533 people found this review helpful
22 people found this review funny
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 3,534.0 hrs on record (1,672.9 hrs at review time)
Posted: 6 Dec, 2016 @ 2:28pm
Updated: 6 May, 2017 @ 10:25am

Short Review Version
This is what I did for thousands of hours in Stardew Valley:
I worked on this guide since the first release.
I've tested 477 items for 15741 times to 33 villagers,
I've chopped tons of woods,
I've smashed tons of stones,
I've reset the game for hundreds of times,
And I almost lost this guide because my hard disk corrupted.
In case of another disaster,
So I've to release this halfway works,
Whatever I currently have.

I believe Wiki's info are slightly inaccurate. That's why I make my own data references. You can still refer to Wiki if some info is missing in this guide. This guide will be continuously updated when I have free time. I may be busy at life, but I'll try to push updates to this guide. As multiplayer mode rolling up soon, I will include that as well.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=812676599

Long Review Version
Once I played Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on PlayStation 1 and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town in Gameboy Advance. Then I continued to play HM:FOMT in VisualBoy Advance in PC, GBA4iOS for iOS and GameBoid for Android. I went for plantations, mining, fishing, feeding animals, wooing all the cute girls. Unlimited fun hours.

"Dude, which girl are you chasing?"
"Elli."
"Just pass your game cartridge to me for a day; I'll make her grow to red heart in no time!"
"Then help me to get 999,999,999G for Vacation House!"

We swapped GBA game cartridges, grinding it all the time after school hours. That was my childhood memories.

It all began when a friend of mine told me about Stardew Valley which arrives into Steam Store. A game that packs most of Harvest Moon features, which I played back from ten years’ time. I went on checking at Steam Store. Apparently, it looks similar as Harvest Moon, but I doubt how fun it is. All the while, the only farming simulator I loved was Harvest Moon. None other than that. Thankfully, my friend borrowed his Steam Library to me. For the first two hours, I was surprised that finally, FINALLY... A real farming simulator on PC platform. We do no longer running on emulators.

So the first month, as usual, I cleared my land, planting Parsnips and then went hunting for extra berries and grasses. But alas, what I noticed inside was totally blew my mind. No grasses but with different loots and proper item names. Dandelion, Daffodil, Spring Onion, Leek, Grapes, Hazelnuts. And then, there's Bus Stop. An overhauled open town that doesn't vertically or horizontally aligned compared to old Harvest Moon. Quests. Fresh storylines. Tons of letters and goodies in my mailbox. Combat mode in Mines. And MINECARTS!

This Stardew Valley is a new fresh farming simulator. At first, I'm at lost, but since I'm an ex-Harvest Moon addict, I still can keep up with the crops. However, challenges turn in which you have to defend your crops from overgrown weeds or crow attacks. Something new, you can feel it. In my first run, I used to be a monopolist. Spent all my money on seeds and gained maximum profits. But then, the funny part I placed almost more than 20 scarecrows to protect my crops.

I've no idea how far a scarecrow range can cover, how to simultaneously plant and harvest crops, how to organise items and much more. In my thoughts, there might be Steam Guide that helps players to play better. It took me few minutes to load a whole guide with heavy images. Images are wonderful, but still a lack of some details. And much to my disappointment, lots of guides in Steam Community are heavily plagiarised with the assistance from Wiki.

Ten years ago, as far as I remembered, game guides for Wiki hardly existed (Or maybe there's one?). Remember how we used CC Cheat Codes, IGN Walkthroughs, GAMEFAQs.com, and many more old sites? Veteran players are very well-versed at this. Most guides are solely written in text format. The tradition of writing text guide is fading. No comprehensive Steam Guide for Stardew Valley community ever had done this.

I stopped my game in the middle of Winter, Year 1. Over the months, I compiled all items and complete gifting. Day by day, data by data is being added to my works. One day, my portable disk went corrupted and thankfully my only backup still resided in my local disk. Thus, I've made my final decision to post my works in GAMEFAQs.com and Steam Community as what you've seen right now.

I as a fan of Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley would like to thank all of the public contributors who had spent years to compile and posted detailed online walkthroughs for everyone to enjoy HM games, and now we're moving on to Stardew Valley. I wanted to do the same extensive guide for Stardew Valley. Also not forget to thank all my close friends who had helped me to test and verify game data too. As I continue to compile the remaining data, your feedbacks are greatly appreciated.

Feels like I'm relieving back some good ol' memories. Soon I'll have my own printed Stardew Valley guidebook on my bookshelf for my collection. Maybe I’ll be playing this for another ten years. Thanks, Stardew Valley.
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22 Comments
HH 13 May, 2018 @ 12:20pm 
That hours, what the heck? xDD
Lily 9 Feb, 2018 @ 1:22pm 
wow 3,278.6 hours on record
datyeucao 20 Jan, 2018 @ 9:12am 
3k hours , omg bro , FKING LEGEND
Twisted Tea 10 Jul, 2017 @ 4:20am 
good job keep it going.
GRAVES 7 Jul, 2017 @ 5:07pm 
you sad cunt
中国在一切方面都作弊 29 May, 2017 @ 2:52am 
You fucking serious bro? 3+k hours on this?
KayRem 5 Jan, 2017 @ 4:25am 
You are our hero.
Perjantai 3 Jan, 2017 @ 10:05pm 
This must be a joke. You didn't actually waste 2000 hours on this game, did you?
Scarlet 3 Jan, 2017 @ 7:49am 
Multiplayer Mode? Looks like this game will only get better. Thanks for the detailed review. Nice to see someone actually put heart into their review for once and not be some stupid "10/10 Would farm again".
Dorukon 31 Dec, 2016 @ 11:14pm 
Thank you for the game review it was modest and nice thinking about buying it now:narumi: