Stardew Valley: Making a life choice for the better

Stardew Valley, a game by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, is a 2D top down life and farming simulator where you play a character who is rundown by the corporate lifestyle and finally decides to open a letter from his late grandpa. In this letter they find out that they are the inheritor of their late grandpa's farm and should they ever feel the need to get away from the world, then it would be there for them. 

Before you start, one needs to create their character from the varied selection of options, they also need to provide a name, farm name, a favourite thing, select whether they like a dog or cat (with a small variety to pick from) and to decide what type of farm they would like to inherit - with the addition of the latest update at the time of writing (1.6) makes available up to 8 farm types.

 

They are:

Standard which offers the standard game experience to allow the player the freedom to choose whether to pursue farming or husbandry or a bit of both. It doesn't have any notable features besides being the biome that is probably the easiest to use for large scale production as it does not have anything unique taking up valuable space

Riverland Farm is the type of farm a player chooses if they want to focus on fishing. It boasts having a list of fish from both the river and forest fish pools and also has the potential to spawn "bubble spots", which act like a temporary improved fishing spot where one can fish with improved odds, if one lands their line within its location.

Forest Farm which is a forager themed location with a renewable hardwood source, a larger than normal amount of fruit baring bushes which grows various berries depending on the season, access to foraging drops, weeds that drops wild seeds and a pond that pulls from the forest fish pool.

Hill-top Farm is separated by a stream that runs through it and has a renewable quarry site on a hill that the player can use to focus on mining. Its space is fairly limited and, besides the quarry, can be considered something of a challenge farm to optimise your space if one wants to get a bit of everything built. 

Wilderness Farm boasts having a fairly large pond that draws from the mountain lake fish pool and its theme deals with having to deal with monsters spawning once night falls. Spawns a unique monsters that is tied to a high combat skill

Four Corners Farm is ideal for multiplayer as it is divided into its named four corners that has a bit from three different farm types, namely Forest, Riverland and Hill-top, with the main building being located on a smaller standard farm plot. It has a little bit of everything with a renewable source of hardwood, a fishing pond which draws from the large forest fishing pond pool and a small quarry for mining.

Beach Farm which is more for players familiar with the game or those not interested in doing much farming as it has only a small patch of arable farmland that a player can use with sprinklers. What it offers in return is a large plot that one can find supply crates that wash up on the shore on occasion. It also provides access to the beach fishing pool with it drawing from both the beach and forest pools for forage spawns.

Meadowlands Farm is geared more towards animal husbandry where the player starts with a chicken coop and two chickens and it replaces the parsnip seeds gift with hay to feed them. It also grows unique blue grass which is twice as effective as normal grass for animal consumption and gives twice the amount of hay when harvested.

Once one has completed all this, the character is on the next bus to the titular Stardew Valley to start life anew. The first impressions of one's lot is not too impressive as it is overrun from neglect. The welcoming committee is not too shy to make you aware of the fact, however they do try to welcome the new blood all the same and are eager to see what you can do to bring the abandoned property back to its previous glory.

Before leaving you to get settled in, the mayor mentions that you have a deposit box near your house and that anything you place in it will be sold with you receiving your cut the next day.

Your character retires for the day to get everything in order and when they wake up they find a present in their house to help them get started earning an income.

From this point, you are free to choose how you wish to play and in this freedom it is best to get familiar with the game's systems and explore your farm a bit while fiddling with your taskbar and what each tool does.

The player does start off with some basic gear to get themselves started and the game is opened ended enough to allow one to play it however they choose.

It is a good idea to get familiar with the five cores skills which most of the game activities revolve around. In regards to this, it also does not hurt to be aware that after every five levels earned, within a specific skill, the player is required choose between one of two different but related skills choices.

The skill choice at level five will decide what skill one needs to choose from for their level ten skill.

The best way to conceptualise this is to consider that at level five the player chooses a specialisation and then at level ten, one then chooses a mastery of your chosen specialisation.

