Stardew Valley review: A pastoral, contemporary escape

This love letter to <em>Harvest Moon</em> is more than the sum of its parts.

Read the whole story

 

[apoptygma]

I've been enjoying it so far (10 hours or so in). I'm developing a relationship with Linus, and like to carry around Sweet Peas to give to townsfolk (which some of them don't like, but that's their problem).

One thing I would comment on, which many other people have noted, is that there's a lot of walking around and it's not quick. This perhaps fits into the whole slow/quiet thing it has going on, but really it's just aggravating to have to spend so much time going from one place to another.

 

[curiosus]

Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew. But theres nothing that really distinguishes it. The few new features are timid additions. The mining is pretty rubbish and while the community centre is nice and gives you more things to work towards its nothing more than a visual trophy.

For me it just raises a lot of questions about what could have been better if it wasn't such a determined homage to HM. Relationships for one thing are exactly the same as Harvest Moon, you don't spend time with anyone in shared activity, you buy their affection with gifts. Its a poor and slightly creepy abstraction of relationships. When you purchase a spouse via enough gifts they do exactly what they did in HM, wait around the farm all day doing nothing occasionally randomly gifting things. They should be invested in the running of the farm, perhaps assignable to jobs to truly share out the chores and feel like they are actually your partner and not just a household pet. They are also devoid of opinion besides that things are messy and you should clean up because they can't reach some piece of furniture.

I'm not sure about calling it a simulation, its systems probably aren't mechanically complicated enough for that. Crops just need water and time; temperature, soil type and quality, pollination, pests etc are all ignored.

 

[Hat Monster]

This has taken much of my time since it's release on GOG.

Everything is just so deep, there's always more to learn, more to do, more to get, more to aspire to.

Marvelous.

 

[nehinks]

Sigh. I now miss SimFarm. I played more of that than SimCity and SimAnt combined.

 

[snowcone]

Now all they need to do is integrate something like this into a real world FMS (I'm thinking like Donkerhoek data, the game) and you have yourself a food supply!

 

[arkiel]

So... Let's see.

1) There is a wizard.
2) A river runs through the town.
3) A bus figures prominently into the story.
4) There are rumors of merfolk.
5) There are strange idols scattered hither and yon.
6) You find artifacts of obvious antiquity by fishing.
7) The one bastion of civilization is the equivalent of Walmart.
8) Some residents (Pam) look a little like fish.
9) There is a mysterious network of tunnels (not sewers) under the town which are filled with formless horrors (slimes).

This is basically Farm Simulator: Shadow Over Innsmouth Edition, huh?

Edit:
10) Mutant plants and meteorites falling on your damn farm!
11) Decrepit ruins featuring altars to extraterrestrial beings!

 

[Fred Duck]

If you’ve played Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing or, really, any of the other games that fit that loose category...

?

That's like saying Wave Race and Madden 3017 are in the same category.

HM is about raising crops and perhaps marrying someone to have kids.

AC is about making money to make more money to buy everything in the catalog, I guess. There really is no defined goal.

They really aren't anything alike, hence the earlier line:

It's been described as Harvest Moon crossed with Animal Crossing and Zelda, a love letter to the pastoral classics.

However, isn't Rune Factory already "Harvest Moon crossed with Zelda?" So, this game (which I've never heard of) sounds like a Western Rune Factory.

Also, I've been really down on fishing mini games lately. I understand why developers love to put them in because they're super easy to make and waste a lot of time. I mean, they're just slot machines with a delay. o_o However, they're just so incredibly annoying. ~_~;

 

[ElectricBlue]

As someone for whom Harvest Moon SNES is one of my top games ever, this game feels like it was made specifically for me

 

[ElectricBlue]

Fred Duck[/url]":8vqnqv51]
Also, I've been really down on fishing mini games lately. I understand why developers love to put them in because they're super easy to make and waste a lot of time. I mean, they're just slot machines with a delay. o_o However, they're just so incredibly annoying. ~_~;

Wait till you face the existential crisis of finding out every game mechanic is basically a database query, some with a rand() function in there.

