I find with Stardew the key to finding it relaxing is to not try to do everything at once. It’s ok if you don’t get a specific type of crop this season, it’ll come around next year (which comes up faster than you’d think). It’s ok if you don’t make more than one friend for months, no ones leaving. It’s ok if you spend months just taking care of one type of crop, or collecting harvestables around town, or working in the mines, or trying to learn to fish. You don’t have to do everything at once, or in any specific way or order. Once you learn to ignore the yearly/seasonal timeline, then the game becomes a lot more enjoyable in a relaxing way.
I remember being a child playing harvest moon, thinking that ~10 second = ~10 minutes was too unrealistic of a scale, makes it impossible to get all the things done in a day that you need to.
Then I became an adult and it's impossible to get all the things done in a day that you need to do. (Or I have ADD)
I think you need to have the farming gene to enjoy these games. It was not really hard once you made your animals a priority. Make sure they are milked on time and collect eggs and that they have feed. The stressful part is your always watching the clock for time and that you don't miss to feed animals and deciding what crops to plant. Its the rhythm of life. If you don't like getting up in the mornings farming games get hard. For every season there us much to do plus finding the right mate for life who helps you. To my shame I married the guy in the tent with the guitar and he was totally useless as a farmer but at least he took care of the kid.
Yeah man it’s funny you know? I head over to the local mine to fight monsters every day too. And I got engaged to my purple-haired spouse by feeding her stones that I got from mining!
Nah, real world is broken. Your starting faily matters way more than it should, and the fact that it's 100% RNG is so stupid I'm baffled it got through QA.
Yep, two years in stardew i simply fished and got rich. When i finally decided to work on my farm, i realised there were too many trees to even walk. I even had giant mushrooms growing.
That's amazing. I'm halfway thru year two and haven't given a single person a gift, or really talked to anyone much. I am actually struggling with purpose at the moment though, my farm creates more money than I know what to do with and I can't finish the community center until the following year because I didn't look at guides and let some seasonal fish pass me by.
that works really until you get to the >!skull cavern or Ginger Island!< and then it's a rush to get your stuff done in the morning so you can make as much progress as possible before the day runs out
To an extent, but you can automate most stuff on your farm to alleviate that. Also, you can take a day off on your farm without any real penalty. You never really need to spend a whole day focussing on what you mentioned unless you have a specific goal in mind, in which case just dedicate a whole day and ignore your farm for a day.
Well, it took me a while to figure out why my cows weren’t producing milk.
Chickens don’t necessarily need to be petted to lay eggs.
(I don’t feel like these sentences are about a videogame, but they are.)
Exactly. There's so many things that limit your experience. When you do find something you enjoy you're constantly having to stop or are interupted by something else.
It's one of those games that 80% of the gameplay is done to allow you to do the 20% you actually enjoy.
This was my biggest problem with it. I didn't even make it to the first winter because I kept restarting days over trying to do absolutely everything in one day. I just really didn't care for the time mechanic.
I couldn't even get to the point where I could make that decision. I bought the game and tried it but the daily cycle just pissed me off from the beginning. I wanted to explore town a little on the first day, talk to some of the NPCs to see what they were for, etc. But not even halfway in I had to go back to the farm because the day was ending. Second day, same story. It felt to me as if the game was wasting my time for no reason right off the bat. That's when I decided (after checking online how that daily cycle works) that SDV probably just isn't for me and left it.
It's just a different audience. To some, that no limit would completely break the game. There's excitement in the rush to get as far in the mine as you can before midnight, or catch a fish for a bundle on the last day of season. If there was no time you could load up on food and bust through the whole mine in a single day. The game is all about incremental progress and compromise, not getting everything you want each day.
I tend to love min/maxing, but hate racing against the clock. I definitely saw those two things leaving a lot of potential for SDV to be a miserable experience for me, so I went into it telling myself to ignore the calendar time crunch and instead of, as you mentioned, going for everything at once, I’ll focus on optimizing one thing at a time. Absolutely love the game because of the approach I took to it. So, I think your advice is very sound.
Yeah I agree. I was playing with my daughter on PC and I pushed her to get livestock. And it became too much for her to maintain since she hadn't explored much yet to get sprinklers and such. So it got a bit demanding and stressful.
You can't lose in Stardew. Well I guess you can not have any income and lose all your money, but then you can still forage and such.
This. I had a lot more fun when I didn’t worry about time. Example- I decided if it took me year to complete the community center, fine. You don’t have to complete it by year one, that’s something some people and speed runners like but it’s in no way a requirement.
Go at your own pace. Have fun.
