Review - Stardew Valley

“Stardew Valley” is a farming sim released on all major platforms in 2016. It has an enormous fan base and the retro-styled graphics mean it will run on a potato. This sort of far-reaching influence and recognition is something that most indie titles can only dream of. Does Stardew deserve the following it has accrued, or is this another case of inextricable fame because of the right place at the right time?

I first bought Stardew Valley on Steam because I wanted something my Surface Pro 7 could actually play. Eventually, I’ll get that Steam Deck and I’ll have much more powerful hardware that can play much more demanding games. Until then, I’m stuck with basically old emulators and pixel art indie games. Stardew seemed like something worth trying out (especially on sale), so I picked it up. (I did get the Deck, obviously)

My youngest saw me playing it, and he was intrigued. Coincidentally, we were also planning on getting Chromebooks for both kids for Christmas, and ChromeOS can now run Android apps. I figured that might give them something to play on the limited Chrome ecosystem. Two days after I bought Stardew on Steam, I bought it again on the Play Store. You’re welcome, ConcernedApe.

I gave it a shot, playing a few days in-game, but it just didn’t click. I’m iffy about “cozy” games anyway, so I knew it was something of a gamble. I need a goal to keep me really engrossed in something. Cozy games frequently eschew goals in favor of allowing players a more free-form experience. That’s great if that’s what you’re looking for, but I rarely enjoy it. I spent maybe an hour clearing trees and debris from my farm before I decided to give it up, at least for a few months.

To call Stardew Valley a farming sim feels restrictive and disingenuous. Sure, there is a very detailed and intricate farming system, but you can also completely ignore farming. The five skills are farming, mining, foraging, fishing, and combat. Each of these skills offers its own ways to find or generate resources, to make money, and to generally make progress in the game. Most of them relate to each other in some way. Combat allows you to progress further in the mines, where mining allows you to gather resources more easily, which can then be used to upgrade equipment used in farming. You don’t explicitly HAVE to do anything, but gains made in one area or skill benefit other areas.

Once I got far enough in to understand the gameplay loop and appreciate the synergy between skills, I started setting micro-goals. I needed to reach level 40 in the mines to start accumulating iron ore. The iron ore could then be turned into iron bars and used to upgrade my farming equipment. This would then allow me to cover larger fields in less time and harvest more crops, generating more money. THIS is when the game got its claws in me.

Stardew Valley doesn’t GIVE you goals, but it allows you the opportunity to make your own goals. I didn’t understand that at first, but once I did it was addictive. Small gains improve your character in many different ways, and large accomplishments take numerous individual steps. I can’t count the number of times I’ve played for “just one more day” because I was close to getting some new equipment or ability.

The community center is probably the closest thing that Stardew has to “beating the game.” There are several different categories with collections of items called “bundles.” Each bundle that you finish gives you an item of some sort, and each category of bundles unlocks some new part of the game. Minecarts unlock the ability to quickly travel between a few different locations. Panning allows you another way to gather resources. Completing one of these categories is a huge deal.

Beyond the tangible goals like money and skills, you can also improve your relationship with the people of Pelican Town by talking to them each day and giving them gifts. It really feels like you’re building a life in this quaint little place. As you get closer with the residents, they’ll send you occasional gifts in the mail. You can even get married and have children. It’s a whole digital life.

The closest comparison I could make would be Animal Crossing. Both have agriculture elements, both allow you to befriend neighbors, and both encourage you to make small, incremental improvements over time. One of the biggest differences is Animal Crossing’s adherence to real world time. If you play at 9pm on Wednesday night, it is Wednesday night in the game. If you don’t play for a few weeks or months, you’re going to come back to a cockroach infested house.

In contrast, a “day” in Stardew Valley runs from 6am to 2am and takes about 15 minutes of real time. If you stop playing after Summer 10th (Stardew years consist of 4 seasons, 28 days each), you’ll resume on Summer 11th whenever you pick it back up again. I love this system because you aren’t obligated to play because of some temporary event. The passage of time in Stardew is completely distinct from the actual date and time during which you actually play.

The danger of this system is that it allows you to binge when you’re really into it. Where Animal Crossing really only allows you to accomplish so much on a given day and physically wait until the next day to make more progress, you could realistically play through an entire year in one sitting with Stardew Valley. There are still time-based events (yearly festivals, merchants that come on specific days), but those are relative to time as you play the game. I won’t accidentally miss the Spirit’s Eve festival simply because I didn’t happen to be playing around the date of Halloween. I personally think it’s a much better system.

There is already a substantial amount of content, and developer ConcernedApe continues to add more. I started playing with version 1.6, but there are several things in the game now that were not present when it first came out in 2016. Furthermore, there could realistically be additional new content yet to be released. I really respect that sort of dedication and the commitment to constantly improve the game.

