First and foremost, Rune Factory and Story of Seasons fans need to be aware that Silent Hope is not a farming game. Yes, those are Story of Seasons cows roaming around the hub, and farming and cooking are important systems. The main weapon types in this game even call back to the weapons used in Rune Factory. But this isn't Rune Factory. Where XSeed once innovated upon Story of Seasons by turning it into an RPG, Xseed now boldly takes further steps to make a much more involved RPG, divorced from sim elements or the friendships customarily found in their hallowed farm sim series. If you're coming to Silent Hope expecting a Rune Factory, you'll likely be disappointed for a bit. You don't really get to interact with the cows, there's no real involvement in raising crops, and you don't have to worry about skill values when it comes to making weapons.

But this is all in service of Silent Hope being a dungeon crawler instead of an RPG with farm sim elements. Where once there were complicated systems for raising cattle or crops, you instead leave raw materials at your hub to produce ingredients or materials while you explore the dungeon. Fodder is needed for your animals, seeds you find in the dungeons raise new crops, and runes you collect from slaying monsters fuel the entire economy. It's a fun system that quickly makes going into dungeons rewarding: even if you die in short order, there's always something waiting for you back home. Better yet, using your facilities nets them experience that allows for further upgrades.

As for the dungeon explorations itself, it's an approachable system. Each of your seven heroes represents a different class with their own unique play style. While focusing on just one character or weapon type is possible, Silent Hope incentivizes using the other heroes regularly. Throughout the Abyss, you'll find crystals connected to the Princess; while these are ostensibly for escaping the Abyss, they can also be used to swap your heroes, bestowing your new character with a buff based on the hero they're replacing. There is also the randomized nature of the "mementos" (read: weapons) that you find in dungeons; like any good dungeon crawler, these can include various rarities and alternating skills, and it's in your best interest to get the most use out of anyone lucky enough to get a Legendary weapon available for them.

It also helps that dungeons have a good variety of enemy types. You can expect a typical spread of "small enemy/ranged enemy/big beefy enemy" styled monsters in each of the randomized floors of the Abyss, but the sub-variants always manage to keep you on your toes in some way. Some enemies explode into a cloud of smaller ones once dispatched or inflict status ailments. Of course, you're still mashing the A-button to attack. But the pattern and pacing of dungeon exploration feel relaxing and inviting, especially with the promise of loot behind every corner. Of course, death is always possible, and dying in the dungeon sends you back to the hub minus some of your gains (it seems like the rarer drops are left behind most often). The dungeons also offer all kinds of fun twists, like statues that offer challenges to be completed on certain floors in exchange for experience and runes, or mirrors that send you into "dark" variants of levels with stronger monsters—and greater possible rewards. There are plenty of traps you can take advantage of to fell groups of monsters in one fell swoop, or the monster rushes where you must defeat waves of enemies before proceeding.

Progress is also an addicting cycle in Silent Hope. On top of having seven playable characters, each character can equip up to three skills and unlock up to six more by leveling up or progressing through the Abyss. These skills can be improved with skill points earned from leveling up, and at any point, if you feel like prioritizing a different skill set, you can press a button to regain all of your points. No muss, no extra items—your character's level doesn't even fluctuate. The siren's call of rare items waiting in the Abyss is incentive enough to jump back into the fray. And with all the wealth of possible skills or gem slots your equipment can have, there's always something to look forward to. None of this is particularly novel for dungeon crawlers, but it's all handled rather well for a first outing. Your time as a player is respected, and it never feels like you're plugging away through old content to get to the good stuff. The most significant misstep in Silent Hope might be its perceived attempt at connecting to Story of Seasons. While the main dungeoneering loop feels satisfying enough, you start to want a little more from the game despite it all. We're given Story of Season cows, but we don't even get to hug them. There's a nice, cute plot of land for raising crops, but it's all handled clinically with a menu—no weird twists or frills. It almost feels like there's a twist just about to be dropped on you like some exploitative mobile game system asking you to pay money to grow extra crops. But the twist never comes.

At the very least, Silent Hope uses its aesthetic phenomenally. Silent Hope aspires to a "storybook"-like aesthetic and wildly succeeds; the playable heroes are all charming and memorable in their designs, monsters are disarmingly cute (and include the beloved Rune Factory Wooly in their number), and the levels have all kinds of cute details in the backgrounds like little crabs waving at you from the river or festival lanterns strewn in the gloom.

For a first attempt at a dungeon crawler, Silent Hope does a stellar job of capturing what makes these games so addicting. The gameplay loop is engaging, there isn't a single stinker among the characters, and it's pretty to boot. There's plenty of room to improve, but the experience is fun enough that even veteran Diablo fans might want to check this out if they want a fun breather from all the hardcore grinding.