// KOTAKU — GAMING
I Definitely Do Not Like March From Fields Of Mistria And Absolutely Will Not Be Marrying Him Under Any Circumstances
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been playing Fields of Mistria since it launched into 1.0 last week, and I’m having a great time. It’s like Stardew Valley got a 10-percent quality-of-life buff to everything, alongside some features borrowed from other games I love like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
Obviously, one of the best things about a game like this is that there are a bunch of very sweet, very nice, very lovely single individuals hanging around town who you can get to know very, very well. A thing Mistria does that I love is that it allows you to choose, at certain points, whether you want your relationships with these people to progress into close friendships or romances, so you don’t have to feel like you’re losing out on a character’s story just because you don’t want to smooch them. As a result, I’m making sure to befriend everyone, even people I do not wish to smooch. For instance, I am befriending Juniper, who is not my type necessarily, but who has a very cute golden retriever I’d love to be besties with. I am befriending Adeline, who is beautiful but also seemingly far too wrapped up in her work to really consider romancing.
And I am befriending March, who is a big stinky butthole of a man and who I will not be marrying for any reason whatsoever.
March is the local blacksmith, a fellow with red hair and a permanent expression that makes him look like he smells something foul in the room. He’s the younger brother of Olric, a downright himbo sweetie who is unfortunately not interested in romance with the player (he mostly seems to just like rocks) but who will gas up his asshole of a brother at any possible opportunity. March is also very good at his job, which has given him a cocky edge for some reason and results in him looking down on basically everyone except his brother.
In real life, I hate people like March. He’s snobby and curt, overtly rude to you at every possible opportunity. He gets mad basically any time you speak to him, and spurns most gifts that other villagers at minimum tolerate (flowers), preferring precious and needed materials like ore. He seems to be jealous of you because you arrived in town recently and everyone’s paying a lot of positive attention to you. He’s pissed that Adeline gave you the farm and is asking you for help, and then further pissed off when you do a good job of providing that help.
The one thing that seems to soften him just a tiny bit is craftsmanship. March, as mentioned, is an excellent blacksmith, award-winning and renowned, and he knows it. He will begrudgingly respect your own interest in blacksmithing, though he’s clear that you’ll never be as good as he is. March just cares more about the craft than he does his own high-and-mighty position, so anyone trying out blacksmithing is slightly more likeable than anyone who isn’t. He also seems to bear a certain respect for anyone who is exceptionally skilled and attentive to their own crafts. For instance, he’ll compliment Hemlock on his beer-making, or Juniper on keeping an excellent bathhouse.
But mostly, he’s just an asshole. While I try to make friends with everyone in games like this, I probably would have ignored March entirely (the way I did the snobby Haley in Stardew Valley) were it not for Olric. In an early dialogue with Olric, he asks you to give his brother a chance, and it’s hard to deny him. Olric is lovely. Olric is a saint who has never done anything wrong in his life. I would do anything for Olric, including (unfortunately) be nice to his rude brother.
So I have grit my teeth and spoken to March at every. possible. opportunity. I give him gifts, thoughtful ones that I know he’ll like. I ask him about himself. The player character’s dialogue options with March take a tactic I would not personally use, which is a fake-cheery snark intended specifically to poke at him, which only enrages him further. This makes me feel a little bad for him. If I’m going to be stuck dealing with this guy,