Here's my sloppy review of Fields of Mistria because I wanted to finish the last task of The Steam Awards 2024, which is to review or update a review of a game I nominated. Can't fault me for being honest at least.

If you couldn't tell from (as of writing this review) overwhelmingly positive review score, Fields of Mistria is a good game. Which is an understatement. It's a fantastic game. Here's why:
->The characters are fun and memorable, I like how the characters react to your deeds, commenting on items you donate to museum, progression quests, heart events and so on. There are also dedicated Fridays at the Inn events that gathers all NPCs and have fun interactions. The writing is pretty good, and there's a great amount of unique dialogue to have.
->The visuals and music are pretty good. Not much to say tbh.
->You can pet a dog. What else can I say?
->There's a chill dragon statue you can talk to. What else can I say?
->Last but definitely not least, the gameplay is pretty engaging. Make up your mind about what you're gonna do for the day, be it farming, mining, fishing, etc. It's hard to describe how exactly the game is engaging, if you've played other farming sims and wasn't bored by them, you'll know exactly what I mean. Doing day-to-day activies is satisfying, and making tangible progression. At a certain point you unlock the ability to gain new perks, which uses its own currency to unlock them. Which means, anything you do is beneficial in general. For instance, chopping wood and then unlocking a perk for fishing. There's also magic spells that you unlock at certain points in the story (mainly for diving in the mines), which are benefitial. Conjure rain if you dont feel like watering crops, make crops grow instantly into produce, or, if you're exhausted but want to keep on going, magically refill stamina. The mana is slow to recover, one full point takes a few days, though there are mana potions to be found. I think it's a nice addition. Also, there's a magical horse you can ride, a nice reward for those complaining about movement speed, though you'll have to play a bit to unlock it (this was added in first major update).

For an early access game, the game has a fair amount of content, and it had its first major update recently, adding more of it. Even when it just released in early access, it felt like a polished and well designed product that would give you hours of enjoyment. And it keeps getting better. I should mention that I didn't experience all of it, I haven't gone through all new heart events. I did expand my house to the max, get to the lowest possible floor in the mines and did max a few skills, like smithing. I have played a bit and I like what I experienced.

Of course, since it's an early access game, it does have flaws, including those from the technical standpoint. Or it did. I had a few crashes here and there. The only notable bug I had was with the sound, the music would frequently malfunction, playing in distorted fashion, or layering extra music on top of one another, or just stop playing altogether. It was pretty funny, not gonna lie. I say "had" because these issues were fixed since at least the first major update. I haven't noticed anything else that I would consider major. Of course, since its an early access, there bound to be more bugs to squash with upcoming updates.

From the gameplay standpoint, I don't really have any complaints. The only one I have is that woodworking is a boring skill - it has little practical use, and it's slow to level up. It's mostly for crafting decorative stuff for sell, or, well... decorating. And I will admit I'm not really into prettyfying places (I'll get to sorting my messy house full of chests, i swear!!), but even then, it's just not very satisfying. I think the developers should boost the EXP gain for Woodworking, especially for harder/expensive recepies, because it doesnt feel rewarding. I do like how there are requests that ask you to craft items using that skill, I think that's a step in the right direction, though they appeared quite late for me. Of course, this statement may age because you know... early access.

The only other criticism I can dish out is not with the game's contents, but with the announcement of updates. NPC Studio decided to post about upcoming updates anywhere but on Steam. On Steam, where your core audience is. It just doesn't make sense to leave your consumers in the dark like that, you have to follow them on their website or Xitter or Bluesky or whatever. Also, they don't specify the exact time at which they drop the update, which generated some discussion. I think the developers should improve in regards of communication (note that the game didn't have proper road map dates when it launched, all major updates' dates were TBA... and it still doesn't as of writing this).

Oh yeah, one more thing, I do like the developers highlighting changes based on community feedback with a flower emoji in update changelogs. I think that's nice, it's basically giving the community shout outs for contributing.

So... yeah... it's a great game. If you're a fan of cozy games, farming sims. or even if you're just getting into them, Fields of Mistria is easy to recommend. It has become one of my new favorite games with engaging gameplay and fun writing, nice visuals and music.

Also, notice how I didn't mention Stardew Valley in this review, it's possible to judge a farming sim on its own merits... except I just did. Oops.

