Research Story

Your character is a researcher who comes to a fairly new established village of Shimmerbrook that has been experiencing magical phenomenon. It is your character’s (and other researchers’) job to fill in the archives and report back these mysterious findings. [u]Information[/u] • The best place to get assistance or info regarding the game is the [url=https://researchstory.fandom.com/wiki/Research_Story_Wiki]the official wiki[/url], not the Steam guides. • No gender option in character customization, so the protagonist is genderless by default. Though, it is worth noting that most of the options for customization tend to lean toward feminine. • Settings has options to increase length of day and amount of energy to make the game easier. • Game auto-saves when player’s character sleeps at night. There is also [b]manual save[/b] as well. • Gameplay includes: foraging, farming, animal taming/caretaking, researching, fishing, woodcutting, mining, crafting, socializing with NPCs, and various collections. • The fishing mini-game is easy. Even rare fish are a guaranteed catch as long as the player has patience. • The dart mini-game is also easy. In fact, I got a “bullseye” without even trying. I was still figuring out the controls and accidentally got it. • A traditional farming sim Request/Job Board opens up once the player’s character reaches Level 3 in research. (Seems arbitrary, but whatever.) • Romance options: 5 women, 4 men, 1 enby (featured on the store page) • Date events are a gameplay feature, both romantic and platonic. Once a NPC’s affection is high enough, the player can arrange a date with them at a location, then character development ensues. • Note for furry fans: Sorry, but neither of the humanoid animal characters are romanceable. Not a furry-friendly game. • Controller works well for [i]most[/i] of game, but the mouse is required for more precise needs. [u]Praises[/u] • Too many attractive romance options. I suppose that could be a bad thing, but it’s mostly a good thing. • Good diversity among the townspeople. • [i]Adorable[/i] creatures and great illustrations of them in the journal entries! Sproutkitten! Totally inspired by Sprigatito from Pokémon. <3 • I adore Sesame! He’s so f*cking precious! He really is like if a cat got turned into humanoid form. Intelligence of a human, but still acts like a cat. Loves fish and chasing bugs. So cute! • Addicting and methodical gameplay, which is good for escapism and distracting the player from the “unpleasantness” of reality. • I always appreciate games with an “unstuck” button. Sometimes, that tiny pixel sprite gets stuck between stuff and it is very helpful to not have to load the save file. • Lots of décor for the house and farm. Amusingly, décor can be dug up while mining at special marked spots. Like it’s buried treasure. • Storage chests can be auto-replaced with upgraded chests. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I love it. Not having to take all the items out to replace the chest is so convenient. This is a rare feature. [u]Complaints[/u] • Some of the rewards for completing archives are disappointing. A lot for a little. • Can’t buy stuff from Remus while he’s working on upgrading a tool. • Needs more worldbuilding. A lot of stuff is mentioned, but without context, the player isn’t going to care much. I think it would be a big improvement to have a stronger, longer introduction at the beginning of the game. • Some dialogue is a bit bland. Note for anyone who writes dialogue: do not use generic phrases like, “What’s up?” ever. [i]Ever[/i]. Dialogue should always be [i]interesting and engaging[/i] for the reader. No one wants to read “Hi, how are you?” “I’m fine, thanks.” • NPCs repeat the same dialogue. It rarely changes. Increasing affection or the season changing seems to be the only factors that cause daily dialogue to change. • A few typos, but nothing bad enough to make text or dialogue not understandable. [u]To Fix[/u] • Animal pens can’t be moved if food is in the trough and there is no way to remove food from the trough other than letting an animal eat it, but if you accidentally put the wrong food in, you can’t put the said animal in. So, the pen is stuck there and useless. • If the bed is placed too close to the wardrobe, it’s possible to accidentally interact with both at the same time, causing both menus to open and bug-out the game. • Teagan doesn’t show up on the Town Map when they’re foraging for mushrooms just outside the Mushroom Forest. (Yes, their affection was high enough, and yes, the tracking was still turned on.) The gameplay was good, but the worldbuilding/story needs work. It was okay. Thus, I’d only recommend it to people who care more about gameplay than story who are fans of this genre.

