The cozy-game genre specifically is a relatively recent category, even if there are plenty of older games that could fit into it.
It definitely isn’t a term you would have seen back when Stardew Valley was released.
And then it says the reason that Hades 2 has resource gathering is because stardew valley influenced it…
That’s not how you should read this section of the article.
Though Stardew Valley did not invent the farming genre – and obviously took a lot of inspiration from Harvest Moon – it certainly triggered the avalanche of similar farming games that followed. On top of that, numerous games have farming and other life sim elements in them now, regardless of genre.
“On top of that” phrasing implies they are making a separate point.
But not that limited, you can find the shards and even wakestones from playing the game. Even the MTX alone you can only buy 5 max, which isn’t enough to ever make a difference in the game.
Always interesting to read about some of the specific considerations to go into features that may not seem that complicated at first glance (especially to the layman).
The appearance change item can be purchased in-game and portcrystals are also findable in-game. So, at best, these items provide a small “headstart” to someone playing the game from scratch.
If anything, the biggest issue is that they are kind of a waste of money.
However, there is still no release date or even release window for Star Citizen 1.0. CIG will share the roadmap later this year.
12 years in and the update is that a later update will announce when they may, or may not, release the game.
This is, and always has been, the issue regarding this game. Even putting aside the budget they’ve burned through to date (which is impressively massive), the fact that they are still unsure of when they think the game is done is mind-boggling.
Years ago, I thought I was being relatively pessimistic that the game may take until 2023-2024 to release. And here we are in 2024 with the “release date will be announced later” updates still coming.