I’m honestly kind of surprised I hadn’t heard of Luma Island before now. As much as I love farming sims, I think part of the double-edged sword of there being so many is that even the good ones get somewhat lost amidst the white noise. But thankfully, with the release of the recent Pirates update, I’ve been given a chance to finally take a look at this quaint little game.
And I’m glad I did because Luma Island is an excellent example of a game that takes from its inspiration and carves its own unique path. It creates an experience that isn’t too demanding, but also isn’t too hands-off, striking an excellent balance between captivating and relaxing that makes for a wonderful farming sim.
Like many of the games that I’m sure inspired it, Luma Island sees the player move to the titular island after a mundane office job left them feeling empty and unfulfilled. As an impulsive life decision, they decide to purchase a small farm and rustic caravan from Old Man Jeffrey and move out to the country to live off the land. And that’s basically all there is to it—there’s no heartless corporation to overthrow or grandfather’s ghost to impress, it’s just a chill experience about living on an island.
And while some may be disappointed about the lack of a grander story or even romance options in Luma Island, which usually help add a lot to the narrative of a farming sim, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with their omission. Sometimes, a game can be about the literal grind—giving yourself a task and seeing it through to completion. While I still think some expanded narrative options would’ve helped, they’re not exactly necessary.
What really stood out to me about Luma Island was its gameplay. While it’s not really trying to do anything too different from many of the more popular farming/life sims, it feels like a solid combination of all the best elements of those games. It starts with a sense of openness—players can mine almost any rock, chop any tree, and plough any surface to build the farm of their dreams.
Then it extends to the function of gameplay that gives players a lot of freedom, thanks to some basic quality-of-life features. I was pretty surprised when I started playing and I realized there was no stamina system or inventory limits. Immediately, it created a sense of calm, since there were no hard limits and the game was prioritizing player fun and creativity. Even the way players craft items and structures is incredibly intuitive and not particularly demanding, allowing players to place the buildable structure and keep a running tally of committed materials.
“Luma Island is an excellent example of a game that takes from its inspiration and carves its own unique path.”
That isn’t to say Luma Island lacks structure, as it implements a rudimentary quest system that provides players with small goals to work towards and guides them towards incremental progress. This works in tandem with a “Profession” system that works somewhat similarly to Fantasy Life’s “Life” system. Players can choose a profession that gives them unique craftables that expand their desired style of play. Cooking requires a lot of farming to harvest ingredients, whereas Blacksmithing requires more mining and adventuring through dangerous caves and ruins.
Then, of course, there’s the titular Pirates update which not only adjusts a lot of the base game’s overworld, quests and ruins to make them a bit more convenient and player-friendly, but it also includes a whole new “Pirates Cove” area with tons of new features including minigames, new pirate ruins, enemy types and decorations for your farm; as well as a whole host of new pirate themed clothing options and a huge pirate ship reconstruction for the brand new Shipwright profession.
However, what really surprised me about Luma Island was its visuals. When I first saw it, it looked as if it had a pretty simple, soft and cute aesthetic that was well suited to the kind of game it is. However, once I started playing, I realized it was actually utilizing a high-res, lower-poly PSX aesthetic, much like Merchant 64. It made the game so much more charming and gave it a quaint, retro feel. The game’s soundtrack is equally laid-back and tranquil, but can get a bit tense while exploring caves or ruins, but never so much that it makes the game uncomfortable.
Luma Island checked a lot of my boxes. Even before the Pirates update, it’s a game that not only nails the fundamentals of farming sims but also incorporates many modern game design conveniences, making it very enjoyable to play. Sometimes, you don’t really need to break the mould if the thing it produces is solid.
