Highlights
- Haunted Chocolatier is the successor to Stardew Valley, with new setting, characters, and focus on combat.
- The game needs to make combat fun and engaging, with potential boss battles to improve player experience.
- Haunted Chocolatier should take inspiration from other 2D games with memorable boss fights to differentiate itself from Stardew Valley.
Haunted Chocolatier is the long-awaited successor to 2016's Stardew Valley, a game that has amassed a significant following over the years due to its charming nature, addictive gameplay loop, and commitment to regular updates. Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone is still making significant improvements to it to this day, even temporarily shelving the development of his next game to give fans even more content.
However, Haunted Chocolatier is next on the menu for gamers, regardless of when it is released, and with it will come some significant changes compared to Stardew Valley. A different setting, all-new characters, and a greater emphasis on combat are all promised, with the latter being perhaps the most significant change. It has to justify the added mechanics, though, and implementing interesting boss battles could be the key to making it all come together.
Grave Seasons Could Be the Perfect Antithesis to Haunted Chocolatier
Grave Seasons and Haunted Chocolatier both feature horror-inspired elements, but their implementation of those elements couldn't be more different.
Stardew Valley is Devoid of Boss Encounters
Stardew Valley's enemies act differently from one another, but the limited combat mechanics that the game presents means that they can only really be defeated using one method. Weapons of varying damages and speeds help make it slightly more compelling, but battling in the mines can get tiresome quickly, especially on floors crawling with adversaries. Haunted Chocolatier has to find a way to make fighting fun, and it's apparent that the developer is doing this, having confirmed that it will have a greater focus on combat and is being completely created from scratch.
In a blog post from October 2021, ConcernedApe notes that:
"Haunted Chocolatier has a greater focus on combat, so it needs to be very fun, satisfying, and engaging, while also appropriately fitting into the big picture. You can rest assured that I’m not 'copying and pasting' Stardew’s combat. On the contrary, almost everything in Haunted Chocolatier, including the combat, is completely coded (and drawn) from scratch."
Boss fights are non-existent in Stardew Valley, but in Haunted Chocolatier they could be the best means to help players get to grips with a combat system that is more complicated. Swatting a smattering of enemies away doesn't take much thought or pre-planning, but a hefty enemy to overcome can provoke a feeling of tension, as the player will have to learn its movements, study its attacks, and capitalize on the windows of opportunity. All of these things would serve to show off just how multi-faceted the battle mechanics are, and in doing so, it would be another critical differentiator to separate it from the ever-present shadow of Stardew Valley.
Haunted Chocolatier Needs to Capitalize on Its More Complex Combat
ConcernedApe has already indicated that Haunted Chocolatier will have a more intricate combat system than its predecessor, and while little is known about how it will unfold, what is obvious is that the only way is up. Stardew Valley has combat encounters aplenty, but it's rarely seen to be the game's primary focus unless the player decides it should be. Other areas of Stardew Valley take precedence, like tending to livestock, caring for crops, and fishing. Haunted Chocolatier won't adhere to this philosophy, so it has the luxury of being more ambitious with its battle mechanics, as well as its combat encounters.
Haunted Chocolatier Has Plenty of Avenues for Inspiration
While most boss fights in modern games take place in three dimensions, there are a plethora of games that make it work wonders in 2D. From The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's memorable boss fights, to something more contemporary like Hollow Knight, Haunted Chocolatier has enough sources of inspiration to carve out something not just functional, but memorable, also. Stardew Valley felt like a very passive experience, whereas Haunted Chocolatier seems to be less so, and having a host of boss fights that play out at regular intervals could be the key to making the upcoming ConcernedApe project yet another roaring success.
