Transcript (en)

A man asked me to turn a coat rack into a wife. That's Welcome to Elderfield, a cozy horror RPG from developer Chris Coat and publisher Quali, hitting Steam September 10th. On paper, it's Stardew Valley. Till your soil, water your crops, get to know your neighbors, your off-putting, horrible, nightmarish neighbors. We went hands-on with the demo, and the verdict was basically, I don't know what I just played, but I couldn't put it down. The atmosphere is second to none. Nighttime turns the whole town this eerie orange glow, and everything had something just a little bit off about them. Standard crops become eyeballs and teeth growing out of the ground. The local mall acts more as a dungeon. A kid sent us off to bop a shopper there, which turned out to just be a monster, not, you know, attacking a person, thankfully. That's a weird thing to be relieved by. And there's something off about all the neighbors. As mentioned, an old man wanted me to help him marry his coat rack. Stardew Valley-like, but Stardew Valley, this is not. Overall, while it is technically a horror game, it doesn't bombard you with jump scares. Instead, letting its off-putting setting and grotesque art style do the work. and it gets so absurd that it's hard to put it down. You just want to see what mundane thing will evolve into a Lovecraftian nightmare next. The only real complaint we had? The demo ends right as things get good, and certainly has us hungering for more. Oh, how we hunger. The full game drops September 10th on PC. If you pick it up, let us know what you think.