One of the most chill, relaxing, satisfying, and incredible games I've ever played. I would strongly recommend anyone playing to use a controller, but mouse and keyboard is still playable.
I was never one for relaxing farm games nor social games.
But over the years I have started to slow down and actully prefer these games.
I was sad to see very few games offering everything I wished for.
Stardew valley is everything I wanted and more~
From farming crops and handling your animals, too trying to get the special someone to love you, this game had lots of content!
The ability to marry and gender and have children is something very few games of any genre offer.
If your into a nice casual game, this is for you.
Multiplayer is in beta and soon you will be able to play with your friends on PC (gog/humble/steam)
Stardew Valley is a charming game with a open ended. You can fish,grow flowers,crops,orchards,lumberjack,raise live stock,produce goods,mine, forage,find treasure, adventure,etc. There is a story & mystery to the game that plays out as you go on through the game.
Crafting uses all the items you can find,grow, or buy. There are variety of things you can craft from furniture,artisan crafting stations,clothes,food ,etc.Unlocking craft items and recipes are given to you as you level your skills. Your tools & activities you use/do level you up more you use them more you unlock.
Your farm itself can be improved as well as areas throughout the town. Barns,silos,Chicken Coops,Livestock pens,new rooms for your home,etc can all be done.
There are various areas for you to explore some only as the story or time progresses.Do not let this worry you since the story folds out at a good pace since time moves briskly.
The NPCs have their own personalities , likes & dislikes as well as background stories.Some you can marry,others you can get quests from. These are usually fetch of give me an item quests.These are either posted,mailed to you or requested of you in person. The shops run by the various NPCs sell specialized items and only buy items related to them.
The graphics in the game are as charming .Lots of detail in the game since everything is hand drawn. Detail are all over which are usually taken for granted in other game genre are present. The 4 seasons are lovely as well as the weather changes and change of flora & fauna.
Some quirks but those are more pet peeves & many are being ironed out thanks to community feed back.As the game stands it is relatively bug free outside of rare bugs the community is quick to submit reports to (very pain free process). MP is planned (up to 4 players via co-op no ETA atm)
If you like games like harvest moon & building this is a must and will clock you at least 20 - 100 hours
of enjoyment, even more if you are a completionist .