Story - 7/10

To say that Stardew Valley has a story is… both incomplete and misleading. The story of the game is pretty much fully explained in the opening cutscene. Your player character (“the farmer”), is tired of corporate life in the big city. His or her grandfather dies and bequeaths his farm to you. It’s up to you to go and work the land. That’s it.

However, individual characters have stories. Pierre and his wife Caroline run the local general store with their daughter Caroline. Shane has temporarily moved in with his aunt Marnie. As you befriend these characters, you have scripted interactions with them that unveil more of their background. The farmer is really just a vessel to experience the stories of other characters in the game.

This isn’t a compliment or insult, really, because most people don’t expect a farming sim to have a story per se. And compared to more narrative-driven games, no, it isn’t much of a story at all. It does give more depth and realism to Pelican Town and its residents. For that, I have to rate the story as better than average; just don’t expect a traditional story.

General Gameplay - 9/10

Once it gets its hooks in you, the gameplay loop is addictive. Menus are easy to navigate. Crafting is clear and straightforward. Goals are visibly displayed. Stardew does a great job of serving the game to you in a ridiculously accessible format.

There isn’t necessarily a lot of DEPTH to the gameplay. You hit a rock with a pickaxe to get ore. Better pickaxes break rocks faster. Higher level ores take longer to mine. But the BREADTH of gameplay and the way that skills help complement each other really makes it a compelling total package. You can more or less do whatever you want, whenever you want to.

Also, I have bemoaned the lack of good local co-op multiplayer in the past. Stardew local multiplayer is fantastic. You can have up to (I think) 8 players on the same PC. I’ve played with 3 at once, and it works great. Players are not required to be in the same area, so they can choose to work together, or they can go entirely different directions. As long as everyone is in a menu or doing something that pauses the time of day, time stops as it does with single player mode. However, if ANYONE is doing something that normally allows the passage of time, it passes for everyone. This means that days tend to go much faster in a multiplayer game, and it can feel a little frantic if you’re trying to cram a lot into one day. Still, it’s super fun and I’ve really enjoyed playing it with my kids.

Combat - 5/10

Fighting enemies in the mines or Skull Cavern is passable, but this certainly isn’t a game intended to focus on combat. Effectively, weapons have a speed and damage rating, plus whatever perks or elements they might include. Enemies all have particular movement patterns that they follow without deviation. Much of the combat is figuring out enemy movement and finding the right timing for swinging your weapon.

I wouldn’t say that combat is bad in this case, but it is boring. Your best bet is to get a weapon with a quick speed and just spam it. It keeps away the quick enemies like serpents, and leaves you with an out if you need to run away. Doing a deep dive into Skull Cavern can be really fun, and it’s super satisfying to hit level 100 (especially without using many staircases), but the combat mechanics lack the depth of any other particular facet of Stardew. It’s much better taken as a part of the whole.

Difficulty - 1/10

Stardew is as difficult as you choose to make it. If you’re just trying to farm some crops and make some money, it’s dead easy. If you’re trying to hit friendship level 10 with all bachelorettes before the end of year 1, it’s nearly impossible. There isn’t really any way to LOSE at Stardew. If you keep at it, eventually you’ll hit your goal. If I had to assign a difficulty, it’s a 1 just because the base game gives you ample opportunity to do whatever. If you like a challenge, though, there are tons of ways to give yourself a much harder experience.

Graphics - 6/10

With the pixel art graphics, it’s hard to say Stardew looks bad. It fortunately avoids the poor way early 3D graphics have aged, but it also doesn’t look notably good. Character portraits do convey much more emotion than what you would get with the small faces of the sprites on characters, so that’s a nice design choice. Some people do love pixel art and can’t get enough, while others hate it. However you feel about retro-styled graphics is likely how you will feel about Stardew specifically. I’ve seen better pixel art, but it’s decent enough.

Music - 5/10

The soundtrack of Stardew is good for background noise, but not much else. No particular tracks stand out as amazing or terrible. They’re fine, it gives you something to listen to, but you could also probably play with the game on mute and not miss much (save for that noise serpents make before they wreck you).

My Take

The Good

There’s a ton of variety in the gameplay, and you really have the option to do so many things that benefit you in multiple different ways.

The Bad

The graphics and the music are just fine, but if you don’t find the retro aesthetic endearing, Stardew might not be for you.

The Ugly

Getting INTO the main gameplay loop can be a chore. It doesn’t take long, but it did lose me the first time before I went back and gave it another shot.

Overall - 8/10

Stardew Valley is a unique game, and I think it’s one that everyone should try. Realistically, it might not be for you. However, just because you haven’t played farming sims or haven’t enjoyed them in the past shouldn’t deter you from trying Stardew. At $15 normally, or as low as $7.50 on sale, I think it’s an easy purchase. Tons of positive reviews will agree with me on that.