Off the Shelf Media

There is perhaps no greater resource on Earth than our time. You can’t mine it, purchase more of it, or reserve it for future use. Every second of every day, we have less and less of it. Without a doubt, our time is the most valued resource we have. And corporations have never had to fight harder to secure it. 

Right now, big-time marketers and executives are hard at work looking for ways to grapple our attention away from our phones, our friends, our family, and even ourselves. They are spending millions of dollars funding research to discover how to keep us engaged with their content and products. While some get it right, such as Bethesda with their recent release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or like Ubisoft with the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. 

As an adult with a demanding full-time job and a plethora of ‘side hustles’ (such as this website you’re reading now), my time has never been more limited. Yet, I would gladly spend all of my precious time, money, and attention playing Stardew Valley. 

Gameplay: 2

Stardew Valley is, at its heart, a pretty simple game, but it covers all of the bases it needs to in order to remain engaging after hours upon hours of gameplay. 

It is a farming RPG. While there isn’t too much complexity in the gameplay, you won’t often find yourself bored. Care for your farm by plowing, planting, and watering your crops each season to turn a profit. As you engage with the world, you’ll build your five core skills: farming, foraging, mining, fishing, and finally, combat. In the latest update to the game, mastering all five skills unlocks something special. 

As you secure more skills and materials, you can upgrade your tools like your watering can, pickaxe, shovel, and more. Each of these is important and worth putting resources into as they not only make securing materials or crops easier, but they even begin to help you unlock new areas of the map the longer you play. In addition to improving your tools, you can also upgrade your farm buildings, like your player’s house, and build new buildings, such as the coop, to begin caring for animals. 

Simply living the agricultural lifestyle isn’t where the gameplay starts and ends either. Befriend the townsfolk with gifts, good conversations, and by completing favors. Doing so will help to unlock more storylines and you may get a surprise or two in the mail to help you gather materials, recipes for cooking, and more. After you’ve grown close enough with some of the single villagers, you can even get married and start a family. As you interact with the villagers, you’ll learn their likes, dislikes, celebrate birthdays, and can even buy them a drink at the local saloon on Friday nights. 

Another major aspect of the game is donating items to the Community Center, or if you’d prefer, you can also become a JojaMart member to unlock new areas of the map or new aspects of the gameplay. Personally, I always prefer to take the Community Center route. 

As you play, time progresses. According to Reddit users, one day (roughly between the hours of 6am and 12am) is around 15-20 minutes in real time. Keep an eye on the clock and make sure to get to bed before the clock hits 2am or you’ll pass out from exhaustion. 

While this is a great single-player game, the 1.6 update made in 2024 also provided new maps, which dictate the type of farm you build, and increased the co-op mode to allow up to eight players. While I prefer single-player for attempting new challenges and proceeding at my own pace, sharing a farm with friends allows for accomplishing most tasks at a faster rate but it also presents new challenges. 

Whether playing with a mouse and keyboard or a controller, the soothing gameplay will keep you engaged in the style you prefer. If you like to optimize for time and proficiency, get to work! At the same time, feel free to stop and smell the roses every so often. How you play is entirely up to you and there is always another task to accomplish, an area of the map to explore, or new items to unlock. 

Story: 2

At the start of the game, you see your character’s grandfather give you a sealed envelope. He explains that there will come a day when the monotony of life will get you down. When that moment comes, you are to open the envelope. 

You then see your character sitting in a cubicle, working for JojaMart, a corporation reminiscent of one from our real world (hint: it rhymes with Bamazon). Finally, it is time to open the envelope. The letter reveals that your grandfather has left to you his beloved farm in a quaint place called Stardew Valley, right outside of Pelican Town. 

As you progress through days, weeks, and seasons, you witness what life is like in Pelican Town. Care for your farm, explore the world, and befriend the villagers. As you do so, you’ll discover more about the faces surrounding you and discover a world much farther than you could imagine.

Unlike other popular farming simulators like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Stardew Valley offers a story that is influenced by the relationships you make while living on the farm and provides enough depth to truly care for the characters in the game and what this town means for them and for you. Even after 100 hours of gameplay, I’m still forming more relationships, learning more about the characters, and discovering new truths behind the secrets of the Valley. Not to mention, there are also plenty of ‘random’ occurrences to keep you on your toes throughout the game. 

For me, what makes the story so engaging is how synonymous it is with real life. As you become an adult, you fall for how mundane life can be. Go to work, go home, repeat. While I’m sure a life of farming isn’t necessarily the thing to get most of us out of that slump, the game perfectly blends the familiarity of our own lives with that of something entirely new. 

Atmosphere: 2

Stardew Valley is a 2D, pixelated world. And it is absolutely perfect. Even on something as basic as the Nintendo Switch, Stardew Valley looks and runs like a dream. 

When we think about most ‘newer’ games, we picture crystal clear, detailed visuals. But Stardew Valley shows that a good game doesn’t need to have better visuals than our own real eyesight. All it needs is good gameplay and a great story. Great music doesn’t hurt either, though. In fact, the music in this game is so soothing, there is even a world tour for it. 

Aside from Fallout, there aren’t too many games where I find myself wanting to listen to the soundtracks in my everyday life, but Stardew Valley is one of the exceptions. While at work, I play ambiance videos in the background and can feel the joy enter my soul the second those tunes begin to play. If that isn’t worth a high rating, I don’t know what is. 

Value: 2

At the time of writing this review, Stardew Valley is listed at $14.99. At this price point, it is 110% worth it. I would even argue that for the amount of gameplay, it could even be worth $25 at full price. Hell, even the soundtrack is worth the $5 on Steam, and how often do people really purchase those? 

As an added bonus, all updates to the game, both major and minor, have been free. The solo developer, ConcernedApe, should be the blueprint for what makes a good, gamer-friendly dev. Everyone else, take notes. 

Duration: 2

Already, I have well over 150 hours of gameplay logged on Steam for my PC. That isn’t counting the hours logged on my Nintendo Switch either, and yes, I have the game for both systems. It’s that good. 

Yet, despite all of those hours, my longest solo play is only entering the first few seasons of Year 3. For those who haven’t played yet, that is a lot of time spent gaming. Even more so, I’ve only really begun to scratch the surface and grasp how big this game is. 

It can be argued that the time spent really only matters for one playthrough, but I’d argue that it is no different for the replayability as well. With several maps to choose from, you can easily continue to make new farms and find new challenges despite already knowing what to do and how to do it. Not to mention, since the game will create random events and you can choose to befriend different characters, prioritize different ways to make money, etc., there is never a reason for the game to ever feel boring, even if the tasks are the same. 

Total Score: 10/10

It seems that most games developed and sold today are being launched onto the market with bugs, half-baked storylines, and a total lack of understanding of consumer behavior. Not to mention, they’re being sold at higher and higher price points. For long-time gamers, this is a disheartening trend to watch (looking at you, Nintendo). 

Stardew Valley is a world-class case study in how to create a game that is built for gamers. 

If I had all the time and money in the world, I would spend it playing this game. Since I don’t, I’ll have to settle for simply playing just “one more day” even when it’s 2am and I’m about to pass out in the real world.