Embark on an epic adventure to Luma Island, a debut release by Feel Free Games! You can explore solo or team up with up to three other players. Not only will you build your dream farm and master a variety of professions, but you’ll collect magical Lumas, uncover hidden treasures, and unravel the island’s many mysteries. 

I’ve played Luma Island from beginning to end, with friends and without, and I’ve got to say the game is addicting. Despite a fair bit of grinding for a farming sim, progression is smooth and consistently challenging. The addition of Indiana Jones-style temples and a touch of fantasy makes Luma Island an easy stand-out from the crowd.

Simple Beginnings

Without an opening cutscene, you open your game on your brand-new farm. At this point it is practically an ocean-side forest, full of mysteries and treasure. You can easily spend a few days just exploring on your farm, discovering hidden gems and treasure chests while beating minigames. Exit to town, though, and you’ll learn through conversation that you bought the location from a man named Old Man Jeffrey.

After about a week in-game, you wake to the screen shaking as an earthquake rocks Luma Island. The town is devastated – benches broken, dock destroyed. The mayor gives you quests to help fix everything around town, and a couple of shopkeepers also need materials to restore their stores. This means venturing beyond your farm to the forest and mountains, and even eventually an island pirates used as a staging ground to stalk the seas.

You finally meet Old Man Jeffrey at the broken bridge to the woods, and again at the entrance to a sealed temple. He’s a quirky fellow, and rambles on about a prophecy and a Chosen One. But, of course, you couldn’t be the Chosen One. That’s all just myths and legends, after all! The game is very tongue-in-cheek about its own story, but if you keep at it and uncover lore through various quests it starts becoming clear.

Magic and Mystery

In the ancient past, Luma Island was inhabited by various tribes of druids. There were four distinct civilizations that rose and fell here, leaving behind treasures and artifacts in their temples. Their magic was vast and powerful, as was their connection to the spirits – the Lumas – of Luma Island. However, the Island was periodically shaken by earthquakes that would become worse over time, unless soothed by a druidic ritual. Failure, meant the fall of a civilization. As the fifth civilization to live on the Island, that duty now, apparently, falls to you.

But don’t worry! It’s not as though you’re working on a time limit. The game doesn’t even have a limit on how long you can go without sleeping, unlike most farm sims. The screen just goes dark when it needs to refresh the map at 8:00 in the morning. There’s also unlimited inventory space, making resource collection a breeze. More than anything, Luma Island is meant to be a cozy experience, and you only have to engage with the story as much as it interests you. Honestly, you could probably play for a long time without realizing it has a story at all!

Time for a Career Change!

A lot of your game is going to be spent pursuing professions. Unlike a lot of farm sims you don’t just get money from shipping your produce and raw resources. No, no, these things need to be processed into true goods! A very sarcastic man named Herbert sells professional licenses at the Town Hall, though you get your first one for free. 

Your choices range from Cook to Smith, all the way to Archeologist. Most professions have a friend they can be paired with synergistically and are easily leveled together. Cook and Brewer, for instance, both use farm produce to progress, while Blacksmith and Jewelrycrafter need resources from the mines. Oddly, Fisherman and Treasure Hunter pair together, but you’ll figure out that connection later.

And yes, I did mention leveling! You can only progress so far in each progression before you need a mysterious resource called Luma Essence. You can get this essence from loving on and feeding the various Lumas you discover and hatch. These little guys are wild, with 27 varieties currently in game that range from epic to ridiculous. I started my game with a 3-headed hydra, and the second I found was a worm attached to a balloon. Don’t ask me, I also have questions. 

You can only find these little guys by solving mysteries and collectathons, or delving deep into Luma Island’s dungeons.

I did mention you’re Indiana Jones, right? 

Yeah, there’s a more dangerous side to the Island. The dungeons are filled with puzzles, hazards, and the occasional annoying bat. You delve in armed with your whip and your wits. While you’re dodging flaming arrows, pulling levers, and avoiding spike traps there are a number of unlockable doors filled with gleaming treasure. There’s one door, however, that opens only to the most daring and difficult profession – the Archeologist.

Not only does the Archeologist profession pull resources from the mining and treasure tracks, but you have to run these dungeons without dying to get artifacts. That’s honestly hard to do in later regions, as sometimes the only solution is trial and error to figure out the timing on traps. Archeologist is also pretty fun, though, and it’s the one profession that feels geared toward the deeper mysteries of Luma Island. 

A Game to Get Lost In

Luma Island is a 3D, almost isographic game with some pixelated graphics. There is a whimsical feel to the environments, full of gorgeous landscapes and various hazards. Each map is a veritable maze to get lost in. Getting to the main mine? Easy enough. Getting to the top of the mountain or the other side of the forest? You best be prepared for a Tolkien level journey dodging quicksand and lava pits. There is a level of complexity to the level design that just begs you to explore it!

At the same time, the game is just so soothing.  The musical score is the kind that you can have playing on the background of a study playlist, easily drawing you in to focus for hours-long gaming sessions. Plus, the designs of all the Lumas and animals are so cute!

Farming doesn’t have to be your main deal if you don’t want it to be, however you have full control over the sprawling farmlands. And, by gathering a number of hidden books, you unlock all sorts of decorations you can build! Genuinely, you can make a little town right on your own property if you want, with a Stargate overlooking it on the next hill over! Friends have told me you can build in the other environments too, and have taken advantage of that whole-heartedly. For example, leaving a bike in the forest gives you a direct teleport back to town!

Not Everyone’s Made for the Hustle

So, I’ve said a lot about just how good of a game Luma Island is, and I really mean it! But there are a couple of aspects that are drawbacks for me as well, and it wouldn’t be a fair review if I didn’t mention them.

For instance, Luma Island is a real grind fest. You have to put a lot of effort into farming up the resources necessary not just for building, but for crafting your sellable products. Just selling the raw materials isn’t enough to get you the cashflow you need to buy the late-game items. And to obtain Mastery in a profession you need to have practically a horde of late-game resources to craft your ultimate recipe. Thank goodness for that infinite inventory! Am I right?

Also, I really enjoy farm sim games for the relationships that you develop with the characters. I like the dating pools, the side quests, and building a community where you’re truly integrated with the townsfolk. And while Luma Island does have you interacting with various villagers as quest giving NPCs, there’s no dating aspect and not a lot of reason to interact with them outside of that. It’s sadly a little bland in that aspect, which is such a shame to me.

Overall

I do enjoy this game a lot! It’s complex and multifaceted, with plenty of content to keep you exploring and engaged. I’m not a huge fan of the grind, but that aspect is easily offset when you’re playing with friends and working together to achieve your goals. I’ve got a save now where I’ve even challenged myself to finish all the monolith structures, and that requires so many resources. I’m not even kidding.

Currently, Feel Free Games is working on a free expansion for their players, called Luma Island: Pirates! There’s already a ton of lore surrounding the pirates that used to haunt these shores, and the devs are working on a whole new biome exploring that. There will be new temples, minigames, Lumas, quests, outfits, and more! Including a new profession. I’m personally banking on Carpenter or Florist – maybe even Mycologist. There’s no expected date yet, but you can bet that the Feel Free Games team isn’t done with Luma Island yet!

Luma Island is available on PC through Steam. It retails for $19.99 USD.