I'll just echo what everyone has been saying: if you've ever enjoyed Harvest Moon, you'll love Stardew Valley even more! It takes all the best elements and refines them. It also adds in other gameplay touches that really improve over the Harvest Moon formula. I loved Harvest Moon back in the day, but felt that the newer versions of Harvest Moon were very unforgiving with the time you're given to get things done. Stardew Valley is all about forgiveness: practically anything you can pick up has value when sold (though not always very much), shipping sales don't have to be in before a certain time of day, the length of the days actually allows you to get things done. The game doesn't even force you to farm if you don't want. You can spend all your time wooing the village girls, exploring the caves and fighting monsters, or just hanging out fishing. Give Stardew Valley a shot, you won't regret it!
Just finished this game and my honest opinion is that it's a very beautiful game, and figuring out the laws or mechanics of the world felt rewarding. Be warned though, The Witness has no plot, no characters, no good explanation ever provided. You're dropped into the world to spend countless hours learning the rules, and you're rewarded with a few eureka moments as you start applying those rules in new ways. You will find an air of mystery about the whole world you're exploring: out of context audio recordings, statues seemingly frozen in time, and other oddities that will pique your interest. But you as the player will get no answers, no reason for any of it. I've watched analyses and commentaries after completing The Witness, and the game seems to have meaning in the same way a painting has meaning: it might make you feel something, or look at your world a little differently afterward, but those are meanings that you as the observer are deriving. Those meanings may not have even been intended by the artist. Bottom line: If you're looking for a game with story that you uncover slowly (like Myst), you won't find it in The Witness. This game gave me the same satisfaction at the end as finishing a book of Sudoku puzzles: the puzzles were fun, but there's no great revelation awaiting you at completion.