 

[MisterMano]

curiosus[/url]":2z1u2y73]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew. But theres nothing that really distinguishes it. The few new features are timid additions. The mining is pretty rubbish and while the community centre is nice and gives you more things to work towards its nothing more than a visual trophy.

For me it just raises a lot of questions about what could have been better if it wasn't such a determined homage to HM. Relationships for one thing are exactly the same as Harvest Moon, you don't spend time with anyone in shared activity, you buy their affection with gifts. Its a poor and slightly creepy abstraction of relationships. When you purchase a spouse via enough gifts they do exactly what they did in HM, wait around the farm all day doing nothing occasionally randomly gifting things. They should be invested in the running of the farm, perhaps assignable to jobs to truly share out the chores and feel like they are actually your partner and not just a household pet. They are also devoid of opinion besides that things are messy and you should clean up because they can't reach some piece of furniture.

I'm not sure about calling it a simulation, its systems probably aren't mechanically complicated enough for that. Crops just need water and time; temperature, soil type and quality, pollination, pests etc are all ignored.

I can get behind that the friend/flirt mechanic is really strange, literally buying people's affection.
As for that last line, keeping it simple is what makes it more addictive and relaxing. It's not a farming simulator, it's more of a small "farm life" simulator.

 

[TheMerricat]

MisterMano[/url]":bd9ga3p9]

curiosus[/url]":bd9ga3p9]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew. But theres nothing that really distinguishes it. The few new features are timid additions. The mining is pretty rubbish and while the community centre is nice and gives you more things to work towards its nothing more than a visual trophy.

For me it just raises a lot of questions about what could have been better if it wasn't such a determined homage to HM. Relationships for one thing are exactly the same as Harvest Moon, you don't spend time with anyone in shared activity, you buy their affection with gifts. Its a poor and slightly creepy abstraction of relationships. When you purchase a spouse via enough gifts they do exactly what they did in HM, wait around the farm all day doing nothing occasionally randomly gifting things. They should be invested in the running of the farm, perhaps assignable to jobs to truly share out the chores and feel like they are actually your partner and not just a household pet. They are also devoid of opinion besides that things are messy and you should clean up because they can't reach some piece of furniture.

I'm not sure about calling it a simulation, its systems probably aren't mechanically complicated enough for that. Crops just need water and time; temperature, soil type and quality, pollination, pests etc are all ignored.

I can get behind that the friend/flirt mechanic is really strange, literally buying people's affection.
As for that last line, keeping it simple is what makes it more addictive and relaxing. It's not a farming simulator, it's more of a small "farm life" simulator.

I'm not sure the flirt mechanic is exactly what curiosus thinks it is. But then again, I haven't had a chance to play it myself so I might be wrong.

 

[Infinity4011]

I wasted entirely too much of my life on the PS2/SNES version of HM, I am going to steer clear of this. Not because it's bad, but because I might spend another large chunk of my life playing it, to the detriment of my health, my social life, and my sanity.

Having said that, two of my friends are playing this and loving it. One of them has called into work for the past week to play it from the moment he gets up til he goes to bed, only stopping when he realizes he's starving or dehydrated. The other is disabled, and she hasn't forgotten to eat yet, so she gets a pass I guess.

 

[emcee_08990]

I have been watching people play this game on Twitch. Very relaxing but somehow keeps my attention. There are some real Stardew Valley ballers on Twitch. Players with a huge enterprise going and bzillions of gold.

 

[Native Jovian]

Fred Duck[/url]":2230n5xt]However, isn't Rune Factory already "Harvest Moon crossed with Zelda?" So, this game (which I've never heard of) sounds like a Western Rune Factory.