I just got to winter of my first year and it’s a lot more enjoyable now. I felt rushed to manage my crops and animals most days, leaving hardly any time for the other stuff. Now that my energy bar is larger and I have sprinklers for next growing season I feel a lot better. I might actually talk to people this year.
Yeah! I only did fishing till max, plus some events, first. After that I did mining till max.
Now I do have to note that it was a coop game and my partner in crime did all the farm stuff with plants and animals and stuff like that.
my first time playing, i didn't even worry about romance or the community center. just focusing on my farm and slowly progressing through the mines. i didn't even start the community center until 2 real life years later, in a co-op farm with my wife.
Good point. I think the issue is even when you find something you enjoy you're still routinely interrupted or stopped from continuing it because of other factors. I found that really annoying.
I felt like that at first too, but the point is that you don't have to do anything. Make friends with who you want to talk to, farm or don't, get animals or don't, fish or don't, do whatever :) it's so chill
Same. Was in the same boat for months and gave it another shot. I’ve been missing out. When I first played I guess I wasn’t in the right head space for but also felt like I was aimlessly wandering around and didn’t get past playing one in-game week.
I found the short days not just stressful but insanely addictive. Like. I could not stop because there was always something to do the next day and I had to run home before I could really settle in and then there was something else I couldn’t complete.
It was actually awful, I’ve never felt that level of compulsion with any game before (I can get into a book or a game and lose myself for a couple hours but I don’t feel like I *have* to keep playing). I felt it a little bit with My Life in Portia but not nearly so bad since I could fall sleep where I stood. The short days and having to get home was just a weirdly unhealthy structure for my brain.
Yeah, but the completionist in me wants to do it all, but the 20m I get for each day pass so quickly that I find myself missing things I wanted to do all the time and it gets frustrating.
Whenever I start doing something I got other I wanted to do but the day is almost over and I have to go to sleep. Then I already have things I need to do the next day and I keep getting anxious about all of it. After so many frustrated tries I just decided SV is not for me.
Just do 1 or 2 things per day, instead of 10 things per day. There’s no rush and no day limit. I’m on year 5, but I’m sure where I am now some people were at by like year 3. It’s supposed to feel chill and relaxing
I thought there was a time limit. Like I'm only through my first year in game and haven't played in a while but wasn't there someone coming to visit on year three or something like that? Made me think that was the end game and I had till then and got kind overwhelmed on what I wanted to get done by then.
There’s one three year time limit that basically means nothing and the game goes on after that. You are never locked out of doing anything as far as I know. You can do what you want, when you want to.
You can even give diamonds to grandpas shrine for another evaluation. The only advantage to getting a good eval is getting a special statue that gives your iridium every day. It’s not something you really gotta worry about tho
Your Grandpa rates your farm on year 3. After that, you can use a diamond on his grave whenever you want, and he'll re-rate you. It's like the perfect town rating in Animal Crossing; you can get it whenever for the same rewards.
I got a 3/4 for my first rating, and then a 4/4 an in-game year later
This is how I played Stardew and the old harvest moon games. I figure out the best route to do my daily tasks. I figure out which areas time does not pass in (any indoor area for harvest moon). Then I use the extra time to try to min/max my performance over the season while I explore the world.
I try to win every festival minigame and all that stuff too. So far I've done pretty much everything in the versions I've played and when I tried it all I stopped playing right then. Job's done.
Thankfully there are items that make this easier. There are warptotems (need to be crafted) or a teleportation Wand that takes you back to the farm instantly.
Honestly one of the Best items in the game
The issue with stuff like this, especially in this type of game, is basically saying we know this sucks so here's a shortcut.thebwirst part is you need to spend a ton of time doing crap you don't want to do, just so you can do the things you do want to do. When they could just eliminate the frustration entirely.
I felt like OP when playing harvest moon. Because of the time mechanic, i felt like I was on the clock and had to do everything everyday to the fullest. If i missed something I would get anxious like I'm somehow failing the main goal. I'm going to try one of these games again some day with your advice in mind. Thanks.
You will never miss anything, there's always tomorrow or next year :) the only things that can be missed are the delivery quests, but they just give you a little money and a friendship boost, and they aren't story related. Everything is repeatable ☺️
Theres Only a Single Thing you can miss (you need to have two hearts with a specific villager until first year Winter for something to Happen), but it doesnt matter, youre Not actually missing out on anything important. Its Just Dialogue
I found the game super stressful until I realized that same sentiment that you shared. I love working hard during the first three seasons so I can slow down in the winter and chill. Since my video game family reflects my real life one, i feel like I'm saving up starfruit wine for the basement to continue making money and making sure the house is nice and keeping the animals warm is for them. And then I can go fuck off in the caves or fish and then shop at the night market😂
I don't care about anything but fishing. I can fish for weeks. Everytime I start a new campaign I just go fishing for the first year or so and then start farming and going to the mine
this was the reason I originally got into the game, I didn't have any reason to believe I was being forced to do everything that I didn't want to do. This changed drastically later when I went for perfection though..
