Stardew Valley

A fan of the Harvest Moon series? Want something inspired by it? Well look no further, Stardew Valley has got you covered.

Introduction to the game:

Stardew Valley is a farm simulation game made by ConcernedApe. It’s one of the most popular indie games, made entirely by Eric Barone himself.

The game is about moving to a town called Pelican Town. Once you are there, you must unravel all the adventures that this game has to offer. You as the player got tired of the city life and were given the opportunity to move to an old farmhouse that your grandfather had left behind for you.

The way the game runs is that there are several seasons throughout the year. There are four seasons:

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Each season lasts 28 days. Each day lasts 14 minutes and 20 seconds. The day starts at 6am and ends at 2am. If you aren’t in bed by 2am, you’ll pass out, and that will cost you.

Once there, you can tend to your farm, interact with other people living in Pelican Town, explore the lands, complete quests, improve your skill levels and perhaps even improve the town for the better. Who knows, it’s up to you to do it all.

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Where is the game available?

Stardew Valley is available for all major platforms. It is available for PC, Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation and mobile devices. The game is multiplayer so you can play in a co-op mode with friends and family.

Skills

In the game, some activities can only be done if you have a high enough skill level for that activity. To gain a higher skill level you must continue to do the activity. You’ll know that you have increased your skill level once you go to bed in the game, which ends that current in game day.

Every time you level up in a skill, you are rewarded with in game items, special perks, crafting and cooking recipes, increased tool proficiency, reduced energy costs, etc.

Other ways of boosting skill levels are:

Eat food- Certain foods give special abilities for a limited amount of time.

Clothing items- Some items in game give you a boost, this isn’t a limited amount of time compared to food.

Bookseller- The bookseller comes to town twice every season. He sells books that can instantly boost skill levels to the next level.

Characters in Pelican town:

In Pelican Town there a lot of characters that you as the player can interact with. I will talk about all the characters you can automatically talk to during your first in game week.

When you first get to the town, you’ll first meet Mayor Lewis and Robin in a cutscene outside of your new farmhouse. Then when you are out of the cutscene other characters you’ll meet will either be in the town part or in the mountains. One of your first tasks in the game will be to introduce yourself to 28 townspeople.

A cool mechanic included with all the characters is your ability to build up your friendship level with them. This adds a nice personal connection to the player and the character. By gifting characters items, you can increase your friendship levels with them. The levels go up to 10 just like the skills. By increasing your friendship level with certain characters, you can unlock secret cutscenes and recipes in the mail.

Game updates and bonus content:

Stardew Valley does occasionally receive updates, but usually pc will get them before any other platform does.

There is no DLC packs currently available for Stardew Valley but there is a mod community online that makes different packs for the pc version of Stardew Valley. A good thing to note, is that the creator of Stardew Valley, Eric Barone has stated previously that he will never charge money for an update.

Note for parents

You really get your money’s worth for the game. Either by buying it or by receiving it on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. If you really want to learn more about video games, and how you can play with them with your kid. This is the perfect game to do so. There are many tutorials online that can assist you and your child/teen.

Music

You’d think for an indie game made by one person that it would lack in one of the features. It doesn’t lack in the music side, I can assure you. The Stardew Valley soundtrack is beautiful. It’s so good that there are orchestra shows sponsored by the game that go on tour in America.

There are several music tracks in the game, and they really add another element to the gameplay. The music in the game warms the heart and is very catchy.

Should you let your teen play it?

In terms of rating, I would say that game is suitable for older kids and teenagers. The game is overall positive, though there are some dark storylines from one of the characters in the story, usually you can skip them. The rating is 10+, before playing a game I would always check out reviews online written by parents to determine if you think the game will be suitable for your kid.

Rating

This game gets a ten out of ten from me. It is perfectly well done for a cozy style game. It has so many vast different features within the game that suits all gamers, I have played in the past with gamers that would lean more towards shooter games/strategy games, and they love it too.

Stardew Valley is very similar to the game Minecraft in such a way, you have a storyline that you can finish but you can complete that whenever you want to. Some storylines are locked in certain years, for an example by not completing quests or getting a high enough friendship level with one of the characters that you might miss a special cutscene.

The game is available on all major platforms. Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation, PC and mobile platforms.