Soothing Winds of Stardew Valley

Spring crops growing at Safe Haven Farm at the beginning of Year 2.

For someone who has a blog mostly centered around video games, you would think that I would write about titles I'm currently playing. While I do mention them most of the time in Update "articles", dedicated posts are few and far between. This does seem slightly weird, and I'm not sure I can even explain myself here. It just so happens that I'm usually interested in writing about games I haven't really played before, so I'm (maybe/sometimes) making this weird note for my backlog and satisfy my curiosity.

There's also the fact that I guess I'm kind of scared of writing an actual reviews to games and current popularity of video format for them isn't the main reason for it. I just don't think I would be able to cover every aspect of given title in proper way and leaving something out just doesn't seem right to me. Besides that, I also just don't know what I can say and add to the conversation that wasn't mentioned already. Overthinking, yeah.

However, this time I have a reason to go out of my comfort zone in a certain way. This is definitely more of a "review", maybe even a proper one. I've been playing Stardew Valley on regular basis (usually daily) for more than a month now, and I'm having a great time. In fact, all of my currently planned "articles" keep getting delayed because this game is just too captivating, and I want to talk about my experience thus far.

Reading The Letter.

In retrospective, me finally starting playing Stardew Valley is kind of ironic. I got it as a gift on Steam from a good friend back in July 2019. Similarly to Grandpa's Letter from the beginning of the game, my copy of Stardew Valley was stored in my backlog of titles and I just sort of forgot about it for a while. Despite having it installed on my laptop for years, I ended up picking other games when I was in the right mood for playing. It was also just a rough period for me, so that kind of explains why my focus was mostly on first-person shooters like Ion Fury & original Quake.

Despite the announcement of Haunted Chocolatier and a few of my good friends starting playing Stardew Valley probably around the same time (or earlier, when Patch 1.5 was released; Can't remember), I looked in different directions. I was curious and wanted to get to this game eventually as a part of "completionist crusade" in my Steam library, but (again) other titles took priority. My approach was to get achievements as soon as possible by taking notes from various guides to keep myself on the right path. This might sound like a solid way to suck the fun out of gaming sessions, but I managed to avoid it. Mostly.

Robin and Lewis introducing Farmer Ilko to the Save Haven Farm.

Well, it was still pretty fun all the way through, and I went through 15 titles (not counting games without achievements). Half of these games are FPS, but there's a lot of variety as well. After finishing Rogue Legacy (the latest game I completed), I knew that it would be a good time to do something different. And that's when I was getting reminders about Stardew Valley one after the other. Not only some of my aforementioned friends considered revisiting their farms, one of content creators I follow started playing Stardew Valley on Twitch. Once I actually saw some actual gameplay (I didn't dive deep into it before), I knew that the time has finally come.

This is simply the exact kind of game I needed in my chaotic routine. You know, to immerse yourself in wonderful digital world in order to distract oneself from the harsh reality. My friends kept selling Stardew Valley to me as "comfy/cozy" masterpiece, and I was looking for something like that. Not only I decided to just go with the flow and not rush my first playthrough for every achievement, I've also listened to one of my friends and started off pretty much blind. That was a good decision.

Settling In The Valley.

As I tried to get familiar with Stardew Valley, I had to deal with one technical issue. Game started to lag with music getting messed up as well a few minutes after launching it. There wasn't really any pattern to it and things were getting scuffed at different points in time every time I relaunched the game. Luckily enough, all I had to do is move over to Compatibility version of Stardew Valley. This game was originally created using Microsoft XNA framework, but then was moved over to Monogame. I've played games that used both frameworks and didn't have these issues before, but other people out there experienced the same problem before. Everything was smooth ever since... Well, except a few times when my laptop shut down due to overheating (at least that seemed to be a reason), but that's my personal issue that comes with using an almost 10 years old undead hardware.

Starting out, my idea was simple: I wanted to grow Potatoes. Just like this wonderful video, yes. My focus was mostly on Potatoes & Parsnips with a couple of Cauliflowers, Strawberries and Mixed Seeds in between. Next two seasons had more variety in terms of growing crops as I started to put all effort into planning things out as I wanted to be ready for Bundles in Community Center and have more different crops at my disposal. Even though I still tried to prioritize some of them (Wheat, Corn, Radish, Bok Choy & Amaranth), my farming field had more vegetables and fruits growing over the course of Summer and Fall. My plan for second year is to grow every crop available in each season in order to get Polyculture achievement and expand my stock. I even have a couple of Coffee Beans, Rare Seed & two Ancient Seeds thanks to my luck with Traveling Cart, The Mines & Artifact Spots. And I'm already stocked up on Spring seeds at Night Market.

Even though Farming is my most levelled skill, Foraging is the close second, and it's pretty fun as well. Just running around and gathering everything you see is a great way to make mundane tasks more engaging and beneficial to yourself. Field Snack was my main food for a significant part of the game, even though I often struggled with getting Maple Seed. Special "foraging events" in 3/4 seasons of Stardew Valley are especially awesome since you get a lot of Salmonberries, Blackberries and "Beach stuff" that I personally view as "free money" to a point where I didn't bother to keep regular quality versions of them.

Crop fairy visits Save Haven Farm in Summer late at night.

