One of the Most Hyped Games Like Stardew Valley Suddenly Has a Big Twist

Hello Kitty Island Adventure surprised fans with the announcement of the Wheatflour Wonderland DLC. The cozy life simulator has released a number of significant updates since, including the addition of new worlds such as Merry Meadows and City Town, but Wheatflour Wonderland is its first purchasable DLC. Initially, fans suspected that the DLC might add a farming element to Hello Kitty Island Adventure, given the focus on wheat. However, as more information was revealed about the DLC, it came with a big twist: Wheatflour Wonderland would instead have a heavier focus on RPG-like elements, including environmental puzzles and the ability for players to transform into various creatures and objects.

Wheatflour Wonderland Puts An RPG Spin On This Cozy Game

Wheatflour Wonderland is Hello Kitty Island Adventure’s largest expansion to date. It introduces the titular Wheatflour Wonderland, a sprawling world filled with waving grain and mysterious magic. With the help of the fairy Cogimyun, players can gain access to a variety of magic wands and gemstones that allow them to transform into different Critters and objects, each with their own special ability. The trailer for Wheatflour Wonderland, revealed during a recent Nintendo Direct broadcast, shows off one example: the player character gaining the ability to fly for brief periods of time by turning into a chicken-like Critter called a Rockadoodler.

Teaser screenshots for the Wheatflour Wonderland DLC hint that there will be at least five different types of gems for players to collect, with each one possibly representing a different power or ability. These abilities will be used to solve environmental puzzles and find new rewards, including clothing, furniture, and mysterious “Wheathearts.” While Hello Kitty Island Adventure is no stranger to providing the player with unique tools, such as the Mermaidifer which allows for diving deep underwater, or Retsuko’s ability to swim in lava, Wheatflour Wonderland’s focus on new abilities and environmental puzzles definitely leans more to the RPG side of things than the game’s typical cozy gameplay loop.

Wheatflour Wonderland Draws More From Open-World RPGs Than Stardew-Like Games

In a Q&A conducted via the official Hello Kitty Island Adventure Discord, Sunblink Chief Product Officer Chelsea Howe revealed that open-world games served as a major inspiration for Wheatflour Wonderland. She compared the environmental puzzles that will be coming in the DLC to “Korok puzzles in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or the totem puzzles in Genshin Impact.” The Legend of Zelda comparison is particularly apt—the player character’s new transformation abilities bring to mind Link’s masks in Majora’s Mask or the Echoes Zelda can create in Echoes of Wisdom.

That’s not to say that cozy elements reminiscent of Stardew Valley and other similar games will be completely absent from Wheatflour Wonderland. Information revealed about the DLC has confirmed that growing flowers will return, and a new flower will be added to the region, naturally called the “Wheatflower.” Cogimyun’s power over flour will also allow the player to cook many new tasty recipes, such as wheat noodles. Finally, collecting outfits and furniture and using them to decorate personal and Visitor Cabins has been confirmed to be a large part of Wheatflour Wonderland, with Cogimyun receiving her own themed furniture set similar to previously added characters like Hello Kitty and Big Challenges.

Wheatflour Wonderland will likely bring a fresh new twist to Hello Kitty Island Adventure with its open-world inspiration and RPG-like puzzles, but the inclusion of classic staples such as cooking, crafting, and decorating means that fans of the game’s cozy elements won’t be left in the dust either. Hopefully, RPG and puzzle fans will be drawn to the new content, while longtime Hello Kitty Island Adventure players will continue to enjoy having chill, laid-back fun with Sanrio characters old and new.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure

Released

July 28, 2023

ESRB

E For Everyone

Developer(s)

Sunblink

Publisher(s)

Sunblink

Engine

Unity

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Franchise

Hello Kitty