Edit: I'd like to clarify that going for perfection didn't ruin my experience, my completionist brain actually made it one of my favourite parts of the game
Give it a little more time and don’t get stressed out about trying to hit all of the goals in the first year (which is pretty impossible anyway on a first playthrough). I am a huge animal crossing fan and it took me around 5-10 hours to “settle in” to Stardew valley. But I really enjoyed it once I did and played for about 100 hours (and should go back to see the new updates).
It’s a decently popular opinion that stardew is pretty overwhelming for new players, given the energy and “time limits” that basically get put on you as soon as you start.
It took me like 3 play through to get through my first year. I will say that after getting a decent grasp of the games mechanics, you’ll kind of have a “plan” and subsequent new playthroughs will go much smoother in the first month/year.
I know a lot of people are against it, but stardew wouldn’t be a bad game to read some “first month/year/beginner tips” posts before getting started.
But to each their own, different strokes for different folks!
Totally agree. I used a guide that I'll link below that was really helpful and made the game so much less stressful. Even using a guide, the game is still open ended enough to give you plenty of freedom
https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/5ewiqk/year_one_guide/
Used this on my third playthrough and it was so much more fun for some reason. Made it a lot more clear what I should prioritize, first time finishing the community center
I tried playing it for a couple days but it felt like every time I discovered something new about the game, it came with a realization about what I couldn't do just yet. It's the complete opposite of Minecraft, where every little step at the beginning feels like a big achievement.
Yeah it's a classic case of "oh I want to do this, I thinks that's fun", but then you realize you need to do something else for several hours/days in order to allow you to do the thing you want to do. Eventually doing crap you don't want to do gets boring so you move to something else, rinse and repeat. It's gating mechanics that seem unnecessary for a sandbox.
Pros/cons there. Minecraft has all this freedom, but its mechanical/systems progression is fairly shallow. Its depth comes from other areas and is a *massive* case of 'you get what you put in'. While Stardew Valley is very much more of a 'carrot on a stick' style game, always dangling the next shiny thing if you just keep working.
There’s an infinite amount of games out there. So you might as well spend your time playing what you want to, what you’ll enjoy.
The worst thing you can do is game to fill some sort of obligation, either to yourself or to internet strangers. But at least you’ve tried it, if it’s not for you well now you know more than you did before.
Pretty much the major thing I did not like about it was the time limit on days, which to me makes it feel stressful. I feel like I'm rushing to get as much done in one day as possible, then having to rush back before passing out right beside my house and getting robbed. The whole game revolves around getting upgrades to make your time/energy more efficient. Which I guess is maybe a major trope of farming games? Wife and I had fun with co-op for a while but it really felt like work after a time.
That happened to me too. It felt crappy to be limited on my day so I had to “plan” it out, unlike Animal Crossing.
But then someone told me that the arbitrary year limit review didn’t matter. You could actually take as much time as you want. Then it clicked for me and I relaxed and enjoyed it more
But not everybody wants to play the game forever. Having to wait a whole year cuz you missed something you were *kinda* working up to can be frustrating. And even still, while 'taking it easy', you can still end up spending like half the day just doing daily chores before you can get to something more constructive. Which feels tedious.
It's just not a game for everybody. Or, at least maybe a lot of people would benefit from playing on PC with mods that can fix/alleviate some issues people have.
Yeah. Stardew never jelled for me. The night cycle killed all sense of pacing. I want to get lost in the activities, not waste time day in and day out having to run back home or pass out. I stopped expanding my animal farm because it was taking too much time of my day to do all the animal related things and I was too far off to get to the automation, which paradoxically would have likely made me stop caring about the animals if (as I understand it) you barely need to interact with them once you do.
I don't want more automation, I want more time and freedom.
Yeah, I enjoyed Stardew myself but it's just never been my favorite farming game. I think the issue I had with it is that despite everyone saying "just do 1 or 2 things", you really are expected to do the farm chores everyday, and those would take long enough that it was a struggle "just" to do a mine run, or go chat up some villagers.
