New Buyer question

[BecketsGD]

I have been looking at this game for a while now and have a few questions I am hoping the community will answer before I take the plunge.

1. Is the DLC content adding more content or just cosmetic? I don't really purchase DLCs unless it contains new content that is added to the game. I ask since its on sale and a bundle deal might be worth it.

2. Is the game still filled with bugs and crashes? I have a high end PC so it should not have issues in regards to compatibility. I just read a lot of bugs and combat jankiness so I just wondered if that is still a problem.

3. Is this game "finished" as in, does it still receive updates? This is kind of a part 2 to the question above

4. Are the characters well fleshed out or just basic NPCs?

Thanks to anyone that may answer these questions for me. The game looks cute and busy enough but I fear the quality and mechanics.

[Dark_Smilez]

I was just about to post this, What I dislike already and I like the game by far already and because I read an article years ago about it and now I get the chance to play it thanks to a job. The main issue I have is that they have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hub for the DLC like why?

[BecketsGD]

Originally posted by Dark_Smilez:

I was just about to post this, What I dislike already and I like the game by far already and because I read an article years ago about it and now I get the chance to play it thanks to a job. The main issue I have is that they have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hub for the DLC like why?

I have read so many things about this game, both good and bad and I have it in my cart but I am scared to actually buy it unless I have some ideas on the state of the game now. most of the things I read are a year old. I need to get more recent information. You say they have a DLC hub? Is that in the game ?

[Kasa]

Yes they have a DLC hub, this game has WAAAAAAAY to much DLC, people will argue "it's just cosmetic" but it's an absolute runway train and absolute disaster if DLC that gets shoved in your face on the main menu of the game and the "hub" in game.

As some who bought it played it and honestly kind of regrets it I'll say this much.

It's everything I loved about Rune Factory but unfortunately with worse writing and grindy.

It is very much fun but getting levels and materials to do anything takes FOREVER. Which is fine if you just want a coszy play for years kind of game.

But I've read people literally saying they have played the game for actual YEARS and treat this level of grind like it's a "good" thing.

That said the writing also has consistency issues. They reference your race occasionally but only in kind of a half measure way and in the end your race matters not at all.

It's also kind of lazy, there is a cat girl named... Kitty... and acts exactly like what you think a cat girl named Kitty would act like.

So the TLDR:

I liked the game BUT idk if I could recommend it compared to Rune Factory or Harvest Moon.

I'd actually say check out Immortal Life, it's unfortunately just as grindy but the writing is actually pretty decent for a what it is (Note there is no romance in immortal life but more like found family):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201230/Immortal_Life/

[BecketsGD]

Originally posted by Kasa:

Yes they have a DLC hub, this game has WAAAAAAAY to much DLC, people will argue "it's just cosmetic" but it's an absolute runway train and absolute disaster if DLC that gets shoved in your face on the main menu of the game and the "hub" in game.

As some who bought it played it and honestly kind of regrets it I'll say this much.

It's everything I loved about Rune Factory but unfortunately with worse writing and grindy.

It is very much fun but getting levels and materials to do anything takes FOREVER. Which is fine if you just want a coszy play for years kind of game.

But I've read people literally saying they have played the game for actual YEARS and treat this level of grind like it's a "good" thing.

That said the writing also has consistency issues. They reference your race occasionally but only in kind of a half measure way and in the end your race matters not at all.

It's also kind of lazy, there is a cat girl named... Kitty... and acts exactly like what you think a cat girl named Kitty would act like.

So the TLDR:

I liked the game BUT idk if I could recommend it compared to Rune Factory or Harvest Moon.

I'd actually say check out Immortal Life, it's unfortunately just as grindy but the writing is actually pretty decent for a what it is (Note there is no romance in immortal life but more like found family):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201230/Immortal_Life/

Thank you both the review of the game and the recommendation. I wwill definitely take a look at Immortal life as well. I am ok with some grind but I dont know about years worth for the sake of just slowing the player down. That definitely is worth thinking over for sure. That level of grind will feel like tedium at some point.

