Stardew Valley plays very similarly to the Harvest Moon series. So far (only finished first Spring) the story has been cute, and I look forward to more of it. The gameplay is very addictive and I plan to put many more hours into this game. The fishing mini-game is very challenging... almost frustratingly so at first. I was playing the game using a USB controller at first but it made fishing impossible, so I switched to keyboard and mouse. I hope is a Stardew Valley 2 is made, the user has a choice of skipping the fishing mini-game so it's only a matter of getting the timing on the initial bite, more like Animal Crossing. I play games to relax so I'd prefer to have a choice of casual mode for fishing.

In summary....
PROS:
- addictive gameplay
- lots to do (farming, mining, fishing, foraging, "museum" collections, building construction & upgrades, tool upgrades, story events, quests, etc)
- cute story

CONS:
- Fishing is VERY challenging... not really in the wheelhouse of a typical casual game (would be a PRO if user had choice of an easy mode)
- Minor lag time on use of USB controller causes Extreme Timing Specific fishing mini-game to be near impossible (therefore I have to choose if I use my controller and skip fishing or use the keyboard and mouse controls)