Stardew Valley

Fat Hippo

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So, have any other Escapists had the opportunity to play this fine game? For anyone who hasn't heard of it, the gist of it is: Harvest Moon...but for the PC. And if you haven't played Harvest Moon, it's basically a farming game with a JRPG aesthetic, and an extremely peaceful atmosphere. The last Harvest Moon I played was for the original gameboy, so I have no idea how it compares to newer Harvest Moon titles, but this game seems chock full of things to do so far compared to that.

This is definitely not a game for everyone, as the gameplay is pretty thin, but that's not really the point. If I want intense experience, I'll play League of Legends or Dark Souls. This is the kind of game I'll play when I don't feel like I can handle doing anything hard at the moment.

I'm really enjoying it, and it will probably be the game I play to simply chill out for the next few weeks. Watering some crops, chopping some wood, fishing, giving gifts to the village ladies (giggity) and making my farm look nice. It's all very therapeutic. And on top of this, you've got a nostalgic and super calm soundtrack playing through it all.


The only real complaint I have so far is that controller support is bit shoddy, so you can't really lie on a sofa or bed and play it from afar. Which would make a lot of sense for this type of game in my opinion.

So, anyone else playing it? What has your experience been so far?
 

TheMigrantSoldier

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If I recall, it also has some Terraria-ish elements (crafting, dungeons). I've been meaning to get a "cathartic" game, after working and playing XCOM, so this'll do.
 

Fat Hippo

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TheMigrantSoldier said:
If I recall, it also has some Terraria-ish elements (crafting, dungeons). I've been meaning to get a "cathartic" game, after working and playing XCOM, so this'll do.
Yeah, it's got some crafting, though it's not the focus as much as Terraria. You can craft stuff like chests to put stuff in, roads to decorate your farm, a well to draw water from, snacks to restore energy, etc. It pretty much all exists to facilitate your farming, but it's a neat little addition all the same.

There are dungeons, or a dungeon to be precise, at least so far. The combat is very rudimentary, you pretty much just left click to swing your sword. You mainly go there to get the ore to upgrade your tools at the blacksmith. What I didn't know is that the blacksmith takes your tools away when you go to upgrade them and doesn't give them back until a few days later. I had to restart a day after he took my watering can, or all my crops would've withered. Would've been nice if the game warned you about that.

It's definitely got its hooks in me, it's almost got the "one more turn" aspect of a turn-based strategy game, but instead it's "one more day, then I'll stop, but oh wait, I still need to do this and this, so I'll just do one more day, but oh, now there's a festival in town, guess I should do this too" and on and on.
 

Rattja

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Yep yep, been playing it a lot the past days.
It is basically Harvest Moon with a bunch of new things tossed into the mix, but that is not a bad thing at all as I palyed that a lot back in the day.

My experience so far is very good, although I am only at the end of my first year. I like that there are so many different things you can do besides tending to your crops. If I have time or just want to do something else, I can just go fishing, mining or try to unlock and discover one of the many secrets hidden all over the place.
I also like the comunity centre thing, as it gives me a reason to do things for other reasons than just get money.

There are a few things that sort of buggs me about it though, one being the way you move through the mine.
Whenever I try to just farm up some quick minerals for something I often find myself looking for the right rock or whatever that spawns the ladder down to the next level when I am done with my current one. As this seem to be entierly random wether it spawns from a mob or a rock, it can be very annoying to look for.

Another is that controller support could be improved, as it feels kinda awkward to move the pointer around with the stick and over menues. Also it does not seem to let me do the equivalent of shift clicking which picks 5 items at the time, making buing in bulk a chore.
I still use it though as it is just more comfortable to play this sort of thing with.

All in all I like it a lot. It is a nice to just improve your little farm and build it up from basically nothing while exploring all the little things the game has to offer.
 

Seishisha

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Not actualy played it myself because i know exactly what kind of person i am and have no patience for repititous busy work, aside from the decorative and design aspects of the farm, this game is basicly nothing but repitition of daily tasks and routines.

Im not trying to be reductive and i certainly don't wish to discredit people who do enjoy it, as i said simply not for me. It does have some nice sides though, good sound track and art design, very vibrant colours and quite a cute aesthetic, plus you can give your character one of over a hundred different shirts which is nice.
 

