Hello again!
I'm glad people enjoyed the first part of my thoughts on Sun Haven, which can be found here. I enjoyed writing it!
I'm back again to talk about the first in game Sun Haven day, which follows the character customisation.
You start off on the bridge next to your plot of land. It's packed with weeds, trees and rocks- oh no! We need to clear it!
Last post, I mentioned that I chose the farmer profession, which meant that I would start off with more money & seeds, which you can see in this screenshot of my open inventory! We were given 4 potato, tomato, and onions seeds. We've also been given a little house item too...
We need to chose where we put the house, luckily we've got a lot of space to chose from. The text box says that if we want to move our house in the future, we will need to buy a house demolition kit- I haven't seen any other farming simulation type games do this sort of mechanic before! I believe the house demolition kit costs 2500 gold, whereas buying a new house costs 25000 gold!
Once I placed the house, I was taken into a cutscene where I was introduced to Anne- she is the owner of the "Travelling Exotics" shop in town. I do feel bad with being critical, especially because I like this game, but I'm not the biggest fan of some of the women character art in this game, it makes me feel a little awkward when I've shown this game to friends, lol. I would love for them to redesign her a bit maybe? Her clothes look uncomfortable. Again, I do like this game a lot, and generally like the art, but I'm not too fond of some of the designs...
She tries to con you into paying more than you need for 15 wheat seeds, however; you are given the option to try and bargain, which normally wouldn't work in games I've played but this time it does! You get your items for 100 less gold- bargain!
I edited this to include a few things in one screenshot, first is a screenshot of the inside of my house. Then I show my quest log, which is to plant and water some wheat seeds, and lastly I show me cutting a down a tree to make space for the plant area!
As you can see, I get items when chopping down the tree- one of these being a "spring token". This is something I will show more in later posts but, in each season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) you are able to passively collect tokens to collect items themed for the season you're in.
I used the hoe tool to create some space for a planting area for my wheat, tomato, potato and onions seeds! After using my watering can to water the seeds I got a notification stating that I had some skill tree points- YAY!
This is the skill tree section! You are able to level up and progress through each skill:
Exploration,
Farming,
Mining,
Combat,
and Fishing!
Through the skill tree you are given many options for different perks to pick. For my farming level progression, I chose a perk that grants you 10 blue rose seeds every week, I thought this would be useful in case I needed an easier way to make money without buying seeds. You're able to "buff" up skills you've selected up to 3 different times. Each time increasing the effect of them. For instance, I will get these 10 rose seeds every week. If I progress this perk again, I'll get 15 a week, and then for the third and finally "buff" I will get 20 blue rose seeds for free.
Once I completed the wheat planting task, I spoke to Anne and received my reward- some more EXP (experience points) which will go towards progressing my skill tree! I was then tasked with opening the map and heading to the general store. Another thing I need to aim for is to harvest 40 wheat seeds- so I need to buy more and plant more when I return!
Once at the general store, I was put into a cutscene, which led me to another quest- heading to the mines area to talk to the blacksmith, Solon, to deliver his order. Unfortunately, he was having issues with a baby dragon making a mess of the place.
I had "help Solon" to break these fallen rocks, I did all the work and he just stood there but that's okay, haha.
Solon asked me to go talk to the town's mage, Lucia, as he wanted help with getting rid of the dragon (bit rude).
While talking to Lucia about this dragon problem, the town's other Amari (animal person, the same as my character) overheard us. She is the town's pet shop owner! Similar to Anne, I'm not the biggest fan of her character design, but that's ok!
I was then tasked to go to the beach and speak to the fisherman to get a snack for this troublesome dragon, look at cluttered the beach is! Every day, new forgeable (like these on the sand) spawn at the beach, you can pick them up to sell them! However; sometimes the townsfolk ask for these items in quests, so I try to keep a little stock of them near me.
When I arrived to the docks, Peter, the fisherman, was having issues with this creature, lol.
Peter caught me the fish I needed for the baby dragon, so I returned to Kitty with my item and completed this fetch quest, and got some more EXP in return!
The top section is the base rewards you get from the quest, and the bottom section shows what you are able to chose. I chose the farming EXP as I want to be a good farmer in this game. :)
I chose to end the first day here! I didn't want to over do it all in one sitting. To save your progress in this game, you take your character to sleep, so they sleep until the next day.
I really love the art on this little loading screen, I think it's really beautiful!
This is how much I made in my first day in Sun Haven! As you can see, it mentions I also gathered "tickets" and "orbs", we don't need to worry about these yet! But they will come in handy soon. I can use them in other cities in this game.
End of part 2...
Thank you for reading, my next Sun Haven post will be about my second day in Sun Haven- stay tuned!