My wishlist is already overflowing with "Stardew Valley, but" games, but I've made room for yet another one: the Stardew-but-Sailor-Moon game called Fields of Mistria. This excessively adorable farm and life sim is still in development but I'm already smitten with its '90s anime-inspired character designs.
Fields of Mistria calls itself a "spiritual successor to the farm-sim RPGs of the late '90s & onward," presumably meaning Harvest Moon games, which were of course a major inspiration for our modern touchstone Stardew Valley. And yup, you can definitely see the original SNES Harvest Moon love in those chunky cow designs. Mistria's other '90s inspiration is the magical girl anime of the time. Those character proportions and their tiny little mouths are clear sailor scout callbacks.
It seems to otherwise be checking off every box in the modern farmlife sim playbook with farming, fishing, a town in need of revitalization (after an earthquake), animals to breed, seasons, festivals, and marriage. Notably, it's also got a cave system with combat and puzzles inside. I've found combat to be the one bit of Stardew Valley that other members of the farm sim family tree are most likely to set aside, so it's nice to see Mistria going for it.
The developers have so far revealed nine of the 12 total marriage candidates, who you can find over on the Fields of Mistria website, and of course they too are just dripping with the '90s anime hand poses and colorful hair of the classics. At least three of them are sporting cloaks and one is rocking the 'jacket draped over shoulders without the arms on' thing. That's the good stuff.
Oh, and the magical girl homage doesn't stop with character designs. Mistria also has magical abilities that you can learn to make your life on the farm easier like calling forth rain to water your crops.
Fields of Mistria doesn't have a release date yet, but I'm hoping that's the next thing it'll announce after those last three marriage candidates. In the meantime, you can find and wishlist it over on Steam.