One should not be too worried about locking themselves into a character build though as there is a way to reset the decisions made, for a small cost, if one feels that a choice does not meet one's needs, although to access the ability to do so requires some work on the player's part to unlock it.

A brief explanation of what each skill does is as follows:

Farming

• This deals with the aspects of crop and animal knowledge and unlocks skills, equipment and recipes related to more effective farming and the quality of products produced through the process
• Useful in unlocking the ability to process related raw resources into artisan goods
  
• Its specialisations is to either maximise profits through crops or focus on animal husbandry
  

Foraging

• Covers the aspects of picking up random stuff lying around in the game world, harvesting wild flora and the collection of wood.
• Very useful in a survivalist sense as it provides access to the ability to make the most out of nature and natural events
• Deals with a core element of farm building construction and equipment, with it having Mining as a partner in importance in regards to meeting requirements.
• Specialisations has the player choose between maximising foraging potential or dedicate to more efficient lumber collection
  

Fishing

• A skill that governs the ability to reel in fish and other water related fauna
• A skillset that provides good rewards without much risk besides dedicating time to the action
• Skill improvements lead to easier fishing with a larger margin for error and improvement to fish quality caught
  
• Is one of the more involved systems as one needs to take into consideration the time, season, location and weather conditions to catch something specific
  
• Its focus asks the player whether they want to maximise the potential of fishing or to make the most of the convenience of Crab Pots
  

Mining

• The ability to efficiently break rocks for stones, gather ores, gems and geodes
  
• One of the most important skills in regards to collecting resources to improve the quality of the tools one uses
• Also deals with the other half of the core resources one needs for farm building construction and equipment.
  
• The specialisation options are a choice between deciding whether a consistent supply of mined ores or access to more geodes and gems are more important to the player
  

Combat

• A fairly basic skill tree that improves the player's health
• Is locked off until a few days have past
  
• Provides access to basic survival gear, strong combat survival consumables and rings
• Allows one to maximise the use of the Slime Hutch
  
• Specialisation is down to personal preference whether one wants a consistent tangible bonus or take a chance on improving critical damage chance with the option to improve weapon ability cooldowns
  

These skills are, in a way, interlocked and requires one to engage with every aspect to make the most of one's time with the game.

It is also important when it comes to crafting, which plays a big part in maximising the use of the resources one collects. Through its use does it provide the means for the player have access to a wide range of tools and cosmetics to interact with.

Crafting is an important tool that allows one to go from surviving to thriving, as it can open up the game to both financial and cosmetic freedom.

It achieves this by allowing the player to convert resources they have collected and turn it into something, in most cases, more valuable.

The starting options are very limited, however once one levels up skills, develops friendships and collects recipes does it create value by offering solutions that allow one to express their creativity, solve problems to the inconveniences that one runs into and provide a means to upscale the value of their resources into something more useful.

An obstacle stands in the way of the player though as any extraneous activities such as land preparation for farming (which includes hoeing the land, watering crops and filling the watering can) , fishing, mining or wood cutting drains your stamina and if you empty it completely your character will become exhausted and if you continue to work after this point it can lead to passing out and will be forced to rest and wake up the next day being billed for treatment and possibly having some items stolen.

Becoming exhausted is a state one should try to avoid as the next day, when the player wakes up, they then will receive a penalty for the day and have less useable stamina before requiring to either go to bed again or take something to restore it.

The amount of total stamina the player initially starts out with is quite low and it does not take much work to drain it, which can be frustrating when one starts. Going to bed after 12:00 am can also mean that not all your stamina will recover if one goes to bed with low stamina. 

Thankfully, stamina can be restored by eating good food which one can find from foraging, making yourself a snack or, if one has money to spend, going to the bar and buy a meal from Gus.

If one does end up exhausted, one can always visit the clinic and buy something to remove the associated debuff that the player would normally incur the next day.

