Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch - Deluxe

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch has a good potential, as it offers customization and raising of a really wide variety of horses. Sadly, the ambition of fitting all these elements in a giant terrain brings with it many issues that end up shadowing the good points. For that reason, the result is we have an unappealing area to explore and one of the worst performances I've seen on Nintendo Switch, giving it a poor impression as if it were unfinished.

A pleasant and undemanding game clearly aimed at younger players, Emerald Ranch may still interest adults who want to chill out with some lovely horses. Defying all expectations, Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch is actually rather good!

In the end, Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch missed that first jump and hopefully the developers will release future patches to resolve the control mechanics. As a result, it was a difficult grind for my daughter and I that revolved around the inconsistencies with controls and graphics which hampered our overall enjoyment.

Put this game out to pasture.

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch is a semi-open world adventure game where you get to reform your inherited ranch while taming new horses and solving the mysteries of the main story.

With some patching it offers a solid mix of farm and pet care sim, but bugs for now should give you pause

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch bites off more than it manages to chew. It has the makings of a grand immersive adventure and a detailed life simulator, but it doesn’t excel enough in any of its core elements. Between the lack of a fully actualised world, flawed controls and technical glitches, I had to work hard to feel invested. There’s a certain charm to its overall style and environments, but its issues greatly hinder the horse fantasy it wants to foster.

Although it's a good step towards the horse game fans have been longing for, unfortunately, Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch still isn't quite the game players have long wanted.

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch is a lovely-looking game. Its art style and open world freedom engaged us right from the off, like a horse-centric, combat-free Breath of the Wild. Except it doesn’t take long for its design flaws to rear their ugly head. It’s such a shame that the act of playing isn’t anywhere near as fun as it should be, thanks to poor controls and bad design choices. Still, if you really love horses, some of its flaws may be easier to overlook. The fact is that it’s still better than many other horse games out there.

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch is a sad tale for the much-needed resurgence of equestrian-focused video games. Littered with poor design choices and endless amounts of bugs, every attempt to seep some joy out of the game was hindered. This comes as a shame. The bones of a good game are in there from the exploration of an interconnected world to a good start in both horse gameplay and town management and restoration. Boiling down to more than just a game released too early, Horse Tales also is a game too ambitious for its own good and not what was expected or needed. Take this one out to the pasture, they're done.