on PC, looks pretty fun. Will definitely be picking this up, I’ve basically rinsed Stardew Valley of stuff to do now so something similar is right up my alley.
I’m stoked but I shall wait on performance reviews. So glad more games are recognizing that hetero is not the only option. That is the only issue I have with bokumono.
@Aneira Have you played any Stardew, Harvest Moon? The graphics for Portia look standard, better than average (3d as opposed to sprite). What type of graphics were you expecting!?!
Is it pronounced Por-sha or Portee-ah?
@abbyhitter Some characters pronounce it Porteeah. Most pronounce it porscha.
@Aneira Minecraft looks like it designed for a child but has a huge following of all ages. Mario is also aimed at children but i know just as many adults that play it as kids. If it plays as well and its addictive the style wont matter. What about Stardew Valley? Looks like an old 16bit pixel art style an that game exploded into gamers hearts.
@Anti-Matter E10+ It's minorly inappropriate. N+ had blood and that was E10+.
@christ15 It does. But it isnt' realtime.
I've been waiting for this since I've watched a few people streaming it to Twitch. Already pre-purchased!
i'll wait for rune factory 5 instead
Looking forward to this game as well. Probably will get the digital version.
Not a big fan of the art style, very child-like and cartoony. But if it is in the vein of Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing... It is something to keep an eye on. Though I am waiting to hear about Animal Crossing first and I might just rather wait for AC.
Did anyone else hear the song "if your happy and you know it clap your hands" in this trailer?
@Aneira Yeah, I think adults should probably stick to games with adult themes, such as dragons, the zombie apocalypse or giant mechs shooting at each other.
@Medic_alert OBJECTION!
If anyone likes Rune Factory, they will be right at home with this game, while we wait for the release of RF 4-5.
@Bermanator hmm not real time, it's fine for me, this game will be my first sims on switch.
My Girlfriend has been trying to talk me into playing portia for months now. Seems I will finally have the chance to actually try it (I could try it on my pc but, even though it would run portia better than the switch, I won't since I greatly prefer switch's portability and controller over a pc).
This was already my timesink on PC. Don't think I will doubledip on this one. It's a fun game, near the end it gets a bit grindy and boring. There is much work to be done on the appeal of the NPCs imo, especially since it does have a social system where you can date them. And since the voiceacting is not even half finished I'm really surprised it's going to release for console. Also, I hope they optimized it better for the Switch.
@AndreaF96 How did your girlfriend like the game?
This has been on my radar for a while, happy to know it finally has a release date! I have managed to go through most of my Switch backlog in the last few months (I finally managed to play through Octopath Traveler, and now I can’t believe I put it off for so long!), so it will be nice to have this to sink my teeth into until Fire Emblem comes out.
@Dpullam Well she likes a lot RPGs, the sims and farming games and portia is a great mix of those genres, according to her. Moreover I think she kinda likes the art style of the game.
@Aneira
Mortal Kombat XI is coming out in April to satisfy the dead inner child's corpse in you
@AndreaF96 Awesome! Thanks for letting me know!
@ricklongo
Don't forget office sims! Why work for money, when you can work for free in your spare time on a hand held console?
@earthinheritor
I'm about to give Stardew Valley a go. I think that's more my cup of tea, although I have no near enough time in the week for these type of games. Who knows... I might get run down in the street and have plenty of time afterwards.
@Quinnsdaddy11
Thanks, but I find beat'em ups boring. I once thought I was the greatest at Street Fighter 2. I was back in the 90's... at least at my local grill. Competing online I got my ass handed to me, so I have permanently raised the white flag on this genre.
@Dpullam you're welcome.
@Aneira
Mortal Kombat is not a beat em up, it's a Fighting game. Streets of Rage or the now gone perfect game Scott Pilgrim are two examples of Beat em ups.
Also why Stardew Valley but not this game? They are cut from the same cloth
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