Stardew Valley’s mines have always been pretty polarizing. Some players love to grind them for endless challenge runs and min-maxing, while die-hard cozy gamers have sworn off them entirely, pledging to stick to farming and fishing and avoiding combat as much as possible. Thanks to a new interview, it now sounds like that former camp will be in luck whenever Haunted Chocolatier, the upcoming game from Stardew developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, launches.
In an interview with British GQ, Barone revealed that Haunted Chocolatier “is more of an action RPG—the main focus is more about adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful. There are monsters, there are boss fights. It’s for the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines.”
Barone clarified that it’ll still be what he refers to as a “town game,” though, likely meaning it’ll still revolve around the experience of settling into a new town and getting to know your neighbors as you build up your business.
We already knew that Haunted Chocolatier was bound to have in-depth combat—earlier peeks at the game have shown off bosses, enemy-stunning shields, and other off-hand weapons. The game is also slated to have slightly darker themes, and now that Barone has cited David Lynch as an inspiration as well, I’d count on things being a bit surreal.
While speaking to GQ, Barone also briefly touched on the pressure he’s been facing to develop Haunted Chocolatier, which has been in the works for over four years now (that’s almost the same amount of time that Stardew was in development before its release). Barone has yet to announce a release window, likely because the game is set to be “way bigger” than its predecessor…somehow.
“Everyone’s watching me, and if I don’t do things a certain way, it might disappoint millions of people,” he said.
I’m certainly willing to wait as long as Haunted Chocolatier might take to wrap, especially now that I know I’ll have plenty of combat to sink my sweet tooth into. The mines are probably my favorite part of Stardew (although they were definitely an acquired taste). They get pretty repetitive after a while, though, so I’m excited to see what else Barone does to keep the action fresh in Haunted Chocolatier. Let’s just hope that those terrible spiral-shaped floors don’t make a return.