I was going to mention this as well. Most people seem to think of Harvest Moon as an old series they played when they were kids, but the franchise is still around and has come a long way since the SNES days, including creating spin-off sub-series like Rune Factory (originally subtitled "A Fantasy Harvest Moon"), which is essentially Harvest Moon farming plus Zelda style dungeons. The franchise is now called "Story of Seasons" instead of Harvest Moon due to a licensing dispute (tldr, the Japanese developer started doing the localization work themselves, but the North American distributor owns the "Harvest Moon" brand name since they invented it. The Japanese title is something like "Ranch Story"), but it's still going strong.

Of course, they're mostly focused on handheld consoles now. There hasn't been a Harvest Moon release for a home console since early in the life of the Wii, and it's never been on PC as far as I know. All the recent releases have been on the 3DS. I imagine that's why Stardew Valley is seeing so much success -- it's basically Harvest Moon (or, more accurately, Rune Factory) on the PC, which is a market that's never been served by Harvest Moon proper.

 

[metro2003]

Pre-purchased The Division for $60 and had high anticipation when it was released. After playing it 4 hours I turned it off. Unexpectedly picked up Stardew Valley earlier for $15 and after playing for 20 hours, I'm still at it.

There are so many underwhelming AAA games lately that it's shocking..myself included, need to learn from mistakes and stop pre-ordering.

The designer of Stardew valley is a genius. it takes serious talent to develop, create the art, and bug fix the entire game. The guy even released 3 or 4 patches from the day it was released ! AAA games take months to release any patches and they still don't fix shit.

 

[penismightier]

rpresser[/url]":3oyhsvmf]

Unlike Harvest Moon, it makes no demands for heterosexuality, providing access to all ten characters, and the option for adoption.

Oh good, just like reality. In every situation in real life, I can court and realistically hope to win each and every person I meet, no matter what their own age, color, creed, or sexual preferences might be.

Yeah it's truly utterly terrible that people have the ability to play their character any way they see fit which literally impacts you in no way whatsoever.

 

[arkiel]

rpresser[/url]":1q1aemgt]

Unlike Harvest Moon, it makes no demands for heterosexuality, providing access to all ten characters, and the option for adoption.

Oh good, just like reality. In every situation in real life, I can court and realistically hope to win each and every person I meet, no matter what their own age, color, creed, or sexual preferences might be.

Maybe not you, personally. Games should definitly be designed with your limitations in mind, after all.

 

[Sixclaws]

Hopefully the success of this game will encourage other small/indie developers into making more of these, the indie market is overly saturated with walking simulators. Plus, it's amazing how complete this game is so it's no wonder it is making pirates feel guilty for stealing it.

I have two complaints for this game though:

Running around is so goddamn slow.

And the ladies you can romance are basically a rainbow of diversity but the lads are all purty bois.

 

[penismightier]

On a lighter note, I love this game. SNES Harvest Moon was one of my favorite games growing up, so this game solidly fulfills that nostalgia feeling plus much more. This game definitely has the "just one more day" vibe to it - basically if you get up and leave the house to check on your farm it's almost impossible to not finish out the day (the game only saves after sleeping). Granted, I might be/am in the dead-center of the niche (or not so niche based on the sales) market it was going for.

From what I've read modders basically have already made mods for anything people have had issues with: fishing, walk speed, how long each day takes, etc. so if there are concerns it seems to mod community is going to have your answer.

 

[penismightier]

Sixclaws[/url]":1082rcv7]Hopefully the success of this game will encourage other small/indie developers into making more of these, the indie market is overly saturated with walking simulators. Plus, it's amazing how complete this game is so it's no wonder it is making pirates feel guilty for stealing it.

I have two complaints for this game though:

Running around is so goddamn slow.

And the ladies you can romance are basically a rainbow of diversity but the lads are all purty bois.

Make sure you have auto-run enabled (I think it is default now) and later in the game you unlock different methods for transport which cut down the running time a lot. In the beginning it can be a slog though. As I mentioned in my other comments there are also run-speed mods you could use.