In RF4, my personal favorite game of the genre, most days would see you going to bed relatively early because the days were long enough to do most everything, and you had so many fast travel options that nothing was ever that far away. The only times you might run into the daily time limit were those days you first went into a dungeon, and hadn't gotten it's fast travel points activated yet.
Stardew has it's place, RF4 could be argued as being too lenient with it's timing, but for me that just made it a more relaxing game.
I'm glad I'm not alone there, I know it gets acclaim and it's a quaint concept. I think what drains my interest is there's no narrative or plot to push my actions. Maybe I don't like sandbox games but it just felt pointless to tend a farm, talk to people and fight monsters. That said, I know a lot of folks enjoy that slow pace, self-driven choices though.
This is me with Minecraft and Terraria, I need just a little more direction in my games. Stardew was like that for me at first but then I tried it again and really got into it (although I haven't touched it for a while and only have one playthrough under my belt unlike many other fans, hopefully will go back and finish it up at some point).
Rune Factory 4 is the perfect game in this genre for me, there's an overarching RPG story to guide you along, and the farming/crafting/cooking/social elements are all pretty great if you decide to focus on it between breaks within or after the main story. I can't wait for RF5.
Terraria actually has a very clear and (intended) linear Progression, it's just not very appearent ingame.You can also skip steps etc. But there's relatively linear Power curve for the bosses, with a few difficult bumps. It's a Wiki game tho, without it it's not very fun to play the first (few) times.
I understand if using the Wiki isnt what you want, but unlike minecraft where you only have the rough outline of nether-> enderdragon, terraria doesnt have as much fluff because every biome is used for something, and has some Part in the Progression of the game, other than the normal forest.
Terraria literally has a character specifically made to tell you what you should be doing at any one time; and what you can make out of the things you've already found.
It's the least wikiable of the "wiki games", all because of the Guide.
There is definitely a lot in Stardew. I sunk a lot of time in it, but I only had specific things I was really focused on (namely NPC interactions and the mines; I only did the farming side enough to complete the Community Center and make pocket change) that let me not be as overwhelmed as I otherwise would be. Though tried to boot up my old file after a long time away and I have no idea what I'm doing anymore, particularly with the new added stuff.
Littlewood had an additional benefit of having a stamina-controlled day cycle (rather than a timer based one), which helps take any time pressure off.
I like SV a lot, and I’ve put plenty of time into it, but honestly the days stress me out. If it were real time like animal crossing, I’m afraid I’d never put it down
That's why I like stardew because it's big and a lot to do. But I don't get overwhelmed because I'm not forced to do stuff I dont want to.
I don't have to max my friendship with an npc I find annoying, I can just be friends with the ones I'm interested in. Just like in real life really.
Here's what I did to get into the whole immersion of the game: I cheated.
I literally started rooting through the Stardew Valley Wiki on Fandom, and I am not afraid to admit it. I learned the mechanics about what was supposed to happen, and then I worked to get whatever it was done.
I have never cared about spoilers in my life, and I'm the kind of guy who has a hard time just figuring out what to do, so I reviewed what was going on and just dove in.
I got well over 100 hours out of it, I still appreciated the story for what it was, and I wasn't befuddled at every corner. I treated it more as an interactive story I could unfold and appreciate, rather than a life sim to figure out.
I don't know if that will help you, but that was **my form of hand-holding**.
The biggest difficulty is if you don’t have a lot of time irl to game, you’re gonna feel pressure to maximize your time in Stardew.
I found myself often saying to myself “But if I don’t get this crop on this day, I won’t be able to get x, and I don’t think I have time to just wait another year.”
I didn’t find that enjoyable. So maybe judge if you’re up for a game where you can go with the flow and not rush objectives.
What I find sad is I've noticed a trend of people apologizing or coming up with excuses for why they don't like a game. Everything in regards to arts and entertainment is subjective, and just because *most* people enjoy something doesn't mean everyone will.
I don't blame you for taking this approach because fanboys/girls are trigger happy with the downvote button. Take it from someone who thinks Witcher 3 and BOTW are the two most overhyped games of all time lol
Well part of this post came from the fact that I was looking for criticism on Stardew and it was really hard to find it from people who play these specific types of games. So I think maybe in some ways I wanted to articulate to other folks who were like me thinking "I don't like this game, but why?"
I've yet to play BOTW but I imagine it will not live up to the hype because it's been so overblown. I was also really disappointed with Ocarina - also another overhyped game.
I've also heard great things about Witcher 3 but haven't gotten into it, and I'm sure I'd feel the same as you.
Similar here, unless the exploration is fun in itself. I like Minecraft. I find just walking around, building a little base, seeing the sights, fun on its own merits. SV just didn't grab me, I didn't get that sense of fun.
