NOTE: This is my 2nd draft of this review, as my initial review of it I felt no longer did it justice.


Stardew Valley is a farmlife simulation game in the same vein as Harvest Moon and not dissimilar from Animal Crossing. The story isn't overly important to the game, its more of a reasoning behind why you are at Stardew Valley and in Pelican Town (the main setting of the game) in the first place, but I'll put it in spoilers just in case.

Your grandpa gives you a sealed envelope on his deathbed and tells you to open it when you feel that modern life is a burden and you can no longer take it. Some time later, you decide to open your letter whilst at your desk at a crappy, totalitarian-esque office job where you are being watched all the time. You discover that your grandpa left you his farm on the outskirts of Pelican town in Stardew Valley, so you decide to get a bus and leave your job and life behind you, and you arrive at Pelican Town, where you are greeted by the mayor, who shows you to the farm and and welcomes you into the town.

You are then, after the introductary story, let loose on your farm on the first day of spring, coincidentally the day after getting to the farm. Your goal is to thenmake as much money from fishing, selling crops and animal produce like eggs and milk, converting milk in cheese and eggs into mayonnaise, etc. You can also make money by selling things you find in the mines, or by selling things that arte dropped from the enemies in the mines. Pretty standard stuff, where your goal is to make as much money as you can. That is the Harvest Moon elements, the other huge chunk of the game is closer to animal crossing in how it plays.

The other bit of the game is making friends, talking to and romancing and eventually marrying one of the many bachelor/ettes of Pelican Town. They have birthdays, daily schedules (which can change from season to season, whether its raining or not, and if you are married to them). This gives the game a sense of life that games like animal vcrossing can sorely miss. Animal crossing has villagers, but none of them have jobs or regular schedules (except for the shopkeepers, but they aren't ever seen outside of the shop), they just seem to have endless amounts of bells.

The third and final chunk of the game is the quests. Believe it or not, this game has quests. not ones like Skyrim or the Witcher, but smaller scale ones, like reaching level 40 in the mines, building a chicken coop or even introducting yourself to every person in town. i won't talk more about the quests because they can be a bit spoilery, and I'd hate to ruin anything about the game. All you should know is that the game's quests don't feel grand and legendary, but that plays into the game's strengths. You're just a farmer, not some legendary hero of old. The quests are small scale but can take a while of befriending certain people, getting the money and resources to do them or by sheer determination. It'd feel unnatrual and tacked-on if they were all legendary adventures that nobody else can do. How grounded they are plays into the game's strengths very well, and I feel it works very well.

The gameplay is very staisfying, as you can watch your farm grow from a patch of land with rocks and trees everywhere and being painfully untidy, to being clear of rocks and trees and grass, and having crops grown around every part of it, with barns and chicken coops to raise animals where there were none before, and you can proudly say: "I've done this. I did this and I did it well."

I'd reccomend this gameto hell and back simply for the sheer amount of gameplay you can get from just £10.99 ($14.99), and to think it was made by a single person over the course of 4 years is simply incredible. My hat goes off to you sir, well done.

If you aren't a fan of simulation games of any kind, or Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing has never really appealed to you, then I suggest that you look for another game, because this probably won't be for you. If you do like them, then I highly reccomend this game. 9.7/10, simply because the writing is a bit iffy at times and Journey of the Prarie King can piss right off, it is hard as balls (although there is a glitch that lets you kill the boss easy as pie), although a great homage to old-school arcade games. And the writing is easy to get over and not a huge issue at all. This game is a superb game that only gets better and better, and will be getting it as soon as I possibly can when It comes out on the Nintendo Switch.

I wish I hadn't bought it on sale, because this game deserves to be bought at full price. It has truly earned it.

Note: Nominated for the Steam Awards 2017 for the "The world is grim enough let's just all get along" award

NOTE: This is my 2nd draft of this review, as my initial review of it I felt no longer did it justice. [h1]So, what is Stardew Valley?[/h1] Stardew Valley is a farmlife simulation game in the same vein as Harvest Moon and not dissimilar from Animal Crossing. The story isn't overly important to the game, its more of a reasoning behind why you are at Stardew Valley and in Pelican Town (the main setting of the game) in the first place, but I'll put it in spoilers just in case. [spoiler]Your grandpa gives you a sealed envelope on his deathbed and tells you to open it when you feel that modern life is a burden and you can no longer take it. Some time later, you decide to open your letter whilst at your desk at a crappy, totalitarian-esque office job where you are being watched all the time. You discover that your grandpa left you his farm on the outskirts of Pelican town in Stardew Valley, so you decide to get a bus and leave your job and life behind you, and you arrive at Pelican Town, where you are greeted by the mayor, who shows you to the farm and and welcomes you into the town.[/spoiler] You are then, after the introductary story, let loose on your farm on the first day of spring, coincidentally the day after getting to the farm. Your goal is to thenmake as much money from fishing, selling crops and animal produce like eggs and milk, converting milk in cheese and eggs into mayonnaise, etc. You can also make money by selling things you find in the mines, or by selling things that arte dropped from the enemies in the mines. Pretty standard stuff, where your goal is to make as much money as you can. That is the Harvest Moon elements, the other huge chunk of the game is closer to animal crossing in how it plays. The other bit of the game is making friends, talking to and romancing and eventually marrying one of the many bachelor/ettes of Pelican Town. They have birthdays, daily schedules (which can change from season to season, whether its raining or not, and if you are married to them). This gives the game a sense of life that games like animal vcrossing can sorely miss. Animal crossing has villagers, but none of them have jobs or regular schedules (except for the shopkeepers, but they aren't ever seen outside of the shop), they just seem to have endless amounts of bells. The third and final chunk of the game is the quests. Believe it or not, this game has quests. not ones like Skyrim or the Witcher, but smaller scale ones, like reaching level 40 in the mines, building a chicken coop or even introducting yourself to every person in town. i won't talk more about the quests because they can be a bit spoilery, and I'd hate to ruin anything about the game. All you should know is that the game's quests don't feel grand and legendary, but that plays into the game's strengths. You're just a farmer, not some legendary hero of old. The quests are small scale but can take a while of befriending certain people, getting the money and resources to do them or by sheer determination. It'd feel unnatrual and tacked-on if they were all legendary adventures that nobody else can do. How grounded they are plays into the game's strengths very well, and I feel it works very well. The gameplay is very staisfying, as you can watch your farm grow from a patch of land with rocks and trees everywhere and being painfully untidy, to being clear of rocks and trees and grass, and having crops grown around every part of it, with barns and chicken coops to raise animals where there were none before, and you can proudly say: "I've done this. I did this and I did it well." I'd reccomend this gameto hell and back simply for the sheer amount of gameplay you can get from just £10.99 ($14.99), and to think it was made by a single person over the course of 4 years is simply incredible. My hat goes off to you sir, well done. If you aren't a fan of simulation games of any kind, or Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing has never really appealed to you, then I suggest that you look for another game, because this probably won't be for you. If you do like them, then I highly reccomend this game. 9.7/10, simply because the writing is a bit iffy at times and Journey of the Prarie King can piss right off, it is hard as balls (although there is a glitch that lets you kill the boss easy as pie), although a great homage to old-school arcade games. And the writing is easy to get over and not a huge issue at all. This game is a superb game that only gets better and better, and will be getting it as soon as I possibly can when It comes out on the Nintendo Switch. I wish I hadn't bought it on sale, because this game deserves to be bought at full price. It has truly earned it. Note: Nominated for the Steam Awards 2017 for the "The world is grim enough let's just all get along" award