Stardew Valley beautifully combines farm simulation with RPG elements to create an intriguing, absorbing rural world.
Update: Stardew Valley has been nominated for IGN's 2016 Game of the Year.
My favorite thing about Stardew Valley is not just that there’s a lot to see and do, but that it’s (almost) all intertwined. It’s not apparent at first — when I started my farm, I planned each tile for maximum efficiency and reset when I accidentally bought the wrong seeds. But the secret of the Valley is that it’s much more than making each day productive on the farm alone. As I ventured off my plot of 16-bit land and started to explore, I began to really enjoy the days for everything they are — and how its parts fit together to build a captivating rural life.
Each day in Stardew Valley takes around 10 to 20 real minutes, and several of them are occupied by the slow business of starting a farm from scratch. Having to plant the right seeds, water your crops, and wait for the harvest before making any real money means there’s not a lot to do right away. Fitting, since my character had just left a stifling job at the Joja Corporation — Stardew Valley’s ever-present reminder that capitalism can grow soulless — for a simpler life on grandpa’s old farm. But Stardew Valley isn’t simple. It’s relaxed, sure, and lets you grow at your own pace, but it’s a rich world once you get past the slow first season.
From Humble Beginnings
Life in Stardew Valley’s Pelican Town picked up for me around summer of the first year — by then I’d gained access to fishing, exploring the mines, and enough money to start investing in livestock. Things really started to come together, and that initial simplicity evolved into a quiet sort of busyness. I grew crops so that I could prepare the best food, which I could in turn give as gifts to win over the townsfolk or to take down with me into the mine to restore my health as I fought monsters to get resources, which I could use to build a useful item back on my farm. I then used ore from the mines to upgrade my tools so I could chop up a log and get to a secret part of the Valley, and all that work helped me level up so I could craft even better items. The blend of RPG and farm sim feels effortless, and it makes Stardew Valley exciting and compelling without being stressful.
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The blend of RPG and farm sim feels effortless.
All of those RPG-like sidequests are crucial, because they interrupt the inherent cyclical repetition of farming that can stall the momentum of farm sims. Over 30 hours and an in-game year later, I still feel like I have plenty of items to unlock and secrets to uncover. You’re pushed down multiple paths, too, because a lot of items acquired through farming, fishing, and mining, combine for huge rewards and unlock important areas of the Valley. That helps keep very separate tasks connected.
Most of these tasks would become old quickly if you did only that, but the need to change up your activities keeps things from becoming stale, and there’s usually more to them than it initially seems. The simple hack-and-slash combat in the mines is a bit of a grind and not particularly challenging, but the fun comes from the mystery of what comes next and the satisfaction of finding the right items for whatever else I needed and wanted to do. I spent a lot of rainy days and time between harvests underground, fighting slime monsters and skeletons and getting really excited every time I found a rare, useful ore. The solemn, pretty music helped keep me from getting stressed about combat and instead let me focus on the beauty of the underground.
Complex People, Simple Socializing
When I wasn’t busy tracking down items or figuring out which crops were the best to grow each season, I tried to socialize around town. It wasn’t easy or even all that rewarding at first — even the friendlier townspeople wouldn’t open up to a complete stranger, which is admittedly pretty realistic. When they did, I was a bit disappointed at how basic the process of getting to know them was — “making friends” is as simple as making daily small talk, trial-and-error gift-giving, and doing random favors, and I did a lot of that, with varying degrees of success, and eventually forced my way to popularity.
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The mechanics of relationships don't match the depth of the townspeople's lives.
It’s frustrating, because the mechanics of forming relationships don’t at all match the depth of the townspeople and their interconnected lives. One quest tasked me with finding the mayor’s “shorts,” which ended up being somewhere very scandalous. One kid spends a lot of time in his room because he thinks his mom and stepdad favor his step sister over him, and another girl has a strained relationship with her mom because of her “alternative” lifestyle.
Festivals and cutscenes in particular made me feel less like I was just gaming a system. Once I’d gotten a girl’s heart meter up enough — which indicated that I’d given her enough of the right presents, I guess — she told me all about wanting to be a successful artist and how her ex didn’t support her. There’s also a homeless man, Linus, who is completely ostracized by most of the town’s residents. I watched a grumpy old man yell at him for digging through the trash for food and another man in town offer to give him food if he needed it, and as I befriended him (by giving him meals I’d cooked), I learned more and more about his struggles and successes in living off the land. Even though becoming his friend was uncomplicated, being his friend felt more meaningful.
What would’ve been even more meaningful is if there were something more I could do with this intimate information and these relationships. Marriage is one way to go, and your partner can even get jealous if you give gifts to other previous romance options. That route just doesn’t feel fleshed out quite enough, though learning the ins and out of Stardew Valley’s social aspect is still rewarding as a piece of fiction that fits relatively well into the more developed parts of rural life.
Xbox One and PS4 Version Impressions
By Miranda Sanchez - December 13, 2016
Stardew Valley's transition to consoles is a smooth one. Both the PS4 and Xbox One versions include the great post-launch updates we've seen in the PC version, like the new farm templates, divorce, bug fixes, and more romance options. The controller mapping is taken from the PC version, so they're familiar, but the mouse cursor that's used to navigate menus is a little on the slow side. Still, most of my time was spent farming, talking with neighbors, or in dungeons, so this wasn't a deterrent for me when playing these versions. Unfortunately, Xbox One version does suffer from some slight stuttering in larger areas like the farm, but developer Chucklefish confirms that there is a planned update to fix it within the coming weeks. Otherwise, Stardew Valley for consoles is still the same great game we first played on PC, and comes just as highly recommended.
The Verdict
After dozens of hours, I’m nowhere near done with everything in Stardew Valley. One note I found on my farm promised an important event in my third year, I still don’t know what’s at the bottom of the mine, and I need to figure out who I want to marry. With so many interconnected systems, from the farm simulation to simple combat and cooking to crafting, and each driving the others forward in some way, it’s a deeper and more complex game than you’d expect after the first day on the farm. There’s plenty to do while I wait to uncover more of the Valley’s secrets, and the prospect of filling my days with new adventures or just a better harvest is too enticing to pass up.
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