[Ilthe]

The base game is cheap and you can see if you have major gamebreaking bugs (like being unable to create or move freshly created character - tho I heard it happens only to people who used to use mods) in first two hours, when you can still refund it - I haven't had any gamebreaking bugs, only once stumbled onto grass textures on elf town farm needing a game restart to start displaying properly. Never had any crashes, except once when my dumba55 antivirus decided to launch a massive check and hogged all PC resources at once.

DLCs with mounts allow to start using mounts a couple of ingame weeks earlier, same with pets, and one of them has the tiniest chest in game (ugly tho, and unlike generic basegame chests you can't customise them) which is useful early game when you don't have much wood to craft more normal chests or space in your home to place them.
Yes I'll say it - other that that DLCs are deco items. And they have none of new gameplay at all - the same things as in base game but recolored.
If you care about decorations, that might sting, but I urge you to actually look what that DLCs offer and decide yourself if that is something you want before flat out getting frustrated without even looking - most of that thing are not something one person would use at the same time. (And I consider a majority of the DLC items unappealing aestetics - but that is a matter of taste.)

There is an ingame shop for DLCs on the side of main screen, newest of DLCs are not in steam store yer - tho the team member with the director tag said on discord that they will be adding that new DLCs on steam too. This shop is actually very similar to DST one.
None of that DLCs is any different than the old ones - decorations.
Unfortunately if you want to look at their contents outside of the game you'll have to google for a video review or something.

Since you said you don't buy DLCs without gameplay content, none of "a lot of DLC" troubles people seem to have here should touch you.

The game is stated as complete, reached all promised goals and is still having somewhat regular updates that add bugfixes and many other nice things. You can check news tab to look at the amounts of goodies we get from free updates. Devs are currently working on adding one more region and improving console/controller stuff. Some other minor stuff is in the works too, you can check discord threads for direct dev communication.
The main story is definitely finished.

Currently the game for me if perfectly playable, and even that grass bug I described earlier haven't show up once again.

Most of characters have big amount of dialogues with character lore (and there are a lot of environmental character storylelling too), they are pretty different from each other. I'm not into all this game relationships, so you probably will have to wait for someone else to answer that question, if it is important for you.

You can customise the speed of ingame days 15-40 minutes, any time you want. So you decide how long the game will last.
You can get all you skills mostly levelled up in the first year, or even faster if you focus on that instead of story. There are multiple ways to get exp.
Most of resources are available for sale (with exception of some growable food ingredients and fishes). And you get a lot of resources even if you are not grinding - after a couple of days your starter chest will not be enough to hold all the goodies you gather.
Race didn't matter for a quite long time, they added a couple of race-sensitive dialogue, but they are not of any story importance - just some more fluff. I didn't pay attention if that (total of 3 that I remember) are actually consitent.

As you might have noticed, I don't play this game for decorational fluff, game realationships or even story (tho the story is pretty solid and interesting for a game of this genre).
I am here for core gameplay, and it is amazing. Easily best of all games of similar genre I played including Stardew and Mistria.

If you are interested in more game suggestions, check on

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1658150/Moonstone_Island/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758870/Kynseed/

[Calico Witch]

I was going to type a lengthy reply but @Ilthe said it all quite well. I think our playing styles may be similar as well as I often put off many of the relationships and decorating until later in a game. My house in SDV is fabulous but I didn't even bother much with it for the first couple in-game years.

I have about 220 hours into this game and haven't encountered any bugs at all. AFAIK all the DLC is purely cosmetic and can easily be ignored. There's just a lot of it because the devs are trying to cater to folks with different tastes. The dialogue is varied and often witty/amusing. I love that you can change the length of the days and turn off the seasonal bosses/monsters. And there's an 'invincible mode' that I play because I'm an ancient crone and my reflexes don't cut it anymore.

BTW, I'll look into Moonstone Island. I've played Kynseed and rage-quit.

