What is Stardew Valley? At its core, Stardew Valley is about farming. Your character leaves their former life to become a farmer, you’re referred to as a farmer, you live on a farm, etc. However, the charm of the game comes from the fact that you don’t need to focus on farming. You can focus on anything you want if it makes the game enjoyable. It’s because of this that I think people should care: you don’t have expectations or deadlines forced on you if you don’t want to. It can appeal to a wide audience and it’s relatively cheap to obtain, only around 16 dollars. A game like this is something that everyone should have.

The game isn’t based around a particular “story,” just a few goals to keep in mind and quests to pick up as you please. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. You set your own pace and your own goals and you can go from there. Additionally, there’s a wide variety of characters that you can meet, befriend, or even romance. Some come off as bored, or even annoying, whereas others feel like they have the story and personalities of real, genuine people. Also, the game is big on stress-relief.

Stardew Valley plays through several years of in-game time, with each year being four seasons. Each season is made up of twenty-eight days, and each day takes around twelve to fifteen minutes to complete. This means that each season is finished in six hours of gameplay, and each year is twenty-four hours of playtime. There’s no rush to do what you want to do in the game.

There are nearly 30 interactable characters in the game with their own schedules and unique interests and distastes that you can befriend. The player must navigate through the world and collect different items and materials while just hoping that this specific object will be a good enough gift to boost the number of friendship points for whichever character.

The work in the game isn’t too strenuous, you water your crops, make sure your animals are fed, and anything else that you feel you must do to progress in the game. You’re never crunched for time unless you willingly take up a timed event or timed quest, and the very core mechanics of the game were set up with the intention of the player figuring it out as they went. Also, the game helps to create structure and a sense of purpose, which is especially useful in times such as now.

In video games, the structure of the game usually determines the overall pacing of the story. However, if done wrong, this can be very bad for the game long-term. Many users may be turned off if the gameplay goes too slow, but if it comes off as rushed, people will see the game in a bad light and may give negative reviews or refrain from recommending it to others. This can be avoided by leaving the pacing up to the player instead. Also, this makes it harder for the player to miss out on special events, and enables them to do as they please while playing without going by predetermined rules. It gives players more time to figure out how to play on their own playing grounds.

Stardew Valley features countless characters, some of which are written amazingly. I’ve decided on two specific characters that best illustrate this point. There’s Linus, the old man in the mountains. He lives in a tent and is excluded from society by choice. For this, he faces constant ridicule and harassment for not fitting into the town’s standards. When the player first meets him, he is extremely cautious and wary, as his cruel treatment in the town has taught him to be that way. He teaches the player that just because someone is different, doesn’t mean they should be forced and molded to fit someone’s idea of “perfect”. He believes that while he may stand out, that doesn’t mean he should be fixed and blend back in with the crowd. Finally, we have Shane, who undeniably has the saddest story of the game. He starts out as cold and rude to the player, telling them to just leave him alone. He can often be found at a saloon, nearly every night, drinking in a corner by himself. When the player starts to befriend him, they learn that the reason for his alcoholism is his depression, and it’s his way of coping and trying to find a way to numb the pain of his life. A friendship with the player is what encourages him to seek help and even try sobriety.

For all these reasons detailed above, Stardew Valleys’ key components such as its pacing, characters, and basic game mechanics make it the best farming game out there for sale today.