My Fantastic Ranch Review

Have you ever wished you could own mythical creatures like unicorns, dragons, or an assortment of brightly coloured ponies? My Fantastic Ranch lets you experience owning and managing your own ranch. This includes all the side jobs like hiring staff to help care for your creatures, building dorms to recruit students, and training pairs of students and animals in various ways.

There are two game modes available to select from when you start playing My Fantastic Ranch. There’s Normal mode, where you are in control of all the settings and have to complete challenges to create a perfect ranch, or Dreamer mode, where you can freely build whatever you want without limitations or a story to follow. This mode will be great for younger players or if you want a relaxed experience. I selected Normal mode as I like having directions and tasks laid out for me to accomplish. 

You meet your personal assistant, a fairy named Feritella. She will guide you through a tutorial showing you what you need to build to get your ranch started and adopt the adorable creatures that will live there. There is voice work in the game, making it very accessible for children or people who don’t enjoy reading. As your ranch grows and you level up, you will unlock new items you can place on the ranch for decoration. Even though they don’t serve a purpose other than aesthetics, as the game isn’t multiplayer, so you can’t design it to your heart’s content. You can see all the buildings and decor you can purchase in the in-game catalogue. When you are building, you can rotate and place items pretty much wherever you want as long as there is room. As you play and level up, new sections of the world will be unlocked for you to build on, expanding your ranch. Each place will have the option to be upgraded as you progress and level up giving you extra perks or increasing the amount it can hold. For example, improving your dorms, will let you house more students at those locations or upgrading the stalls for your creatures will make them more happy.

When I was playing My Fantastic Ranch, I spent most of my time adopting cute dragons or training them in different areas like target shooting or for the circus. It was fun matching the creatures up with the students who visit to find the perfect combinations; together, they take lessons that earn you gems and make the kids happy. Then they tell their friends about your ranch, causing your reputation to go up and more students to visit. So you can make more money that you can use to upgrade the buildings and your animal collection. Watching the kids in the game training with their partners was super cute and fulfilling. It looked like both the creature and child were enjoying themselves.

At one point, you have the task of putting on a festival for the prince and princess of the kingdom. There is a meter that shows how impressed they are with your ranch and what you have shown them. As long as you can keep it about the midpoint mark, you are good. They are impressed by seeing the creatures training in the target shoot, performing lessons in the dressage area, or even just walking in circles like a living carousel. 

The gameplay in My Fantastic Ranch isn’t very deep, but this is one of the cutest games I have seen in a long time. Every creature that you can adopt is super bright, colourful, and absolutely adorable, no matter their type. I wanted every unicorn, dragon, or rainbow-coloured pony that was available. If you have ever wanted to play a game where you can adopt a My Little Pony-style animal, you will love this title. The soundtrack is nice and peaceful which gives a relaxed feeling while visiting the ranch. 

Once you finish all the objectives that you are given, other than trying to collect all the creatures that you can, I’m not too sure how long My Fantastic Ranch will keep you busy. Still, it’s definitely an enjoyable time, especially if you like building, kawaii characters, and colourful visuals.