[Kasa]

Another example of the poor writing is the introduction to townspeople / important NPCs.

They will often not remember that they met you before. For example you will most likely meet Kitty in a cutscene before you meet her at her farm if you follow the first quests in the game.

You will have a full on conversation with her followed by solving the baby dragon quest with in the first two days of the game.

After you get the dragon bait from her if you talk to her again the very first sentence is... introducing yourself to her and her acting like she has never met you before.

This happens repeatedly to pretty much every and all NPCs, the reverse holds true where you can meet them outside a cutscene but they will act like this is the first time seeing you during the cutscene.

The same also happens if you level up a skill tree a lot, you may wake up to having a NPC you never met / talk to before showing up at your house talking to you like you're long time friends and how nice it is to have another "expert" in town. With your choice of dialogue options implying you know who this person is.

Here is another game that is apparently far less grindy and that the player base of both games say the writing is much better:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2142790/Fields_of_Mistria/

[🚂🚃Taschi🚃🚃]

I have played and love Mistria but will say that, at this point, it is a nice first half of a farming game. It is very enjoyable as it is, the writing is great and the visual style is really neat, but if you want to play a *complete* game, at this point, either Sun Haven or good old Stardew are better options.

Mistria also seems to go for a more "low fantasy" style, and it has less of an emphasis on crafting than Sun Haven, and its combat system is far more basic than Sun Haven's. None of those are dealbreakers, but they are fairly different games with different strengths and weaknesses regardless.

[Dark_Smilez]

Originally posted by GloriasDaughter:

Originally posted by Dark_Smilez:

I was just about to post this, What I dislike already and I like the game by far already and because I read an article years ago about it and now I get the chance to play it thanks to a job. The main issue I have is that they have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hub for the DLC like why?

I have read so many things about this game, both good and bad and I have it in my cart but I am scared to actually buy it unless I have some ideas on the state of the game now. most of the things I read are a year old. I need to get more recent information. You say they have a DLC hub? Is that in the game ?

----------------------
I think I wrote this before but i said fucm it and bought it. I just played abit last night and it's good so far. I can't tell you what's good and bad as of right now but from my current experience theirs no stamina bar which is great! But a con is no mini map and I have to press tab every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 20seconds. Not even a mod for a.mini map like wtf.

If you have the money I'd say research it before the sale ends definitely. Again I bought it for the final fantasy aspect of the game and pets and then for animals lol. They really put the we have pets n cool mystic creatures in the game.
And yeah the game in game has a dlc hub like I don't get that.
If you have any more questions and concerns definitely shoot me a message or anything like that!

[brionl]

IMNSHO, the game is pretty complete and nearly bug free. I haven't seen a game-breaking bug in quite a while, but there are a few cosmetic issues.

It's still actively being developed. They added a whole new area with a quest line and new items just last summer. And a couple of months ago they added a fast travel spell that you can unlock for each area after you complete the major quest line there.

There is a lot of DLC, but it is all clothes, furniture, pets & mounts. You can get clothes and furniture and pets and mounts solely in-game, just not the same ones.

[BecketsGD]

Originally posted by Ilthe:

The base game is cheap and you can see if you have major gamebreaking bugs (like being unable to create or move freshly created character - tho I heard it happens only to people who used to use mods) in first two hours, when you can still refund it - I haven't had any gamebreaking bugs, only once stumbled onto grass textures on elf town farm needing a game restart to start displaying properly. Never had any crashes, except once when my dumba55 antivirus decided to launch a massive check and hogged all PC resources at once.

DLCs with mounts allow to start using mounts a couple of ingame weeks earlier, same with pets, and one of them has the tiniest chest in game (ugly tho, and unlike generic basegame chests you can't customise them) which is useful early game when you don't have much wood to craft more normal chests or space in your home to place them.
Yes I'll say it - other that that DLCs are deco items. And they have none of new gameplay at all - the same things as in base game but recolored.
If you care about decorations, that might sting, but I urge you to actually look what that DLCs offer and decide yourself if that is something you want before flat out getting frustrated without even looking - most of that thing are not something one person would use at the same time. (And I consider a majority of the DLC items unappealing aestetics - but that is a matter of taste.)

