I'm a fool who's fallen in love with Palia's confusing ranching job

I’ve been playing Palia since launch, and while the cozy adventure-crafting fantasy game is still in beta, I’ve overall enjoyed my time in Kilima. Sometimes a new update lands and it’s pretty good out of the gate! The Elderwood expansion, which opened a new zone, felt polished and well-considered. Other times, developer Singularity 6 releases something that isn’t fully baked. Usually, I just leave those systems alone until a few patches come out, since the developer is fairly responsive to feedback and has made large-scale changes before. 

But one addition is both incredibly frustrating and yet somehow soothing. I can’t stop fighting with Palia’s stupid ranching system and I don’t know if I’m the problem.

Palia takes place in a world where humanity was thought extinct until they begin to mysteriously re-emerge into a lovely pastoral community full of golems and elves. While there are high-stakes quests and mysterious lands to uncover, a good chunk of the game focuses around taking care of your home, a large part of which includes farming crops and cooking meals.

Ranching is a natural addition to that formula, and Singularity 6 added the ability to raise some cute animals with unique traits that can be passed on or upgraded via breeding. My house now has a carriage bell, and when I ring it, I’m whisked away to a beautiful ranch where all my cute animals can run and play. It’s a charmed life, which is why it’s a little funny I often find myself in a state of low-key annoyance as I do my silly little farm chores with my silly little pigs and cows.