Dating Valen, and she said she noticed me checking out stalls at the Saturday market. Then she gave me 1000 T and told me to pick out something I liked. Low-key made me blush.

I fell to my knees the moment I realized Olric wasn't romanceable

My hot take is that the devs are actually good at writing lore and dialogue, but can't break the one dimensional of romancable npcs. For example, I think its weird that Eiland is stuck on finding this armor, like it didn't connect to any other aspect of his life. I also think its weird that Hayden's chicken is the main character for his romance events - even in the 8-heart event he is still talking about her. I do understand Hayden being lonely since his grandma died but he never really relates his chicken to his loneliness - its just kindof like a spoiled chicken. Reina's heart events are also focused on one thing, but I do think that a cooking competition suits her and it is entertaining. I think we need to be more involved and that could be done with dialogue that changes the outcome of the event or a mini game. Imagine having to beat a mini game to find the last piece of the dragon armor or having to do a rescue quest to save March?

I will agree that sometimes the characters feel pretty flat, but the game is still in early access, and the devs have been very good about listening to the community so far. So, here's hoping that with more updates and the full release, we'll get some more dynamic character arcs!

my hot take is that it makes sense that march and ryis are making a lot of nails and the town doesn't have much money for improvements for the first half of the game -- as someone from an area prone to natural disasters, the recovery period is much longer than you would initially believe. As the updates go on, the town does set aside money for repairs + improvements, and by the latest update are able to cover the blank monetary cost entirely!

the Adeline mistreating villagers take is so interesting because march and ryis are choosing to do all this it's not like she is forcing them lol. they love mistria it's their home that is why they are putting recovery of their town first. As for why we give money to Adeline or materials, she literally giving us such big free land so this is how we are repaying for it imo

In regards to the Adeline thing, I think it's important to remember the map is not the territory, and what we the player percieve in the game is not necessarily the whole story. Yeah, we're putting up a lot of Tesserae for the rebuilding projects... But we're told how much WE are contributing to the project, we only see our portion. Eiland and Adeline are quite possibly dropping significantly more tesserae than we are, but that's THEIR portion, which we don't see, likely cus for gameplay that'd be confusing.

It's the same thing with how there's the idea that we never see anyone else contribute to the museum, but certain harvestables, fish, bugs, etc are conspicuously NOT donateable for no spelled out reason. Seems pretty easy to fit in that those aren't donateable because other villagers already donated them. (Listen, you KNOW that they opened the doors to that museum, and Dell brought them a frog day 1)

I would like the wedding to be cannon in the game, like, to really change the dialogues with the NPC's. It's something that bothers me in Stardew Valley that the wedding is  just cannon between you and your partner... like... the whole town was there but seem to forgot that you're MARRIED now (even your lover seems to forget you here and there). And with the progression of the dialogues in Fields of Mistria, I really hope they do this, like someone asking how's the marriage going or something like that, it'll be funny and would add so much to the game itself.

My hot take is that Reina is underrated as a romance. She’s adorable, has an interesting story, she makes you food all the time, and I feel like she needs more love. My spicier take is that the bachelorettes are underrated because the fandom is too obsessed with March and Caldarus, and the game encourages this by focusing too much on March and Caldarus. The heart events don’t seem like they’ve been given equal attention.

tbh forget a jealousy system what I really want is for characters to start dating each other if i'm not dating them, like old rpg games. that brings so much depth to the world and characters and i don't want to feel like everyone is always in "wait mode" in case I "change my mind" and start dating someone else. i want to have to start again and see a different route with a different character like rune factory and harvest moon games and who my last romance dates if I'm not dating them, like say dragon age games. i always feel like this system of divorce (like stardew) takes away so much of the romance and makes it feel easily discarded, like the character is a trinket instead of a love interest.

okay so I agree about dating Valen -
I was literally passing by town the next day after the Saturday market, I stopped to talk to her (dating route) she mentioned how she saw me window-shopping (I didn't really buy anything apart from treats for everyone but I DID have a look at the furniture & clothes) SO GAVE ME A POUCH OF TESSAREA AND SAID TO BUY MYSELF SOMETHING NICE NEXT TIME I---- I'm in love.

I just wanted you to know, Jinx, from a mama of 3 kiddos myself, I'm sure your parents would be incredibly proud of you. You are resilient and have faced so much already in your life. Thank you for sharing something so deeply personal and March looks totally different to me now because of your story.

I very much agree with making characters more complex and problematic. It adds to the slice of life realism. I also love the idea of being able to pick a bar fight with your villager of choice 😂 that's hilarious!

I want to see Olric get married to his pet rock

Olric getting a “romance route” that is completely platonic (Much like Krobus) would be peak. I usually have a problem in cozy games where the characters I love the most aren’t romance-ables so they get no arcs or content. The character you want to romance isn’t always the same as your favorite. And I’d love more games that allow you deeper friendships with characters you know you won’t be dating. I need to become Willy’s protege in stardew and hear stories of his youth type of thing, you feel?

The 'Flat characters because everyone is too nice and easygoing' take is an interesting one. Its definitely easier to follow mean to friend character journeys like Juniper and March, it adds a layer of complexity to their character and it's very rewarding to earn their trust. From my experience, everyone was nice and easy going until you start to build up hearts, and then they start to share more intimate details about their lives and backgrounds in general community chatter, or commenting on characters heart events which I found very juicy.
That being said, Character's heart events should be the creme de la creme, the return for investing in getting their heart points up. Not every one of them is going to be a hit for everyone, and some are going to going to be more nuanced than others. But that's the moment when those character traits or stories are put on a pedestal and need to shine through. There should be something fun to dissect after each event.
But the solution to making easygoing characters more interesting is layers: are they going on a characters journey, do they have certain boundaries and how do they enforce them,  is there an air of mystery to them, what sort of history do they have?
I had assumed the majority of the community is easygoing and nice was because the natural disasters of Mistria weeded out the more self-interested parties, and the town HAS to be co-operative in order to survive. I'm really looking forward to heart events being added for the non-romancible characters, as it will only add more colour to an already delightful looking picture.

Thankyou for putting together a video like this, and also for sharing that personal anecdote of your own life experience. It takes a lot of courage to put out content like this that will generate a lot of discussion, as well as being vulnerable to your audience. I look forward to tuning into more of your videos in the future (˶◜ᵕ◝˶)

Honestly our Dragon Boy needs to do one thing , he needs to let us give him food , like seriously the line where he says his pantry is not full at all got me concerned lol , let us bring you food !

Hot take: I want group events and group “best friend” dates to be added. There’s lots of cute interactions of the townspeople hanging out with each other, especially the trio of Adeline, Celine, and Reina. It would be so cute if you friended these characters and could do activities like shopping, cooking, slumber parties, or picnicing together. People underestimate how much an aspect of “friendship simulators” contribute to fandom success, like Persona 5

"Not trusting the priestess" hot take @12:01 makes sense when you think about that scroll we had to get Balor to find for us. I'm sure there is more to the story bc it gives, "we must stop whoever is attempting to break the seals" vibe. It was a trap on purpose. 🤔

No no, that person was cooking for Wheedle. We need more slimeballs to romance in games.