Thank you for posting this! I remember @humblepopstar posting about Before the Green Moon too and it sounded really interesting, so you both convinced me to finally to pick it up this morning, and I got hooked. I feel like the codified cozy game you describe is because people are trying to make a game that appeals to everyone, and it loses its personality. While this one is not trying to appeal to everyone or be particularly cheerful, instead it’s going for a particular emotion that most farming games wouldn’t take a chance on. It feels very unique and understated, and it grows on you as you play.
I appreciate that it drops you in and lets you figure things out without telling you. It doesn’t gate you out of things, I think I had chickens for about 10 days before the chicken catching tutorial. The map is a little hostile to navigate at first, but I think it’s a good choice. At the start of the dry season I spent three in-game days looking for apples and vending machines before I found them and I was getting concerned about my chickens’ health! I also like that this game has a finite goal that you’re pointed toward that is big enough that you can’t just rush toward it, and the pace that you are making tradeoffs seems worth it.
I will say, the very low-key music and rain did almost put me to sleep at one point. I feel like there’s not as much pressure on the player to be productive as in something like Stardew Valley, so I think it would be a good bedtime game.
Thanks to all the Bioware talk in the gaming news thread, it made me go back and poke around Baldur’s Gate 1 a bit. I’m only in Beregost, and I think what stops me from really getting immersed is that it does the Skyrim thing where it gives you too many sidequests at once that pull your focus away from the main story line. Since Baldur’s Gate can be punishing when you’re low-level, it makes it feel like you should be doing all the sidequests even if it’s not so interesting. Would any experienced BG1 players recommend just focusing on the iron crisis?