Loftia Early Access Review: What the Cozy Sky MMO Gets Right and What Still Needs Work

Loftia finally floated into Early Access on November 3, and after plenty of evenings hopping between its sky islands I can give you the short version up front. This is a charming, surprisingly generous cozy MMO, held back by a cash shop that feels out of place in a paid game. The decorating tools are excellent and the solarpunk spin on farming feels fresh. The slow early grind? Less so.

Platform reviewed	PC (Steam)
Also available on	Epic Games Store, Mac with Apple Silicon (M2 or newer)
Version	Early Access, live since November 3, 2026
Price	$29.99, or $24.89 with the launch discount until November 17
Free-to-play?	No. Buy-to-play with an optional cosmetic shop
Developer	Qloud Games (Sydney, Australia)

Some context matters here. Qloud Games raised over $1.27 million on Kickstarter back in 2023, and the Early Access build already includes the full main storyline: four chapters spread across Loftia City, the Hanging Gardens and Gridfall. That’s a lot more than the usual “come back in two years” Early Access deal.

What you actually get in the Loftia Early Access build

You start in Loftia City with Pebble, a wisecracking chinchilla who walks you through the basics before handing you off to other NPCs. The tutorial doubles as the opening of the story, and it’s long. Expect the first hour or so to feel like a guided tour before the game really lets go of your hand. Push through it, because Gridfall (the last region, all worn concrete, neon and kinetic floors) is worth seeing.

Loftia is always online, even if you play alone, so there’s no offline mode at all. Servers cover US East, US West, Europe, Asia and Australia, and you can join friends on any of them. The studio has also committed to no progress wipes from Early Access onward, including at 1.0. For a game this grindy, that promise matters a lot.

Is Loftia free to play or a one-time purchase?

It’s not free-to-play, which is the question I see most often. Loftia costs $29.99, with a 17% launch discount bringing it to $24.89 until November 17. One purchase unlocks every bit of gameplay, with no subscription on top. Qloud has also said it may raise the price closer to 1.0, so the current deal is probably the cheapest it’ll be for a while.

Then there’s the shop. The Backer Boutique sells cosmetics for a premium currency called pips, with single items around $2 to $4 and outfit bundles up to $8. A Community Pass unlocks extra cosmetic rewards from World Projects, and the $19.99 Supporter Pack adds Greeny, a little robot pet. Nothing sold gives you any gameplay advantage, and around 93% of cosmetics unlock just by playing. Even so, seeing a currency menu right after paying for the game rubbed me the wrong way, and it’s the number one complaint in Steam reviews.

How the gameplay loop feels hour to hour

Forget chopping trees. Here you salvage junk piles, recycle broken appliances and turn scrap into materials, which you then craft into tools, furniture and quest items. Crafting runs on a portable battery that you recharge with solar and kinetic energy at charging stations around the islands. It works like a stamina bar. The first time mine ran dry mid-session I groaned, and then it quietly became my cue to go fishing instead.

Farming is where Loftia gets clever, and a bit stingy. You start with a single planter and buy permits to add more, plants need rain or a rain catcher, and some crops take real-world hours (they keep growing while you’re logged off). Hydroponic stations, the fishing ripple timing and the little treasure chest minigames keep the loop from feeling like pure chores. Cooking a pot of carrot soup from your own harvest is oddly satisfying, too.

Decorating, pets and character customization

The housing tools are the best thing in the game, full stop. You can type in exact hex color codes, give each side of the same wall a different design, and mix steampunk with cottagecore, then walk in and out of your house without a loading screen. Changing your avatar’s look is free at any time, so experimenting never costs you anything. If you enjoy building rooms layer by layer, like I do in my Paralives basement building guide, you’ll lose whole evenings here. My one gripe is that most furniture is purely decorative and you can’t interact with it.

Pets deserve their own mention. You rescue and adopt animals like capybaras and turtles, dress them up, and keep one following you while the rest live in habitats on your island. Picking a hat for an alpaca shouldn’t be this fun, but it is. It’s a small system that gives the island a lot of personality.

Loftia multiplayer, performance and the road to 1.0

Every space in Loftia is shared. Your residential island sits alongside three other players, either a rotating group of strangers or your friends, and those islands link up into neighborhoods. Almost everything works solo, so you never need a group to make progress. Quests barely require any communication.

