Stardew Valley Review (Ｙ Ｅ Ｅ Ｔ)
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a cozy farming sim in which the player manages their own farm while slowly uncovering secrets that surround the little town.
Story
The player inherited their grandfather’s old farm plot next to the lovely city called: Pelican Town. Considering that the players isn’t enjoying their office job anymore, they decide to begin their new life in Stardew Valley on the farm plot of their grandfather. The fields are overgrown and the player needs to put a lot of work into their newly acquired farm to make a living from farming. The player meets a lot of new people that live in Pelican Town and sooner or later discovers a few mysterious things while slowly getting to know some of the townsfolk better and better. Can you turn the old farm into a thriving and lucrative farm? Will you dive deeper into the dangerous mines? Will you end up marrying the person you’ve been talking to for weeks? It’s up to you what you do in Stardew Valley.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=721140803
Personal Note
I bought Stardew Valley back in 2016 when it was released and at first, I kind of didn't like it much - maybe "liking" is the wrong word; I guess I wasn't in the mood for a cozy game and thought about refunding it but I didn't. I pulled through and played it for good 60 hours before not playing it for a couple of years.
In 2023 I picked it up again and realized that there is new content and lots of quality-of-life improvements since I played it the last time. There are a total of 8 different farm maps that you can play on - each come with individual challenges, advantages and disadvantages. The Riverland Farm encourages fishing from the very beginning due to more limited space but different maps like the Meadowlands Farm encourages farming and comes with two chickens by default. There's much more and some features have been in Stardew Valley for a while but I just discovered it when I started playing it again in 2023. I don’t want to spoiler some of the things since I want to keep my reviews spoiler free in general so go out there and explore the game yourself at your own pace.
The multiplayer works amazingly well and is fun if you want to play with your friends. There’s also a farm that focuses on the multiplayer aspect of the game.
You can add mods to Stardew Valley to spice things up, if you get bored of the base game. Some mods only change the appearance of the game, some add a bunch of quality-of-life improvements and some just change up mechanics, make the game easier or harder - depending on what you want or need. Stardew Valley Expanded is a very popular mod that adds 50 more locations, 27 new NPCs and a bunch more - and this is just one of many mods that expand on the base game.
Setting up the mods is pretty simple but it might takes some time if it’s the first time you’re doing it. The official wiki has a tutorial on it which helps a lot in my opinion.
Rating
Pros
Good story with lots of stuff to discover
Good pixel graphics and aesthetics
Neat soundtrack that fits the vibe
Very cozy gameplay
Mod support
Multiplayer for up to 8 players
Cons
The fishing mini game gets tedious
The early game can be quite slow
Conclusion
If you think about getting Stardew Valley you should give it a try.
The base game is solid and you can have at least two different playthroughs depending on if you want to rebuild the community center or if you want to go the capitalism route with the JoJaMart. The base game offers more than enough for a price tag of 13,99€ - I personally didn't regret buying it.
8.9 / 10
“You have found a Stardrop! Your mind is filled with thoughts of...”
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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172185932