I feel that I need to write something about this game because it is such a unique experience. Not a lot of game can effectively utilize resource management and emergency response as its main tension and identity. There is no enemy to run and hide from (directly), a predator would not come out and directly kill the farmer, but it is more of a sense that this week I am not productive enough and my delays and missing resource will catch up and snowball into someone dying if I cannot pick up the pace tomorrow.
It feels weird to categorize Grimeshire as a cozy game with a dark twists, because the point of cozy game and why most farming sim games fall into this category is that, the game will put the player in some sort of stable setting and give them freedom to their set goals and progress to it at their pace. (The reason why most self-impose challenge runs needs a tight deadline to create tension.)
In Grimshire, the tension is built-in to its core gameplay. This game does not allow the player to set their own goal, and it keeps people on toes by constantly moving the goal post. The volatile environment forces the farmer to constantly adapt and manage disasters. It creates fear and paranoia that maybe their "We are doing well enough" is not actually good enough, becomeing the anthesis of cozy.
It is a shame that it can't be played beyond the first year, but Grimshire is not Grimshire without these events. It needs these episodic game elements to standout from traditional farming sims.
I love difficult games, and it is what make Grimshire so special to me. Instead of bosses with fast attack pattern, or complicate puzzles, it is the cold, ever-present dread and desperation from fatigue. I never play games like this before. What other games make you feel like this?
SPOILERS
Personal experience
She/her bear named Luna, I eat what ever about to spoil in root cellar and fish very often.
2 deaths: Lila and Tano
My highlight is the moment I unlocked Smoker hut from Adeline Sablewood. After dangerously lagging behind carnivore ration for a while, this is the first time after The Royal Army showed up that I truly feel comfortable... almost cozy. Gone were the day I wasted away fishing every day because the rain prevent me from successfully drying fish, and it had rotted on the rack before. Now I can just spend 6 hrs and use my plant debris and sticks I had too many, and it is rainproof?
Then, The Red tide came.
I can't describe the despair I felt. Like, I said, I never play anything like this game. I need to go to the marsh mine for Lila's material, losing pretty much all my stamina just to get there. I actually lost her because I rather go chop down trees to build coop/barn that walk in that awful blood water.
The worst part is wondering if Rusty would kill himself or not. To see him rotted away for days. I could not describe the relief I felt the first time he talked about brewing beer again. But he, and to a lesser extent, Rose, were never the same again.
I also lost Tano because I started ranching late and I need a breeding pair. His project was just 2 blood short because I can't afford to butcher 1 more critter. This broke me more than Lila's death because it was so close and the village's effort was all gone like that. I talked to Tano and Kai more than Lila and Rusty too. With Lila, the sea and marsh are now clean, but this failure left us with nothing. I talked to Kai every day until the defender ration cause me to waste away procuring food.
The ending blew my mind. The first of Winter. The game has shifted gear and, for the first time, the outside force offers an absurdly impossible goal. The villagers were directionless, and Percy soft encouragement was not enough. Theo stepped up, after the entire year talking to him and Percy to learn he isn't a lazy, cowardly bureaucrat. For the first time, we set our own "Defender ration" goal. This game flipped the premises and now something that is so mundane in most farming goal is our triumph card. "From now on, we keep all our food." A spectacular way to enter the endgame.
The last Winter quest where Fin and the Pirates do not show up after burning Pawton were the one of most stressful gaming experience of me. The reason why I want to write this post.
I grind so hard that week, stacked root cellar with 20+ days worth of mostly non-perishable and fully fortify the temple. The villager dialogue return to normal after Pawton was surreal.
I did everything as if yesterday was my last day. I packed everything flammable outside my house. Chopped down almost entire tree because I want to leave them with no fuel to survive Winter. Tossed the last of my juice into the compost bin after accumulating more than enough wine. Almost all my plants were dead anyway, and I packed all my Spring seeds on me. Broke down the critter fence and open the door in hope that they can run away when it all went down.
I don't know how and when will it end. It is not a "hot" stress of terrifying confrontation, but the "cold" stress of not knowing. What day should I go to bed in the church? Maybe The Pirates all died as it had been a week since the boss was bitten, or if they got Fin and will use him to force us out off the temple and all was for nothing?
Defender ration due: ??? is on my quest log, ominously.
I actually got too comfortable again. Start to unpack my things, even decide to go mining to upgrade my axe. Fin came to warn us when my axe is still one day incomplete. I guess I will use this Titanium Pick and my bear strength to stab wolf skull then.
Gifted Jack a Sapphire. Gifted Poppy a Sunflower. Their parents heartbroken to send them away. I spent this actual last day to pick all forageables clean. No time for preservation, just want to starve them. Finally took my Spring seeds. Practical and a symbol of hope. Brought wool, pelts, coal, and some cooked dishes.
Oh my gosh. The noises. The scraping, scratching, the growling...
The way all the villager deteriorate. Fearing that Rusty or Kai will finally snap and break the barricade, killing everyone.
Everyone survived as a shell of themselves. While I am left will a weird horrified sense if this is what my bear farmer went through in the capital, and it now comes back to haunt her. I spent the last few days trying to keep Root cellar at least one day worth. It would be a while before radish and carrot, from now, all we have is honey and fish. The fact that most house interior are the same was kind of a let-down. But the feeling of devastation is so strong.
Hoping for a better, brighter year 2, if such thing is possible... Looking forward to attending Gruff and Prudence's wedding. I just gave her red clover a couple of times, and she was now spilling tea about how she was jealous of Gruff's forge?
Well said, Greta. With a year like this, The New Year should make a promise to me instead.
I don't know why they consider Grimshire a "cozy farming game with a dark twist", when I have only felt comfortable 5 days this entire year. It should call itself, a "horrible, gruelling, looming sense of dread, cold sensation of desperation... with a cozy twist".
This game understand the horror of resource management and disaster/emergency response. This entire year is so horrible in unexpected ways, money well spent.
Hoping for the next year problems to be more concern of rebuilding and expanding the community to shelter survivors. The money management feel very out of place in a close-knit community like this, where the main mechanic is giving away food.
Looking forward to their wedding. Let it be a good year ahead of us.
So much for "Playing video games for fun" when I just saved everyone from Grimshire's highest difficulty.
It is a depressing and stressful experience.
If you love the Stardew valley challenge run, such as Completing Community Centre in one year, Completing it without levelling up, or Marry Hailey before First Flower Dance, I strongly recommend the game, but no more than 4 days per week.
I might end up sinking one of my preferred ship in my own Canon divergent-verse because, according to AvA 11, Purple could be significantly older than Green. I care not for anti/pro-ship age gap discourse, I am just exploring characters' opinion. From a teenager's point of view, a 3 years gap can be a dealbreaker.
Not a final decision. Only TSC is confirmed to be created in 2014, and I don't want to make sticks age like human in my continuity. They clearly don't in the source material, too.
I posted my art on r/alanbecker ,and I deeply regret it.
Ever since AvA 11, the sub regulars are obsessed with... stick figure anatomy. I feel that most of them are children-teens, who started watching during the 2010s. They are quite adorable and funny.
