This review has been a long time in the making. It was written once, then my hard drive died and I lost it. I started to write it again, and then forgot about it and it got deleted with some old school files. Now, Paul can finally stop bugging me to write it, over a year later since the release of the game. When I wrote my first review, the user tags on steam defined Stardew Valley as a “farm simulator”. While it’s true that you do farm, calling the game a mere farm simulator is an over simplification of what Stardew Valley is all about. The game has also been compared to Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, although people who have played both games will state that Stardew Valley has far more depth than either of them.

The game opens up with a cutscene of the player receiving a letter from your dying grandfather. You’re told to not open the letter until the world has gotten the better of you. The game then jumps to the future where you’re working in a cubical for the infamous Joja company, who acts like the antagonist in the game. You’re character finally melts and opens the letter. Inside is a deed to a farm, and thus the game begins.

The early days of the game are largely guided by a quest system, however you may also ignore the quests if you wish. Stardew Valley prides itself on being a sandbox game, albeit one with a richer story than most. If you do follow the questline, the game will lead you through the basics of how to farm, fish, gather, and mine. After a few days of making money, you’ll also be led to one of the main objectives. In the center of the town is an old, run down community center. The mayor tells you how it once was bustling with activity but now is left to rot. The Joja corporation has been wanting to buy the community center, demolish it, and put a warehouse in its place. The mayor swears that if one person buys a Joja membership, he’ll sell it. Here, the player may choose to play as the villain by supporting Joja or as the protagonist by supporting the community. Your decision will play large role in how you decide to play. Choosing the community requires you to acquire a large variety of different items which can only be obtain from playing throughout the four seasons. Siding with Joja requires you to provide increasingly large quantities of money. For a first play through, I recommend that players side with the community since the wide array of different items will allow you to experience a little bit of everything the game has to offer.

While Stardew Valley may be fun and relaxing, no game is without its negatives. It’s an easy game to become burned out on since it gets fairly repetitive. If you side with Joja, it will start to feel like you’re replaying the same day over and over. You plant, you water, you harvest, you sell, until you make enough money for the next unlock. Choosing to try and rebuild the community center may leave the player waiting for the next season to turn without much to do. Or, if you miss an item in a season, you sometimes have to wait an entire year to get the missing item. The game gives you certain days out of the year which are dedicated to festivals and it helps break up the monotony, however once the first year goes by, you’ll have already experienced every festival available. Stardew Valleys replay value is fairly high, but only if you give yourself a large enough gap in between sessions.

On a final note, it’s important to remember that Stardew Valley was created by a single person. Despite that, Stardew Valley has still managed to become one of the top selling games on Steam in 2016, either standing alongside or making more money than numerous AAA titles. The quality of the final product really speaks to the creators dedication to his work. The game is perfect when you’re looking for a relaxing, stress free experience, and worth a purchase even if it fails during long binge sessions.