Open Beta on the 10th of Aug c:

WHICH ALSO MEANS my NDA done lol

\o/ I got to participate in their Alpha stress tests so I've already played a bit of the game

I know I've been tooting the game a lot, but it's just genuinely fun and that's speaking from experience uwu trust meee

You have different skills and as you level each skill you unlock quests with specific NPCs tied to those skills and you get more backstory and details from those NPCs at the same time

SO LIKE Alpha =/= Beta =/= Release so some things can change

During Beta, the game is Free-to-Play. There is a cash shop. In alpha they only displayed cosmetics like costumes. I am assuming furniture will be added

The furniture crafting was one of my favorites c:

Each new recipe you complete for crafting you can unlock a new ~mystery~ recipe. They give you an outline of 3 choices and you choose based on what you guess it could be

By level 4 furniture crafting I had all of the starter set finished which triggered a new quest from the relevant NPC. I did not get to see that questline through but it was fun to see what could be next

Fishing game is fun. I am not a fan of fishing games but this one was chill while being just enough of a challenge to keep me entertained

Hunting IS MY FAVORITE.

BOW. ARROW. CHASE

Of course that's a fave of mine

There is GROUP efforts too. It is an MMO

I ran into a higher level tree and my axe wasn't good enough. Every chop I did the tree healed

Another player came by and we jumped at each other (chat was wonky at the time lol alpha life. But it worked later on)

And after demonstrating my struggle with glowy tree they chopped with me and we downed the tree together, both receiving loot

SO THAT WAS PRETTY COOL?

So the NPCs can become your friends. Romanceable if that's your thing

They are just warm and lovely

If you described the game in one word I'd just call it Cozy

Warm fire with tea and a cushy couch experience

I didn't get REALLY into the lore, though I did some of the main questline I kept getting distracted. Which is very approved of

The lore I did bump into was intriguing and it made me want to know more

Most skills build off of each other. Foraging helps with cooking and furniture crafting

There's farming which is really cute too

There's no punishment for taking your time

The plants won't wither if you go offline for weeks. They'll just pause where you left off

For exploration there's a lot to do. Climbing rocks is easy. You can glide down once you get to the glider unlock in the questline

In Alpha there was no fall damage in the town / starter map

SO I did a lot of catapulting off cliffs as a "test" LOL

However, no swimming. You just get plopped back to the last part of land you were on

There are puzzles everywhere with kind rewards that made me want to explore more

Your homestead is instanced. But you can easily load into someone else's

There's a "help" system. If you are low on a material you can request "help" from other players

They give it for free to you! In return they'll get the equivalent of good reputation points

Those reputation points can be gathered from quests and other things like these freebie requests and you use them to level up other stuff which I won't say. NEED SOME MYSTERY HERE

Just know it's good c:

ANYWAY. it good good. Animal Crossing meets Breath of the Wild meets Stardew Valley bundled up in an MMO