Facebook has struck again: the algorithm has intuited the very things that I like and flung an appropriate advertisement in my face.
I was just browsing the website, minding my own business, when a game called 'Mirthwood' jumped out at me. What's more, it jumped out at me described as basically the lovechild of Fable, Stardew Valley, and Rimworld.
That really intrigued me, so I hopped over to the Steam store, discovered that Mirthwood is being released in just under a week but I can play the demo now, and downloaded the demo!
Those three games mixed together certainly sounds quite interesting.
First of all, I made my character. Always the most important thing in these little games.
While character creation is fairly basic, there are quite a few background options to choose from that can influence how your gameplay will progress. There are different regions which sets a basis for your character's personality, there are different classes which allow you a pro and a con and also dictates how NPCs may react to you, and then you can chooses your character's basic background: You could be a criminal, farmer, fighter, ratcatcher, herbalist, amongst a few others, and these options also give you a pro and a con.
My character is an introvert, socially unpolished, full of energy and excels at foraging herbs.
The game begins. My family home has been set aflame by raiders that have somehow overwhelmed the guard and are running amok through the village.
My father and brother tell me to flee, that there is a ship docked in the village harbour that will whisk all the survivors away. They'll meet up with me when they can. Farewell.
I find a rusty old sword and some armour in a barrel, hastily equip them, then find myself face to face with a raider.
He is swift to die.
As I run to the village docks, I come across some guards interrogating a man. Apparently it is his fault the raiders have burnt the village to the ground. He dared to leave his post.
He offered some cock-n-bull story about how he had gone to stop a group of people from poisoning the well, but my character did not listen. Filled with rage, she killed him and continued on her path.
The guards at her back gasped in shock and she lost a bit of her morality, but it had been worth it.
At last, she boarded the boat.
On the other side of the river, a man with a horse told her to ride west. And so she did.
And at last the game has begun.
She gave the horse to a masked stranger who offered her this plot of land and abandoned house. Inside was a filthy mattress and the remains of a campfire.
This would be the start of her new legacy.
AND SO.
We have a giant plot of land that can be expanded in time, a house that needs to be repaired externally and internally, and heaps of trees and stone and overgrown grass to clear out.
In this demo we're given a treasure chest with some seeds and tools and my little lady begins her new life.
The first thing I did was repair the outside of the house. At least it looks like a proper farm house now! And not just a ramshackle pile of crap amongst the weeds.
My lady has a couple of character bars - health, energy, and hunger. Thanks to one of the background choices I made for her in the character creation, she has more energy than the average person which is really nice.
Cooking seems pretty straight forward. Have ingredients, make food.
I'm not yet sure if there is or will be a craft-from-chest option but I certainly hope so! I hate having to take stuff out of chests just to craft.
The map looks fairly sizeable!!!
In this demo we're restricted to just a tiny area of the map, but it looks like there's going to be heaps of stuff to explore and places to go. Looks as though there's more than one village too. That's cool!
The screenshot above is just one area, the map slides around all over the place. MANY AREAS.
There is a friendship and romance system in the game.
This seems very Sims-like and I am all for it. You can run around and greet everyone, and it seems everyone is happy to be greeted. Then you can stop them for a proper chat, jest, gossip, etc.
Because I don't really know these people yet, I tried to small-talk a bunch of them. Turns out most people don't like small talk! The man in the screenshot above insulted my father after my small-talk went awry. So I then jeered at him and insulted him back.
Bastard.
I then went into someone's house and stole some stuff out of a barrel. I lost more morality upon my theft. xD
After my adventure in the village I decided to go back to my plot of land and do some more things.
As you do certain things, you level up and gain perks in the appropriate skills you've been working on.
I fought a few raiders back in the beginning and that levelled up my Melee ability by +1, and since being on this plot of land and using my tools I've gotten quite a few points in the Trades.
Reaching a certain level in each skill grants you a choice of cards...
And you can choose one of the cards to pop into your deck! I can only equip one card at the moment, but I imagine the other cards will open up as the game progresses.
After all that work it was time to head on inside my house and hop into bed.
First though, I repaired the interior of the home with all the stone and wood I had collected and moved my crappy mattress and cooking pot.
Home design is nice and easy, I have a crafter's table to build more things, and I imagine I could probably buy some furniture and things from traders too. You can easily move and rotate stuff once it's been placed too. Simple, intuitive.
SO! Here's my character sheet after a couple of in-game days.
Despite making some shady decisions so far, my morality is still pretty much in the centre. I could probably get away with being a friendly, helpful thief if I choose!
My renown is garbage. I am a nobody in a new land. xD
So far I am pretty pleased with this.
There are quests to do, places to explore, adventures to be had. Combat, friendship, romance. Background choices that actually matter. What you wear matters. Like, if you wore an elegant robe embroidered with gemstones the NPCs will undoubtedly fawn over you.
The gameplay is quite intuitive with keyboard and mouse, though I do feel it would probably be more suited for controller. Either way, keyboard and mouse is definitely serviceable which makes me happy!
Apparently the entire world is fully simulated, NPCs do their own things day and night, you'll organically come across things out in the wild, there's rare and epic loot to be found, if you know how to perform you can!
I went into this demo thinking, ah yeah, another Stardew Valley clone, and I have closed the demo pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed my hour of the game and swiftly added it to my wishlist... not that it'll be there for long. It releases in just a few days!
✨You can check it out for yourself on the Steam Store behind these blue words!✨
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 