SweetShark

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I have only one question about the game:
How can this game be relaxing if there is a possibility to lose all your crops in a moment or die in a dungeon?
Don't get me wrong, I will buy the game for sure because I love the idea of the whole game, but I don't see the whole relax theme of the game.
 

False Messiah

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You don't really lose all your crops in a moment, except when seasons change. Sometimes there is an earthquake or lighting storm that can kill some of your crops, but if you just take it with a shrug and start cleaning up in the morning it becomes very zen.

Even the dungeon is very relaxing, it's not challenging at al if you pace yourself.

I'm not in it for the relaxation though, I'm min-maxing this sucker. Grinding sprinklers and covering my whole farm with rotating plots, raking in all that sweet dollah dollah! I just finished the first winter and I've earned about 1.4 million. :D
 

Fat Hippo

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SweetShark said:
I have only one question about the game:
How can this game be relaxing if there is a possibility to lose all your crops in a moment or die in a dungeon?
Don't get me wrong, I will buy the game for sure because I love the idea of the whole game, but I don't see the whole relax theme of the game.
I've never actually died in the dungeon (it's not very hard) but at the worst you would lose your progress for the day. More likely you wake up in the hospital or something though. And losing your crops when the seasons change is very predictable and not hard to plan for.

Rattja said:
There are a few things that sort of buggs me about it though, one being the way you move through the mine.
Whenever I try to just farm up some quick minerals for something I often find myself looking for the right rock or whatever that spawns the ladder down to the next level when I am done with my current one. As this seem to be entierly random wether it spawns from a mob or a rock, it can be very annoying to look for.

Another is that controller support could be improved, as it feels kinda awkward to move the pointer around with the stick and over menues. Also it does not seem to let me do the equivalent of shift clicking which picks 5 items at the time, making buing in bulk a chore.
I still use it though as it is just more comfortable to play this sort of thing with.
Yeah, finding the ladder is bit dumb, they could have found a more elegant solution for "clearing" a level.

I stopped using the controller after I couldn't figure out how to place my chest on the map. I'd already read that controller support was mediocre, and decided not to force the issue. But yeah, this seems like the kind of game that's made to let you sink into a few cushions while playing.
 

Silverbane7

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when you loose ether all hp or all energy in the dungeon,you faint and someone 'finds' you and brings you to the top of the main mine.
faik there is a more hardcore mine later into the game for those who found the main one too easy.

as for controler support, pop to the forums and ask CA to maybe add some more in, he is very active there and has patched a lot of bugs in the days since the launch.

the only other thing you need worry about is working too long.
at 12 midnight your character will get 'Zzz' over their head and the time on the clock goes into red.
it happens again at 1am and then at 2am your character will pass out and you will wake up in your bed (i think, i havent actualy been that late)
if i remember what was said on the forum, joja moves you to your bed and takes a chunk of your money for the 'service' lol.. i might try it wheni have spent all my cash so they get nothing :p

@Rattja once you get to a certain level of skill, you can craft a 'stairs' item out of 99stones that lets you go down a level. its a bit expensive but if you have 99 stone in your pack allready you can skip a level.

and all seasons are 28days long, so you allways know when your crops are about to die from season change. except the sweetcorn/corn. that can stay planted thru summer into fall.

Fat_hippo its a little hard sometime to see how to place stuff even with a mouse (lol) but its a case of close and a green box under the item realy.
try looking in the settings side and pop a tick inthe box about 'allways show tile' or something like that, it basicaly places a red square outline any time you want to use a tool or place things. it makes it much easier to see where things go (at least for me)
 

Padwolf

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You have no idea how excited I have been for this. So excited that I couldn't control myself, I squealed, I seriously jumped for joy. I walked around my flat to my boyfriend going "DAN DAN DAN DAN IT FINALLY HAPPENED THERE'S A HARVEST MOON GAME ON PC AND I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF". He didn't understand my hype. But I've spent so many years collecting ALL the harvest moon games, Rune Factory and anything that comes close.


And now there's finally this on pc. My little head can't quite handle the excitement.

