REVIEW PIXALATED FARMING FUN: A STARDEW VALLEY REVIEW COVER

PIXALATED FARMING FUN; A STARDEW VALLEY REVIEW

Farming simulators, there’s probably lots of games with that concept, but one of the best farming simulators on the market has got to be Stardew Valley.

Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe online, is the sole developer of Stardew Valley. He makes all the music, all the sprites, programmed all the NPCs, every single thing for this game by himself, and released the game on Feb. 26, 2016. This doesn’t include the fact that the game is still being updated with new content with the most recent update, version 1.4 being released Nov. 26, 2019, and version 1.5 being confirmed by Barone to be in the works.

While Stardew Valley was originally released only for Microsoft Windows, it’s slowly been ported to other systems such as; macOS, Linux, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, iOS, and Android. The price is the same for most devices, $15 for PC, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, and Switch but is only $8 on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The only major difference between the versions for each device is that the PC receives the updates first and it slowly trickles into the other ports.

I first bought the game on the 29th, only a few days after release because I’d already heard great things about it online. As of May 7, I’ve almost got 300 hours in this game because it’s just so fun. I’ve played both singleplayer and multiplayer, tried all sorts of different ways of playing, and I still don’t feel like I’ve explored this game to the fullest.

Some of the first things that caught my eye about the game might not seem all that big to some, but back in 2016, it was pretty big to little 11-year-old me it was very cool. No matter what gender you picked at the start of the game, you could date any of the 12 romanceable characters regardless of their gender. There’s actually nothing in this game locked behind the gender options, not clothing options, hair options, accessory options, character interactions, nothing is inaccessible because you chose to be a guy or a girl at the start of the game.

Another thing I really enjoy about this game is just how easy it is to play. Nothing is super complex to do and anytime something new comes up there’s a quick, non-obtrusive demo explaining what to do. If you’re starting a new farm but it’s not your first time playing, it’s not that hard to just ignore the demos, which can get really annoying in other games.

The third big thing that really draws me to this game is that even though it looks like a simple pixel farming simulator, there’s so much story in almost every inch of the game. Just starting out there’s not too much story that hits you in the face but as you continue to talk to characters every in-game day you slowly learn more and more about them and relations to some of the other characters. And it’s not just the NPCs that get a story, you the player get a bit of a story too. First in the intro cutscene where the character you created can be seen working at an office, eventually deciding that this life isn’t for them and getting their late grandpa’s farm. And then a week or so into the game the mayor, Lewis, asks you to investigate the ‘rats’ in the abandoned Town Center which actually end up looking a lot more like living apples. It then becomes your goal to investigate what these little creatures are and what they want. Three of the single males’ sprites. Sebastian, Shane, and Elliot Yes, you can pet the dog/cat that you get after the first week. Three of the single females’ sprites. Leah, Maru, and Emily What’s that werid green “rat” in the corner? Lewis doesn’t seem to notice it... A small early game farm with some (left) growing parsnips, (right) just planted potatos, and (bottom) just started green beans.

The actual gameplay starts when you wake up in your grandpa’s old rundown house on the first day of spring and are greeted to a present of 15 parsnip seeds from Lewis. The game then quickly runs you through the basic controls as you learn how to hoe the ground, plant seeds, and water them.

You can then take the 500 gold you start within your wallet and buy some other seeds from the local store Pierre’s, owned by none other than Pierre. He has plenty of seasonal seeds that you can plant alongside your starting parsnips.

But before you can expand your farm even more you’re going to need to mine some of the rocks, cut down some of the trees, and clear some of the overgrown shrubbery using the other tools you were gifted. It’s best to keep at least some of the resources for crafting later on, but it will also help you gain more gold if you put some into the chest Lewis left for you to sell anything you get.

While Stardew Valley is an amazing game, it’s not without its annoying flaws. The biggest flaw that comes to mind is that while you have a lot of diversity in your own character’s design the NPCs in this game are almost all white or pass as white. The only NPC’s who aren’t white are Demetrius and his daughter, Maru who’s mixed. For a game that's super diverse and when it comes to personality and characters stories they’ve physically fallen a bit flat.

In the 1.3 update for the game, Barone added a long-requested feature, the ability to play on the same farm as your friends. It’s very easy to start a multiplayer farm, and even if you start a world singleplayer, you can later build the cabins needed for your friends.

Playing with friends for me has been a very chaotically fun experience. Especially when you and your friends share the money but suddenly someone spends 10k and no ones owning up. You also all have to sleep at the same time for the game to save which can quickly become another fun game of 'alright, who's not in bed' before the game forces everyone to pass out and lose starting energy in the morning.

It's also fun, everyone working together on what crops to grow from the season, trying to see who can get the best fish, what gift will the NPC like best, multiplayer has to be one of the best additions to this game.

On your second you obtain a fishing rod and unlock the ability to go fishing in any body of water you can find. Lots of people find the fishing minigame infuriating as it's a lot of careful button mashing but personally I find it just takes practice. After a week or some in-game has passed you gain access to the caves however before you go in, a strange old man arrives to tell you it's dangerous and gives you an old sword.

When it comes to what to do in the game there's a journal that holds all the quests you can do, some are story-based, some are advancement based, and some are random times requests from the NPCs.

Speaking of the NPCs there's a social meter easily located in your menu where you can see how many "hearts" you have with each NPC. You can increase hearts by two gifts every week, but be careful as they only like certain gifts, gifting the wrong thing can either have no or a negative affect. You can also up the hearts simply by talking to an NPC until they run out of dialog options for that day.

Stardew Valley has very simple gameplay, yet it doesn't get too repetitive or boring, you can keep playing for ages. The first level of the mines. The alert that pops up when a fish finally bites The click-spamming fishing minigame. When it rains, you don’t have to spend your morning watering all your crops. The NPC Marlon giving you a Rusty Sword before you start heading down into the mines, Me with my friend Logan during the Egg Festival. He won the Egg Hunt. An older screenshot where during multiplayer, the baby my character had got glitched into the crib after my friend kept interacting with it. The social menu which tells you how many hearts you have, how many gifts you’ve given, and if you click on the NPC’s name you can see the “Likes” and “Dislikes” for the gifts you’ve already given them. The basic starting house if you choose the basic farm. All screenshots were taken by me. The image under the title is the full image used on Stardew Valley’s box art. The sprites used were all created by Barone.

When it comes to Stardew Valley I have to give it a 9.5 Junimos out of 10, the only issues I've ever had with this are minor and easy to ignore or have been fixed. It's a really fun game and I recommend picking it up if you need something time consuming to do during the quarantine. The character customization you see when you start a new farm.