Stardew Valley had a highly effective antagonistic figure in Joja, and Haunted Chocolatier will need something with similar impact to add weight to the narrative. The threat of Joja was a well-established part of the game, and acted as a good motivator for the player to do well in farming, foraging, and everything else they had to do to restore the community center. Of course, it will need to be a force that makes sense within the setting of Haunted Chocolatier. However, the game's narrative needs something to motivate the player to succeed just as Joja did.
As the resident antagonist, Stardew Valley's JojaMart and Joja corporation embodied the problems of powerful corporations that lack standards. Joja appeared in Pelican Town not long before the player's arrival, and it took customers away from other local businesses. It doesn't help that its signature Joja Cola is so unhealthy that the game classifies it as trash rather than food. By the start of the game, Pelican Town is in danger of becoming a Joja company town, and Mayor Lewis will sell the community center to them if the player gets a Joja membership. Driving out Joja is a major reason to complete the community center, and a villain should be similaly important in Haunted Chocolatier.
Haunted Chocolatier's Story Needs To Have Appropriate Weight
One thing that made Joja work in Stardew Valley's influential farming story is that its negative influence was shown early on. The intro shows the player's life before moving to Pelican Town as a Joja employee, being absolutely miserable in their job at an oppressive cubicle farm. In addition, Jojamart manager Morris is smug and unpleasant, even sending shopkeeper Pierre a letter offering him a job as a cashier with an inhumanely low salary. If the player does end up siding with Joja, the Junimos that live in the community center even disappear as Joja replaces it with a warehouse, showing their corrupting influence on the valley.
It would be a great benefit for Haunted Chocolatier to have a Joja-like figure in the game. While simply bringing Joja back may not work, unless it was specifically a confectionary branch of the Joja corporation, another antagonist with its own storyline could work. Even if Haunted Chocolatier doesn't go the corporate route, there are still a few other paths that such an antagonist could take. Considering the presence of ghosts in the town, it's possible that there could be some sort of antagonistic force that threatens the spiritual or supernatural aspect of the city that the player would be able to confront.
One of the biggest things presently in Haunted Chocolatier's favor is its theme. Haunted Chocolatier's subtle horror-themed elements help to add more of a flair to the game. Magic was a subtle part of Stardew Valley, with the Junimos and the Wizard's presence. Haunted Chocolatier looks to make the supernatural a bigger part of the game just from its premise alone. For that reason, a conflict involving the magical nature of Haunted Chocolatier's setting may be more fitting than another corporate antagonist. As long as it gives players a reason to care about the town, it can be a worthy successor.
Joja was an effective enemy in Stardew Valley, and Haunted Chocolatier needs a threat of a similar tier to motivate players. Haunted Chocolatier can't ignore why Stardew Valley worked, and the themes of the underlying plot are one of the major inspirations that Haunted Chocolatier can put to good use in its own story. Just like how Joja was a threat to the community that the player called home in Stardew Valley, Haunted Chocolatier needs a similar way to strike at the player's heartstrings and give the game's story more impact.
Haunted Chocolatier is in development.