Want More Story In Your Stardew? Fields Of Mistria Is Right Up Your Valley

Fields of Mistria allows this web of relationships to be fully explored in a way Stardew never achieved. I know that Penny likes to hang out with Maru, but I’ve never seen her talk to Haley, or Pierre, or the Wizard. In contrast, the world in Fields of Mistria feels more alive. It’s more like a town where everyone knows each other, and not one where everyone just knows you.

Romance is one of Stardew’s biggest weaknesses. While the cutscenes surrounding each of the game’s marriage candidates are cute and memorable, actual marriage is a bit anticlimactic. Your spouse gets their own room, and sometimes they give you coffee or water your crops (which is usually useless as sprinklers have taken over by that point in the game), but that’s it. 

Mistria’s romances benefit from how connected the world feels, but they take leaps and bounds over Stardew’s by allowing you to go on dates with your paramour. It’s not just a little cutscene to raise your heart level; it’s a deep mechanic that requires the player to find the right items to get inspiration for a date, with each successful outing offering a cute (or steamy) picture of your partner as well. Marriage and children are new to the 1.0 release, and while children are just as basic as Stardew at the moment, marriage carries forward the same narrative depth as dating. Wedding dates can be chosen, and details planned with your partner. The wedding itself is a long, interactive cutscene as opposed to the 10-second affair in Stardew. 

Mistria’s quests also build on each other in a more narratively compelling way than Stardew Valley’s plot. In Stardew Valley, the closest thing to an overarching story is told through completing the Community Center (or siding with Joja Mart, if you’re evil), which gradually introduces improvements to Pelican Town. This is done by donating the various things you harvest, fish, forage, and mine to the center, after which you’re greeted by a short cutscene and, occasionally, some one-off dialogue from the townsfolk. Stardew’s main plotline exists in the background, and is merely meant to guide you through your first couple of years in the Valley. 

In Fields of Mistria, going deeper into the mines and improving the town both feature deep questlines with major consequences, rewards, and impacts on the world at large. There is a storyline–storylines, even!—to complete as you develop relationships with the townspeople, upgrade your gear, and expand your farm. Reaching the bottom of the mines, for instance, will unlock special (and marriageable) characters that widen the myth and magic of Mistria. Another questline unlocks new buildings and vendors, and improving the town level high enough leads to requests from King Kelinien himself. I can’t go into details without spoiling some big surprises, but the fact that there’s even something to spoil is a step forward.

What most sets these two apart, however, is that Stardew Valley is a farming game with RPG elements while Mistria feels like an RPG game with farming elements, and it’s all the better for it. Even Field of Mistria’s farming–though not much different from what we’ve come to expect from farming sims–features RPG elements, allowing players to unlock perks from a decently sized skill tree. Whereas Stardew’s longevity owes a lot to the strength of its farming mechanics, Mistra’s focus on roleplaying–on creating a stronger story and more vibrant interactions between NPCs–sets it apart by excelling in areas that Stardew doesn’t.

Do I think that Fields of Mistria is better than Stardew Valley in every conceivable way? No, but it’s still early in its roadmap. Stardew has shown how much can be added to a game over the years, both with official post-launch expansions and numerous fan-made mods. If Mistria gets updates for half as long as Stardew has, it’ll be in great shape. I’d argue Mistria still has a lot that can be learned from Stardew, too. For example, I think its narrative and character relationships could be improved even further by introducing conflict, which Stardew offers in spades. And even though Stardew Valley doesn’t have a strong story, some of the topics it covers in its Heart Events are much more mature, dark, and nuanced than its colorful, cutesy pixel art suggests. Plus, some people just don’t like you upon first meeting, whereas in Mistria, pretty much everyone–minus surly blacksmith March–loves you from the start. While I think some of the Pelican Town residents are a little too rude at the beginning (looking at you, Haley), I think Mistria needs to add complexity to its characters to make them shine beyond just being anime eye candy. Fields of Mistria isn’t a Stardew Valley killer, and it doesn’t have to be. But by dedicating itself to its characters and worldbuilding, it escapes Stardew Valley’s massive shadow in a way few farming sims can.