There are also special rare objects given as a special reward through the game that boosts the maximum stamina amount and with levels in respective skills does the required stamina to perform said extraneous actions reduce as well.

A useful thing to also get familiar with is the game world map itself which is broken up into zones that separates the various aspects of the play area and act as something like zones of general activity.

A general idea to consider when learning the zones in relation to the player's farm is:

- Mountain

• Focused towards mining and combat
• To the north, or going towards the up, exit of the screen, and then to the east, or right, after going up
• Need to wait a few in-game days to have access to it
  

- Forest

• For foraging - which includes wood and seasonal plants
• Go south, or exit going down

- Town 

• Is focused around quests
• Acts as the hub for where the player can communicate with the most of the residents of Pelican Town
• One can do most of one's shopping here, especially in the early game
• Located to the east , or the right, exit after the intersection between the town and the farm.

Beach 

• Ocean foraging and fishing related activities
• Travel east, or right into town, and then go south, or down, when in town

As time goes by and the player completes specific tasks more areas unlock, which expands ones play area, however being comfortable with these general locations does help orientation and allows one to spend more time on figuring out everyone's life routine.

Another thing that is worth notice is the detail of the map as one's farm choice has the map change accordingly to what farm type that was chosen and has it integrated with the world at large with each farm's personal character being displayed. It also changes dynamically to match the season's colour palette which is a nice touch as well.

Outside the technical aspects, another strong element of the game is in its social aspect that one can explore by interacting with the many residents that live in world and it is here where I feel is a point where the game will either draw one in or have it fall off with those that are unsure if the game is for them.

The various characters, although they follow simple routines with actions that are not too complex have a charm that really rubs off in a good way once one gets to know them a bit better as one starts off by learning and developing a basic idea around what type of character each one is.

Each one fits an archetype which goes a long way to make a small community feel a lot more alive than it first appears.

One can say the "character" writing shines to help complement the graphics in a way that one can create a clear interpretation towards interactions and this style develops its own charm once one has grown familiar with it.

The style further draws one in and lets one experience aspects of the various characters through its friendship mechanic, which of course can be gamed, but has a nice flow to it if one engages in it in a natural way as there is growth and decay based your interactions with characters.

It is represented as a rating that is scored out of 10, with characters that the player can romance with an initial score cap out of 8. This gradually builds with the player talking to a character each day and having the option to offer them two presents (once a day) each week to further boost this.

This rating can be further improved by taking on and completing tasks that are posted in town on the notice board or from receiving mail requests asking for something specific. Finally, remembering someone's birthday and gifting them an acceptable present can go a long way to improve their opinion of your character.

Conversely, the relationship naturally degrades a small amount each day if there has been no interaction with them with bad gifts having an additional negative effect on their opinion.

Scores cannot fall below the 0, so it is more for personal taste if one wants to be friends with some and choose to hamper relationships with others outside special cases. 

A benefit of befriending the locals, besides seeing the gradual change in their attitudes, is reaching relationship milestones and unlocking events that further provide an insight into what type of person they are in their everyday lives with you possibly giving input that can affect their opinion or the results of future events.

As friendships grow you can also find that they will leave you gifts in your mailbox or come and visit for a chat. These events can lead to receiving resources, food or recipes.

Even if it is something simple. it does a good job incentivising the player to get in people's good books if only for the benefits they provide.

As mentioned before, romantic options have a smaller initial score cap that is locked as an option for the player to pursue a deeper relationship with. Every romantic pairing is valid if the farmer is keen on earning someone's trust. Each one can be simultaneously pursued freely until one decides to get married which means that one can have as many romantic partners as there are romance options.

The choice or choices are best decided by what character resonates with the player with some requiring more effort to break past but overall the Valley is a very open-minded and inclusive on their relationship views and even the most staunch advocate against a pairing can be swayed if you get to know the person.

Although one should be aware that characters in relationships do act in a way where they believe they are the only character the player is dating, but the game is not so complex to be worrying about that unless one decides to seek a relationship with every romanceable character without some form of lucky charm.

