Innovation in gaming is an incredibly important thing. Pushing the graphical or technical limitations of an engine and the hardware it’s running on to move the art form forward is necessary. However, there is something to be said about the fun factor of it all. As much as video games are art, they are at their core still games. Sometimes all it takes is a little classic gaming inspiration and sensibilities, as well as some major passion, to get a blockbuster title with true longevity. Stardew Valley, a zen-like chore simulating RPG title from hard-working designer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, is exactly such a game.
The premise, like its angled top-down perspective and pixel art style, is quite familiar. Your grandpa has passed and left you his farmland in the delightful hamlet of Pelican Town, which resides in the titular valley. You are then tasked with upkeeping and growing said farm through various agricultural means including caring for crops and livestock, as well as getting to know your neighbors and building relationships with them. Anyone who has played a Harvest Moon title knows exactly this song and dance and will be the ones to tell newcomers to this genre that it is way more enjoyable than it sounds at first. There is a delightfully calming quality to the deliberate repetition of building a schedule of tasks and seeing the direct result at the end. I seem to have a hard time applying this to my life for some reason, but I digress. I often find it meditative in a game like this.
Clearly, ConcernedApe himself is quite a fan of the Harvest Moon series, as Stardew Valley doesn’t just manage to mimic the hypnotic primary loop of its inspiration, it makes that and the other loops tighter, more expanded, and then puts its own delightful personality into every inch. You can woo and eventually marry twelve potential townsfolk, and can get yourself in trouble with them for attempting it all at once. There are deep mines full of rare resources, but also dangerous creatures you can learn to fight more efficiently for better rewards. Community events on holidays to participate in or miss out on because you’re working too much/are a hermit. Errands to run for your neighbors, like finding someone’s favorite food, or the mayor’s missing underpants. Work hard to build up the town, repair the community center, and earn their respect, or sell out to the big box store from the city to help them expand their corporate empire. There are so many things to do and ways to do them to pass your time in the Valley, and everything is rewarding in its own way (except for maybe selling out to Joja Mart, which always feels kind of bad).
For a game made by one guy, the most impressive thing to me is the amount of detail. Every citizen has their own history, every potential partner has their own journey you can help them along, the relationships and secrets built before you ever arrived are evident in conversations you have, it all serves to flesh out the Valley and its inhabitants well. The music is as well completely composed by ConcernedApe, and all of it sounds very nice, with some legitimately catchy hooks and a surprising amount of digital instrumentation. It is on Spotify actually, and it has some jams, I suggest checking it out as well. When it comes to working with your products, you can take certain items and process them into others, making fruit wines and jams, pickled vegetables, cheese from milk, mayo from eggs, and even a step further from there you can use your produce to cook dishes that can help maintain your energy on long days in the fields/mines. Everything has layers, options, and potential developments, and the skills that you use and work with will be the ones to advance, opening up new recipes and skill bonuses.
Stardew Valley is seriously a forever game. It has gotten many updates since its initial release in 2016, with more on the way. Since it first released on PC it has now become available on pretty much every platform imaginable, has added a co-op multiplayer component, has gained many bug fixes, added new storylines for certain characters, we’ve got a new fruit coming, the list is honestly nuts. It is clearly a passion project, and there seems to be no slowing it down. It is a title that can be quite time consuming but can also be played in short bursts, with each day lasting around twelve minutes, not including time for pauses. Six hours is honestly only enough time to get a taste of the content provided by this title, but if the loops scratch an itch for you, it will be all you need to become hooked.
Stardew Valley is a title that I honestly cannot recommend enough. It is addicting, charming, and peaceful in ways that are at times familiar and at others completely unique, but always satisfying. For Xbox Live Gold members it is a solid deal at $10.49. It’s also available on pretty much everything else. Its honestly easier to list what it isn’t out on, so the Nintendo DS and T-I calculators. On all the major things, it’s still a steal at $14.99, and even better for $7.99 if you’re into mobile games. Go do your ol’ Grandpa proud.