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| From humble beginnings your farm can eventually turn into an agricultural powerhouse for the valley |
| Quick Info | |
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| Reviewed by: | Mark Goninon |
| Developer: | ConcernedApe (Eric Barone) |
| Publisher: | ConcernedApe (Eric Barone) |
| Release Date: | 27 Feb 2016 |
| Time played: | 177 hours |
Coming up to its 10th Anniversary
Reviewing a game that is as big as Stardew Valley almost seems pointless this late in the piece: the game is one of those indie success stories that inspires others to try their hand at making an indie game as it made its sole developer, Eric Barone (aka ConcernedApe), an overnight millionaire (or just about, the game is claimed to have sold over 400,000 copies in its first two weeks). It's also a game loved by critics and the general gaming public alike, with a Metascore of 89 and, as I type this, an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam based off 98% of a whopping 788,055 reviews being rated positive. It's a commercial and critical success and next year will reach its 10th anniversary.
I actually purchased Stardew Valley the same year it was released in December 2016 but it wasn't until one year later I actually decided to try it as a cluster headache cure. I continued to stumble my way through Stardew Valley for about a month but if I had to use two words to describe my first experience with the game, it would be "confusion" and "grind". I used to run a "What I've Been Playing This Week (aka Pile of Shame Sunday)" series and judging by what I posted, I made several mistakes because I'm the sort not to read guides on the Internet if I can help it. I also felt there was a lot of grind in the game since later levels were progressively taking much longer to achieve and it takes a lot of saving up of resources to be able to craft certain things. Eventually, I was distracted by other games and completely lost interest in it. At the time, I felt the game was okay, but I wasn't particularly enamoured by it: it just wasn't my type of game.
Fast forward to 2025, 7 years later, and things have changed. When I first played the game I had two young daughters (one a baby and one too young to understand a game like Stardew Valley); Now, I have three kids and four gaming devices that are networked, allowing for multiplayer games of Stardew Valley (one of the devices is an iPad since yes, you can play Stardew Valley on the iPad and cross-play with PCs). Over the past few months, I've learned a lot more about the game, to the point it's about time I actually give it a review. The game has gone through many updates, so how does the game hold up almost 10 years later? Is it still as good as everybody makes it out to be?
So You Want to Be a Farmer?
So there are a couple of ways to play Stardew Valley: you can either play it singleplayer or you can play it multiplayer with other people locally or online. The game is essentially the same whether you play it singleplayer or multiplayer but if you have friends playing in your game, there will be more cabins on the farm and more people to help you achieve your objectives. More on that later.
As far as the story goes, you play a former Amazon… er… I mean… JojaMart employee who becomes disillusioned with the daily grind that you decide to open a letter that your late grandfather left for you. Opening the letter reveals that he actually left an old farm in a place called Stardew Valley as part of your inheritance. Your character wastes no time in quitting their job and starting their new life in the country. When you arrive in Stardew Valley, you're greeted by the mayor of a neighbouring town called Pelican Town. The mayor's name is Lewis and while showing you to your farm, also introduces you to the town's carpenter, Robin. From then on, you're given free reign of what to do. The game will offer you some primary quests to complete which should nudge you in the right direction, but you're free to pursue them (or not) as you please.
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| There are five core skills in Stardew Valley that you can improve |
Considering you own a farm, it makes sense to try to make it as profitable as possible. In the beginning, you're given some parsnip seeds and some basic tools. After planting the seeds and watering them daily, you'll be able to harvest the crop after a few days. Selling the crops will give you money which you can then invest into more seeds, or eventually other farm buildings that allow you to raise animals like chickens and cows.
Meanwhile, the more time you spend in a particular skill, the more efficient you will get as you level up. Each time you level up, you'll also unlock crafting recipes related to that skill. There are five core skills in the game: Farming, Foraging, Mining, Fishing and Combat. If you spend most of your time around the farm, you might not even end up touching the Fishing and Combat skills but the beauty about Stardew Valley is that farming isn't the only thing you can do.
If you prefer, you can go about slaying monsters instead (I've got to say, the Adventurer's Guild in this game really gives me Quest for Glory vibes. Gil reminds me of Wolfgang snoozing in the Spielburg Adventurer's Guild). While the combat in Stardew Valley is very basic (i.e. click to swing your sword) it can make for some tense moments if you aren't properly equipped with weapons, armour and food.
There's always fishing as well where you play minigames with the goal of keeping the fish within a green bar. If the fish stays outside of the green bar for too long the fish escapes, but if you keep it within the zone for long enough, you successfully catch it. Better rods give you more leeway which is especially useful when you're trying to catch lively fish that dart all over the place.
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| One of the long-term goals in the game is to rebuild the dilapidated Pelican Town Community Centre |
Smells Like Community Spirit
On the other hand, you might actually be more interested in building relationships with the townsfolk, and you can do that too. Your relationships with them are determined by a number of hearts: the more hearts, the better your relationship with them. In order to build your relationship with the townsfolk, you need to talk to them frequently and give them gifts. Every townsperson has different likes and dislikes so you'll need to figure this out if you want to get on their good side. You can even do quests for them, usually posted on the bulletin board, which will also give a boost (along with a reward too - win win!). There are even eligible bachelors and bachelorettes in the game which you can date, marry and start a family with, although the kids you have are a bit like kids in the first Sims game: they never turn into adults!
Eventually you'll be given the opportunity to either assist the town in rebuilding its Community Centre or you can succumb to the dark side again and buy a JojaMart membership which results in a JojaMart Warehouse being built in Stardew Valley instead. Each of these routes will keep you busy either earning cash to pay for upgrades or harvesting different resources. Following along these paths will unlock some other late game content but again, it's totally optional. You're free to do whatever you want in Stardew Valley.
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| As you befriend the townsfolk you'll learn more about their backstory through conversations and cutscenes |
The Family that Farms Together, Stays Together
As mentioned, when I initially played this game I found it alright but a little slow-paced for my liking. However, ever since playing this game's co-op mode with my kids, it's changed my perception of the game entirely. Many hands make light work, and this is definitely the case if you're able to convince a bunch of players to assist you in building up the farm or fighting monsters in the mines. Sure, if you have players who are shopaholics (like a couple of my kids) it can hamper progress but if you're really concerned about that you can choose to have individual gold storage instead of a communal one (although that brings its own problems). One thing I've found annoying at times is that there isn't the ability to lock chests or have a personal stash, similar to what you get in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as it's quite easy for other players to walk in your house and pilfer items from your chest. On the other hand, having locked storage inaccessible to the rest of your group could result in hoarding, which isn't helpful in a game where you're meant to co-operate, so there is no silver bullet.
Playing Stardew Valley with the kids though has allowed us to bond and chat about our virtual community, in a way many other games don't. There are plenty of multiplayer games out there, no doubt, but many are online affairs which involve playing with strangers that you probably don't want to expose to younger kids. This game creates a safe space for younger kids to enjoy, similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, except I find it a more intriguing world with better developed characters, better gameplay experiences and it's ideal for the PC (although Stardew Valley exists on many platforms today such as the Nintendo Switch and iOS).
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9
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My favourite game to play with the kids. While the game is a competent enough cosy farming sim/RPG and an amazing feat when you consider all aspects of it (the coding, the graphics and audio) were developed by one guy, Stardew Valley really shines when playing co-op with others. |
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