日本語化Toolを作成しました。 ↓↓ https://steamcommunity.com/app/1629830/discussions/0/768556945317579363/ プレイレビューではなくて、スミマセン。。。 その他ゲームの日本語化情報 https://steamcommunity.com/groups/japanesemod/curation キュレーターをフォローしていただくと、 ストアページから簡単に日本語化Mod/Tool入手先を表示できます。 また、当キュレーターにて日本語化した他の多数のゲームも、 同様にストアページから入手先を開けるようになります。

Summary: If you like Stardew Valley, you'll like this one; however, I think it shines brighter when it starts focusing on its own mechanics. ------------------------------------------------ As someone whose experience with the life and farm sims begins and ends with 500+ hours in Stardew Valley, this game is immediately familiar, as the SV similarities are pretty blatant. It includes some very welcome QoL fixes (THANK YOU for letting me grab more than the last item I put into the delivery box), but it also adds some new issues of its own, such as having a day cycle that feels much shorter. I could fill paragraphs going over these small changes, but my point is that a lot (A LOT) of mechanics feel straight outta SV, for better and for worse. The main original feature is the researching, which has you pick samples of things you find around and fill a checklist of "investigative" actions to do in order to create a report, which you submit in order to progress the main story. It's pretty cut-and-dry, but has enough variety with the different sample types to keep it fresh; plus, it requires decent trial-and-error to optimize the research focus along the rest of the responsibilities in and out of the farm. And the progress is very tangible, which is very satisfying. The one thing that I'd like to see improved are the villagers. Their designs are pretty neat, sometimes, but I feel their personalities a bit flat. I don't really feel compelled to develop a friendship for any reason other than the level up mechanics, which is a shame, because there was, clearly, a lot of care put into their backstories and the overall world-building. Their character just needs a bit more bite. In the end, I did enjoy my time with Research Story. It's exactly the type of dopamine-filling collectathon that I wanted, and I was actually surprised to see how many mechanics it adds on top of that. But not all those mechanics share the same level of polish, and it's pretty easy to see.

This is such a charming take on a life sim, I wish more cozy gamers knew about it! I love the pixel art style, very reminiscent of Littlewood. The creatures are unique and adorable, the mechanics are straightforward, and the characters are well-developed, charming additions to the town of Shimmerbrook. I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone, but with the caveat that you don't mind a few bugs here and there. Generally speaking, this game runs smoothly. I play it on my Steamdeck, and the controls are fairly intuitive. The graphics look great- cute, simple, and colourful. However, there have been several times where bugs have impeded my gameplay, and I've listed them out below: - Any NPC events (other than festivals) that occur in the Southern garden/event area are completely bugged. I don't get to see them at all, I have to skip them. The camera gets stuck in the top left corner of the map and I don't get any dialogue boxes (I even missed my in-game wedding cut scene T.T) - Sometimes, when clicking through dialogue, the messages switch halfway through. A character will start with the first half of their morning dialogue and then suddenly they're saying the tail-end of their shimmer dialogue. I find this bug doesn't happen as often if you click through the dialogue slowly, but I'm a fast reader so that's not ideal for me. - Taming creatures is mostly functional, but I've had a few instances where I place the feed down and the animal eats it within a second, not enough time to tame it. I've also had instances where I successfully tame a creature and then try to pick up the bowl of food and get a 'creature is still eating!' error, and have to come back to pick it up the next day. - I've gotten stuck behind the shipping bin at least once (but there is an 'unstuck' button that's a real life-saver!) - Sometimes, the instructions for planting crops are a little unclear. USUALLY this is user error (I missed something or forgot something), but the greenhouse in particular makes my brain hurt. When I built it, I was sure that the guide said crops planted in the greenhouse ignore their requirements other than soil, but half the crops I plant in the greenhouse wither. It's definitely possible that I misinterpreted the instructions, so this one is at the bottom of the list for bugs, but it's definitely frustrating losing crops when I don't know what I'm doing wrong. All in all, this was a very satisfying and entertaining game to play!

I absolutely adore this game!! I do wish there were slightly more customization options but thats not a reflection of gameplay. I truly cant say enough amazing things so just know it is absolutely worth it! <3

I bought this when it was in EA, but found it to bee a bit unbaked so I held off on it until full release and I'm honestly shocked how little has changed. So many QoL stuff and just common-sense conveniences that you take for granted. Like shops have opening hours, but only one shop has a sign saying what they are. Adding to that the extremely limited inventory with no way to cycle hotbars so you need to go drag & drop in the menu inventory any time you need a new items - and even if you make chests they are tiny. Characters aren't written any kind of particular interest - good or bad. Let me say that I love t he idea of this, we need shakeups on the farming sim formula, but it still needs to be executed well and the QoL stuff to make for a pleasant playing experience is key.

