So I recently bought the game Fields of Mistria after having heard about it a little. It was a bit tedious because I only have a Mac right now so I had to download the trial of crossover (I usually use Whisky to play game on my Mac but it was not working this time) but it was all worth it. I only played for like 10 hours, but it’s what I was looking in a cozy game for a long time.

The first game of this genre I played was Harvest Moon on the Super Nintendo (yes I’m old). I was a child, my brother had installed several games on an emulator in our Windows 98 computer and I liked to try them all. This one particularly draw me, it was a really cute game and my parents were farmers so it was funny to be a bit like them. At that time, I did not speak a word of English so I had a little dictionary at the desk and I searched for every word. For a long time, the only English I knew was from this games and Final Fantasy. I don’t remember finishing it but I played quit a bit. I think I also played a bit of More Friends of Mineral Town later because you could play as a girl but it was not the same impact.

Then a lot later, a friend told me about rune factory 3 on 3DS and this time again, boom, I was hooked. This time, it was farming but with RPG elements in it and a lot of cute characters. It was a combination of everything I like : RPG, farming and dating game. I played this game a lot, then I also liked the fourth one. But the fifth… yikes didn’t enjoyed it at all, it was so 3D and laggy, not my style.

And then of course, Stardew Valley. It was like a renewal. A graphic style more like the first harvest moon but with a lot more of content and exploration. Funny characters, lots of planning to do and also a lot of update so I could relaunch the game from time to time. It was great. But this launched a wave of farming games that at first, I wanted to try because I love them so much. But I ended up disappointed. Some of them were ok, I think about Fae Farm of Sakuna but it was not the same. I thought that maybe I would not feel the same about new farming games because maybe, we had seen all. So when I heard about Fields of Mistria, I was instantly drawn to the cute graphics but I was also kind of afraid it would be another game trying to copy stardew valley. But it was not. Of course there are a lot of similarities, but I feel like the people who makes this game are really fans of the genre. It’s full of little things that you had to use mods on stardew valley to have. Here’s a lists of little things that made me so happy to have (and it’s only the early access !)

• you can view where are people on the map in real time, you don’t have to remember everyone’s schedule
• At the beginning of the day, when the date is shown, you can view if it’s someone birthday or if there are any events. You also have another sign that show you if there are events this day when you go to the town
• The weather for the next day is shown directly in the crystal ball so you don’t have to watch the TV to know this
• The colour palette et the characters arts are so f-ing cute, it seems to be taylored to my likes (it was one of the thing I didn’t really enjoyed in stardew valley) It also make me thinks of the games a link to the past which is my favorite Zelda game, so bonus point
• Fishing is not a bore !! It’s more like in animal crossing and I really like it
• Clothing presets ! So I can change with the seasons and also dress appropriately when I go to the mines
• The fact that the game recognise the gamepad used and change the ui. Every game should have this.

I think the only things I like less in this game is the music, sometimes it cut and there’s nothing for seconds then it launch again. I also would have liked (but it’s a me thing) to have the ability to teleport like in rune factory, I think it would be really useful. Or at least something to walk a little faster but maybe there is a horse later or something. I play with a ps4 controller so it’s less a thing, but on the keyboard, I found it weird to not have a touch to send all items in your bag to your chest, I tried several things but ended up to have to drag each items individually. With the controller it’s better because you juste have to press the button. But overall for now, it’s really nothing !

I can’t wait to see what the team will do with this game and I really hope it will be the new sensation in the indie game world because they deserve it. Good job !