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Haunted Chocolatier game seems fantastically weird in new screenshot

A new Haunted Chocolatier game screenshot shows a gigantic bee boss guarding a honey mine in the upcoming life game, and we really didn't expect that

A new screenshot from the Haunted Chocolatier game, a life game from Stardew developer Eric Barone, surfaced on Twitter courtesy of the developer himself, and it looks quite a bit weirder than we expected. In a good way. Last time, Barone shared a progress update image that highlighted subtle changes in Haunted Chocolatier’s approach to graphics and environment design, changes such as lightning, detail, and even how it renders clothes. This time, it’s a giant bee presiding over a honeycomb hell complete with spikes and other traps.

Check it out for yourself.

Haunted Chocolatier game: A sprite warrior faces a giant bee in a honeycomb mine

Barone previously said Haunted Chocolatier would place a greater emphasis on combat compared to Stardew Valley, but we sort of thought that meant things like slimes and other monsters. We certainly still didn’t expect to be typing “you face off against a gigantic bee in a honey mine,” though perhaps, in a game where you work with ghosts to sell chocolate, that’s on us.

However surprising it might have been to see, it’s also a promising and refreshing change.

Stardew Valley is an excellent farming game, but aside from offering greater customization potential, it also expands very little on what we expect from  the genre. Haunted Chocolatier is, Barone has said, part life-sim and part management game, but it seems pretty evident it’s going to lean much more heavily into fantasy than your usual life-sim.

The bee boss also has a right banger of a soundtrack. Give it a listen below.

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There’s still no word on a Haunted Chocolatier release date, but while you’re waiting for the sweet treat to drop, check out some of the best Stardew Valley mods to give the modern classic a refresh. There’s plenty of other games like Animal Crossing on PC to keep you busy in the meantime as well.