Highlights
- Haunted Chocolatier can stand out by focusing on its unique premise and ConcernedApe's quirks.
- Improving upon Stardew Valley's less stellar systems, like the Joja Corp/Community Center dichotomy, can make Haunted Chocolatier more interesting.
- A dark adaptation of Animal Crossing's Happy Home Paradise mechanics could make Chocolatier's 'evil' path more rewarding and engaging.
Stardew Valley's spiritual successor Haunted Chocolatier, while still shrouded in mystery, seems like a promising take on the 'cozy' genre. It's no secret that Haunted Chocolatier will be entering an oversaturated market, as low-stakes games built around farming and social sim mechanics are a dime a dozen these days, but it can stand out by leaning into its unique premise and ConcernedApe's standout quirks.
While Haunted Chocolatier would do well to reprise many of Stardew's strongest systems and features, it should also strive to improve upon some of its less stellar ones. One such lackluster inclusion is the Community Center, Jojacorp dichotomy. Stardew Valley essentially allows players to walk an 'evil' path, selling out Pelican Town to Joja Corp, which transforms the Community Center, a pillar of the village, into a bland, soulless retail warehouse. Taking this path, rather than supporting the community and running Joja out of town, sends a strong message about destructive corporate greed, but it's also a bit uninteresting, arguably squandering its full potential. This is where Haunted Chocolatier can take some notes from Animal Crossing, making its version of Joja Corp better.
A Joja equivalent in Haunted Chocolatier has not been confirmed, but with how much potential such a system has, both narratively and mechanically, it doesn't seem unlikely.
Haunted Chocolatier's Combat Needs a Massive Feature Stardew Valley Skipped
Haunted Chocolatier is the successor to Stardew Valley, one of 2016's best games, but one element of the upcoming title needs a big improvement.
How Haunted Chocolatier Can Make the Corporate Route Interesting
Haunted Chocolatier Can Take Some Notes from Animal Crossing's Happy Home Paradise
In Stardew Valley, players can essentially just pay Joja 140,000g to renovate the Community Center, completely cutting off its long-running activity chain. This makes earning Community Center rewards much easier, as they can now simply be bought instead of earned with specific materials and crops, but it's definitely less rewarding. Moreover, the Joja route doesn't change much about the game beyond the Community Center quest, so there's little reason to actually engage with it unless a player has certain Stardew Valley mods installed, or just wants to shake things up on a second playthrough.
Animal Crossing's Happy Home Paradise DLC, an offshoot of the Happy Home Designer 3DS game, gives players an extra degree of control over their island, letting them redesign villagers' homes and removing some of the restrictions inherent in Animal Crossing's vanilla home design loop. Since Stardew Valley's Joja Corp is all about asserting control and expanding influence, perhaps Haunted Chocolatier could feature a dark adaptation of Happy Home Paradise's mechanics, letting players design the homes and buildings of their town, albeit in a less consensual, more intrusive manner. This would make Chocolatier's 'evil' path more mechanically interesting and rewarding than Stardew's, while also deepening its message.
A More Interesting Joja-Esque Path in Haunted Chocolatier Will Be a Balancing Act
If players could directly exercise their control over Haunted Chocolatier's villagers via a path of corruption and power, it would encourage alternate playthroughs while simultaneously hammering home critical themes of corporate overreach. At the same time, the game should take care not to make this route too rewarding, as this could undermine any sort of anti-corporate commentary. The Joja route makes Stardew Valley less enjoyable in some ways, but this is by design: there shouldn't be anything fun about helping a huge, heartless company take over a small town.
Haunted Chocolatier could still make a similarly evil path interesting without diminishing its core themes. For instance, perhaps the player-character's increased control over their town could directly impact their relationship with various NPCs, locking them out of certain quests or romance arcs. This would go a long way toward enhancing Haunted Chocolatier's replay value, as the anti-community story route would yield a number of meaningful changes while still adding a satisfying new dimension to the gameplay.
Haunted Chocolatier
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.
