Stardew Valley (2016)

Everyone I know who's played this game has had nothing but good things to say about it. I myself am a massive fan - I have spent hours playing, and it's so charming and full of depth that I had started over a couple of years later in multiplayer with my sister.

It's essentially like Harvest Moon for adults (due to some heavy themes brought out in certain character stories). The game mechanics are great - standard farm simulation with a little bit of sword-swinging in the 'dungeons'. You have the option to romance characters or simply improve relationships between all of the village NPCs, unlocking their rich backstories and/or character arcs brought on by their relationship with your avatar.

There's plenty to still accomplish once you have finished the main storyline. The creator eventually added further updates to the game because it was so popular.

I will say that I played this on PC and that my friend who got this on the Switch did not care for the gameplay as much. I haven't played it on the Switch myself so I don't have any particular opinion about this in terms of platform, but I'm putting it out there in case anyone is on the fence about which platform to play this on.

As of writing this, the creator is working on another game, and I can't wait to see what they do.

I feel like there's a major problem with Stardew that, at least I personally, don't have with other games similar to it, and that is that after a good while (I'm in year 5 now for context, and I'd say I ran into this around the middle of year 3 or beginning of year 4) I simply don't have any interest in continuing because there's just nothing much more to find or unlock it seems.

I mean I'm still missing the occasional museum item and whatnot, but overall I've got the movie theater now, I've got the nicest house I can have, I've got more money than I know what to do with, I've gotten married, had two kids, won all the activities at the various festivals, gotten to the bottom of the regular mines (still stuck trying to reach the bottom of the desert mines), nearly filled up the museum, unlocked the dwarf and his shop in the mines and completely repaired the community center.

I know I could do other things, for cutscene sake, like further my friendship with people in town and whatnot, but overall I just feel like the game ultimately stagnates, and for some reason this is the only game I have this issue with.

I'm also playing New Leaf for the first time and I'm about a year, real time, into that and I'm STILL loaded down with new things to do. I could potentially get Gracie to open her shop, I'm stilling finding art and insects and whatnot for Blathers, and I'm still trying to get the last few house upgrades. Same with Slime Rancher, I've got the final area unlocked, but even still there's slimes I have yet to see and things I have yet to discover. I feel like this problem, this stagnation, ONLY occurs in Stardew. And I know ConcernedApe does update the game and add new things now and then, which is very nice considering how far we are into its lifecycle at this point, and considering he's essentially a one man workhorse, but still, quality of life upgrades and something like the night market, cool as it was, just isn't really enough for me to play continuously outside of checking it out once or twice.

Does anyone else feel this way? I love the game to death, don't get me wrong, but it's the video game equivalent of gambling or smoking. I have this urge, an addiction, to hop on all the time (an urge I often give into, despite all I've said here), and play for a good few solid hours, even with nothing really at all to gain from it. Sure it's relaxing, and sure that's nice as spending some stress free time with video games is pretty rare these days, but overall I just...I just kinda wish there were more after the first few years ingame.

Am I just stupid? I mean, I know I'm stupid, but am I like, stupid stupid?

I've had this game for a couple years now, but haven't started playing until this week. I'm playing both a solo game, and a co-op game with my cousin. I haven't played a game from this genre since I played Harvest Moon on the SNES and Harvest Moon 64 when I was a kid. I forgot how addicting this stuff can be.

Did anybody else want to start growing vegetables in their yard after playing?

It took me a while to get into Stardew Valley, but then I bought it on sale on Switch and have fallen in love. It is the perfect no stress, lay in bed and play game. I love sitting back, playing a few days and trying to get some crops to grow, exploring a few levels deeper in the dungeon.

I have recently managed to build up enough monetary funds to invest in a Chicken coop and chickens! Which has been a lot of fun.

I recommend this game to anyone who would like an RPG, that at least in the beginning, gives more relaxed and meandering pace, where the player can really invest time in materials gathering and creating.

Also, the music has been great!

I'm not certain how long I will invest in the game, but it seems to be the perfect play in bursts experience, as it isn't hard to come back days later and pick up where I left off.

endlessly endearing, everything about this is so meticulously put together i find it hard to fault; it's perfect for when i want to zone out to an idyllic pressure-free fantasy (the mines notwithstanding). here there is no rush, things can wait for another day or another or another, nothing is stopping you taking a moment to stop and breathe the valley air.

the art style is just lovely (fall is particularly gorgeous) and the soundtrack for fall and winter make me feel wistful and nostalgic for something i've never really experienced myself.

astonishing to me that the whole thing was put together by a single person.

This game gets overwhelmingly positive reviews. I love the Animal Crossing series, and tons of people I know who dig those games say this scratches a similar itch.

But I've tried playing it like three or four times now, and I'm just... not feeling it.

The cursor-based UI makes me feel disconnected from my character, and makes the game somewhat clunky to play on my Switch.

I maybe want it to feel less "sim" and more "life." Resource management is a drag! Time limits are a chore! I just wanna build stuff and talk to neighbors!

I found this article on tips for playing and even the article stresses me out. 😅

Of the game's 1225 ratings as of this writing, only 51 rated it less than three stars. But life's too short to keep trying to like a game I'm just not that into, right?