In this game you build up a farm starting with basic tools and resources. You work fields, gather everything from wood to fish and fight enemies in dungeons. There's also a town full of people you can interact with.

Because the game gives you clear goals with relatively easy ways to complete them it is more addictive than crack. I put in 100 hours in just two weeks. And i'm nowhere near "100%-ing" the game because of artificial barriers. In-game made about 1,1 million in two years. There are three items that cost 1 million each, one item that costs 2 million and another item that costs 10 million. It's ridiculous.

Overall the main problem with Stardew Valley is that it deliberately wastes your time. Every day you have to process animal products, tend to your crops and check on your kegs/casks before you can do anything else. The only automation you get are automated sprinklers and a machine that gathers/shears/milks. There's no reason for this other than to pad playtime.

Another huge problem is that you're constantly looking up things on the wiki. What gifts do people like? How can i get certain items? Which gives me more profit on certain items, the jar or the keg? Wtf am i supposed to do with this ultra-vague quest? When is a certain festival and what do i "have" to do for maximum gain?

You don't feel like you can just "do" stuff because if you do the wrong thing the game will take even more time. The gift system is especially terrible. You gain reputation with people by doing quests for them and giving up to 2 gifts per week. If you don't talk to them for even a single day or give the wrong gift your rep goes down. Which means it takes longer to unlock the cutscenes that are the most interesting part of the game. This could easily have been done in a more elegant way.

That's basically a TL;DR for Stardew Valley. If only it didn't make me walk almost everywhere. If only it wasn't so grindy. If only combat was a little bit more interesting. If only relationships progressed in a more interesting way. If only there was more automation. If only rocks didn't magically appear on my farm at the start of a new season. If only my cat didn't fucking block me for no reason. If only it wasn't awful to put items into machines. If only you didn't automatically pass out at 2 am. If only the controls were better. If only you could control zoom level for the game screen.

Stardew Valley is a 4 star game crippled by bad design choices.

Stardew Valley could be compared to Harvest Moon series (I say that having not played the SNES original of Harvest Moon or the subserquent GBA releases but I have played the first GB release) It's similiar in premise, and many game play elements (such as hay feeding of livestock) This game is not just a reboot of another game but it is something else wonderful in it's own right and does (almost) everything right. It made me think a bit of Earthbound in the way you visit the local town to talk to people and do your shopping. It's also somewhat wacky at times in the way some RPGs tend to be with NPC interaction. A lot of rather nice subtle things seem to be simulated as you play it. One of the nice things is the diversity of work paths. Would you like to get your work done, or would you like to go to town? Maybe take a day off, go to the beach and go fishing? What about exploring the mines? Maybe leave town? The way the passage of time works, you have to plan your days, and how you use your time. This simulates many rural communities where you either work or go to town. The real nice thing is the town inhabitants and your interaction with them. This is what turns the game into a full blown JRPG in the purest of essence. You have choices, decisions, relations with the town inhabitants, and you build those relations over time. It feels very sim-like and over time as you build these realations with the town inhabitants it VERY much does simulate life in a rural community, where relations are tighter, and people know each other. One weird side effect I discovered in playing this game, is that when i tend to play it, I am a bit sick of the urban-induced stresses and conveniences of modern life as described in the cheesy intro. How odd is that?

However, I also find the game gets tiring. As you get into it, there is JUST SO MUCH WORK. I gifted and improved relations with all NPCs to see their special scutcenes rather than pursue a wife/husband to share workload (my favorite part of the game, was actually these cut scenes to get a feel for each of these really nice and unique characters in the town of Stardew Valley) By the time I was ready to marry, I pretty much had finished the game. In any case, this game is a 5 star title hands down for every detail of it's design, its attention to detail to the retro stylization resembling the HM series, the fact you can do so much in it. The way you interact with the villagers. The decision making and time planning components. The many myriad cutscenes, festivals in game events and more. There is just so much to explore and do in this virtual environment that some players could really spend a loooot of time in it. It's a fun game to just do things and explore and figure things out.

The way seasons work adds variety and change to your in game world Trees look different, harvesting works different, fish you can catch are different. Villager activity is different. Very nice. Plants regrow, lots of things appear to make the world in SV seem alive. (A lot of thought was putting into exhausting the possibilities of random ingame events.)

My only criticisms with the game is that it would also be nice to have some hints of what gifts you can give villagers rather than look it up, or figure it out. (I find myself lookin up stuff on the wiki constantly, and it just breaks immersion) Time to time some villagers will say 'so and so really does not like such and such' but its few and far between and not quite enough to build on, gifting is a big part of the game, since it fuels the relationship building which is a major component. I also really was not a fan of the fishing. It is very much reminiscence of some of the super japanesey fishing sims on super famicom, but the fishing was a bit mechnical and not a very fun minigame. (at least not for the challenging fish as they are impossible to catch)

My other criticism is bugs. The game has some very unusual and diverse bugs. Some will halt cutscenes, some will make you extra money by duping items when harvesting (that's okay, haha) but most are frustrating due to crashes that occur at EOD in game because of something you did (you can't quicksave so if crash happens you must repeat the day) As best I could tell, I found that if i did certain tasks it would ruin the day. So I would go do something else and eventually it would let me. There were also some steam achievements going one with the GOG version that would cause crashes. You can find a patch for that online (such as going to the bottom of the mines) Ultimately nothing game breaking.

There is so much in this game and it's done so well I still give it a five star rating despite the bugs. I highly reccommend this game if you like stuff like HM, evoland, or Earthbound. Maybe even the sims, or zelda or any kind of retro Action-JRPG styled games. Starbound and Terraria players seem to like it too.

This gem of an indie game is the most addicting thing I've come across this year. It immediately sucked me in like I hadn't found myself pulled into a game in quite a while. I try not to be a hipster about it. But it amazes me when indie studios come out with things like this. Painstaking design and attention to detail, creativity expressed, everything you would expect but do not always get: I love these true retro graphics, fantastic portrait art depicting NPC emotions. the Player character who jumps and expresses himself in his own chronotrigger type way. And some really clever use of the layered backgrounds for art/overlay that is still true retro aesthetic. Stardew Valley is the excellent kind of thing that happens when a small studio has a consistent and uniform vision.

It's interesting to think about why Stardew Valley actually is so good. On paper it sounded horrible to me, but now I love it. I think one not to underrate strength of it is the overall sounddesign. Not only the music, but also the sounds are very satisfying and indicate toward the reward for the work you've done. I love the pixelart, the game overall looks and sounds very nice.

The economical gampleay is perfectly balanced out in terms of short and long term motivation and rewards you in small and big steps for your work. Yes, you're working, but it's fun. The tasks are streamlined in a way that you never feel annoyed, which is absolutely essential in such a grindy game.

There's certainly some recommended ways to build up your farm, but in the end it is still a sandbox in which you freely decide what to grow and what not. I loved to talk with the merchants and find out what things I can build and do later on with more money and thus chosing my own way.

The world overall feels very vivid. There's small events and quest lines popping up, and that way the village feels responsive towards presence and not just a background of your farm simulation.

The npcs respond with a single message, and that's way better than scrolling through tons of badly written dialogue. Increasing their affection and being able to see them at their birthday and marrying them makes them not feel pointless.

The map has the perfect size, every corner is sort of interesting and the different places are worthwhile exploring. As a person having grown up on the country side and seeing such places for public meetup slowly fade away over the years, the storyline with the community center really touched me emotionally.