 

[Sixclaws]

rpresser[/url]":2rhphqvc]

Unlike Harvest Moon, it makes no demands for heterosexuality, providing access to all ten characters, and the option for adoption.

Oh good, just like reality. In every situation in real life, I can court and realistically hope to win each and every person I meet, no matter what their own age, color, creed, or sexual preferences might be.

Still it doesn't have the same level of implied homosexuality (accidental because the game was meant to include the option to play as a boy or a girl and they left the girl's romancing bits in the game) that Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town has though. Had a blast making the guys blush and turn down the marriage proposals.

 

[Sixclaws]

penismightier[/url]":72z4lcnr]

Sixclaws[/url]":72z4lcnr]Hopefully the success of this game will encourage other small/indie developers into making more of these, the indie market is overly saturated with walking simulators. Plus, it's amazing how complete this game is so it's no wonder it is making pirates feel guilty for stealing it.

I have two complaints for this game though:

Running around is so goddamn slow.

And the ladies you can romance are basically a rainbow of diversity but the lads are all purty bois.

Make sure you have auto-run enabled (I think it is default now) and later in the game you unlock different methods for transport which cut down the running time a lot. In the beginning it can be a slog though. As I mentioned in my other comments there are also run-speed mods you could use.

Already have it on Autorun and it's soo freaking slow.

 

[curiosus]

TheMerricat[/url]":1yh909y4]

MisterMano[/url]":1yh909y4]

curiosus[/url]":1yh909y4]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew. But theres nothing that really distinguishes it. The few new features are timid additions. The mining is pretty rubbish and while the community centre is nice and gives you more things to work towards its nothing more than a visual trophy.

For me it just raises a lot of questions about what could have been better if it wasn't such a determined homage to HM. Relationships for one thing are exactly the same as Harvest Moon, you don't spend time with anyone in shared activity, you buy their affection with gifts. Its a poor and slightly creepy abstraction of relationships. When you purchase a spouse via enough gifts they do exactly what they did in HM, wait around the farm all day doing nothing occasionally randomly gifting things. They should be invested in the running of the farm, perhaps assignable to jobs to truly share out the chores and feel like they are actually your partner and not just a household pet. They are also devoid of opinion besides that things are messy and you should clean up because they can't reach some piece of furniture.

I'm not sure about calling it a simulation, its systems probably aren't mechanically complicated enough for that. Crops just need water and time; temperature, soil type and quality, pollination, pests etc are all ignored.

I can get behind that the friend/flirt mechanic is really strange, literally buying people's affection.
As for that last line, keeping it simple is what makes it more addictive and relaxing. It's not a farming simulator, it's more of a small "farm life" simulator.

I'm not sure the flirt mechanic is exactly what curiosus thinks it is. But then again, I haven't had a chance to play it myself so I might be wrong.

Its the same as harvest moon, fundamentally just gift giving, but you get bonuses for giving them something on their birthday or picking them in one of the festivals for an activity. There is no sense that you are spending time with them just bribing them with a ton of gifts and maybe hanging out 4 times in a year?

I'm not sure that Kotaku writer has even played Harvest Moon or understands relationships...

 

[Tofystedeth]

curiosus[/url]":2vrz7pvv]

TheMerricat[/url]":2vrz7pvv]

MisterMano[/url]":2vrz7pvv]

curiosus[/url]":2vrz7pvv]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew. But theres nothing that really distinguishes it. The few new features are timid additions. The mining is pretty rubbish and while the community centre is nice and gives you more things to work towards its nothing more than a visual trophy.

For me it just raises a lot of questions about what could have been better if it wasn't such a determined homage to HM. Relationships for one thing are exactly the same as Harvest Moon, you don't spend time with anyone in shared activity, you buy their affection with gifts. Its a poor and slightly creepy abstraction of relationships. When you purchase a spouse via enough gifts they do exactly what they did in HM, wait around the farm all day doing nothing occasionally randomly gifting things. They should be invested in the running of the farm, perhaps assignable to jobs to truly share out the chores and feel like they are actually your partner and not just a household pet. They are also devoid of opinion besides that things are messy and you should clean up because they can't reach some piece of furniture.

