With Next Fest rolling around again I started to browse a couple of different gaming categories and this one caught my eye first. At least from the demo, I was getting some strong Stardew Valley vibes.

During Next Fest you get to demo quite a few different games. This one is expected to be released sometime in Q3 of this year. While quite a bit of the map and activities were locked off since this game is an open world. They do give you five in-game days to explore and do some activates

As we kind of expect these days there is a bit of an intro about you having to flee the lands you were from. War is spreading and you find yourself in a new area. You are greeted by a mysterious person who wants you to return to them a horse.

After riding through the woods on the horse for a little while you return the horse. That is when you are given a rundown place to rest and some land to farm. Since this game allows you to pick different backgrounds and social classes I ended up going with a peasant farmer.

Since this demo has a limited amount of time I decided to go with three goals. The first was to set up a farm. Second was to fix up the house the best I could. The third was to explore what parts of the map I could and see the kind of trouble that would entail.

The plot of land you can farm is covered in rocks, trees, and overgrown grass. Since I needed lumber and rocks anyways, I ended up clearing what trees I could. I could only clear the thinnest of the trees. I can only assume much later in the game I'll have the ability to clear some bigger trees.

I can say during the demo it seemed like a bit of a struggle to get enough wood for the house and I ended up building a tanning rack. While some random trees will end up growing back in your area. I ended up depleting those trees and what little I could chop down in the surrounding area.

Once I had an area cleared enough, I started to plan some of the starting seeds you are given from carrots to onions. I would also end up watering the plants each day. Thankfully, while you do use a watering can at least during the demo you did not have to refill it.

After that, I ended up gathering some further wood and rocks. This required me to start expanding beyond my area a bit. There are also quests in this game, most are locked since they are beyond the demo.

After some exploring and opening the map this game started to feel like Stardew Valley. Up north there is a cave I can only assume I can go mining in, but it was not an area I could go in the demo.

On the map, there are some deserts and other areas that at least look like some other things. This game is, however, set during the medieval era so there will be some differences at least in those aspects.

I also went into town where there was a poster about a festival. I could also work on my relationship status with the people in the village. I have to say I hate having to work on relationships with NPCs in games. This game was starting to feel more and more like Stardew Valley.

There is even a night and day cycle broken down into three parts. The morning, evening, and late night where you need to return home for rest. As every action consumes energy. You also need to eat to regain energy and remove hunger.

I even found a shop that sold different items. Such as seeds, livestock, food, and many other stuff. It also looked like I could sell things but since I did not have much on me I did not. I did, however, finish off a quest by finding the town and buying an item out of the main shop.

Quite a few of the buildings were either locked due to it being a demo or because I was not friends with the NPCs that owned the house. This game also has a moral system, so I got some bad karma for stealing from people's properties.

One thing I found a bit clunky about this game as I was exploring around was combat. I ended up running into a bandit while on a quest. Along with some other creatures or other bad guys while exploring. I was not a fan of the animation, and I was able to get the target I was attacking stuck or step around their attack animations a couple of times for an easy kill.

Another thing I was not thrilled by was inventory management. While it seemed like I still had inventory space. I was carrying too much food or building supplies or this or that. It is silly to say I'm carrying too much food so I can’t pick up anymore, but I can crack a boulder in half and carry another five rocks without an issue.

At the very least it did feel like I could get a decent amount of stuff done in a single day. I could do more than just go down to town and run back to deal with my garden and call it a day. Each day I went out and got to explore where the demo was limited to. Making me yearn to go beyond the red fog into the rest of the game.

There is a leveling system for the different actions you perform from melee to farming. The only thing I got to gather from that is at certain levels you get to pick specialization cards. I did not get to see too much of that system since there was quite a limitation on what I could do to earn experience in the first place.

I do rather like that different acts are broken down into their own skill experiences. That way if you are someone who just plans to do nothing but farming you are getting farming skill unlocks.

Final Thoughts

At least the five days they gave you for the demo was more than enough time. I explored everything that I could. Made what repairs I could to the house I was sleeping in but everything else regarding that was locked. I also grew some plants and harvested them.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Mirthwood. This was during the Steam Next demo.