Farming sims have been beloved by fans for a long time now, and the horror genre has been a staple for even longer, so it was really only a matter of time before the two genres collided. Honestly, I’m a bit shocked it took this long for someone to put the two together, but thankfully Perfect Garbage and Blumhouse Games teamed up to bring us Grave Seasons. 

Don’t let these pasty, twig-like arms fool you. I can throw a spade like nobody’s business!

The developers have described Grave Seasons as a “narrative-driven supernatural horror wrapped lovingly in a farming/life sim.” You play as an escaped convict who moves to the mountain town of Ashenridge to try to lay low and start a new life. The farm you take over has a questionable history, but that pales in comparison to the supernatural serial killer who stalks the town. The game takes place over the course of one year, so you’ll need to make the most of your time to try to protect the townsfolk and uncover Ashenridge’s dark secrets. Or don’t. After all, you are an escaped convict, so maybe you don’t have the best track record for making the most morally upright decisions.

In addition to being a horror farming/slice-of-life sim, Grave Seasons also has a big focus on romance. There are over thirty residents and you can try to woo twelve of them. Grave Seasons celebrates LGBTQ+ inclusion, so there is someone for everyone who can potentially catch your eye. 

Don’t mind the crowbar. I just used it to pry open- I mean fix your window!

One of them might even be the killer!  According to the developers, “every new game has a randomized serial killer from a pool of six potential killers. Each killer has their own unique campaign, their own reasoning for why they do what they do, their own kill styles, and their own specific targets.” So there’s no way to predict who the killer will be with each game, giving Grave Seasons a high replayability factor. I was also told by the game’s writer, Emmett Nahil, that he wrote over 330K words for this game so he could fully flesh out certain characters and storylines, many of which can’t be experienced without multiple playthroughs. Challenge accepted!

The developers also stressed just how much every decision you make impacts the gameplay. Even seemingly small choices can have huge complications, either positive or negative. Being a goody-two-shoes or a selfish asshole could either hinder your relationships or even work in your favor, depending on the NPC.

There’s a perfect tool for every job, at least that’s what they tell me.

Each character has their own beautifully crafted hand-drawn avatars for the dialogue boxes, complete with various emotions to better sell the tone of what’s being said. I was drawn to the level of detail in the pixel art during my time with the game, but the hand-drawn character designs are on another level. While I only got to see the farm and a small portion of the town during my hands-on time, I can attest to the wonderful level of detail put into every environment and character sprite. 

Probably the funniest thing about my time with Grave Seasons was that I didn’t actually manage to find anything horror-related. Now that’s not for a lack of scares, I just somehow managed to unknowingly evade every bit of horror programing during my session. We had a good laugh at this, because I began my session by gushing about how much I love horror and couldn’t wait to see how well it blends with a cozy farming sim. I was told after the fact as an example, that if I had just dug two squares over to plant my potatoes, I would’ve found a spooky surprise. Leave it to me to accidentally avoid the main thing I was looking for.

There may or may not be body parts beneath the decorative spaces in my flower beds…

Grave Seasons is shaping up to be a blast (it had already caught my eye a while back) and I can’t wait to finally get my hands on it when it releases on August 14, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.