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.

This game lacks a lot of information / QOL to make it workable compared to other farming games, and some parts are so blatantly a Stardew Valley dupe that it's a little painful (for example, the wagon with extra things that you can only access on Wednesdays and Sundays, sound familiar?) The things that have been changed often make the game unwieldy and harder to use. As an example, take trying to fish for a single fish, the Sakura Diver. In order to do this you have to: 1. Fish up a fish part. 2. Walk across the map to a person's home where you have to put in the fish part in a special machine 3. Do a puzzle to "retrieve" information 4. Unlock a new kind of bait 5. Check the journal to find out where to fish. At no point does the game tell you at this point, that you need to equip the bait, and put the magnifying glass over the special fish part (because it already told you it needed "special research" at the house! So you're going to think you already researched it! Maybe you even think that you need another special fish part, so you fish up another one, and do research on it at the special machine, and do the puzzle again, only to be told you've already "retrieved" that research. Well. Okay. 6. Go to the Steam Discussion boards to find out that this has *definitely* happened to other people, and find out the solution. 7. Pass the magnifying glass over the thing you already researched at the special machine. 8. Equip the unique bait (quite costly to make in the early game), and go to the waterfall where it says the fish is located, according to the Journal *and* the Wiki during the right season and the right time of day (you double-checked this time!) 9. Waste 6 Pink Bait. The piece de resistance is that you have to do this with *every fish* separately, that isn't a base fish. ...Good luck repeating that 20~ times! And at that point, while also having other research projects that all require this much time and labour to unlock, in a whole three research slots, while having a bunch of other things pending to research, I realised this was not the farming game for me. I do not want 'Stardew Valley dupe but harder and more time-consuming.' I think even ConcernedApe knows that SDV was too confusing when it first came out, and it's a shame when other games don't learn from this. The game goes as far as to teach you exactly how to use all of the tools, but not actually important research mechanics in the game, like - for example - that "special research" does not take the place of regular research. Lack of insight around this is why only 50% of people have the first achievement in the game, and why only 44% of people make it to the third achievement. I really respect what the devs have tried to do, but this game, I feel, has a long way to go. I'm glad it's got some fans, and the artwork of the individual characters is nice, and the critters look nice. Of course I had to learn that 'Sparkling Leaf' from one of my critters could be a gift for villagers from the Wikipedia, and I've always resented any game that teaches you how to play it *away from the game.* One shouldn't need to constantly go to a Discussion Forum, a Guide, *and* a Wiki to figure things out, and as someone who has played over 20~ farming games by now, it's not like I'm a total newbie. And everyone's going to be a little foolish sometimes. It feels a little like the devs forgot that games should be fun, and unlocks should feel rewarding, and that outside of explicit puzzles (don't get me started on the smooth pebble, another thing I learned from the Discussion Forums), it should be relatively easy to find out information, not very difficult, or things that require you to stop playing to go searching online for an answer. That would make sense for end-game challenges, but not stuff that obstructs you from reaching the "easiest" achievements in the first three days. Not recommending this, I might revisit in a year if there's mega changes to the QOL. I think for now, you can look at the failure rate to first achievement to see how many people are just bouncing off this game without even leaving a review. ETA: I mistakenly thought this game came out in July 2025, but learning it's older than that, is SO disappointing. Devs really need to stop paying attention to the biggest fans of the game, and look at why new users who love science and farming and research and fantasy stories are abandoning this at a huge rate, and *early on.* There's a reason. Sometimes you need to turn away from the people telling you nice things about the game they crowdfunded, and listen to the folks who are trying to genuinely help when they love all the genres of your game, but wanted to have fun playing it.

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。

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

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 :)

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.

Great farming game. The research focus adds a fresh take to the standard farming game loop. Taming creatures is simple but effective and they have a fairly varied range of needs if you're looking to maximise happiness. It borrows from other games in the genre with it's randomly generated mines, changing biomes every 20 floors, no combat here though. Socialising with the other town folk is also done in a way that will be familiar to anyone that's played a cosy farm game before. They've done a good job making the town feel alive, everyone has their routines but they get out and about often enough that you bump in to them outside regularly. Decent level of customisation for yourself and your house/farm. Nothing mind blowing, but if decorating is your thing you can have fun here. Overall I'm having fun with it and it scratches the old farming game itch in a fresh way that stops it being too familiar from the go. Comfortably worth the money at full price

14.8小时主线已完结。 汉化错别字太多了。 游戏质量不错，仍有很多完善的空间，未来有望成为神作期待继续更新。 前期任务不够丰满，后期又存在硬性卡任务的地方。秋第一周主线就被卡在需要冬季采集品上，就只能一直睡。然后主线都完成了发现好感剧情卡冬21，只能继续睡。主线卡一个我研究完就进休眠仓的生物，然后继续睡。 做了主线后收集但是想到要为了每个季节一只的特殊生物再玩一年，想想我一直努力的睡觉，就萎了。 工具的升级只有功能上的提升并不能进一步节省体力。不修整农场甚至可以不升。钱的用途有限，经验丰富基本上夏天可以财富自由。生物研究后就没什么用了也不赚钱。导致生物好感也用途不大只能靠大家的人性来支撑。 缺少一些填充主线的任务，另外现阶段npc对话过于单薄，甚至没有日常对话。每天只是找npc打个招呼。哪怕你做两三句呗。 然后汉化错别字太多了太多了太多了太多了。对于简中玩家来说当前的中文很不用心，不推荐。

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.