Don't really know what to say about both Mining and Combat in Stardew Valley. Going down into the Mines every once in a while is pretty fun, especially after you unlock Minecarts and I definitely could've done that earlier. It really is a major change for your daily routine in-game. I've done only two (Skeletons & Cave Insects) out of all twelve Monster Eradication Goals for Adventurer's Guild. There's much for me to do on this front since I'm only reached 3/4 of The Mines, but this could change since the game keeps distracting me from writing this silly "article".

That leaves us with Fishing, and I'm not really a fan of it at this point of time. First of all, I just didn't really bother with it for the majority of my first year at Stardew Valley as I've chosen to dedicate my attention to other aspects of the game. So I wasn't too quick to judge Fishing since I didn't give it a proper chance. Once I did it, I would still say that I shoot myself in the foot here. You really should get Training Rod at the start to get familiar with Fishing mechanic easier. I did this the hard way and that's not the game's fault, but I'll blame it for not letting me gather enough Trash items for Linus' "Community Cleanup" quest. I might be not the biggest fan of fish in reality, but I can't escape Fishing in Stardew Valley since I want to get all of its achievements.

I should also mention the Events. Not only they make the world of Stardew Valley feel even more alive, but some of these festivals can offer some interesting things to do. While I didn't bother with winning the Egg Hunt on my first Egg Festival, this time I'm determined to destroy Abigail and purchase more Strawberry Seeds. My golden Potato added a nice flavor to poltuck soup at Luau, and maybe I'll contribute something else next time. Stardew Valley Fair is by far the best event because it has Slingshot Minigame and I got my first Stardrop here. I would also talk about how great Night Market is: I got a free Pearl there, stock up on most Spring crops, bought a few paintings and Suit of Armor. I should start collecting Rarecrows.

Joining a Community.

There're many ways to enjoy Stardew Valley, and it also includes Pelican Town and its fine people (even though some folks are living outside the town; not an Adventurer's Guild folks, for some reason). After all, part of the game's appeal (at least, to me) is related to becoming a part of local community in this small and peaceful settlement. Small towns like this always have something appealing about them, whenever they're presented in games, films and so on. While you can enjoy this game without interacting with other characters if that's not your thing, I would say you would be missing out on some pretty good parts of Stardew Valley.

At first, I wanted to share some highlights from my first year since, but there's actually just too many of them and I think it would be more fun if you experience it first hand yourself. I thought that my in-game socialization would be closer to real life where I'm just too anxious or something to interact with others at first. My prediction was incorrect as I quickly found myself getting developing friendships with many characters. Even if you don't want to use Stardew Valley Wiki (I used it though), there're many ways to learn about what kind of gifts each person likes including the good old "trial & error". Also don't forget to look at the Help Wanted board since many quests also help with friendships.

Farmer Ilko volunteers to help Leah with reaching a fruit.

This screenshot is the only spoiler I'll provide with no additional context. I would say that the cutscenes are at their best when you experience them blindly, especially if you don't even expect them. Nothing stops you from using aforementioned wiki since it hides all the details by default and only shows how to launch it. My recommendation here would be to take your time and work on friendships with everyone. Some characters might come off in unexpected way that doesn't necessarily match with how you viewed them. There're also a few secrets and tragedies here and there, if you're a fan of that stuff. Besides that, some events are simply hilarious and open to your own interpretation. 

However, I would like to share some words about Farmer's portrayal. Players are free to choose different answers in dialogues during cutscenes or even during mundane conversations. It's your typical "good, neutral and bad" options. I'll say that some phrases in particular situations can be really messed up, so you don't have to worry about Stardew Valley holding you back from being totally savage. To be fair, it's not perfect and Farmer will surprise you on multiple occasions with sudden and unexpected actions. Some cutscenes will get weird and the game fully acknowledged that which makes it even better.

Conclusion.

As I'm finally finishing writing this post, I almost went through the first week of Spring in Year 2. Clearly, I'll be playing Stardew Valley for a long time and my total record on Steam will surely surpass 100 hours. After going from one game to another in the last few years, it appears that I successfully found my new "main game" for the foreseeable future. Its gameplay loop and day cycle make Stardew Valley a perfect title you can launch daily to spend your time on some in-game activities, which is exactly what I've been doing for more than a month now as I share some of my progress on Twitter. There're still many aspects of the game that I'm yet to experience, so Farmer Ilko will always have something new to do at Safe Haven Farm.

Junimos repairing Minecarts after the completion of Boiler Room Bundles.

This simple name comes from the main reason I started playing Stardew Valley in the first place. Many people are playing games to escape reality, however harsh and/or repetitive it gets. Each of us look for a digital world to dive into depending on our preferences. The premise of Stardew Valley really clicks with me in that sense: leaving your life behind and moving into smaller city to start anew sounds really appealing nowadays. While such endeavor seems pretty much impossible for me at this point of time, at least I'm able to experience that in some capacity through my in-game character.

It truly is a therapeutic experience. One of things I'm definitely will be fully going into is Cooking since my Farmhouse received its first upgrade a long time ago. It doesn't seem to be all that much different from Crafting, and it's not even a proper skill like Foraging. The reason why I'm interested in Cooking in particular doesn't come from achievements and potential earning strategies. While playing Stardew Valley, I was reminded about my desire to become a chef from earlier years of my life. Young me was really passionate about this idea, but at some point it just faded away and that left me wondering just what the hell happened during my gaming sessions. That's my food for thought. One of many.