The cozy gaming genre has seen a massive resurgence in recent years, with fans picking up cute life simulators and playing obsessively. Two extremely popular games in this genre are Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley, both giving players the chance to start a new, virtual life in a growing community full of NPCs. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the latest in a long line of predecessors from Nintendo, but it maintains the same formula as the original Animal Crossing for the Gamecube.
Stardew Valley features a heavier focus on farming and exploration than Animal Crossing, which is predominantly centered around community building and friendship. Stardew Valley is incredibly popular, despite being solo developer ConcernedApe's first and only game thus far, and fans were thrilled at the announcement of his upcoming project, Haunted Chocolatier, set to be related but not a sequel to Stardew Valley. The choice to create a similar but new game as Stardew Valley's successor is an interesting one, and the treatment would work extremely well for an Animal Crossing spin-off game.
Haunted Chocolatier's Different Approach
Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone announced Haunted Chocolatier alongside a gameplay trailer in 2021, and it was immediately evident that it would not be a Stardew Valley clone. Haunted Chocolatier features similar retro-style pixel artwork in the world and characters, as well as other popular Stardew elements like romance with NPCs and similar-looking combat. ConcernedApe has confirmed that Haunted Chocolatier is not a sequel to Stardew Valley, but the games will be connected in some way.
Haunted Chocolatier, like Stardew Valley, is a life simulator to some degree, but is instead being described as a supernatural, horror-themed RPG life sim. Players in Haunted Chocolatier will manage a chocolate shop that caters to both ghostly and living customers, and trailers show what appears to be an increased emphasis on combat, even potentially including boss battles. While Stardew Valley focused on farming and community growth, combat and commerce were secondary elements of gameplay. Haunted Chocolatier will likely reverse that formula and require players to prioritize their candy business and exploration of the world.
Changing the Animal Crossing Formula
Animal Crossing games continue to be extremely successful, featuring a tried-and-true formula that repeats in every main game in the series. Players move to a new, adorable town inhabited by talking animal residents. Through working for Tom Nook, fishing, catching bugs, and helping neighbors, players can upgrade their homes and improve the community that they now call home. While the series has evolved over time by adding new NPCs, additional daily tasks, and more responsibilities for players, the gameplay can become somewhat stale, especially for fans that are less interested in 100 percent completion or extreme island makeovers.
Haunted Chocolatier isn't out yet, but is already proving that it is possible to take an extremely beloved game and create a follow-up that isn't a clone. By retaining many beloved elements from the original game, the spirit and fan base of the series can be preserved. For Animal Crossing, the possibilities are endless. Animal Crossing: New Horizons took a step in the right direction with the Happy Home Paradise DLC, creating an entirely new game mode that put players in charge of an interior design business. This same approach could be applied to other minor aspects of New Horizons, resulting in a spin-off that focuses on island exploration with Dodo Airlines and provides more action-adventure style gameplay that tasks players with rescuing lost villagers. Another option would be a game that puts players in charge of an event-planning company, requiring them to work with photographer Harvey and other popular NPCs.
While Animal Crossing has never released a main series game that breaks the familiar mold, the franchise does have spin-offs like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Happy Home Designer. These show that a new approach to Animal Crossing is within the realm of possibility, and if Haunted Chocolatier is as popular as Stardew Valley, Nintendo may take note.
Haunted Chocolatier is currently in development.