Let's discuss: Stardew Valley

The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!

Let’s discuss Stardew Valley. What aspects do you like about it? What doesn’t work for you? Are there other games that gave you similar feelings? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let’s get the conversation going!

If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).

Previous entries: The Sims, Half-Life, Earthbound / Mother, Mass Effect, Metroid, Journey, Resident Evil, Polybius, Tetris, Telltale Games, Kirby, LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire

squirrel,
@squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I love this game (500 hours played), but I have to bring up a point of criticism…

One aspect which has not aged well IMHO is the “kindness coin” mechanic: The exchange of goods for the NPCs’ friendship and/or affection. You give the NPCs stuff, then you give them more stuff, then some more on top, then you get a cut scene and then you get back to giving them stuff until you trigger the next one.

Yes, the requests on the blackboard and the occasional personal quest mix up things a little bit, but overall the mechanic remains the same and for me over the years this has cheapened the interaction with the NPCs for me somewhat: They are mostly transactional and predictable to the point where you can calculate their outcome.
You have to give character A so-and-so many objects X to romance them. It takes so-and-so many days to do that.

Sure, the “kindness coins” mechanic was industry standard at the time, but I wish there were more variety in regards to the interactions with the NPCs, because they are amazingly written and I wish there was more to do with them besides giving them stuff over and over again.

Midnitte,

I’m sure he’ll probably use a different mechanic for Haunted Chocolatier, probably too late to change it for Stardew Vallery, given it’s age and the existing complexity of the game.

Pyro,

Are there games which don’t use this mechanic? Might be interesting to check out.

squirrel,
@squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The most famous one ATM is probably “Baldur’s Gate 3” which offers a wide variety of mechanics and stats to measure if an NPC member of the player’s party is romantically interested in the player character. Two examples given in the talk I linked are the VNs “Monster Prom” or “First Bite”.

SteposVenzny,

My understanding of Baldur’s Gate 3 is that everybody is romantically interested in the player character.

Maybe I’m just a catch?

squirrel,
@squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Yes and no. Like in Stardew Valley, technically you can romance every NPC in your party, but in practice you have to meet certain criteria to do so and those differ from character to character. Of course, it is possible to “game” that system.

princessnorah,
@princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

If you haven’t played since relatively early in it’s release, I believe that was a bug that has now been fixed.

eutsgueden,

It’s an incredible game, a love letter to all the best aspects of the Harvest Moon series. My only real gripe is the NPC characters can feel a little stale and robotic after a while, but during a first playthrough they are all full of life.

Pyro,

You should try that mod that adds thousands of lines of lore-friendly dialogue across all NPCs.

Klanky,
@Klanky@sopuli.xyz avatar

So I played it for a while several years ago and kinda got bored with it. I got to the bottom of the mine and had married one of the characters, and my farm (such as it was) was mostly automated so not much to do there. I know there are a bunch of story moments but I got tired of wandering around randomly trying to meet the conditions to trigger them. I wanted it to happen organically without looking it up. I just felt like I ran out of things to do and there was no point to keep playing.

At the same time, I want to play it on my Steam Deck because I did enjoy what I did play!

eutsgueden,

I just felt like I ran out of things to do and there was no point to keep playing.

To each their own of course, but it sounds like you basically just “beat” the game, in the same way someone beats Animal Crossing. You just stop playing eventually. I don’t see that as a negative if you enjoyed that time.

Ethereal87,
@Ethereal87@beehaw.org avatar

Hmm…440 hours on Steam…probably another 125 on the Switch…

I love this game. It’s so cozy and comfortable. I found SDV after my divorce just when it had originally released and I was drawn into the cute world and how much character oozes from every corner. Every person you meet has something going on or you can just be a weird hermit building out your farm in peace. There’s enough of a story to propel you forward but never overbearing and it gets out of the way when it’s “done”.

As time has gone on from my first playthrough, I’ll typically dive back in when the itch strikes or a new content update comes along. The last few playthroughs I’ve done a lot to mod the game and introduce new things into the world to discover, some of which just feels indistinguishable from the official content and others that just help reduce barriers that I want to skip over (like fishing).

Stardew Valley is a game I will likely always go back to. I’m sure it will eventually eclipse my current most played game (Team Fortress 2 @ ~800 hours). I’ve tried other games like it and while they’re fun, none seem to have the staying power that Stardew has over me. While I will absolutely check out his next game, I’m hoping Stardew Valley never really stops being updated over the years.

knokelmaat,

It’s been a while, but here is another “Let’s discuss” post! I hope everybody is doing fine and these posts are still appreciated :).

I haven’t played this myself, but I know so many people who are extremely passionate about it that it felt like a good candidate! Looking forward to all of your musings!

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