The safety tools are thoughtful. There’s text chat, an emote wheel, block and report buttons, permission settings so nobody harvests your crops, and an option to hide usernames so everyone looks like an NPC. That last setting is perfect if you want the MMO world without the MMO noise.

World Projects and the social side of Loftia

World Projects are server-wide builds where everyone donates materials and earns rewards based on the group’s output. Add treasure hunts, a community farm minigame you sign up for at set times, and co-op adventure islands with puzzles and platforming (no combat), and you get that old Club Penguin feeling. Watching a whole server chip in for the same build is when Loftia feels most like an MMO.

The weak spot is community itself. Because neighbors rotate, it’s hard to feel part of a fixed group, and friends can end up split into different instances when changing areas. If you want an online world where your crew builds side by side every night, this isn’t fully there yet. For that kind of sandbox, something like Hytale (see my Hytale armor tier list) scratches the itch better right now.

Performance and bugs in the current build

Loftia runs smoothly and the bar to entry is low: an Intel Core i3-10100F or Ryzen 3 3100, 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 1050 cover the minimum specs. It also supports Steam Deck, but Mac players need Apple Silicon M2 or newer, since Intel Macs are out.

Bugs exist, though nothing game-breaking. The screen sometimes snaps back to windowed mode when traveling between the city and home, the glider snags on scenery and invisible walls, and you’ll spot trees and grass floating above the ground. Clothes clipping through hairstyles and the missing swimming animation are the kind of rough edges you expect in Early Access.

What’s coming before the 1.0 release

Qloud plans roughly one year of Early Access. The 1.0 roadmap adds new islands and regions, more questlines and NPCs, the Study Cafe, Clubs and NPC Friendships, with player markets and Steam achievements also on the list. Clubs and friendships are exactly what the social side is missing today. There’s no romance at launch, so if relationships are what you’re after, a life sim like Paralives covers that better (my Paralives baby guide shows how deep it goes).

A Nintendo Switch version is planned for 2027 and will require Nintendo Switch Online. Cross-play is a goal rather than a promise, and each platform needs its own purchase. If you’re a Switch player, waiting costs you nothing, since your PC progress may not carry over anyway.

Is Loftia worth it right now?

At $24.89 before November 17, yes, if you’re a slow-paced, decorate-everything kind of player. Steam reviews sit in Very Positive territory and thousands of players were online every time I checked. The Early Access version already offers more content than plenty of finished cozy games.

At full price, I’d think harder. If real-time crop timers or premium currency in a paid game bother you, those won’t change before 1.0. The core of the game is solid, but its business model is the part you need to be at peace with.

Loftia vs Palia and Animal Crossing

The Palia comparison is unavoidable. Palia is free-to-play with a cosmetic shop and NPC romance, while Loftia charges for entry, still sells cosmetics, and focuses on sustainability systems and shared islands instead of relationships. Loftia’s decorating and solarpunk identity win; Palia wins on value and NPC bonds. If you want more options in the genre, I rounded up plenty in my list of games like Paralives.

Animal Crossing fans will recognize the real-time crops and the joy of visiting other islands. The difference is that Animal Crossing is a calm, mostly offline routine, while Loftia always surrounds you with other players. Think of it as New Horizons with neighbors who never log off.

What I liked about Loftia

Some moments stuck with me. Rain rolling over the islands, music that changes per area, and the way recycling feeds everything. It’s one of the few cozy games where the theme actually shapes the mechanics.

• Hex-code decorating and two-sided walls
• Full main story already in Early Access
• No pay-to-win and no wipes
• Smart safety tools, including hidden usernames

What still needs work

The long tutorial, repetitive fetch quests and permit-limited farming make the opening hours drag. NPCs look a little doll-like and lack personality. And the premium shop simply sits awkwardly next to a $29.99 price tag. Fix the instancing so friends stay together, and half the complaints disappear.

Personal review

What surprised me most is how much Loftia gets right at launch: a complete story, the best decorating tools I’ve seen in a cozy MMO, and pets you’ll want to dress up daily. It’s ideal for players who love Palia, Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley’s routine but want a shared, eco-themed world. If your group prefers tension over tranquility for its co-op nights, go for something like Phasmophobia instead (my Phasmophobia custom settings guide will help).

Loftia is available now on PC and Mac via Steam and the Epic Games Store, with Switch planned for 2027. My score for this Early Access build is 7.5/10, with real potential to climb by 1.0. Have you tried it yet? Tell me in the comments whether you’d recommend it, and what you’ve missed most so far.

Frequently asked questions

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