Things I love and dislike about this game (after 100 hours)

[Susiron]

So I've put over 100 hours into this game now, and I just really wanted to talk about things I've both enjoyed about Fields of Mistria, and things I'm frustrated by and feel like could be improved upon.

To start, I wanna say that I've got an old love for farming sim games. My first ever video game I owned was Harvest Moon Back to Nature on the PS1, and games like it have been a favorite ever since. In particular, my favorites have been HM Back to Nature, HM Friends of Mineral Town, the HM Wonderful Life series (as well as the DS version), HM Save the Homeland, HM Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade, the Rune Factory series, Stardew Valley, Coral Island, and, now, I'm already counting Fields of Mistria among my favorites.
There are so many things I love from all of these titles. They all have strengths and weaknesses, and I'd love to be able to one day collect all of the things I love about farming sims into my own project someday if I ever can gather the resources, spoons, and time to do so.

But, for now, I just want to talk about what I've really enjoyed about Fields of Mistria, and what I have not.

To start, things I Love about Mistria:

-The characters and dialogue

Both the characters and dialogue in this game are already so strong. Even with heart events missing, you already get such a nice vibe for all of the characters, and the variety of both personalities and designs is so enjoyable. The character portraits are all gorgeous, and I appreciate that the romanceable characters all look like Adults, as they should.

The dialogue in particular has been a real treat in this game. I just love how many conversations bounce between multiple characters, and I appreciate that there's a marker indicating when this dialogue will occur. The fact that you can keep going to the inn every Friday for a continuation on dialogue from the last visit is honestly amazing. It makes me excited to go see the villagers all hanging out together, and gives a sense of community between the villagers that you don't really get in other farming sim titles outside of some cutscenes and heart events.

-The animal designs and variety

I knew from screenshots that I would absolutely adore how the animals look in this game, and I was not disappointed when I finally got to play it myself. I love not just the variety of animal species you can raise, but how much variety there is between the animals themselves. I remember being so excited as a kid when the cows in HM Save the Homeland had different spots, and then in the Wonderful Life series when you could get different breeds of cows. The spots might not be different here, but the gendered differences and variety of colors and coat combinations-- as well as distinct real life breeds (especially with the ducks)-- are delightful and really make me want to breed my animals more and see what combinations I can get.

I also really love that you can put little accessories on the animals, as well as hand feed them (a variety of food things!) and give them toys. All of the animations and sounds for the animals are adorable. They're just genuinely some of the cutest designed animals I've ever seen in farming sims, especially considering I really don't appreciate the art direction or animal designs from a lot of the more recent Story of Seasons titles (part of why I don't consider any HM/SoS game past like the Wii among my favorites).

-Town upgrades and exploration

Another really strong strength this game has I think is how upgrades for the town are handled, and just in general exploration of the map. I think it's so much fun to get to improve upon the town and See the fruits of that labor. Upgrading buildings, seeing the town restored and grow. It's very rewarding, and such a fun way to unlock new things as well.

And the ability to jump my way through the town, including directly into the river to swim? Genuinely delightful. There aren't many farming sim games I've played that let you jump (outside of maybe leaping over crops or fences), and being able to is just Fun. It makes me want to go out and forage more, and I feel like that translates very well too when it comes to the mines.

-Mine exploration and treasures

Which, speaking of the mines-- I love them. They're fun to explore, and I like the variety of enemies I've seen. The combat just Feels pretty nice. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, other than it just feels a bit more... active? I don't know. I've never been particularly good at combat in, say, Stardew Valley, and I just feel that attacking enemies in Mistria feels much smoother. The combat animations are really nice, and the ability to jump (and do a jump attack) definitely adds to it too. The minds feel like they have a nice mixture between being challenging and not too difficult, and I love that you can jump over gaps and swim while exploring them.

The chests you can find in the mines are also pretty fun, especially considering so many of them have decor items. It makes me really want to keep exploring to see what I might find, especially when there's so many artifacts, fish, bugs, and other little things to find for the museum.

-The museum, and amount of collectibles

I really just enjoy how much there is to collect and find, and the rewards attached to them. I love the insect and fishing themed decor items, and I can't wait to unlock more of them. I love that you get recipes too to make more of these items if you want, especially when they come with nice color variants.

It just scratches something really satisfying in my mind to have so many things to collect. I've always loved the trees in Tree of Tranquility, and the community center in Stardew, and the museum in Coral Island. Collecting is just Fun, and I really appreciate how much of an incentive there is here with it.

-Power ups and tools

I love that the power ups in this game are broken down into smaller nodes to collect, rather than being few and far between. It gives me something to look forward to while improving upon a skill.

I also really enjoy that you can just make your own tool upgrades without any additional cost, and I really like how upgraded tools like the watering can and hoe work. I like that it strikes in a 3x3 that increases to a 6x3. It makes for really nice rows while planting a field. I personally have issues with the number 8 due to OCD, so having something that encourages me to plant things in increments of 3 has been wonderful.