There is an ingame shop for DLCs on the side of main screen, newest of DLCs are not in steam store yer - tho the team member with the director tag said on discord that they will be adding that new DLCs on steam too. This shop is actually very similar to DST one.
None of that DLCs is any different than the old ones - decorations.
Unfortunately if you want to look at their contents outside of the game you'll have to google for a video review or something.

Since you said you don't buy DLCs without gameplay content, none of "a lot of DLC" troubles people seem to have here should touch you.

The game is stated as complete, reached all promised goals and is still having somewhat regular updates that add bugfixes and many other nice things. You can check news tab to look at the amounts of goodies we get from free updates. Devs are currently working on adding one more region and improving console/controller stuff. Some other minor stuff is in the works too, you can check discord threads for direct dev communication.
The main story is definitely finished.

Currently the game for me if perfectly playable, and even that grass bug I described earlier haven't show up once again.

Most of characters have big amount of dialogues with character lore (and there are a lot of environmental character storylelling too), they are pretty different from each other. I'm not into all this game relationships, so you probably will have to wait for someone else to answer that question, if it is important for you.

You can customise the speed of ingame days 15-40 minutes, any time you want. So you decide how long the game will last.
You can get all you skills mostly levelled up in the first year, or even faster if you focus on that instead of story. There are multiple ways to get exp.
Most of resources are available for sale (with exception of some growable food ingredients and fishes). And you get a lot of resources even if you are not grinding - after a couple of days your starter chest will not be enough to hold all the goodies you gather.
Race didn't matter for a quite long time, they added a couple of race-sensitive dialogue, but they are not of any story importance - just some more fluff. I didn't pay attention if that (total of 3 that I remember) are actually consitent.

As you might have noticed, I don't play this game for decorational fluff, game realationships or even story (tho the story is pretty solid and interesting for a game of this genre).
I am here for core gameplay, and it is amazing. Easily best of all games of similar genre I played including Stardew and Mistria.

If you are interested in more game suggestions, check on

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1658150/Moonstone_Island/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758870/Kynseed/

TY so much for taking the time to offer such an in depth bit of insight into the game and the DLC content. This will be invaluable to helping me deicde what to do. I will update in this post as to whether I get the game or not jsut for anyone that might be curious. :)

[BecketsGD]

Originally posted by Kasa:

Another example of the poor writing is the introduction to townspeople / important NPCs.

They will often not remember that they met you before. For example you will most likely meet Kitty in a cutscene before you meet her at her farm if you follow the first quests in the game.

You will have a full on conversation with her followed by solving the baby dragon quest with in the first two days of the game.

After you get the dragon bait from her if you talk to her again the very first sentence is... introducing yourself to her and her acting like she has never met you before.

This happens repeatedly to pretty much every and all NPCs, the reverse holds true where you can meet them outside a cutscene but they will act like this is the first time seeing you during the cutscene.

The same also happens if you level up a skill tree a lot, you may wake up to having a NPC you never met / talk to before showing up at your house talking to you like you're long time friends and how nice it is to have another "expert" in town. With your choice of dialogue options implying you know who this person is.

Here is another game that is apparently far less grindy and that the player base of both games say the writing is much better:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2142790/Fields_of_Mistria/

I have been all up in Fields of Mistria lately. Its an awesome game for sure!

[Kasa]

I'd say look into the rune factory series, that and the Story of season games.

They have a different vibe then something like stardew valley, probably closer to Mistria.

[Ccrack]

bought this game the other day. i had a bug where the grass on my farm had its texture replaced with the portrait of kitty. one of the characters in the town

it was quite amusing

[Sebine]

A lot of the game needs to be condensed.

There's a scarecrow for each season
which is ... ... confusing