Slime Rancher

If you want to play a game that has a beautifully unique premise, oozes character (pun intended) and can still teach you a mesmerizing amount of vocabulary then look no further. Slime Rancher is like an adorable slap-stick sandbox that covers all aspects of the farming sim lifestyle with a few more out-of-this-world touches. You can play the role of a farmer, explorer, engineer or scientist all while delving into the nitty-gritty of their respective fields. I could have very easily overlooked Slime Rancher but thanks to the draw of the adorable slimes and dopey chickens my partner had other ideas.

Platform and Languages – 8/10

Slime Rancher is widely available and can be purchased on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and Steam. You can even play it in VR! The price is roughly £15 across the board but you can often see it discounted or in humble bundles. I personally downloaded Slime Rancher for free on the Xbox Game pass and it has been available for a number of months at the time of this review.

The language options can be set from the main title menu but not while in a play session.

Glossary

Usability – 9/10

At first glance you may not think that there is a lot off usable content from Slime Rancher. This isn’t to say that the game doesn’t look content rich, just that typically cute looking games focus more on the visual and sound based features. Being someone who searches for wordier, readable games, had I not been suggested to play this I would have likely missed it. However as you can probably guess by now I was grossly mistaken. From your first day on the Far, Far Range (ハルカーナ星 in the Japanese text) you will find that this game features clear and extensive language for every interaction available. Starting in your home, you will find that you have incredibly clear menus and legible font that fits nicely with the art style. This makes for easy reading throughout and ensures that even complex kanji is recognizable. Your home hub allows you access you emails which for the most part will be your guide to what to do next if you ever get lost. These mails aren’t overly frequent but they are succinct enough that you can work your way through them to fill in your understanding of your objectives and get to know some of the assisting characters. Other than this the only regularly used functions of your home are getting some well earned shut-eye after a long day, so let’s get out to the farm!

Your first mission in Slime rancher is to catch slime (go figure) and in order to do this and improve on this skill you will need to interact with farm pens and your vacuum pack upgrade station. For each you will find a selection of upgrades and new tools that will make it easier for you to either raise or capture more slimes. These are your first examples of what can only be described as a majestic collection of guides and directories throughout this adventure. The menus for these options feature a vibrant colour scheme, cartoony yet helpful image of the feature you are purchasing and multiple descriptions of the item. This minimizes any confusion with a glance and means you can fill in any holes in your knowledge quickly. The instructive language is also beneficial as it is often clear and omits poetic or convoluted adjectives unless they assist in giving the information.

As you start adventuring around you’ll notice 2 additional guiding hands to help you take in your environment. Firstly for each slime, food stuff or item you discover a small prompt will appear at the bottom right telling you what you’ve found and a brief description of it. This lingers for long enough that if you can comfortably read the kanji you can take it in before it disappears but can’t really be used for picking up vocab on the go. However you will find that the descriptions that show aren’t lost forever and will appear in the Slime-opedia which we will cover shortly. Secondly, as you travel to new areas you will often see a floating glowing “H” symbol. These are memos left behind by your predecessor, Hobson Twillgers. Hobson was a prolific Slime Rancher before you and as such leaves behind tips and tales of his story travelling across the Far, Far Ranch. These are always an interesting read and are rarely very long so I would recommend reading each one as you find them.

Once you have earned a sufficient amount of money from your expansive Slime Farm you can start using the Lab. Here you can find a new selection of machines which will garner you a whole new section of ingredients that can be gathered from your environment. Each tool has a description and a breakdown of it’s requirements clearly laid out for even more readability. This feature, along with the previous upgrades, are hugely beneficial to reading and gaining vocabulary as you can form strong correlations between the way the item is described and the result of its action. This is especially effective for verbs and compound kanji “する ” words which you will be seeing in abundance. as if you didn’t need any more to interact with, day to day you will also receive calls on the nearby farm phone where you will be given fetch quests for the abundance of slimes, foods and ingredients. These are typically short, witty and conversational which is a good enough incentive to pick up the phone but you will also get a good trade off of prizes for completing the task.

The game has a simple premise overall but can require a bit of practice and know-how in order to master it. I found an lot of helpful information in this linked Slime Rancher wiki stating recipes, slime and ingredient locations and a more accurate guide to progressing. This wasn’t hugely beneficial whilst playing the game as the information is mostly readily available however it did come in handy while commuting, working or procrastinating as it meant I could strengthen my knowledge of the related vocabulary and also maintain momentum. This worked brilliantly for Slime Rancher but I would also recommend this for any other games of this style. Investing your time into a title and immersing yourself in the methods and meanings is incredibly effective at building muscle memory and recognition.

My favourite aspect of Slime Rancher and the thing that blew me away right from day 1 was the Slime-opedia. This is an in-depth breakdown of everything you can interact with at the Far, Far Ranch and is separated into what’s what, how you interact with it and the more colloquial story behind it. The words used throughout are comparatively more elaborate and scientific as this is essentially a ecological journal which makes this more difficult to follow than other features but if you are interested in strengthening your sci-fi reading or have an interest in nature you’ll be right at home with this one. Overall Slime Rancher and its usability are entirely dependant on your want to know your world better. The easy to follow UI and forgiving gameplay means you can play a lot of the story without to much need for understanding it but if you want to put in an effort to take in the language you will have a great time playing it.

Challenges and Methods – 9/10

A Slime of Life

The Slime-opedia covers a wide array of topics and proves to be the most abundant source of vocabulary. You’ll find these are unlocked on sight or unlocking of each creature or item and as such you can open the log at any point, pausing the game, and read through the data. Select your period of time to start reading your logs, perhaps when you return home or as you find them, and see if you can read them in their entirety. You may find that the first tag line is sometimes a bit more difficult to grasp as this is often more casual and chatty than the more detailed paragraphs below. If you stumble on a word start again, ensuring you remember it for next time. I would recommend either reading the text aloud or writing it down (or both) while you go through them in order to improve your output simultaneously with your input and build strong relations between the two.

You read it you buy it

A fun, and slightly infuriating challenge I’ve been implementing more and more is to set parameters on the items you want to buy. For Slime Rancher this can be as simple as limiting yourself to only being able to purchase items you can read in full. It sounds easy until you have 20 slimes jumping over low walls because you can’t read quickly enough! This will also force you to expand your reading ability in order to progress through the game. If you want to revise frequently you can also continue the challenge for items you have already purchased meaning you will have re-read the description with every visit to the store. Eventually you will build a habit of associating words with tasks and maintenance. Additionally this can also be applied to the farm phone meaning you must read the conversation in order to progress whenever you answer the call. Try it out wherever and see how stringent you can be with yourself.