-Character customization, clothing, and decor

I love both the variety of clothing options, and I adore how changing outfits is handled. Having all of the clothes you unlock on hand, with easy to change colors, is such a godsend over having to sort through a giant dresser of a thousand different things. It's also just kind of nice to change your hair whenever, and I really appreciate that you can change both your name and pronouns whenever you want.

The decor is also all adorable, and I'm loving the variety already and I'm excited to see what new pieces might be added in the future. All of the pixel art for the decor items is genuinely adorable, and I just wish I had more space in my house for everything I've unlocked.

-Saving

Dear god thank you for letting us save whenever. I love Stardew Valley to pieces, but after spending so much time as a kid getting yelled at as I tried to finish feeding all of my animals, watering my crops, etc before I could save and end the day, I just cannot understand modern farming sim games only allowing you to save while ending the day. That's something that should've stayed in the 90's/early 2000's.

-Miscellaneous things I love:

-Dozy. I love him so much. Henrietta also, but-- DOZY. I adore that I can gift them
-I really appreciate starting with a calendar, and also birthdays being broadcasted.
-Being able to pick up coop animals fills me with joy
-Having capybaras is inspired, honestly.
-I love that you can catch bugs, and that it's not really difficult to do so
-I love my dragon friend and can't wait to see their flesh and blood form]
-In general I just really love the background lore and unfolding story of this game so much
-The spring music reminds me of an old Hamtaro game I used to love and it fills me with joy
-I really enjoy the variety of forageables
-Having magic spells is a lot of fun
-I love the saturday market and how the people that come to sell at it feel like part of the community too
-The Dragonguard trio are like the only child characters I've ever really cared about in farming sims I think

(This got too long, so the rest is gonna go in a comment)

[Susiron]

(Continued)

Alright, all that said now, I have some things I dislike about this game (things that are just personal preference at most, and others I would love to see improved upon), but I also just want to stress before doing so that I genuinely recommend this game to anyone that has a love for farming sims. Especially at its current price, and considering how fleshed out it is for a game still in early access, it is more than worth what you're paying for. It looks and plays better than any game that has fallen under the Story of Seasons title, in my opinion.

Things I dislike and/or wish could be improved upon:

-The crafting

I really like having crafting sequestered to zones, and I want to appreciate the idea of time associated with crafting, but I just... don't. So many of the crafting recipes don't even require time with perks, and the ones that do just discourage me from crafting, or make me feel like I'm wasting a whole day on kind of nothing. It doesn't feel rewarding at all, especially when it comes to making things like cheese, mayonnaise, and anything else at the mill.

-Animal products feel kind of worthless

It really only feels like animal products have value if you're converting them into cooking recipes or materials like cheese. And while I'm used to converting materials being the thing that makes animal produce worth more in games like this, with how much time you have to sink just to make a handful of cheese? It's kind of awful. And I just personally don't want to throw a bunch of cooked plates into the shipping bin. I'm kind of put off in general too by cooked recipes just sort of... popping out of crops. Like it's kind of a fun perk, but it also feels like it takes away from any satisfaction of collecting the materials and cooking those recipes yourself.

-Upgrading barns and coops is kind of terrible

I'm glad you get your resources back when you deconstruct a barn or coop to put down plans for a new one, but the fact that you have to go through a tedious menu of putting every single one of your animals, one by one, into a daycare (that you later have to remove them from), just to put them in an upgraded building on the same plot? It's tedious and clunky and it makes me dread ever wanting to move my farm buildings again.
I enjoy that you just gotta collect the materials for the barns and coops and make them on the spot, but the upgrading of these buildings is not a fun process.

-Axe upgrades and repeated tool/seed use

I don't really understand what holding down the axe to do a widespread chop is supposed to do. There's really never a time when there's sticks in a pattern like that to make it worthwhile, and it doesn't seem like the powered up attack has any influence in chopping down trees or stumps fast enough to justify the charge. I'd honestly rather just be able to hold down the button for the tool and have it chop repeatedly without having to click click click every time.
I'd also really appreciate being able to hold down one button to plant multiple seeds and harvest multiple crops. This is an issue I have with Coral Island as well, especially as someone with chronic hand pain. All of that click click clicking adds up a hell of a lot.

EDIT: I missed this option in settings! I'm a little confused why holding down isn't default honestly, but it being an option at all is truly a godsend. My mistake on missing the setting, and thanks again to TamanduaGirl for pointing me in the right direction!

-Time and energy

There really is just not enough time and energy in this game. Especially time. The days are way too short, in a way that has become increasingly stressful the further into this game I get, and the more animals and crops I obtain.
I don't feel like I've planted an extreme amount of crops in my second spring (three rows of 3x26 crops, which only takes up half of the central sliver of land), but it still takes me about three in-game hours to water all of them, and I cannot water all of those crops without completely depleting my energy. Nevermind that planting also costs energy, so if you're planting fast-growing crops to feed to your animals, then your energy hit is significantly worse.
And sure if you have the perk for it, those cooked dishes that drop from your crops (or any you've made yourself) can get most or all of your energy back, but it just feels Bad and clunky to Need to replenish your entire energy bar after watering your crops.

