AT Reviews: Stardew Valley

Its the simple things in life that are most enjoyable. From street tacos to evenings without plans simple is just the way to go. That also seems to be how Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe, approached his first game. Where other first time developers go for complicated gameplay or themes, Eric was content to design a game about farming and life in the country, with a cave full of monsters around the corner.

The game opens with a chance to name both your character and farm. I named my farmer Nick and my farm Seabold Farms Farm. Only then did I realize that it appended the word "Farm" to the end of what ever I typed. Turns out that Grandpa Seabold had died and left me his farm should I ever choose to leave my busy city life and office job at JoJo-Mart. Which obviously I do, who wants to work at JoJo-Mart? After Arriving at my new home the mayor of the small town showed me around town and talks about a few side projects like finding new things for the museum or making friends with the locals. After that he walks me over to the community center which is falling apart and tells us about how great it was back in the day but now its falling apart.

Restoring the community center is one of the few signs of progression in the game. Odd little magic jelly people have inhabited the community center and need certain goods to repair each room. There is also a reward for repairing the different rooms, they range from making it easier to fish to unlocking a mine cart that can be used for fast travel. Alternatively, The evil mega-corp JoJo want the to turn the community center into a warehouse and, as luck would have it, they just need one more shopper at the newly opened JoJo-mart to convince the Mayor to do so. It should be noted that down this route doesn't make it impossible to get the rewards previously mentioned. Although rather than giving goods to magic jelly people to magically rebuild rooms, giving this small community a beautiful gathering place for years to come, you pay JoJo-Mart. Slightly less exciting but the choice is nice.

But that is the end game, The majority of the time in the game is going to be spent is rebuilding the farm and making money. Getting the farm running is as simple as clearing a space, tilling the ground, planting a seed and watering it every day. After a given amount of days pass, depending on the type of seed, a beautiful bit of produce will appear which can be thrown into the shipping box to send to market. Alternatively they can also be cooked into energy restoring food or turned into artisan goods like bread or jam. If working the digital soil isn't really your thing don't worry, there are a few other ways to make money, Like fishing, foraging, or raising animals. Fishing is done though a simple mini game which at first is fun and breaks up the flow a bit but after awhile becomes a chore. This is especially bothersome when trying to catch all of the special fish for the community center. Sadly foraging isn't all that profitable but in a pinch it can help. Raising animals requires a coop or bar to be built and each day the animals need to be fed and pet. Doing this will make them happy but more importantly it will make them more likely to produce products which can be turned into cold hard cash.

There are a few distractions for when you don't have anything else going on or when you want to break up the chores a little bit. The mine is the biggest change from the main flow of the game because its the only place with combat. The combat is quite simple but its enjoyable if only because its a change to the daily grind. Assuming your not busy with everything else, making friends and eventually falling in love is also part of the game. Its also slightly underwhelming, it mostly consists of giving your love interest the same gift till they want to marry you. It is broken up a bit by scenes where you might interact in more unique ways, but there are mostly just cutscenes so there isn't much gameplay.

The biggest advantage of stardew valley is that there is so much to do. Sadly thats also its biggest shortcoming since none of it is really very interesting. The farming is literally a chore, the relationships are barley even there and the mines, which are the most game like part of the game. are still rather bland. Despite all that, somehow even with all of its flaws its hard to stop playing stardew valley. Perhaps its because It makes me feel so productive. From sun up to sun down things are constantly getting done and I feel the satisfaction of finishing several chores and projects. All without having to do any of the things I'm actually responsible for, perhaps thats all I ever really wanted.