Brain Full of Games

I’m taking a break this week from writing about my Pokémon Crystal Version progress firstly to give myself a little room to breathe and get further along in the game but also, very importantly, so that I could spend some time with my husband playing games. A Family that Games Together. Uh. Whatever.

I am pretty ashamed to admit that I have wracked up a total of something close to 1000 hours of play time across nearly 8 years of playing Stardew Valley, if you take into account our co-op farm, my 2 or 3 farms modded to absolute pastel, cottage-core oblivion, and my original 5 or 6 farms, all now in years 2-4, on the Switch. I first got Stardew for the Switch in 2018 while I was an unemployed graduate student studying for exam resits after an illness. Luckily I didn’t really get addicted to the game until after my exams, because I could have ended up resitting those exams again for another reason entirely. There were days when I would fire off 5-10 job applications before 10am, settle on the couch, and not get up again until 6pm when I realized I had not eaten anything since the night before. It was not the best time in my life and I can’t even chalk it up to youth because I was 26.

There is a pretty big jump for me from the Harvest Moon games to Stardew Valley. I really think it improved on game play that I enjoyed and made it something much more. I love the villagers, the variety in their personalities, I love the developer’s take on the magical aspects of the world (HM games had forest fairies and things like that, too), and the combat/mines are great for endless exploring at upgrades. Harvest Moon will always be important to be and the franchise represents the life and farming simulator. But that’s just because of its history: Stardew surpasses the HM series in pacing, characters, and depth. Of course, the depth probably comes from the developer, ConcernedApe (Eric Barrone), working on this, providing free and really substantial updates fairly regularly! After clearing the local mines, for example, you can travel to another location and explore new caverns of untold riches. After maxing out your skill stats, you can get mastery points and related upgrades.

(I am writing this in the days leading up to the Animal Crossing New Horizons 3.0 update that many, many Youtubers and AC fans are freaking out about. I have seen at least two people with sizable followings speculate that Nintendo perhaps felt some pressure to update ACNH because of Stardew, which seems silly at first and yet…. Well, the AC discussion is for another post. After this update, of course. Anyway-)

One thing I have noticed, however, is how much better (and easier) the game is when you play with friends, to the point where it is almost difficult to return to the single-player version. No auto-petter for your 32 cows? No problem; I’ll take care of that today, and my co-farmers can take care of the harvest, fishing, and resource gathering. We will have to switch it up every once in a while to make sure we all max out our skill trees, but otherwise things go smoothly and we have time to do a lot more. This also means that certain difficult (and expensive) upgrades are reachable earlier in the game, which then makes the long end game arrive sooner, gives you more opportunity to design an implement your dream farm, and give you more time to do the things you care about the most.

The solo adventure has its own benefits, of course: when you play on your own, your husband does not get jealous of Harvey or Haley, for example… also, you are forced to take things much slower. I think this is really the best aspect of Stardew Valley: the slow, steady improvements that come pretty much every few days, so you are constantly hit with that sense of accomplishment. It’s best done when you do a bit from each category – socializing, mining, farming – because sometimes upgrades in the same category are spaced out. The other nice thing is that a game like this, in many ways, is meant to be a single player adventure. It’s your personal fantasy, and you don’t have to compromise with a teammate on what needs to be done next or how quickly, and there is no way to lose.

I think I will always return to Stardew Valley. I haven’t played a main Harvest Moon adventure for over a decade and although I’d be interested in revisiting the series, I won’t be able to do so without writing up a comparison to this game that has captured old, young, casual, diehard, and ‘cosy’ gamers. Even as I write this I can’t help but start to think about a new farm, with a different type than usual, a completely new layout, perhaps a focus on farming rather than raising animals… maybe I’ll marry the writer this time?