Short overview: Currently one of the more interesting and different breeds of the farming/life sim genre. And also one of the funnest to play. Innovative on the core gameplay loops (our research, that the player can set, dictates exploration, planting and taming). Finishing and filling up our research wing in the institute is tied to the game progression (unlocks more stuff) - Pretty well thought out QoL features. I seriously recommend making use of the inventor's store and it's goods - We can save anywhere, any time. - Dev is pretty responsive and fixes the game really fast - No combat (not our job, we explore and collect samples and resources). - Fishing is actually good with actually meaningful upgrades. - Affordable economy that allows the player to pretty much buy essential items or build buildings from the start. No more money grind. Makes us feel like we are also a part of the money/economy circle of the town. - Creatures can be put in a stand-by mode in a deep sleep pen that is easy and affordable to build. (In case we don't need them or can't afford their upkeep) - Early Greenhouse - Pretty lovely house and farm customization options - Fun characters - Main character doesn't feel like the main character, we are part of that world. We aren't the blessed chosen one, that is given the magic sauce. - Interesting mine biome progression and mechanics - No kids after marriage (bonus for me, most "player generated" children have nothing to offer in game. It's bloat, it eats up developer's time and it always under delivers. They end up being just there) - Character generation doesn't feature pronouns or gender selection. It is not important. The writing is very meticulous when it comes to addressing the player. So it never feels off. - Foraging actually pays off in terms of money. - No more gate-keeping meaningful upgrades that save the player time and energy behind long ingame time. We get meaningful upgrades fast. Not having to fart around managing our farm plots with our crummy water-can for way too long. Make better gameplay loops, don't waste player's time by making stuff needlessly grindy or chor-y chore play. One of the core gameplay loop is that you are a researcher, specialized on flora and fauna. The research institute that hired the player character is the reason why the town exist. It built around it and all of that also explains why so many different people are in this village. The area we are located in is "special". It exhibits interesting energies that also affected the local fauna and flora. Aside from you being the flora and fauna researcher, there are fellow researchers already there that have their own roles. We have a geologist, a mycologist, a magic researcher, a cartographer... We find samples that we can put on the research focus. Once that's done we need to find more samples or observe more creatures of that species. Once that's done other steps need to be taken until the creature can be tamed, the plant can be planted or the fish can be reeled in. Research projects can be put on hold. We don't need to fear that we put ourself into a corner. This essential mechanic is pretty tight and keeps the player invested all the year around. It is very fun and is such a welcoming relief from the monotonous bog-standard Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley like farming sim chore gameplay grind. If you are like me and can't stand these type of chore grind SDV likes for more then 1-2 years in game then you will probably like this game. Most of these Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley like farming sim are also horribly balanced around earning money and stamina. Money is very tight at the beginning, which limits us to make use of the darn tavern or supermarket. Everything is insanely expensive (Salt is often something we can't make ourself and it always cost 100 gold at best, what kind of economy is this? Same goes with tavern/bar food) We can't cook due to lack of affordable housing upgrades and we can't buy the expensive food to replenish our stamina. After the initial hurdle of money and home upgrades this problem becomes obsolete and the stamina system becomes obsolete too. This is a serious issue with these type of games that just clone mechanics that are bad and useless instead of innovating or to do it better. All we then are left is grinding for more money to even buy more insane farm buildings that cost more the 1 million gold or something. That gets boring really fast. It's not challenging or interesting, just tedious and monotonous. Content is also locked away behind some museum/donation center that requires the player to do repeated things over a whole year. This puts a permanent break check on the player, creates bad pacing for these type of games and just doesn't let us do things at our own speed. This is not a thing here. We can progress as fast or as slowly as we want. Story progression in this game is tied to the mines and the archeological puzzles we find. This is fun too. It doesn't go over-board. It just puts just that many in this game that it needs, instead of following a formula. Upgrades and game mechanics are well thought out. For example we get a fireplace with our first house upgrade. We can put wooden logs or charcoal in it to get a stamina buff on the next day. The game does not punish the player for forgetting to heat the house. Instead we get a bonus if we do that. Neat. Crafting is also interesting. It is nice to see not some feature bloat mess with ingame resource. Instead the game lets us to be creative. We have a build-able camp fire. I select my wood logs and click on the fire-place. It gives be Charcoal that are longer lasting fuel source then wooden logs. We can make roasted seed or walnuts. Can roast a potatoes or fish over it. Or cook meat. We can use the standard fish bait to make different bait when combined with our resources. This is important for catching different fish species which lends itself into the research gameplay loop. Bonus points for me is that the colors of all the ingame sprites/textures aren't glaringly bright. The portraits are so nice too. I wish the demo was at least two weeks long. It would give newcomers a better feel form the gameplay loop. I'd say the demo feels much older then the current game release. No performance hickups or crashes detected. It's really nice to see stuff that should run on a potato actually run well.

9/10 It's the cutest little stardew-like with silly little animals and awesome characters. If you're looking for something super laid back and cozy, this is the game for you. There aren't even monsters in the caves :) <3 I love a collection game and I love a farming sim, the devs did a splendid job on both fronts.

The creatures are really cute and you can catch [strike] shinies [/strike] shimmers! I also like how many romanceable and diverse characters they are, the dialogue is well written and fun to read. Research Story adds new, original mechanics to the familiar farming sim genre, would recommend :)