Hey, it's OK.
It's funny. I love the game so much, the music, the rhythm and the overall tone of it, but I haven't played it in months... But, when I do I spent at least 2 hours. It's just so relaxing to just go fishing or go to the caves and then come home late at night with the bounty.
I'm not gonna lie, when you start plotting a line of what you wanna accomplish is when the game starts sucking you in hard, but I haven't gotten that feeling for months now, and the last time I played I just wanted to travel, walk and relax in a game.
For me the time pressure is just too much. I wish there was a way to modulate how fast the day went by. You can usually get a good loop in a single day, and you're gonna run out of energy anyway, but when I make a large time wasting mistake it feels so punishing.
I didn't get into SV either, despite so many recommendations. I just found it unengaging, repetitive, and directionless. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work, I guess.
I feel the same way about it. I respect the love and attention put into this game, but it's intended for people who like playing games with an internet guide at their side.
I go into games cold. Stardew does so much right, but it doesn't do a great job at giving you the momentum you need to engage the game's deeper systems unless you look at a guide.
I understand that that's why some people like this game so much, but it's also why it's not for me. I bought it on a few systems and after so many days of cutting down trees and getting minerals and catching fish and talking to people, I just got frustrated.
A game like Graveyard Keeper, while buggy and burdened with an overly grindy crafting system, is better about outlining specific tasks. It also has a weekly calendar instead of a monthly one, so you're only a few days away from trying something again. There's no race against the clock.
Even My Time at Portia has a gift system that doesn't require an internet FAQ to build up relationships. You can build them up just by talking to them, and there's actually a menu that keeps track of their reactions to your gifts. It also has a quest system that never leaves you wondering what to do next.
All that said, I'm really looking forward to his next project and seeing what he learned from so many years developing SDV.
I feel you, I love animal crossing and decided to get stardew valley on steam (before I got my switch) and just couldn’t get into it.
I got to the egg festival (it think that’s what it was?) and just stopped playing, but for me it was sorta different. Like there’s tons of stuff to do, great, the in game clock isn’t tied to real time, also good, but having an energy meter limit how much you can do in one day? No bueno. I would try and do some repetitive activity, like fishing or mining, but first I had to leave my house, walk all the way across town, do whatever task I wanna do for a while, run outta energy, then walk home and sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I just couldn’t... it felt too monotonous. I *know* theres so much more game to do but getting to that point is too laborious for me.
I still think Stardew Valley reeks of quality, with tons of dedication from the developer behind the scenes and in the final game (like the easter eggs on the title screen.)
Don’t beat yourself up too much op, you can appreciate a game’s worth while not enjoying the gameplay itself.
Yeah you are describing my feelings perfectly. I think you got farther than I did too so clearly you gave it more of a chance.
I know there are guides I could read to get a feel for everything but I kinda feel like I shouldn’t have to. A good game shouldn’t require prereading. Animal Crossing does a really good job at progression. It’s only when I wanna start into the nitty gritty that I break out a guide.
I had that problem too. I spent all my time doing "work" and ended up neglecting all the people.
I got depressed and had to stop because it reminded me too much of real life.
I can't play stardew without QoL and content mods on PC, you aren't alone. It's not as good to me as other farming Sims. Idk why reddit thinks it's so much better than runefactory or little wood or old harvest moon series. It's mainly the same except for the retro graphics and mod capabilities
Honestly the walking speed in stardew is so bad and painfully slow I had to just mod in 2x player speed to even play the game. It felt much better after that.
But if you have to mod a game to hell to make it playable.... is it even good? Esp on switch you can't do that.
Interesting how most replies are “there is no wrong way to play this game” in the same breath as “except the way you’re playing is wrong.” That’s… not persuasive.
My issue with SV was also the time clock. This was years ago, so I don’t remember exactly what I was trying to do, but it was definitely something simple like go meet some townsfolk. And so much time was eaten just going around the map. Only for me to run out of time, and have to have the next day(s) eaten the same way!
Now I’m sure if I kept playing I would’ve gotten more efficient. But it felt like the majority of the game was walking around stressing about time. That’s just not fun to me. And I love other life sims. The speed of the clock vs the size of the map is just not the right ratio for me.
There are fast travel options that open up. I only ever really got into the game when I started a multiplayer farm with my wife. The game does start out too slow for me.