I'm not sure about calling it a simulation, its systems probably aren't mechanically complicated enough for that. Crops just need water and time; temperature, soil type and quality, pollination, pests etc are all ignored.

I can get behind that the friend/flirt mechanic is really strange, literally buying people's affection.
As for that last line, keeping it simple is what makes it more addictive and relaxing. It's not a farming simulator, it's more of a small "farm life" simulator.

I'm not sure the flirt mechanic is exactly what curiosus thinks it is. But then again, I haven't had a chance to play it myself so I might be wrong.

Its the same as harvest moon, fundamentally just gift giving, but you get bonuses for giving them something on their birthday or picking them in one of the festivals for an activity. There is no sense that you are spending time with them just bribing them with a ton of gifts and maybe hanging out 4 times in a year?

I'm not sure that Kotaku writer has even played Harvest Moon or understands relationships...

1.) The writer did mention he was adding a lot of subtext that wasn't really there.
2.) You do get some cutscenes as you cross different thresholds where you learn more about them, that are kind of like spending time with them. The responses you choose in those might affect affection levels, I'm not sure.
3.) It's a 2D video game by a single developer. Even large experienced companies typically fail to have actually deep relationships, so I'm not sure what you expect.

 

[Toleraen]

The article describes a ton of throwbacks and influences from previous farm games, but as someone who has never played a farm sim game I'm not sure what all this means. Would it be enjoyable to someone who hasn't played HM, or is it too 'throw-backy'?

I played the crap out of the SimCity games growing up, and Cities Skylines more recently, is it a similar concept at a high level?

 

[parasyte]

curiosus[/url]":28iaqrm2] Relationships for one thing are exactly the same as Harvest Moon, you don't spend time with anyone in shared activity, you buy their affection with gifts. Its a poor and slightly creepy abstraction of relationships. When you purchase a spouse via enough gifts they do exactly what they did in HM, wait around the farm all day doing nothing occasionally randomly gifting things. They should be invested in the running of the farm, perhaps assignable to jobs to truly share out the chores and feel like they are actually your partner and not just a household pet. They are also devoid of opinion besides that things are messy and you should clean up because they can't reach some piece of furniture.

I can buy that after you've married your spouse they don't do anything interesting, but I disagree that the HM/SV abstraction is any stranger than any other video game allowing you to forge relationships.

At the end of the day it's a (part of a) game about making someone like you, and I don't see how choosing the right entry from a list of responses is that different from choosing the right gift from a list of things to give.

 

[vexis58]

curiosus[/url]":2tw2wkng]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew.

I wouldn't say it's just harvest moon with more stuff, because that's basically what every harvest moon game since SNES has done, with more crop types and more floors in the mine (I think there was one game with tens of thousands of floors where you could drop down a hundred at a time if you were lucky) and more bachelors and more fish to catch because that's what the fans said they wanted -- and for some reason it just felt hollow.

I think one of my problems with modern harvest moon games is that you're under so much stress to get this thing done by this season so you can unlock something in another season or you'll have to wait another year. If you don't get your crush to marry you by a certain year they'll marry someone else and you'll be alone. This game lets you take your time if you want to.

That and the festivals. I have fond memories of the tomato festival in one of the earlier harvest moon games (back to nature, I think) where everybody would get together and throw tomatoes at each other. Fun festivals like that have been completely removed in favor of more competition festivals that are purely about checking the numerical score of your chicken against some value to win a unique prize and if you don't win, you're screwed for another year because you needed that prize for the overarching do everything storyline. In Stardew Valley, every holiday has been endearing and unique and really reminded me of why I loved the early games so much.

