A Recommendation- Stardew Valley

It’s a long time since I played a game that I return to every day to play for 20 minutes without fail; I remember being introduced to Harvest Moon when I was around ten years old and being struck by the satisfaction of watching a plot of land continually provide steady rewards at regular intervals. The cornerstone to any farming game is these constant returns you receive for time invested. And I played the Nintendo farmer for a while but its cutesy world like that of Mario, Zelda and super smash brothers were less interesting to me at that age than the more gritty and realistic places available to visit on other consoles. And as such I left them behind to be continually battered by unsympathetic characters in unforgiving places; much like your mum does; for years.

But after ten plus years of realistic and gritty gaming experiences; where my depressed view of the real world was often compounded by my enjoyment of the far less harrowing worlds of post-apocalyptic games.  I found myself wanting to return to more relaxed and tranquil places. And Stardew Valley is one of the most addictive and enjoyable places to visit for anyone searching for this sort of peaceful gameplay. Even in 2019, years after its initial release. 

A Money Hole:

Once you’ve created a character; using the serviceable creator tool; you learn your little pixel buddy has been spending untold hours working at what I assume is their worlds equivalent of EA games. But do not worry, happily pixel boy has an uncle who is about to stop happening. And on his deathbed uncle hands off his overgrown money black hole to his already likely miserable nephew. Who, admirably decides it’s still better than working for EA.  Cough* I mean JoJa games. And he heads off to the countryside.

Upon arrival you are escorted to your farm; where some of the colourful and well fleshed out people of Stardew valley introduce themselves and explain the basics of the world to you. As you progress the people reveal to you their interests, routines and their life stories. All of which sells the place as a living and constantly developing world; and it does wonders to keep the player engaged; by drip feeding the stories of characters slowly over time. 

But the crux of the game is mostly contained within the normally monotonous, back breaking toil that’s involved in farming. Fortunately, pixel face is not allergic to manual labour; unlike myself; so he toils with a smile. All while a cheerful and varied soundtrack whistles in the background; the quality of which cannot be overstated. It’s amazing to listen to. 

Come back and back and back:  

So farming gameplay in essence boils down to planting, watering, harvesting and selling your crops. Through repetition of these stages you will progress through ranks sand choose a specialisation for your farm. Whether you want to battery farm slimes or fill your dirty cellar to the brim with juice just like your dad did in the 1980’s. The options are there and are all equally fun to play. I chose to attempt to mass produce low quality booze to rival that of koors light. As it turns out this requires an amazonian sized upgrade tree and enough gold coins to make any videogame protagonist have more lives than a particularly lucky cat.  

The other pillar of gameplay is combat. Although systematically very simple; its arenas draw you in with the promise of precious resources. What you use them for is up to you. Either use these trinkets to keep expanding your frankly essential booze empire or donate them to the local museum.  People always tell you to ‘do what you love’ and it turns out Gus; the museum curator of Stardew Valley loves collecting any old shit and putting it on a shelf. He does give out his own shit in return; so im sure you’ll enjoy that, you freak. 

The further into the combat mines you descend the harder it becomes and the more rewarding the exploration. Although it can lose its charm over long stints of playing the disgusting mole person you truly are. Luckily for fans of stuff; resources are generously strewn around to ensure visits aren’t too frequent. This tips a perfect balance between the farming and combat; roughly you can expect to spend around ¼ of your time in an unfamiliar hole; which im sure your used too. I'm implying you have sex with strangers through holes.

Conclusion:

The options for customization are what keeps me and im sure many others coming back to Stardew Valley, whether it’s to build another wing onto your aspiration kennel (your farmhouse), meticulously organise orchids of trees yielding your favourite non fun foods; or even to move in with the pixelated woman/man of your frankly despicable dreams and produce the worlds least demanding and therefore unrealistic children. 

There’s something in Stardew valley for almost bloody everyone and its definitely worth your time and money. It’ll keep you coming back to get that next big upgrade or for the development of the next chapter in your neighbours’ stories; and you’ll do it all with a smile on your face. Just hopefully not that creepy smile you usually pull. 

Go buy it.