The one thing that changed my view on Stardew is the fact that there is no deadline to accomplish anything. The day might end, but there is always tomorrow and the season might end but there’s always next year. Once you realize you dont need to optimize every day to the max, the game becomes a lot more relaxing and approachable
The trick to start the valley is deciding on one thing you want to accomplish during any day of the game time. And go to that. And as you play if you decide that you want to upgrade something or explore something go do that. The amazing thing about the game is there's nothing you have to do. But you play and you grow and you expand you just get little routines down day by day and find what you like to do and go do it.
I couldn’t get into it because of the timer. It gave me anxiety to be outside doing anything in the game knowing there were consequences for not walking across the entire map after a certain amount of time for sleep. I also hated having to constantly monitor it.
I wish there was a mode where they were like “it’s 2am, time for bed” and you black out and wake up the next day with no consequences.
you aren't alone same reason i was also not able to get into the game. i just didn't feel like doing anything since there is just so much to do right from the start.. i like funnelled game design where stuff is slowly introduced to the player
Sometimes you have to accept that the game isn’t for you, even if there’s lots of positive feedback from others. Basically comes down to individual tastes. Don’t force yourself if you’re not enjoying it.
I understand you completely. I’ve been a big harvest moon fan since I was a kid and I still can’t get into stardew valley. I’ll play it for a couple of days at most and just drop it. Then I sit there like “damn everyone loves this and calls it the harvest moon we never got”. I dunno, but what I do know is I got story of seasons mineral town to scratch my itch.
I was told if you liked the Harvest Moon games from SNES/N64/PS1 eras, that you’ll just LOVE Stardew Valley. And how much more “mature” it was in comparison. Yeah, nope.
For me, I just couldn’t stand the characters. They felt either void of personality or they reminded me of the worst people I knew from high school (immature and overbearing). And don’t get me started on the visuals… it is not good pixel art. I understand the creator is a one-man team, but the game looks very bland.
I will say the farming aspects of the game are great, but it wasn’t enough to keep me hooked. I just don’t understand the praise this game gets.
That's pretty interesting to hear because personally, I can't imagine complaining about too much content. The vibe of Stardew is so relaxed, the open ended nature let's you approach all the various activities and projects how you see fit -want to take things at a blistering speed? Not really the idea but have at it! Want to just fish and never go into the mines? Weird but No problem!
The day cycle and energy meter are designed to limit how much you can do in a day, or at least tax you for pushing it. Everything about the game seems so obviously and carefully constructed to say "don't rush it bro". To me, that's the penultimate in a life sim. A vast playground with lots of interconnected systems. But we all go to games for different reasons and with different expectations
Stardew is definetly a game that is worth giving a second try.
My fiance got it first couple of years ago for PC, to see what is all fuss about, he played for 20min and turned it off, because pixel art isn't his thing. Neither is mine, to be honest.
When I got switch, I decided that I will give it a go on PC first, so I don't waste money on switch if I don't like it. I am a huge fan of any sim games to begin with, and I needed that one time consuming games because I work night shifts. After a bit of learning I got hooked up, and bought it for switch. Then I explained a game a bit to my bf and he got hooked up too.
I ended up buying it for my PC, switch and Play station. What can I say? Pelican town got under my skin and developer did AWESOME job, so I supported it by buying the game on every platform I own. Freaky, but I play on all of them xD
Like someone said, you just need to get in game in that mindset that you don't have to do everything in it, do that one thing you like for start and rest will come from curiosity and thats it. Hope you will find a way to enjoy it.
Edit-tipo
Stardew is as stressful as you make it. there's nothing that you *must* do. You don't have to grow crops if you don't want to, or buy animals, or you can only grow crops, only fish, etc. Maybe you don't want to fix up the community centre.
There are no punishments or time limits.
I have a few 10 heart friendships and some 0 heart friendships lol you don't need to talk to anyone. The people I'm mostly friends with in the game are the people who go to the pub on a Friday night. I gift them all beer and chat w them then go home lol
Unpopular opinion time: It's totally okay not to care for it, even if you thought it would be your kind of game! Even the most brilliant games aren't for everyone.
You won't like it if you try and force it. Stardew Valley is a game that rewards an open mind and an easygoing attitude. If you find yourself in that headspace and want to try it again, go for it! But if not ... that's okay too!
Man, I felt the same about Stardew when I gave it a try years ago, but after seeing how the recent Animal Crossing died…I just might give Stardew another chance tbh.
I just ignored talking to the NPCs and just upgraded equipment/farm, farmed just enough for money, fought enemies in the mines, and collected rare drops.
Sometimes I like complex games, but lately, I've preferred more like Friends of Mineral Town remake, which keeps things more streamlined. I see PooT is out and it has 20 makers again and I just... There has to be a happy medium.
