The new crafting game Wytchwood adds a spooky twist to the relaxing genre of simulation games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Sporting a brightly colored 2D art style and a narrative driven by solving puzzles with crafting and foraging, the game has a good balance of challenging progression and satisfying mechanics. While it has a more in-depth story than either Stardew Valley or New Horizons, the cathartic relaxation of exploration in Wytchwood makes it a great pick for casual gamers.
Both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley offer players a chance to escape the struggles of everyday life by sinking time into elaborate home and town designs, as well as farming, cooking, fishing, and getting to know local NPCs. This therapeutic simulation-style gaming removes high-stakes challenges like enemy mobs and world-ending catastrophes and replaces it with casual objectives like filling museums and collecting crafting recipes. However, neither game has a particularly in-depth narrative, making gameplay largely self-driven.
While Wytchwood has many of these same mechanics, including foraging and crafting, other elements like Happy Home Paradise's town management have been replaced with a rich, spooky narrative. The main character, an old witch living out her days by her home's hearth, becomes ensnared in a mystery surrounding a woman sleeping in a temple near her home. In order to uncover the mystery, she must follow the directions of a possessed goat, tackling the monsters that wronged the woman before she fell into the old witch's care. With no memory of how the witch became involved, she travels through biome maps meeting intriguing characters and solving the mysteries of the story.
Wytchwood's Narrative Holds Secrets & Struggles Similar To Stardew Valley
Wytchwood and Stardew Valley both utilize magic in their main narratives. In Stardew Valley, players are able to interact with spirits called Junimos. These sprite-like creatures aid in the rebuilding of the local community center, as well as playing a part in the player's ability to connect with spiritual parts of Stardew Valley's map. To communicate with the Junimos, the player must speak to the wizard, who lives in a tower in the forest outside of the town. The wizard Rasmodius also has several subplot narratives that can be unlocked throughout the course of the game, insinuating that magic runs deeply through the foundations of both the town and the surrounding areas. There is also a Witch that can be encountered through random events, as well as through Rasmodius' storyline.
While many of the narrative subplots are optional, it still gives a spooky and mysterious atmosphere to the gameplay of Stardew Valley. This same underlying chill can be found in Wytchwood, as the player creates concoctions to tackle creatures lurking in each map or convince major NPCs to assist in different quest requirements. Both games also handle difficult subjects, with the characters in Stardew Valley overcoming anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and difficult marriage struggles in multiple storylines, while Wytchwood includes the struggles of age, deception, and innocence. These heavy topics make the story easier to connect with, but also make the overall feel less carefree.
Wytchwood Uses Simple, Satisfying Crafting Similar To New Horizons
While Wytchwood and New Horizons are very different in storylines, they have a few similarities in gameplay mechanics. One of the biggest strengths of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is its simple crafting system. The numerous items are often crafted with only a handful of forageable ingredients, making the process rewarding and satisfying for players making items to decorate homes and islands. While there are areas for improvement in New Horizons' crafting process, it is one of the key factors for the game's success with simulation fans and makes both foraging and crafting a great way to unwind after a stressful day.
Wytchwood mimics this easy crafting system, and even takes it a step further, removing the need for crafting benches so players can create items anywhere they are exploring. Most potions and reagents are crafted using just a few items, with many recipes calling for other crafted items to increase the difficulty. The process of foraging, crafting, and stack-crafting items encourages exploration to find new ingredients and unlock new recipes. While the narrative of Wychwood gives players objectives to complete, it is easy to lose hours just exploring, crafting, and amassing goods in the colorful biomes of each location's map.
Wytchwood Also Resembles Gameplay From The Flame In The Flood
Wytchwood also bears a striking resemblance to the unique 2D art style and survival gameplay of The Flame In The Flood. Using a raft and a slowly growing crafting menu, The Flame In The Flood follows the survival of a young woman and a rescued dog as they fight to find an evacuation point in a flooded, post-apocalyptic. During the journey, the player encounters numerous NPCs who help guide the story, as well as offer important advice on crafting and survival. Many of the NPCs in Wytchwood have a similar feel, with the player stumbling upon them while exploring new maps. While the gameplay of The Flame In The Flood is designed for hard-core survival gameplay, the spooky atmosphere and mystery-rich narrative offer a compelling reason to keep playing and make the efforts of crafting and survival more rewarding as the story develops.
The combination of gaming and story elements in Wythwood allows it to reach outside the limitations of simple survival or simulation titles. This could be good for players who find the lack of narrative direction in New Horizons dull and empty, making the complex story in Wytchwood more appealing. However, those who appreciate the low-stress town building and farming elements of New Horizons and Stardew Valley may find the survival and forage-heavy elements more demanding than other simulation titles.
While it would be interesting to see a useable farm in Wytchwood, or have the ability to interact with design elements both inside and outside the witch's home, the benefit to gameplay would likely be limited due to the exploration-heavy requirements that progress the story. Regardless, those looking for a chill game to play with a twist on classic simulation elements, or who enjoy a chilling fairytale, may want to give Wytchwood a try, as it could be just the right balance of story and survival for relaxing and engaging expirience.