Tin Tero

Wait, so it’s Stardew Valley but… anime? Or so i thought.

Hello, it’s me again! For my second blog, I decided to write about a game I’m currently obsessed with. Stardew- I mean Fields of Mistria! Okay. So what is it about? Well, it’s a direct competitor to Stardew Valley in terms of being *THE* cosy farming game. I am currently having so much fun with this game right now!

First Impressions

Firstly, I was greeted by a super cute main menu featuring two cows; one black and one pink on the left. Then, there was a simple animated windmill on the right. The music came in softly, reminded me of classic 8-bit-era tunes. It felt so homey. Then, I pressed “New Game” and, in a classic cosy farming game fashion, I was greeted by a character creation screen. Shortly after completing my character, I was introduced to two cutscenes, which I won’t get into detail about, I want all of you to experience this game on your own! I’ll keep my blog about the story vague.

My initial impressions about the graphics was upon playing, I wasn’t into the art style of the game. I found it “unattractive” to the eyes. Maybe it’s just my eyes getting used to the art style of Stardew Valley. After spending a bit of time playing, I started loving the graphics more! It started to look so good! The color scheme in this game is just fantastic! Then, came the music! Oh, the music in this game is so good. Toby Fox is a guest composer by the way! Yes, the guy who made undertale! So you can already imagine how good the soundtrack in this game can be.

What’s up?

Fields of Mistria is a fantasy cozy farming game that I dare say challenges Stardew Valley and is a good competitor to the genre, or another way to look at it is that it is an evolution of what made Stardew Valley great.

What does it do different you ask? Well, a lot of things to be honest. At hindsight, it may seem like a Stardew Valley ripoff but it’s so much more than that.

The farming is almost similar, but this time you can’t “destroy” your plants with a tool, so mistakes on misclicking a tool is off the table! Another quality of life change that is so memorable for me is the watering can is infinite, so you don’t have to refill it every now and then, such minute changes that makes a huge difference.

The NPCs are much more fleshed out this time rather than being archetypes like in the other game. They are more fleshed out in a way that they are all interesting characters each with their own personality, activities, and contribution to Mystria. Even the children in this game serve roles and actually participate in some cutscenes. they also have their own mini storyline especially during friday nights. The friday nights at the Inn had me looking forward to it every week, thanks to the NPCs grouping themselves and having their own activities, these groups include; Playing D&D, Playing Cards, Wine Drinking groups, lastly the children having their own naughty heist against one of the NPC. Seeing all these characters talking to each other and about each other, really brought this town to life. It is one of the game’s strongest selling point, and we haven’t even discussed the romance options in this game! (Which i have yet to experience)

Gifting is still there, but this time you don’t have to be a wikipedia freak to figure out their gifts, there is a gossip system ingame which allows you to find out preferred gifts for three npcs everyday. I think that’s such an immersive way to find out what gifts work. The need to be a wikipedia freak in order to do things right in Stardew Valley was one of the biggest complain I have on that game. Luckily, this game has it sorted out thanks to the gossip system.

I haven’t tackled ranching yet, so my opinion about ranching is non existent at the moment. LOL

Lastly, the caverns and combat. The caverns follow a similar formula. You enter the cave, break rocks finding the entrance to the next level and repeat. You also still have the elevator which helps you teleport to every 5th level of the cave. This time around though, it isn’t an endless dive towards the last level or an endless level of the caverns. You are now required to complete a collection of item of the past 19 levels of every 20th level before you can proceed to the next biome(?) or rather, set of levels. I personally adore this take so much. This made going back to the previous levels of the respective cave levels have a purpose. Instead of just blindly going down as deep as you can, it’s actually rewarding this time to unlock the next set of levels.