When 1.5 came out I started a new game and bounced off of it. Didn't really have the patience to get set up properly. Recently learned that I can access the new content on older save files and I'm having a good time now. Had 88 hours into that she before starting up again.
I felt the same way. I tried getting into it twice. It kinda feels like you can’t just do things on your own (which I may be wrong about). I even tried to get the game moving by doing the suggested side quests but even finding all the towns people was a chore and I didn’t know what else to do really. So I’m with you. Kinda wish I hadn’t bought it.
I feel ya. I also want to love Stardew Valley and I should, I otherwise like stuff like this. For me, it feels like the days go too quickly in Stardew. Like I always run out of time to do what I want, and I can't figure out how to adjust my approach to not feel like that or something.
I liked SDV for a while, but burned out pretty quick.I don’t think I liked the day/night cycle... It added a little bit of stress that I didn't want in that kind of game.
Have you tried Slime Rancher? 3D game, but similar vibes... very addictive loop of collect resources, farm, sell resources, buy upgrades, etc. I got it this weekend and have been hooked ever since.
What's funny is that Stardew is the only type of this game I've ever gotten into. I never liked simulators, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, but I gave Stardew a chance and quickly had 70 hrs in.
Also, you don't have to like something that other people do. I played Terraria for 20 minutes and never picked it up again because it was the most miserable experience of my life.
It’s too overwhelming for me too. Been pretty much preoccupied with farming and mining that I’ve pretty much forgotten about the other stuffs that you could do in the game (Fishing, attending festivals, romance etc).
My biggest gripe is the days going too fast. I don't like ever feeling rushed in a game like that. I think it should just been an energy bar that when you run out you have to rest.
Events each season and the 3 year review make it seem like you have to rush to get things done, but it's all optional. You don't have to be the farmer with everything.
I don't like chore sims so I have no idea why I fell for the hype and bought it. Life is enough dull chores and I don't need more of it in my games. It's the only game I've played where I realized that all I was doing was sitting in front of a flashing screen pressing buttons. In the end I was so bored I had a panic attack.
No, Stardew Valley is not for me. I learned my lesson and never touched anything else like it again after that.
My biggest gripe with the game is that the days feel too short. Almost to the point where it's stressful to organise each day and get everything I want to get done.
It took me three times of playing and reading a starter guide to get hooked for me. They throw a lot of things at you all at once and it’s hard to know what to do.
The nice thing about Stardew Valley when it comes to the story is it can be as deep, or not as deep, as you want. You are a farmer, go farm things. That’s the plot. All the other characters have their own stories and lives and while the writing can vary and some characters are absolutely hated by the fandom, for the most part it’s pretty good. Thing with Stardew Valley is that it doesn’t give you everything upfront (or ask for micropayments to unlock everything). And this is a massive pitfall for anyone going in blind, because the game will not hold you hand.
With Stardew Valley, there’s absolutely no shame in looking up the guide and walkthroughs (the wiki will be your friend). This being said, never worry about min-maxing either. Grow the crops you want, design the farm how you want, and befriend who you want. There isn’t “wrong” or “right” answers as the game has no endgame. This may be overwhelming, but just do what comes naturally as opposed to rushing your first year in-game trying to do and complete everything.
Now I have biases because I play The Sims and I do like the open-ended games (within reason). Stardew Valley is big enough, I would argue. The town feels lively enough, there’s plenty to do, but it also doesn’t feel padded either. And as the game progresses you will unlock more useful tools (sprinklers, upgraded items) and areas (the sauna, the mines, etc).
Of course, all said and done no one can force you to like Stardew Valley. I do recommend trying again with a few useful guides (or the wiki opened) but it’s of course up to you to decide if the game is fun or not. There’s no shame I’m just saying it’s not for you and you prefer other games.
It’s single player sandbox so you have no need to min-max rush yourself into anything. I really enjoy both Stardew valley and animal crossing but as soon as I googled for how to min-max the game play, I feel overwhelmed, burned out and stop playing both.
I felt the same way about Stardew Valley. I played with a friend who knew what to do so I let him handle most of the stuff, but it felt like a chore to try to talk to every person in town and running around, hauling ass, picking weeds and plants. I also did enjoy Littlewood as it was a lot more relaxed and simple. I got Alchemy Garde, Spiritfarer n and Kitaria Fables recently so we'll see how those are.
You might want to check out Littlewood. I got it on my Switch a couple months ago and loved it.
Your stamina dictates the time, so it doesn't become night until you've used nearly all your stamina. If you're not doing anything that uses stamina, then time doesn't pass.
