Stardew Valley's medieval cousin Mirthwood now lets you collect adorable pets and quietly kill off NPCs

Exploring, battling, farming, harvesting, and of course romancing, Mirthwood has all the core pillars you need to be considered one of the best games like Stardew Valley. Putting a medieval twist on the Stardew formula, it's been adding massive new features like marriage and co-op ever since it launched around 12 months ago. Now, it's time to broaden its horizons even further. With the addition of seasonal festivals, pets, and new random world events, the Foundations update is pretty packed. However, my favorite feature is one that I sometimes wish Stardew Valley had - the ability to kill off NPCs.

The new Mirthwood update may not be quite as transformational as some of its previous drops, but it's still another big step towards getting a full suite of features that can match or even eclipse some of its big life game rivals. Festivals are some of the standout moments in Stardew, and Mirthwood now has three regularly recurring ones of its own. There's All Hallows Eve in the fall, the Festival of Blossoms in the spring, and the Summer Solstice in, you guessed it, the summer. Special vendors will also appear during these occasions, selling some of the 35 new event-exclusive items.

You can now also own a pet in Mirthwood, and there are four useful and adorable animals that you can befriend. We know that there'll be cats, which can chase rats off of your farmstead, and dogs that can bark at burglars, and all pets can gather resources automatically for you too.

Random encounters and world events also keep Mirthwood feeling alive and unpredictable, and now there's much more variety. Alongside 35 new random encounters, Bandit Raid and Vermin Plague events can be triggered at any point, unleashing rats and thieves on your village - see, I told you those pets were useful.

My absolute favorite addition in this update though is that NPCs can now die. Morbid, I know, but there's nothing worse than having to constantly pass a character you don't really care for in the street, day after day. Now, if you fail or ignore important quests and events, there is the chance that an NPC will die, with a tombstone system now added to document those that have passed on. Sure, you're not directly killing them, and that's probably a good thing, but by being passive aggressive and neglectful, your least-liked neighbors could soon be gone. If a character does die, a new NPC will be introduced to take their place.

Mirthwood's Foundations update is out right now. If you're yet to play the game, but it sounds like your kind of thing, it's worth noting that on Steam it's currently 30% off until Tuesday, December 2, making it just $17.49 / £14.69. There's a free demo if you're unsure, too.