More monster NPCs would be pretty cool. Like sometimes you'd meet a domesticated slime or dino that got lost in the mines, or another friendly shadow person randomly in the mines. Could be fun.
I had an idea a bit back of a zombie guy you could find after you get some key to go farther than the normal bus stop limits, that died in the war Kent was fighting in. For the entire list (obviously I don’t expect all of these, but I hope for a few) of monsters:
A slime that accidentally glued itself to a lamp post and needs the farmer to escape
A cave fly that lives in a little hive, maybe has a similar role to the bear that you give maple syrup to in the secret woods
A druggy that you can pay to tear down a mine level for a week until it respawns, making going down a ladder above that floor like going down two
A rock crab that collects rocks in exchange for money/special items
A bat that lives in a little secret door in your mushroom/fruit cave that needs to be blown up to enter
A stone golem that helps Leah with poses in her artwork in exchange for food/shelter
A dust sprite that bounces around town sometimes leaving coal behind like a train but with no notification that it’s there
A ghost that used to live in the old house the hat mouse lives in now, and that will sell boots instead or something
A skeleton that lives in the quarry that you can pay to go to the museum counting as another artifact that will walk around and spook guests
A metal head that will upgrade clothing to have +1 defense per upgrade, for a price
A shadow brute that is friends with Krobus and lives in the adventurer’s guild as someone who gives you rewards for NOT killing monsters for an amount of mine levels
A squid kid that acts as Gus’s new oven
A mummy who needs various weapons to cut the wrapping paper until free revealing it was Vincent with Jas on top of him all along
A pepper rex that holds dinosaur funerals with fossils
A serpent that works for Joja and flys around delivering packages
A haunted skull that you find at the Night Market that sells bone related decor, weapons, and clothing
A dwarvish sentry that needs help being fixed and becomes Maru’s pet
A false magma cap that you have to find all over the different mines, and at the end gives you a bunch of gold and a prismatic shard
A lava lurk that lives in water instead and helps get fish
A magma sprite that makes barbecue with its flames
A blue squid that gives you ink letting you rename items
A spider that can poison your weapon making it deal damage to an enemy over time
A stick bug that can give you wood to use for building, for a price
Is that all of them?