It is done quite well, especially if one decides to commit to someone, where the focus is placed on reinforcing the idea that love is whatever the player feels comfortable with and it will provide a reasonable narrative towards it with some characters being more aware of their preconceived ideas than others.

If a player feels like they would like to take the relationship to the next level, they can find out about the local traditions and work on the means to propose. When one has sufficiently charmed their love interest, then one can move on to successfully offering a marriage proposal, which leads to an appropriate Valley ceremony to confirm the decision and to celebrate the occasion.

Once the player is married, the game expands the marriage partner's heart score even further. This is the start of a more focused relationship that requires more effort from the player to maintain, but rewards it more generously than the standard friendships one can form.

Even with the small things like talking to your spouse, giving them a kiss and gifting them the occasional gift can pay for itself by them returning the effort by completing some of your daily farming tasks for the day, repairing your fencing or have them providing a gift in an expression of gratefulness.

Maintaining a good relationship also means that you could be asked if you would like a child, be it through conventional means or an application for adoption. You can have up to two children, however they will never grow past the roaming toddler stage unfortunately.

Although limited in scope, it still provides an worthwhile experience to appreciate which does feels good to interact with.

If one feels like one's choice in marriage partner is not working out, then one can file for a divorce, with any children staying with the player character and the divorcee having some limited unique interactions.

This decision can be reverted with the payment at a special location that will revert all the statuses of exes to a fresh start by giving them magic-induced amnesia if one feels like would like to try again.

In the event that the player desires to, for whatever reason, not have their children then they can resort to performing a special ritual in a certain location to achieve the desired outcome of letting the child or children "fly the nest".

Outside the personal interactions one forms, it won't be long before the player will start to be involved in the community as a whole and it has ways to show how impactful the player is to the local economy with it eventually giving the player options to spend their hard earned resources to have a limited visible effect on the town itself.

To get back to the point of time, to have one keep track of the days one spends in the Valley, one should also know how its calendar works, which consists of four seasons that last 28 days each. Every season has its own holidays and/or festivals and it offers a nice break from the usual game flow as it provides the opportunity to have a day where one can interact with the residents, partake in a few activities and purchase some specific mementos from the event.

There are also unique events that are not as grandiose, but do offer something special in regards to either giving the player something to spend their money on or to interact with some aspect of the game where it rewards the player with something unique or an easier access to a resource related to the event.

The season system does a lot to help break up routine as it stretches it out over a longer period of time while still acting as a nice world building mechanic requiring the player to try something different as each season brings with it its own new items to collect through farming, foraging or fishing.

Besides the community events, there is also a run down community center located on the edge of town map. The player is given the choice to decide to investigate the strange events further or choose to ignore it and purchase a Joja membership which seals its fate as corporate property.

Whatever the decision, it is recommended to at least complete the Community Center route at least once as it is a series of collections that encourage the player to engage with all the aspects of the game and acts as a rough guide that encourages one to get involved with experiencing what the game has to offer.

The Joja Corporate route is a lot simpler though as all the bundles require the player to pay for it and that replaces the grind to a single currency - money.

Each individual resource bundle completed provides something useful. Fully completing one leads to receiving something related that can be useful to expand one's play options.

The completion of a bundle theme is the real goal though as it provides the player a lot more freedom to explore the game as it can open up new areas, offer some new game mechanics or even offer some limited fast travel conveniences around the map at predetermined locations  

One can also consider the community center as something akin to a "final boss" that proves the player has a good grasp of what to do and, by completing it, opens up the systems that provide the opportunity to refine, beautify and optimise one's experience.

This approach gives it its longevity as once one completes a milestone, be it being days played or an action completed, has it open up more activities or locations for the player to find, explore and engage with.

It eases one with the new content quite well as meeting the requirements all but ensures that the player is committed to their playthrough and engaging with it leads to being rewarded, especially when one utilises everything that one has earned which adds to the experience.