Here's my sloppy review of [b]Fields of Mistria[/b] because I wanted to finish the last task of The Steam Awards 2024, which is to review or update a review of a game I nominated. Can't fault me for being honest at least. If you couldn't tell from (as of writing this review) overwhelmingly positive review score, [b]Fields of Mistria[/b] is a good game. Which is an understatement. It's a fantastic game. Here's why: ->The characters are fun and memorable, I like how the characters react to your deeds, commenting on items you donate to museum, progression quests, heart events and so on. There are also dedicated Fridays at the Inn events that gathers all NPCs and have fun interactions. The writing is pretty good, and there's a great amount of unique dialogue to have. ->The visuals and music are pretty good. Not much to say tbh. ->You can pet a dog. What else can I say? ->There's a chill dragon statue you can talk to. What else can I say? ->Last but definitely not least, the gameplay is pretty engaging. Make up your mind about what you're gonna do for the day, be it farming, mining, fishing, etc. It's hard to describe how exactly the game is engaging, if you've played other farming sims and wasn't bored by them, you'll know exactly what I mean. Doing day-to-day activies is satisfying, and making tangible progression. At a certain point you unlock the ability to gain new perks, which uses its own currency to unlock them. Which means, anything you do is beneficial in general. For instance, chopping wood and then unlocking a perk for fishing. There's also magic spells that you unlock at certain points in the story (mainly for diving in the mines), which are benefitial. Conjure rain if you dont feel like watering crops, make crops grow instantly into produce, or, if you're exhausted but want to keep on going, magically refill stamina. The mana is slow to recover, one full point takes a few days, though there are mana potions to be found. I think it's a nice addition. Also, there's a magical horse you can ride, a nice reward for those complaining about movement speed, though you'll have to play a bit to unlock it (this was added in first major update). For an early access game, the game has a fair amount of content, and it had its first major update recently, adding more of it. Even when it just released in early access, it felt like a polished and well designed product that would give you hours of enjoyment. And it keeps getting better. I should mention that I didn't experience all of it, I haven't gone through all new heart events. I did expand my house to the max, get to the lowest possible floor in the mines and did max a few skills, like smithing. I have played a bit and I like what I experienced. Of course, since it's an early access game, it does have flaws, including those from the technical standpoint. Or it did. I had a few crashes here and there. The only notable bug I had was with the sound, the music would frequently malfunction, playing in distorted fashion, or layering extra music on top of one another, or just stop playing altogether. It was pretty funny, not gonna lie. I say "had" because these issues were fixed since at least the first major update. I haven't noticed anything else that I would consider major. Of course, since its an early access, there bound to be more bugs to squash with upcoming updates. From the gameplay standpoint, I don't really have any complaints. The only one I have is that woodworking is a boring skill - it has little practical use, and it's slow to level up. It's mostly for crafting decorative stuff for sell, or, well... decorating. And I will admit I'm not really into prettyfying places (I'll get to sorting my messy house full of chests, i swear!!), but even then, it's just not very satisfying. I think the developers should boost the EXP gain for Woodworking, especially for harder/expensive recepies, because it doesnt feel rewarding. I do like how there are requests that ask you to craft items using that skill, I think that's a step in the right direction, though they appeared quite late for me. Of course, this statement may age because you know... early access. The only other criticism I can dish out is not with the game's contents, but with the announcement of updates. NPC Studio decided to post about upcoming updates anywhere but on Steam. On Steam, where your core audience is. It just doesn't make sense to leave your consumers in the dark like that, you have to follow them on their website or Xitter or Bluesky or whatever. Also, they don't specify the exact time at which they drop the update, which generated some discussion. I think the developers should improve in regards of communication (note that the game didn't have proper road map dates when it launched, all major updates' dates were TBA... and it still doesn't as of writing this). Oh yeah, one more thing, I do like the developers highlighting changes based on community feedback with a flower emoji in update changelogs. I think that's nice, it's basically giving the community shout outs for contributing. So... yeah... it's a great game. If you're a fan of cozy games, farming sims. or even if you're just getting into them, [b]Fields of Mistria[/b] is easy to recommend. It has become one of my new favorite games with engaging gameplay and fun writing, nice visuals and music. Also, notice how I didn't mention [b]Stardew Valley[/b] in this review, it's possible to judge a farming sim on its own merits... except I just did. Oops.