The combat in this game is extremely well done, I’d say the other game’s combat is on the weaker side, It’s not bad but it can be lacking especially if you are into games with combat. Fields of Mistria instead has a simple three strike attack, but what made it special are the enemies. The enemies in this game requires you to pace your attacks, for example; the lantern charges up an electric shock and attacking it when it’s lit up deals damage to you and stuns you, but you can attack it while it’s not lit up but it runs away. The rock enemy only receives 1 point of damage from swords but it spits out a ranged rock projectile which when attacked will bounce back to the enemy rock which deals so much damage. Third, is the mushroom, when you look at it directly it shrinks and getting close to it bounces you off, but looking away from it allows you to deal damage to it. So you constantly have to look away and slice it. Lastly, the Lava Cat is immune to damage but you can use your water can on it so that it hardens and you can deal damage afterwards. These four enemies are great examples of how choosing when to attack as the premise of the enemies in this game keeps the combat fresh, as opposed to mindlessly left clicking the enemies to death. Yes, Stardew sometimes does it, the hermit crab enemy requiring you to use a pickaxe on it (optional by the way) so you can break it’s shell, but what other enemies even let you deal with them tactically in stardew?

The shops are also literally open all the time, whether there is an npc present or not, this is such an astounding quality of life change which allows for a smoother gameplay experience.

What Fields of Mistria does completely different is its inclusion of magic, And I’m not talking about NPCs doing magic–the Player actually gets to use magic! From my gameplay I managed to unlock two spells; Full HP and Stamina restore, and rain. I can’t wait to see what spells can I cast soon in this game.

The perk progression for each skill is also a welcome addition, as opposed to Stardew Valley letting you craft new items per increase of level in each skill, this game instead allows you to spend points on your skill tree which allows you to excel in said skills. For example; for cooking, the food you cook automatically becomes a universally loved gift. or for mining, every rock you break has a chance of breaking nearby rocks. Those two are just two of many examples of how leveling up your skill tree can make your character do things better.

Another thing this game does differently is the Museum which instead of just collecting jewelries, you instead collect EVERYTHING and donate it. This allowed for a bigger scope of achievement for those who love to collect and donate. This is however entirely optional as opposed to Stardew Valley having the Museum for optional stuff and Community Center being an important progression then directly having a portion of an amount of ingame items to collect be considered an essential goal.

Lastly, this game has collectible bugs that roam the Fields of Mistria; with the outdoors offering different varieties every season, as well as within the caverns. Each bug can also be collected for the museum or can be sold for a bit of gold.

This feature provided a dynamic response for the player during their daily routines. Amidst watering the crops or walking to the shop, one may spot a bug–perhaps something they’ve never seen before, the itch to catch it grows until they finally do. After which they simply return to whatever activity they were doing.

Admittedly, the inclusion of bugs and bug catching really did made things slightly more interesting, in my opinion.

Personal Experience

This game really did fill what felt lacking with Stardew Valley in some aspects, that wasn’t necessarily a bad game but this is definitely a huge improvement in the cozy farming game genre but I wouldn’t say *better* though, more like an evolution. To say it’s better than Stardew simply dumbs down my point of Stardew being obsolete in comparison, rather than a game that simply does some things different. To be fair, that game was made by one person only, ConcernedApe. Fields of Mistria is made by a team of developers.

Stardew Valley had it’s moments, and definitely deserves the monumental success it has, it did set the foothold for the renaissance of the genre. Fields of Mistria gave me such a good time playing it, and made me look forward on what to do ingame day after ingame day.

Who is it for?

I can definitely recommend this game for those who already have spent hundreds of hours playing Stardew Valley, I think this is a solid recommendation for those who grew weary waiting for yet another cozy farming game.

Verdict

In my 10 hours of gameplay in Fields of Mistria, this game definitely surprised me in the best way possible. I initially thought it’s just another lesser cozy farming game to scratch my Stardew Valley itch, but the more I played, the more I see it being it’s own thing and in some way, an evolution of the genre. The art style, characters, exploration, combat, and especially the magic system all tied together beautifully in harmony, forming a great and immersive gameplay experience unlike anything I’ve played before.

The things that make it great are definitely colossal and I dare say, it’s a worthy successor to the genre. I genuinely look forward to invest a hundred hours into this game and write yet another blog about it, perhaps.

For me, it’s a solid 9/10– Maybe it’ll be a 10/10 by the time I “finished” the game, or maybe it decreases because of flaws I may find, we will see. For now, this is a game I’d genuinely reccomend to anyone fan of the cozy farming game genre. I hope you find this blog post enjoyable. Till we meet again!