Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is a farm life simulation inspired by Harvest Moon. But this is only on the surface. The ideal description for the game would be just a "life simulator", without much further clarification. The activities here go far beyond just farming with a wonderful sense of community at the heart of the adventure. Basically, there seems to be no end to what you can see and do in the game.

Getting Started in Stardew Valley

Every day in Stardew Valley takes 10-20 minutes of real time, and a few of them will have to be devoted to starting the development of the farm from scratch. Having to plant the right seeds, water the plants, and wait for the harvest before you can start making good amounts of money means there isn't much to do at first. Which makes sense since your character has just left a repetitive job at Joja Corporation - Stardew Valley's ubiquitous reminder that capitalism can become soulless - for a simpler life on Grandpa's old farm.

After a while, you will gain access to fishing, start exploring the mines and get enough money to afford to buy livestock. Everything falls into place, and the original simplicity turns into a pretty serious business. Grow vegetables and fruits to make the best food, which in turn can be given to locals as gifts to win their hearts. Or take it with you to the mines to restore health while fighting monsters for resources, from which useful items can be made on the farm. The mixture of RPG and farming simulator makes Stardew Valley a fun and stress-free game.

Difficult people, simple communication

The inhabitants of the city of Pelican are charming, although the system of interaction with them is rather superficial. All you have to do is give them gifts that they like once a week in order to slowly gain trust and sympathy. If you give townspeople items that they don't like, their level of affection may drop. Therefore, you need to remember their preferences.

Despite the simplicity of the system, learning about the dreams, hobbies, and complexities of the people of Stardew Valley is still worth it. There is a friendly monster who just wants to sell his goods to good people; an artist too humble to show others her work; an old grumbler who hesitates to interact with other people; Valley Wildlife Scientist; and quite a few other interesting personalities.

After reaching a certain level of friendship, a special scene of the character is played if you catch him at the right time in the right place. There are 12 heroes who can be "romanced" (that is, enter into a relationship with them), there are more such scenes than others. If you decide to marry one of them, he will move into your house and from time to time will help with the farm. This will mark the transition to the late game. NPCs are often also the key to learning food recipes and blueprints for crafting, so the value of friendship with them is greater than just finding out their interests and personal conflicts. Sometimes they even give you small gifts.

Change of seasons

New season in Stardew Valley is perhaps one of the most interesting events. The summer is full of sunny days and sometimes thunderstorms - with the right tools, batteries can be made using the energy of lightning. The snow-covered ground prevents vegetables from growing in winter, leaving the activity undefined if your main passion is gardening.

Each season has its own pleasurable pace, different weather, types of crops, NPCs' day regimen, birthdays, fish and fun festivals. The season lasts 28 days, and figuring out how best to spend them is an interesting challenge.

Stardew Valley Multiplayer

Co-op is a great addition to Stardew Valley that completely redefines the gameplay. Expectedly, it gives you the ability to achieve much more in a day, and it does so without giving the player the feeling that he was using a cheat code. When a friend joins you, he gets his own home (which you can customize) and a new character. This means that he will have low energy, weak starting tools and no abilities.

You can invite up to three friends to the game with whom you will share money. They can also take your items, so it will be easier to "swing", even if you add them to a wealthy farm. Still, having to support the needs of others out of pocket does a pretty good job of balancing complexity and strength. You can even change the profit margin for a co-save if you feel like you are making too much money. However, some very useful but expensive items have been added in the updates, so you are unlikely to complain about getting more gold every day.