Come take a look at the demo for the upcoming Gaucho and the Grassland, a survival crafting game deeply rooted in Brazilian culture.

Gaucho and the Grassland is a casual farming sim inspired by Gaucho culture, developed by Brazilian studio Epopeia Games.

For those unfamiliar, the Gaucho culture can be found in the south of Brazil, as well as in Argentina and Uruguay, originating from 16th-century Spain and Portugal. The Gaucho lifestyle is rural in nature, and could be equated to North America’s cowboy culture.

Brazil’s demographic is extremely varied, mostly because its culture has been influenced by immigrants from all around the world, which means that Gauchos range from Italian, German, Uruguayan, or Paraguayan, all united under the Colono culture.

All of the characters in Gaucho and the Grassland speak through Gaucho mannerisms, even in the English dub, which is bound to leave people confused. It’s a monumental task to translate these regional expressions, and I wonder if the developers will even bother with localizing them.

As exceptionally funny as it is to hear a video game character say “Bah, tchê”, or “Ah, toma-lhe”, I think these expressions are going to be lost on most people who try out this title. It is worth noting that the entire game is localized in English, except for the voices.

I genuinely think it’s fantastic that more people could get exposed to Gaucho culture, but I feel like there needs to be a bit more context. This game could definitely take some pointers from Tchia when it comes to introducing new people to an unknown culture.

Aside from your created Gaucho, you also have a dog that frequently digs up materials for you and a horse that you must ride in order to lasso wild animals so you can add them to your farm.

I feel like the dog is maybe a bit too proficient at his job since he will find a good amount of items every minute or so. Gaucho and the Grassland is a more casual title, but sometimes it feels like you don’t really have to do anything.

I’m pretty sure my dog found iron for me before I even had a pickaxe to break stone, just skipping a tier of materials entirely. I’m also inclined to think that the only way to get some materials is through your dog, which is a decision I can’t justify.

At some point in the game, it just feels like you get locked down, as there doesn’t seem to be anything else you can find to continue crafting. Your dog isn’t always guaranteed to find iron, so you just keep waiting for it to happen while cutting trees to build your farm.

I don’t know if the demo just has an unspoken cutoff point or if I’m missing something, but I walked throughout the entire world and couldn’t find the rest of the materials I needed, so this is where it ends, with me confused and with mixed feelings.

Exploring the world only gives you access to more farm plots, but I just couldn’t find any different resources than I already had access to. The game’s idea to lock most resources behind selling cattle is nonsensical, as you just sit around waiting for more cows to show up.

Gaucho and the Grassland also deals with Brazilian folklore, as one of the game’s bosses is Boitatá, a giant fiery snake that’s part of Brazil’s mythology. The boss fight against it consists of entering a labyrinth and slightly sidestepping his dashes, in the most limp excuse for a boss fight I’ve seen so far.

The game feels incomplete at the moment, even for a demo. There isn’t much to do aside from building your farm, and it doesn’t feel great to only be able to access certain materials by selling cattle or waiting for your dog to dig them up.

Gaucho and the Grassland is simply lacking and I don’t really enjoy being this negative about it, but as charming as I think it is, at the moment it’s just janky and unimpressive. I hope the final release proves me wrong, because this demo was really disappointing to play through.

Gaucho and the Grassland has no set release date yet, and will be available for Microsoft Windows (through Steam).