I’ve been playing Stardew Valley for a number of years now and have never bothered to put my thoughts to paper/DagonDogs.com. Obviously, if it’s a game I keep coming back to, year after year, I’m not going to have a negative review. So, the Stardew haters out there who have their loyalties to other farming simulators, or the Animal Crossing fan-boys and fan-girls may be disappointed that I’m not going to rip into the game. Nonetheless, I still wanted to write something about it since it became one of those games that I return to when the leaves change color, the days get shorter, and the squirrels become my mortal enemies as they tear into my garden to plant their seeds for the winter.

The Short of It

What I’ve Played

More than 150 Hours
Single-player only on PC and Steamdeck
Three separate playthroughs with one going past “three years” and marriage

Pros

Earning money and expanding your farm is a satisfying gameplay experience
Some good comedy from “cut-scenes” involving the residents of the town
Wholesome and relaxing
Tons of little secrets and optimizations
Lots of mods to improve the experience further

Cons

Needs a little bit more in the endgame
No real benefit to being a “bad” neighbor
Gameplay loop can get tiresome

The Rest of It

Story

You are a single person, living the city life, working an office job for a big corporation, but life isn’t satisfying where you are. Something that your grandfather left behind for you gives you a way out, however. You quit your job and end up heading to the property he left for you in Stardew Valley. Of course, it’s in severe disrepair, but with some elbow grease and a little help from your neighbors, it’s not long before your land can become a functioning, versatile farm with crops, livestock, etc.

There is no core narrative in Stardew Valley, as is the case with many other farming simulation games. There are a few throughlines and goals, like getting the farm up and running, making friends with the townsfolk, exploring the mines, etc. As you become friendlier with your neighbors or discover new secrets in the area, there will be the occasional moment in which the characters interact and something unique happens. Sometimes you get a prize as a result, and sometimes it’s just a cut-scene. The main reward is just unlocking these moments and seeing the characters interact with one another, which can be genuinely funny or interesting. If you’ve seen them all before, it’s far less interesting, and it doesn’t seem like there’s much of a benefit to taking the alternate path during these conversations by being a dick to the people around you. I have a decent long-term memory, so seeing the interactions all again is a little repetitive, but they’re still fun the first time around.

Gameplay

Despite being a breakthrough hit, Stardew Valley does not reinvent the wheel. Plenty of farming simulator games have come before it and plenty more will come after it. The format of the game genre is pretty consistent across titles, with Harvest Moon being the go-to example of which Stardew Valley likely took a lot of inspiration. Below is a short list of some (not all) of the activities you do to progress and earn currency in the game.

Farming
- Harvesting crops
- Collecting materials from livestock (eggs, milk, etc.)
- Crafting materials from crops (beer, wine, pickles, etc.)
Fishing
Mining
Dungeon Crawling

As you perform these actions, your character levels up and gets more proficient. At different points in the level tree, you can choose a specialization, which can lead to greater rewards or convenience on your path to becoming a wealthy tycoon in the valley with the best farm anyone has ever seen or will ever see. Since you can choose a different type of farm at the start of the game (default, in a forest, on a beach, etc.), your priorities for your farm might be different as you progress. The first time through the game will be a learning experience, and it will take some time to understand the mechanics or what decisions are the most optimal for your situation.

In addition to all the typical farm maintenance, you’ll also be interacting with the various residents of the town. Each of them has their own preferences for things, along with some little snippets of backstory to add depth to the characters. If you give them the right gifts on the right days or complete various quests for them, you can become friends with the townsfolk, which can lead to some nifty rewards and recipes that can help you with your various goals. Some of the townspeople can be wooed into dating and even marriage, eventually moving in with you on your farm.

As you make more friends, complete various quests, and level up, more of the game will open up to you. New areas will unlock, allowing you to further explore and make more friends in the process. All of the gameplay I’ve described so far is pretty standard for the genre. If you don’t care for farming games, I doubt Stardew is going to change your mind. The satisfaction comes from completing the chores and learning more along the way. As you unlock more areas, exploration and uncovering the various secrets add to the fun. In fact, I’d argue that the experience of uncovering the secrets, no matter how insignificant, is the core reason that these games are able to pull you in for so long. Back when I played Monster Hunter on the PS1 and PS2, the main draw to the games was gaining access to more monsters and more areas to explore, rather than necessarily becoming a skilled master of the battle mechanics. Stardew Valley manages to cram a good amount of exploration and charm into an ultimately simple game, and I think that’s what really makes it so appealing. Having not fully explored the entire game, there still feels like there is plenty to do in it on my third playthrough.

Presentation

Obviously, the aesthetic of Stardew Valley is pretty simple. Similar to the Harvest Moon games on the Super NES home entertainment system, the characters and environments are made up of sprites with a limited number of pixels that are just enough to clearly identify the character. When a textbox appears, however, character portraits appear with a wide variety of moods and looks to help add to the personality of each character. (There are also plenty of custom mods out there that can change these portraits and various other designs if you desire.) The look is simple and will likely turn some people off, but I never had a problem with the overall look of Stardew Valley.

The music and sound are also pretty good. The tunes are pretty catchy and change with each season or during special cut scenes. Most importantly, however, are the satisfying ‘blip’ noises that occur when you collect or sell a bunch of items, causing the dopamine rush in your brain to make you forget about all your real-life troubles.

Why Stardew is Still Relevant 7 Years Later

As I mentioned, the game was a breakout hit. It was something like lightning in a bottle for a farming simulator to come out at the right time with the right content. In some ways, I’d say it managed to singlehandedly revitalize farming simulators as a genre. It was a niche genre before Stardew Valley, and it was heading in a bad direction with the social-media games like Farmville that managed to be similar in mechanics but predatory in their monetization and lacking in content. Stardew Valley managed to give a lot of people who enjoyed the basic mechanics of farming a little more story and charm to pull them in. Since then, it’s a genre with a ton of life and numerous new entries. The last Nintendo presentation that was done around the time that E3 2023 would have happened featured numerous farming simulators.

Stardew Valley was mostly developed by one individual, who is passionate enough to keep creating more content for it with new free patches. In addition, there’s a die-hard community of fans who continue to make their own mods and stories to add to the game’s lifespan. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another small game like this with such a vast ocean of opportunities for continued support and growth nearly a decade after its release.

TL;DR

Stardew Valley is not the most innovative indie video game you can find on Steam. However, it takes inspiration from many great titles and manages to deliver a complete package that still holds up several years after it reignited interest in farming simulators. It’s still a great game to pick up during your travels, your holidays, or any other breaks in the routine that allow you to escape to a remote and peaceful, pixelated valley.

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