 

[curiosus]

Everyone else gets it wrong too is not an argument in favour of sticking to that. What I would have liked to have seen is villagers engaging in hobbies/activities/work a lot more frequently and asking you to join in. Spending time fishing with someone regularly is relatively simple to implement and a lot more realistic than feeding them 50 strawberries until they declare their undying love.

I think Stardew succeeds as a Harvest Moon homage and its a good game, it just doesn't try anything new at all. And there are ways HM could be improved on that change up mechanics.

 

[weblionx]

I have ideas and designs for a Harvest Moon 64-esque game but it's been low on my list of projects to do. Sounds like I might be putting it off even longer...

 

[gijames1225]

Thanks for the review. I have must admit, one of the more enjoyable aspects of this release has been the plethora of other sites that have brought gender theory to bear on the original Harvest Moon for how it handled courtship.

It's a blessed time for critical theory when The Verge can explain how an SNES game convinced one of their writers that girls are gift-receptacles and farming rpgs made him sexist.

 

[TomXP411]

So, I go around the corner and confront Linus, and decide to tell him that what he's doing is not right, expecting agreement or a comedic sequence. It doesn't come. Instead, he flinches and acquiesces, moves away, leaving me feeling ill with my decision. I'd approached Linus as a character, and he responded as a person.

I chose the "there's nothing wrong with that" reply, and after I walked off, Gus came out of the tavern with some leftover food for Linus. Gus is such a nice guy.

 

[TomXP411]

vexis58[/url]":1l47ldlb]

curiosus[/url]":1l47ldlb]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew.

I wouldn't say it's just harvest moon with more stuff, because that's basically what every harvest moon game since SNES has done, with more crop types and more floors in the mine (I think there was one game with tens of thousands of floors where you could drop down a hundred at a time if you were lucky) and more bachelors and more fish to catch because that's what the fans said they wanted -- and for some reason it just felt hollow.

I think one of my problems with modern harvest moon games is that you're under so much stress to get this thing done by this season so you can unlock something in another season or you'll have to wait another year. If you don't get your crush to marry you by a certain year they'll marry someone else and you'll be alone. This game lets you take your time if you want to.

That and the festivals. I have fond memories of the tomato festival in one of the earlier harvest moon games (back to nature, I think) where everybody would get together and throw tomatoes at each other. Fun festivals like that have been completely removed in favor of more competition festivals that are purely about checking the numerical score of your chicken against some value to win a unique prize and if you don't win, you're screwed for another year because you needed that prize for the overarching do everything storyline. In Stardew Valley, every holiday has been endearing and unique and really reminded me of why I loved the early games so much.

Thanks for that... i was considering buying one of the Harvest games on 3DS to see what the original is like (and I did, in fact, buy the Game Boy Color version), but hearing this, I'll skip the 3DS versions and just play Stardew.

Now to get the creator to add co-op so I can play with some friends of mine...

 

[Archintyeron]

arkiel[/url]":3klk3mf8]
10) Mutant plants and meteorites falling on your damn farm!

Now the name Stardew Valley makes sense!

 

[Tofystedeth]

TomXP411[/url]":3n0hyzue]

vexis58[/url]":3n0hyzue]

curiosus[/url]":3n0hyzue]Its just Harvest Moon but with more stuff. Its well executed and I played a lot of the SNES version of Harvest Moon, I wish it had had the amount of content of Star Dew.

I wouldn't say it's just harvest moon with more stuff, because that's basically what every harvest moon game since SNES has done, with more crop types and more floors in the mine (I think there was one game with tens of thousands of floors where you could drop down a hundred at a time if you were lucky) and more bachelors and more fish to catch because that's what the fans said they wanted -- and for some reason it just felt hollow.

I think one of my problems with modern harvest moon games is that you're under so much stress to get this thing done by this season so you can unlock something in another season or you'll have to wait another year. If you don't get your crush to marry you by a certain year they'll marry someone else and you'll be alone. This game lets you take your time if you want to.

