This game is awesome!
The mix between 3d and 2d is weird, and takes some getting used to but i ended up really liking it. as for the actual style of the game, it is really cute and playful and un-assuming at first.
Everything ties together so well. The crops being so beautiful but having a touch of decay and creepiness, the sound effects happening throughout, the random events that don't actually impact game-play., everything is creepy and mysterious and unknown.
I love how to game has both immediate threats and more 'docile until provoked' kind of threats, yet everything seems to want to kill you. You can never take a break and you're always on the edge of your seat. (Also why i think there shouldn't be a save button)
However, it's not nearly as challenging as videos made it out to be. I finished the game my first time playing it, and i only came across 3 different threats and very quickly learnt how to get around said threats. I found that some of them became less creepy/scary after only a couple encounters.
I wish there were modes/levels where (for example) events happen more/less often, crops need more/less water, crops yield more/less money or cost more/less. Maybe you have more lives if on easy mode, maybe there are more steps to escape on hard mode.
(SPOILER: I liked how the deer is always a threat but i wish the clown and crawling guy happened more often. I also wish the music for the crawling guy was shorter and more immediate. Everything became predictable quickly, but i think it would help if the frequency of events was increased as you progress and distance of triggering the deer was further)
Here are some threats and events that i think would fit in well but definitely don't have to be added:
- killer bunny that are found feeding on your crops. if you let them eat a crop they are fine and you loose a crop no matter what progress its at, but if you approach them (similarly to the deer) they turn into a killer bunny.
- Fake clown #1. A clown that looks a bit different to sad clown and will try to take the balloon from you.
- Fake clown #2. A clown that gives you a blue balloon instead of a red one, and if you try to give it to the sad clown, the sad clown kills you.
- Disease. A mist that covers a patch of crops and when you walk into it, triggers an immediate event, like the crawling guy or triggers the deer. Also makes the crops not be able to water.
- Nightmare. A shadow figure that chases you into the house at night time, but goes away when you approach the bed.
- Friends/Family come to save you. They rarely show up at the docks on a boat offering to take you home. If you get on the boat they turn into another creature and kill you.
- Rain. waters your crops.
- Sun. you need to water your crops more frequently or they will die, and if you don't dispose of dead crop they will catch fire and spread to other crops.
- Witch. appears randomly and must make an offering of (say pearls) or she will try and kill you.
- Wendigo husband. A bigger and faster version of the normal deer.
- Full moon. Some random nights are a full moon where werewolf/s attack you at the start of the night. Some full moons they don't attack and can instead be seen running in the trees
- Greed mushrooms. They grow randomly and you can eat and collect a full inventory (max seeds, max water, max lantern fuel) If you eat too many times you die.
- Alternative mushroom. You can eat to still collect full inventory but have a rare chance to die.
- Vampire fish. If pulled up on the fishing line (rare), renders the fishing line useless for the rest of the game-play (or de-spawns after a bit). If collected, you die.
- Calico cat. A cat friend that sits buy the docks. If you give it a fish it will help you by watering your crops slowly over time and slightly decreasing the chance of events triggering.
- Black cat. A cat that also sits by the docks but if you don't feed it before you leave, it will come with you back home and unlocks a new ending where it kills you when you escape (maybe your family too)
- Dog. The crow drops a bone at some point and a dog spawns by the selling bench. if you feed the dog the bone, it will stay in your house and decrease how fast the bed monster spawns.