I've not had the chance to buy it yet, money has been so tight, but you can bet I will do soon
 

Rattja

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SweetShark said:
I have only one question about the game:
How can this game be relaxing if there is a possibility to lose all your crops in a moment or die in a dungeon?
Don't get me wrong, I will buy the game for sure because I love the idea of the whole game, but I don't see the whole relax theme of the game.
You are never really in any danger of losing too much unless you push your luck way too far like me.
You only lose crops if the season changes, but it will always change at the 28th-30th depending on the season (a month), and since you know how long it takes for things to grow it is easy to avoid.
If you die in a dungeon you end up passed out at the beginning with "no memory of the last 9-11 floors" (or something), and some of the items in your inventory are gone. You will also have no health or energy left, so you are forced to go to sleep if you don't have any food or something.
Note that you will never lose your main items and tools.
Again, it takes a fair bit of time to actually be killed by anything, so if you don't push it too far you will never be in any danger of dying.

I'd like to add another thing that kinda annoys me, and that is the weather.
In Harvest Moon you would try to avoid working in the rain, as doing so for too long would give you a cold, making you unable to work for a day or two. In this game however, it does not seem to matter at all. It basically only means that you do not need to water that day. You can work outside all day no matter what, even when it is a freeken blizzard.
I would like it to have more impact on the game, as after you get sprinklers it does not matter at all what the weather is.


Silverbane7 said:
@Rattja once you get to a certain level of skill, you can craft a 'stairs' item out of 99stones that lets you go down a level. its a bit expensive but if you have 99 stone in your pack allready you can skip a level.
I know you can do that, but when farming for things like earth crystals or whatnot, where there is just a slight chance per level one will even spawn, 99 stone is just too much to spend as you want to pass through levels very quickly and often.
 

Bat Vader

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Been playing World's Dawn and I heard about this. After I get out of physical therapy I plan to purchase it.
 

Silverbane7

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as for wanting weather to affect how you work, im sure someone will make a mod for it.

we allready have the modding API for stardew and some mods. replacement cat (black) and fence mod that stops your fences decaying (someone asked for an alt version of that, which just has the wood fences decay at the speed of the stone ones too) i think someone has even done a resprite for some of the characters pictures ect allready.

might be worth poping to the forum and asking in the modding section, if there is interest in a mod to make weather matter more, someone might make it.
 

SweetShark

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False Messiah said:
You don't really lose all your crops in a moment, except when seasons change. Sometimes there is an earthquake or lighting storm that can kill some of your crops, but if you just take it with a shrug and start cleaning up in the morning it becomes very zen.

Even the dungeon is very relaxing, it's not challenging at al if you pace yourself.

I'm not in it for the relaxation though, I'm min-maxing this sucker. Grinding sprinklers and covering my whole farm with rotating plots, raking in all that sweet dollah dollah! I just finished the first winter and I've earned about 1.4 million. :D
....So, next question.
How is possible a Farmer be still a Farmer and not become a walking Pussy-Magnet with so many money.

EDIT:
Or a Dick-Magnet if you are a girl yo.
 

False Messiah

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By not (yet) caring about the social side of the game. I gave my "secret santa gift reciever" a diamond though, so I think she might be persuaded to pre-heat the hay...
 

sjard

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It's everything you always wanted added to the SNES Harvest moon... except the annoying fishing game. If they fix that...
 

MHR

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My bros been playing the hell out of it. But every time I watch him play it, I'm just waiting for bandits to come raid the homestead or demons to break out of hell to be met with the business end of your pitchfork.

I'm on a kick with faster games at the moment, if you can't tell. I'll probably be playing it later though.
 

Silverbane7

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sjard, just do what i did.
im pants at it till now. then i grabbed easier fishing by Steffjes
http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/easier-fishing.107819/#post-2801046
the best part is it does not need the api its just a modified vesion of the fish.xml file
it makes the fish easier by making them not jump about so much or so quickly. some fish still jump about but trust me, it is actualy possable to catch fish with this (compared to befor, where all i could catch was the junk lol)

and the same user has created the opposite version too which is 'harder fishing' for those who found the fishing minigame too easy.
best of both worlds, i would say.

Steffjes just updated it again and now even the legendaries should be easier to grab too.