To make a long story very short, Fields of Mistria is, in my opinion, like if Stardew Valley and Rune Factory had a kid. In most ways it's got the gameplay of Stardew Valley with the Rune Factory vibes.

To make a short story longer, Fields of Mistria is such a cute game, though the characters aren't currently very memorable. Admittedly, I wasn't very invested at all in but the absolute minority, and the current romance options didn't speak to me at all. Only Celine and Ryis managed the tiniest spark of something like interest. Maybe I'm just holding out for the dragon. Still, I'm holding on, on any real judgements until more heart events come out. Right now there's one heart event for every two hearts, with the currently romancable characters only. For all characters you can, as things are, get to four hearts. It doesn't leave a lot of room to really get to know them, but it's enough for them to make an impression. Rather than, like in Stardew, where some of the characters have semi random events that have more or less character progression involved, in Mistria they all have their own story you follow in tidbits for every event, which I really like. I was also impressed with just how much the characters have to say. It wasn't all that often I'd run into repeated dialogue. I also loved how they'd hint at what different characters' loved and liked items were during the Saturday Market. It was a great way to try to avoid the wiki.

That said, I still felt the wiki was necessary, especially in the beginning, when I would get requests for items I had no clue how or where to find. Or, I'd get them for items I couldn't yet access, which clogged my quest-tab for quite a while. I did enjoy how some requests were tied to collecting recipes, though. It makes them worth doing, rather than just things you completely ignore after a while.

The world itself was easy to get around in, and didn't take long to get familiar with. The palette is super cute and pleasant to look at, and there're loads of accessibility options, like settings to help with diziness, which I deal with a lot. Personally, all I had to do was zoom out to the second to last option and I was fine. The default is extremely close to the character, which I personally thought a bit of an odd choice, and was therefore extremely happy to see that it could be changed.

As for the gameplay, it's literally just Stardew Valley with a new filter. The only notable differences are the more engaging tierd levelling system, and that you can jump and swim in this game, which are features I'll be missing in other owned games like this in the future. Still, it's the "farm, mines, fishing, town" song. It does not, however, stress like Stardew Valley does. In fact, doing things methodically like in Stardew leaves you without anything to do by the last season. Halfway through winter I was out of content save a few collectibles I was missing for the museum. To be fair, that's my own fault for playing the way I do.

At least I'm all set up for next year with my saved seasonal outfits. Yes, you heard right, you can save your oufits and equip them on the fly. In fact, you can access you wardrobe at all times and edit literally everything aside from your birthday, which you pick when you first make the characater. You can even change your name, the name of your farm and your pronouns. With that in mind, this game is extremely inclusive, which is great to see.

Overall I'm very impressed with this game and am really, really looking forward to more content. I have no real bad things to say, to be honest. The only hiccup, I think, is that the leveling system is a little bit unbalanced, specifically for woodworking and fishing. Everything else levels up at a decent pace, but those two are a giant pain to level up, even if you're doing them semi regularly. I could fish for an entire day and not get a single level, while I'd get several from one run in the mines. I recommend the devs turn up the progression for woodworking and fishing, because right now it's a bit of a grind, which doesn't vibe well with how much everything else in the game is decidedly not. Everything else I'd mention I already know is coming, so I'll just sit back and wait for that, and try not to speed through it when it gets here.

I highly recommend this game for lovers of the genre, or people who just enjoy a cozy stress-free experience. Especially at such a great price.