So enough speaking about systems and onto how the game plays.

It is something that is difficult to explain, but for me I find it can be therapeutic. It has a soft learning curve that is opened ended in its expectation on the player and this is reinforced with there being no "game over" states.

That is not to say that one can be careless as it does "punish" the player for mistakes or not respecting its boundaries but once one gets into a rhythm then one can expect to have play sessions revolve around being about 10 to 14 minutes a per game day.

The timers on the days can feel restrictive at first, but it does help keep the game interesting as one needs to utilise their time efficiently if one wants to complete something specific.

It also puts pressure on those that like to take their time with content especially when one gets into the more cosmetic aspects of the farm. It requires one to create a mental plan, at least, towards what they wish to achieve and then dedicate one's time towards what they feel is the most important task for the day. 

This works in conjunction with how it saves the player's progress; which is that each game day is a session and the only way to save is to go to sleep, either in bed or having passed out, which ends the day and tallies deposited items with a summary showing the value of goods placed into one's shipment box with it bringing up any level milestones reached afterwards. If one quits for whatever reason without doing this, then one will find themselves starting the day they were on over again.

This can be a mixed blessing as mistakes can be easily rolled back or if one misses something important for the day then one is only a "closed game and try again" away. It also takes a lot of pressure off the player to remember to save and helps create an environment towards enjoying the game for what it is and encourages rolling with the decisions that one makes instead of trying to control the minutia of the gameplay experience.

The save requirement can ask for one to accept a mindset change from a traditional "save everywhere and any time" to some planning and schedule management.

One can choose not to, of course, and just mess around and reach their goals at one's own pace, but to find more things to do and unlock more options then one needs to put in the work to meet the game half way and work within the generous bounds of its systems.

In regards to the difficulty, there should be at least a few challenges that should offer some push back, which can either come from the the time pressure or the activity itself. For most of these difficulties, one can power through it with special skills, gear or consumables that one can find, craft, buy, upgrade or level up into which helps create the illusion of self-improvement as one can develop ways in which to optimise one's activity to a point one is satisfied within the constraints of the game.

As mentioned earlier, its has simple graphics and animations, but that does not mean that care and attention was not placed into them as what one interacts with does help make the systems easy enough to grasp and, in this simplicity, it gives off a relaxing atmosphere where even cleaning up the yard of weeds, trees and rocks does not feel like a overt chore.

There is a nice flow at play which does alleviate its weaker aspects by doing what it can to motivate the player to feel engaged while playing. The progression of barely making pennies to afford one's next batch of seeds and working one's way towards becoming the pillar of the community is rewarding as all that hard work is something that you as a player have experienced.

When one has more money than to know what to do with and have all the upgrades, then one can take a proverbial step back and feel a sense of pride in what they have accomplished ( and it even rewards the completionist with a nice scene)

It is well-realised game that through its layers create its own style that can look goofy at times, but conveys its intention well.

Sound design is serviceable in regards to sound effects with game sound having moments that stand out but the music is where the game shines as it is well made in that does not overstay its welcome.

If I had try to explain how I feel about it in a word, the music is: Comfortable. It is not something that sticks out or gets stuck in my head but neither does it bother me while playing and complements the tone and feel of game really well.

When considering what Stardew Valley is; it can be considered at its core as a casual farm/life simulator that makes the best of its simpler art style, use of multiple smaller systems, great music and its emotional and comedic character themes to allow a player to create their own "new life away from the chaos of reality" as all these activities do a good job selling the idea of what a community can feel like and provides, albeit simplified, a mostly comforting look into the human experience.

I find it a great role-playing experience that one can escape to and live a more ideal version of one's own life or, outside of that, consider it as something that cuts out, simplifies, trims it up, gamifies and then presents something that conveys the idea of living a better life and rewarding that hard work in an entertaining package.

 

Video Source: Official Stardew Valley Trailer