It's Hellgate / Starbound all over again: great concept ruined by greedy / untrustworthy management. Still worth buying on a discount, just be aware that it's headed to Dimension Abandonware. And don't bother with cosmetic DLC, your money won't go to people who actually created it.

It is painful for me to write this review because of how much i love this game. Literally one of my favourite games out there but given the controversies behind the studio, i just cannot recommend anyone buying this game. Just money-hunger and greedy human beings that don't appreciate other people's work. No credit, no pay whatsoever. What a shame. I really thought the game could've been one of the most successful game besides Stardew Valley but no. Never. We are dissapointed and sad but you don't care do you? For anyone wondering, here's a YouTube video explaining the Controversies of Sun Haven & Pixel Sprout Studios :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSWPM4jfUY

I received Sun Haven as a gift, and I was really excited to play it! At around 55~ hours, it was fun, cozy and addictive. I LOVED the FANTASTIC pixel art of the backgrounds and items (Brinestone my beloved!); WONDERFUL. unique character designs like Karish, Vaan, Catherine; the BEAUTIFUL MUSIC (and each character has their own cool theme song!); the main quest's writing is also interesting when weaved with the game play (I loved Brinestone's plot and Nelvari's themes), and every character having a real and heartfelt moment/backstory written for them is always lovely to see. The lore is also very cool, and it's nice to have combat and fantasy in the usual cozy game genre!!

Unfortunately, there are many reasons why I do not recommend this game, despite its potential and the hard work of the creatives that were put into it.

Firstly, the lack of credits is very telling. It's been an issue for months IIRC, and the company has not been the most forthright, direct or transparent when it comes to this issue, along with the Nintendo Switch bugs, crashes, and other game play issues. I like that their DLC content is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect Sun Haven's plot or game play, but when the company keeps releasing more PAID content over fixing the bugs or addressing concerns? It comes across as negligent at best; callous and capitalistic at worst.

Content-wise, this is connected to the quantity over quality mindset the game seems to have. At first, I liked that there were many things to do and multiple maps unleashed! Many romanceable villagers are also great, but when you HAVE to romance them to get to know their story, it feels like they're marketed to just BE love interests for the player's consumption as opposed to having their own character arcs. Speaking as a professional romance game script writer for years, the romance system does not feel organic, as much as I did enjoy certain characters and their interactions with my farmer. They are also pushing to add more romanceable characters despite not addressing the bugs or the Switch issue? It really just feels like the executives want to milk this cash cow, which blows since it really is a fun game filled with people's amazing creations.

To be clear, I'm not instigating a witch hunt. I only wish for the company to be held accountable, compensate its workers and players, and to be more transparent moving on. It's been already linked, but I'd like to share this video once more and encourage everyone to make their own opinions based on credible research and publicly available information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSWPM4jfUY.

Stop treating your employees like slaves

The game gets buggier the further in you get.

Everything becomes a shallow grind beyond a certain point. Me and my friends had a great time for 40 hours and that should be a thumbs up...but the last twenty hours were so bad they ruined the game

Also learnt after purchase that the dev studio has been undertaking unethical business practices as detailed in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSWPM4jfUY

Pay your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ people.

This is the WORST farming sim right now. The game is completely unplayable, the devs are HORRIBLE people and the DLC 'shop' should be illegal. I hope the underpaid artists, devs and translators file a lawsuit on these absolutely disgusting people. To any devs that might want to report my review; take it to my private inbox. I dare you.

I have a lot to say about this game. A LOT, so much so that I don't think I should sit here for an hour to type it out because it wouldn't make a difference with these types of companies. This is a weird game. It's so good in spots, so good it's like 'Wow this is what we needed in a farming sim', but then in other spots, it's so bad... you question why you even bought it. (I got this as a gift from a friend luckily.)
I don't know how to feel about this game. I have also read up on the Developers and the shady crap their doing. I also don't think I've EVER played a game where the testers and artists, all those people aren't credited ANYWHERE in the game. The only people credited are the Sprout company, and the donation backers, that's it. What the fu(k?
So, if you are interested in this game, the leveling system is awesome I like that a lot, (Scaling for combat could be way better though.) and the farming itself is interesting too with spells and scarecrows that do different things, makes it fun to actually plan out your crop set up every season.
Otherwise, the rest is all half-baked, all very rushed it seems, and theirs like 200+ dollars of DLC and it really tells you what the focus really was for this.
It sucks, the meat is here, and a lot of someone's in the beginning clearly had passion for this game, but then at some point, someone else who was greedy got their hands on this, and all the passion was gone, and now it's this. A very bitter-sweet kind of game, where you know it could have been more.
Anyway, get it on sale if you are interested. I do not recommend getting this game at full price, you will regret it.

Game was entertaining enough for all of like a week. You're better off just playing modded Stardew if you want a fantasy farming simulator. The sheer amount of dlc content is insane and not in a good way. Why on earth would anyone pay 10 dollars for mounts that work the exact same way as the free ones. It all reeks of money-hungry behavior

I can't recommend this game. Especially when considering the state of the studio, how they manage the game, their team, and how they treat their consumers. They prioritize quantity over quality, along with false advertising of this quantity in the dlc with the previews not even matching what appears in game.

Paying as little as possible to their employees and not crediting anyone who MADE the game at all. Which is crazy, because that is in every game ever and needed, people deserve credit for the work they put in. Everyone who worked on this game deserves to be paid properly and credited. They are the only reason this game exists, the only reason any money can be made at all. They deserve better than a studio like this, and as consumers we deserve a studio who is making a buggy product bigger and bigger while fixing none of the bugs.

For more details and an in depth look into the practices of this studio, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSWPM4jfUY