Sun Haven (2023)

I couldn't be more pleased with the Sun Haven update, really. I think they killed it. I did an extensive review and checked in on the game (in beta anyway) just to see a huge update that addressed everything nearly everything I thought to bring up.

I'm so excited to see that the developers clearly care about this game. I know they much have taken a ton of feedback and they did so much good with it. A ton of respect to the team behind it. My review for this game was the first one I'd written in any great detail, it has a special place in my heart.

It sounds intuitive to say, "Farming sims should add new things and change it up a bit" but the market and popularity of games say otherwise. Personally, I'm a big fan of farming sims and like most have poured hundreds of hours into stardew and harvest moon back as a kid on my Gamecube. As I mentioned in the title, I've played the beta version of this game only so I'm excited to see what features are still to come and hope I get to see the polish this game needs to be really, really good. (NOTE: I don't know how much the developers are willing to change the game in the Beta stage beyond the usual bug fixes, but I can dream)

Dislikes/Thoughts on improvement:

1. just a content wall. I wanted to be able to do more things.

2. I disliked the dark city. Least favorite part of the game. I know it was a point of pride for developers, showing how different farming sims could be. I liked it for that because I do think it hinted at the potential innovation farming sims could experience in the future. H o w e v e r, to properly embark on an attempt to transition a farming sim to an urban, populated setting would be to change a fundamental aspect of farming sims that has stayed consistent throughout the genre: the setting. I think more things need to be taken into consideration to do the city thing well, and those things all hinge on holes the developers would need to fill that are left behind by taking away the Farm. I did not like the fact that most of the buildings were just setting, I disliked the size of this map, that darkness gets old because the buildings look so similar and are lit the same that the whole feeling of the place gets stale, and the soundtrack for Withergate literally had me mute the music for the game because it drove me so insane with the dark setting. This game peeked at innovation in this city, but it came off as gimmicky.

3. Similar note to dark city, but I wish that my being a Naga would have impacted my gameplay more. The variety in character selection is ultimately a positive to me, but I did wish that people would be more freaked out by the lower half of my body being a literal snake.

4. THE CRAFTING is lacking so much to it that I got bummed at points. The main fabricator you start with ends up being good for very little in the way of decorating, etc. Just felt like a half-baked feature whose utility is boiled down to fetch quests.

5. The game clearly wants you to have an affinity for your place, your home you choose amongst the available 3 cities. This is made clear by the in-game economy. Almost everything you can purchase in "primary" stores is seeds and some genre of home decor. That being said, there are some aspects of the game that I did not necessarily take as a big negative, yet they did prevent me from caring about my home in the way I believe the developers intended.

• Barn is setting only, having no impact on gameplay even though you have to pay for it, as is the case with any non-home building you purchase for your "farm".
• Taking care of the farm animals felt unrewarding and the UI for interacting with them was unintuitive.
• You can't un-till a patch of grass. Once you've hit it with a hoe, it will forever be dirt. This is frustrating for a player like me who wants more customizing options.

Likes:

1. The ELVEN city is amazing.

   • I think this is a better culmination of creative brainstorming for farming sims. I thought the farming sim transitioned to this earthy yet completely different environment seamlessly.
   • The vendors: pets are awesome and unique, mounts are sick, obviously. (please make mounts faster, I'll still ride it because I'm a sucker for how goddamn cute they are but I do hate how I'm only getting like a 5% speed buff pweassseee)
   • The love interests? Adorable. Filled in the cast of characters nicely and I think they were sufficiently unique compared to the rest.

2. This is a fantasy farming sim

   • It's an awesome concept that I'm still excited about months after playing it for the first time. I've played games that take the farming aspect of the genre and essentially paste it into otherwise not farming-related games. Sunhaven is unique in that it stayed a farming sim and built on the concept instead of trying to adapt it into something else entirely.
   • I got to play as a goddamn naga in a farming sim.
   • Talent tree in a farming sim, I love to see it.

3. I find the love interests to be super fun and well written.

   • I like that they aren't all human.
   • The storylines and little character backstories are very neat.
   • I do hope the marriage aspect of the game gets more fleshed out to where it impacts gameplay more. I have avoided getting married because there seemed to be little point except being able to sleep at their place if you wanted.
   • I do hope there will be a mod (fingers crossed also Nexus, Vortex is a breeze) for portraits (think stardew anime portrait mods). In fact, I think this game could really benefit from a rich modding community eventually.

Overall I don't find my feelings toward the game complicated. The fantasy RPG element was wonderful and unique. I think it is important for the genre to have games experiment with a format that hasn't been touched for the most part. Sunhaven being the exception among many farming sims, it would be unrealistic to expect the first execution to be perfect. That being said, I can tell the people behind it love the genre and are as excited about this project as I am to keep playing it as it fleshes out.