Haunted Chocolatier, Eric Barone’s follow-up toStardew Valley, is looking to be something of a spiritual successor to his 2016 breakout indie hit. The game, which centers on chocolate-crafting and the supernatural, has achance to build onStardew’s strengths, remixing its core mechanics and gameplay staples by way of its unique setting.
At first glance,Haunted Chocolatierlooks strikingly similar to its predecessor: bothChocolatierandStardewfeature charmingly retro pixel art, quaint, rural villages to explore, resource gathering, and customization. At the same time, Barone has been clear aboutHaunted Chocolatierbeing a wholly, fundamentally different experience fromStardew, leveraging new artistic, thematic, and gameplay elements to provide players with something new. IfHaunted Chocolatieris looking to strike a strong balance between reprisal and innovation, then looking at whatStardewfeatures would be the most natural to translate may be a good place to start.
Haunted Chocolatier Is Primed for a Version of Stardew’s Special Orders
Special Orders Offer Variable Goals in Stardew Valley
Stardew Valleydoesn’t have a definitive endpoint, but players can extend their time with the game by engaging in optional challenges well past the soft “ending” of the game. One of the waysStardew Valleyoffers additional challenges and goals is via Special Orders, which are essentially expanded versions of the Help Wanted quests from the early game. Starting in Year 2, players can complete specific tasks for different NPCs, usually along the lines of delivering certain resources or turning in monster parts.
Players can earn valuable rewards from Special Orders, such as household decor, money, and recipes, making them an important part ofachieving Perfection inStardew Valley. Additionally, these Special Orders help strengthenStardew’s theme of community, as players can gain a bit of insight into various NPCs during the course of accepting and completing various tasks. All in all, they are a nice way to give the player’s daily exploration and farming tasks a bit more direction, with gratifying rewards to boot.
Special Orders Can Be Elevated in Haunted Chocolatier
While the Special Orders system is a great part ofStardew Valley, there’s an argument to be made that it would be an even better fit forHaunted Chocolatier.Haunted Chocolatier’s premise is decidedly differentfromStardew’s, in the sense that, instead of running an isolated farm, players are effectively in charge of an independent, customer-facing business. Moreover, this business is all about processing and crafting chocolates, rather than shipping whole foods, which forms the brunt ofStardew Valley’s cozy gameplay loop.
With those factors in mind,Haunted Chocolatierwould be perfectly suited for something similar toStardew’s Special Orders. Perhaps players could be tasked with fulfilling specific chocolate orders, with NPCs requesting particular flavors or guidelines which the player could then realize through a potential chocolate-crafting system. AssumingHaunted Chocolatiertakes a more involved approach to chocolate making, a feature akin to Special Orders could serve as an avenue for discovering new recipes. Rather than recipes being a reward for completing a task like inStardew, learning the recipe could be baked into the gameplay of the activity itself.
Haunted Chocolatiercould also elevate the second type ofStardew Valleyspecial order: monster hunting. SinceHaunted Chocolatierwill have a greater combat emphasis thanStardew, it could be much more exciting and engaging to collect monster parts, thus making this sort of side activity more enjoyable overall. Plus, with the game having a more supernatural focus thanStardew, there could be other in-universe uses for monster parts, leading to more interesting and creative narratives backing such Special Orders.
Haunted Chocolatier
WHERE TO PLAY
Haunted Chocolatier is an upcoming adventure game from Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe (Eric Barone). The game is currently set to feature a lush explorable world, chocolate making and cooking, a spooky theme, and more. There is currently no release date or time period for the game.