That and the festivals. I have fond memories of the tomato festival in one of the earlier harvest moon games (back to nature, I think) where everybody would get together and throw tomatoes at each other. Fun festivals like that have been completely removed in favor of more competition festivals that are purely about checking the numerical score of your chicken against some value to win a unique prize and if you don't win, you're screwed for another year because you needed that prize for the overarching do everything storyline. In Stardew Valley, every holiday has been endearing and unique and really reminded me of why I loved the early games so much.

Thanks for that... i was considering buying one of the Harvest games on 3DS to see what the original is like (and I did, in fact, buy the Game Boy Color version), but hearing this, I'll skip the 3DS versions and just play Stardew.

Now to get the creator to add co-op so I can play with some friends of mine...

He is actually working on multiplayer.

Stardew Valley will launch as a single player game with plans to add 4-player co-op after release.

 

[Fred Duck]

ElectricBlue[/url]":w6ex08sq]Wait till you face the existential crisis of finding out every game mechanic is basically a database query, some with a rand() function in there.

The point is that usually, when you "harvest" stuff like picking plants, mining ore, or searching containers, in most games, you press the button and then poof, you get a random thing.

On the other hand, most fishing mini games make you wait to press again (and in Disney Magical World AGAIN and possibly AGAIN) before you're rewarded with your random item. So, thanks for missing the point but in a funny, technical way.

 

[xizar]

I've seen lots and lots and lots of people equating this with Harvest Moon, a game series which I couldn't really get that into.

I've only seen a couple of people equate it with Rune Factory, a game series which I enjoyed quite a lot; Rune Factory 4 remains one of my favorite 3DS games (Forte is Best Girl), and Neverland's closure made me very sad I'd not see a RF5.

Is Stardew Valley more like Rune Factory or Harvest Moon?

 

[TomXP411]

xizar[/url]":6rncpff2]I've seen lots and lots and lots of people equating this with Harvest Moon, a game series which I couldn't really get that into.

I've only seen a couple of people equate it with Rune Factory, a game series which I enjoyed quite a lot; Rune Factory 4 remains one of my favorite 3DS games (Forte is Best Girl), and Neverland's closure made me very sad I'd not see a RF5.

Is Stardew Valley more like Rune Factory or Harvest Moon?

In fact, the first version was actually titled Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon part was later dropped to differentiate the two products.

So the answer is... it's like both. Stardew has (primitive) combat and ore gathering in the mines, as well as fishing, foraging, random quests, and some basic story progression. None of those were in the original Harvest Moon, although I'm sure later versions added more features.

Whether you'll like it or not is pretty subjective. It's only $15, so you're not out a ton of money if you don't like it. (Also, since it's popular right now, there are likely to be a ton of streams and YouTube videos for you to check out if you're unsure.)

 

[y*!|$7v0Qn]

TomXP411[/url]":1jife358]

xizar[/url]":1jife358]I've seen lots and lots and lots of people equating this with Harvest Moon, a game series which I couldn't really get that into.

I've only seen a couple of people equate it with Rune Factory, a game series which I enjoyed quite a lot; Rune Factory 4 remains one of my favorite 3DS games (Forte is Best Girl), and Neverland's closure made me very sad I'd not see a RF5.

Is Stardew Valley more like Rune Factory or Harvest Moon?

From basic descriptions on the Internet, Rune Factory is Harvest Moon with more stuffs. In fact, the first version was actually titled Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon part was later dropped to differentiate the two products.

So the answer is... it's like both. Stardew has (primitive) combat and ore gathering in the mines, as well as fishing, foraging, random quests, and some basic story progression.

Whether you'll like it or not is pretty subjective. It's only $15, so you're not out a ton of money if you don't like it. (Also, since it's popular right now, there are likely to be a ton of streams and YouTube videos for you to check out if you're unsure.)

It's basically Rune Factory with less emphasis on combat, and a lot better writing. I've been having fun with it. Definitely worth the price of admission.