Plus then there's animals... By the time I've finished taking care of my crops and animals, especially if I'm hand feeding them (which feels like a necessity at times, since it's honestly difficult to collect wild food for them, and expensive to purchase), then I'm often not even leaving the farm til after noon. If I stop to then talk to villagers, or check the request board, or forage and fish a few times? Then I'm often not making it to the mines until 3PM, where I am Lucky to get down 4 floors before I have to abandon trying to get to the 5th for that elevator because it's already midnight.

And then I STILL have to try my damnedest to call all of my animals inside before I rush my character to sleep, which there is Barely enough time to do so with three animal buildings if you leave the mines at exactly midnight, even without making detours along the way.
It really should not take 2 hours to run from the entrance of the mines, to three buildings on your farm (that aren't even placed far from your door), and hop into bed.

I am Begging the developers to either increase time for this game, or to add in a potential time dilation slider like Coral Island has.

-Scenery

Now this is where preference really comes into play, but I really can't say I enjoy the scenery of this game much. The animals and interior are all amazing and adorable, but the outside world just leaves so much to be desired. The grass is Flat, and empty, and the few decoration items you can add to your farm to try and break it up just either don't look that nice, or don't do enough to break up the endless sea of grass that's one color. It's kind of strange, having scenery that both feels so exploreable, while also feeling flat and empty at the same time? I'd honestly love to see more details added, or a rework to some of the scenery pixelwork, though I'm not sure if that will ever happen based on the general art style (even if everything smaller feels much more detailed than the grander world and trees within it).

-Smaller, miscellaneous gripes:

-Not being able to pick up weeds or break them with any tool is a huge pain in the ass. Especially considering you break out the sword to get rid of one, and wind up mowing down half your animals' lawn.
-Not being able to see what obstruction is behind a tree, and having to cycle between three different tools to find out what it is and break it, makes me want to scream.
-Fish getting stuck on corners while fishing
-Storage feels clunky, as does moving items in general
-I cannot stand that reorganizing your inventory shuffles around your tools as well
-I really wish there were more hair options
-It really frustrates me that Merri isn't romanceable when she's the only woman in the game with her body type
-I love getting scroll recipes for items, but when my pockets are full and the museum gives me the item and throws the learnable scroll of it on the floor instead of giving me THAT first to learn and clear a spot, I want to throw something
-I wish that townsfolk would have unique dialogue when you're holding an animal
-The music for winter gives me a headache (there's a really sharp note in it that sounds like an alarm going off two rooms away)
-(Very much personal preference) the lack of store hours feels very impersonal and kind of frustrating to me. It feels less like going to a store with an engaging character, and more like I just took an extra step to online shop

Any other gripes I have are things I feel like I don't want to comment on, since I know they're in the roadmap for development (such as not being able to ride animals rn).

All in all, I've been loving this game so much, and I'm genuinely so excited to see where it goes and how it develops in future. I'm delighted that I purchased it so close to an update (tomorrow!), and I can't wait to see what gets added once that drops <3

[TamanduaGirl]

I'd honestly rather just be able to hold down the button for the tool and have it chop repeatedly without having to click click click every time.

You do. Check the settings. They are separate buttons to hold to charge and hold to use repeatedly. Just assign it to the button you prefer.

[Susiron]

Originally posted by TamanduaGirl:

I'd honestly rather just be able to hold down the button for the tool and have it chop repeatedly without having to click click click every time.

You do. Check the settings. They are separate buttons to hold to charge and hold to use repeatedly. Just assign it to the button you prefer.

Oh my god, thank you for letting me know this, I missed it while searching settings. That's genuinely such a blessing for my achy ass hands

[Symmetrical]

It was a good writing and I agree about some of the miscellaneous gripes you mentioned like needing sword to cut leaves, not being able to see what is behind of the trees or the primitiveness of the storages but I am sure these will not be a problem after one or two updates. The scenery on the other hand is good in my opinion. Yes, the grass looks flat but it matches with the general artstyle. The game has a ''old'' artstyle or at least that is what i think and it looks cute to me. They could get some upgrade but ultimately it comes down to personal taste i guess.

[Susiron]

Originally posted by Symmetrical:

It was a good writing and I agree about some of the miscellaneous gripes you mentioned like needing sword to cut leaves, not being able to see what is behind of the trees or the primitiveness of the storages but I am sure these will not be a problem after one or two updates. The scenery on the other hand is good in my opinion. Yes, the grass looks flat but it matches with the general artstyle. The game has a ''old'' artstyle or at least that is what i think and it looks cute to me. They could get some upgrade but ultimately it comes down to personal taste i guess.

Yeah that's very true, that a lot of those issues could definitely go away with updates!

And that's fair!
I absolutely recognize that that the scenery thing is purely personal preference. I'd love to see more textures or breaks in the grass, but that's not something I really expect to happen and I can respect the art direction if it never occurs.

I definitely would love to see more pathing options though, to help break it up on the farm and personalize more at least.