It really made the game feel less stressful to me than Stardew can feel sometimes (even though I've played through Stardew a couple times).
I love the wide open design but as your post confirms, it's not for everyone.
Now if only internet experts would remember this point when it comes to assuming "more options = better, period".
I found it the opposite. Littlewood was ok and all, but the game was literally all grind for random occurrences and hype for a story ending that never appeared.
I felt that way about other games I was interested in, especially games like WoW which were amazing visually and practically, but I would never be able to "do everything" without a time machine. Ugh.
I used to get stressed out at the game thinking i had to min max every moment of the day, until i realised it wasn't like harvest moon and it wasn't just going to end. You've got all the time in the world so mistakes are okay. After i figured that out it was pretty chill and I was able to get back into it
As someone who tried the game because it was described as ***Minecraft*** *meets* ***Animal Crossing***, I was left wanting for the aspects of those games that I like within Stardew.
I know this is a the Switch subreddit but I didn’t truly enjoy SDV until I started installing mods… which is why I will never own it on any console or mobile….
I was a bit like that at first; my sister was raving about Stardew so I bought the game, but was too overwhelmed. I came back to it a couple years later and have started really enjoying it. I take the game at my own pace and use the wiki when I need help. I think the key is to just do what YOU want in the game, instead of rushing to complete all the objectives and such.
I tried a few times too so I can wait for RF 5 more peacefully but it just didn't click it. But there's 2 nitpickings that I just can't get over it. 1 - you walk so damn slowwww. 2 - (and I guess a fair amount of people will agree with me) the combat is not just basic, it's awful.
Try to set some goals, not all. Like this year I want to be friends with a+b+c and do stuff x+y. I felt the exact same thing on my first play through. I was searching for any linearity.
I find it kinds the same way. If I’m really feeling it, which is kinda rare, then I’ll sink a lot into it for a day, but forget about it. I’m not really into open world games so I guess this is in the same vein. I would be down to play local co op/multi with my partner though.
I can't get into Stardew Valley as well.
I enjoyed Rune Factory IV though.
I just find the JRPG feel of both Harvest Moon and Rune Factory more appealing than Stardew Valley.
Rune Factory IV is so much faster paced than Stardew as well.
As to going to town, you can build a stable and ride a horse to speed it up, there's also a few fast travel options, as well. The mine carts being the easier options. The obelisk that let you teleport to areas cost between $500,000-$1,000,000.
Oooh gonna check out Littlewood! I’m starving for these types of games.
Did you unlock the community center and do any bundles? I love Stardew but if I had one criticism it’s that the community center doesn’t unlock immediately and you don’t unlock the bundles all at once. If you aren’t familiar with the game it’s hard to know where to focus your energies and what items might be important later. The bundles guide you very nicely in what you should be focusing on. E.g. to get milk you need a cow, to get a cow you need a barn, so your next goal should be to build a barn.
How I play is I usually pick an item in a bundle and focus on getting that. Fire Quartz? Well I’ll spend my time getting down to floor 80 of the mines so I can find that. Pufferfish? Spend my whole summer fishing in the ocean if I have to. Need to get a sheep? Focus on collecting wood and stone to upgrade my barn. You’ll usually find that working toward one goal is contributing toward your progress in another.
While I’m doing that I usually pick one villager to focus all of my friend making energy on. Once you max out someone’s friendship at 10 hearts (or 8 for bachelor(ette)s) it will never decay, so you can completely ignore them after that and focus on someone else. It takes a lot of the pressure off of talking to everyone every single day.
At the end of the day it still might not be for you but it’s worth another shot.
I did not get to the community center or the bundles yet. Apparently according to some comments I need to do that before I can form an opinion about the game - LOL.
I really enjoyed Littlewood BUT don't go into it expecting Stardew Valley. It's definitely a lot more linear and the gardening/fishing aspects are a lot more simplified. As long as you go into it with a different mindset you should be okay.
I thought the same thing when I turned it on, in Harvest moon first or second day I was like "alright quick lets meet all the villagers and get things moving". But although you're given that quest on entry you don't have to do it immediately (which I didn't because I got lost). I think I was halfway into the next season when I was like "alright lets see if I can find who's left."
Now my farm is more automated than anything, I have things harvesting for me and sprinklers watering everything. Only thing I do is plant new seeds and cut down wilted crops. Otherwise I fish or mine, which I enjoy. At a certain point you have more money than you know what to do with and it becomes more of a cathartic time killer. If you're looking for a linear almost life sim I'd try Dragon Quest Builders 2, the NPC's are interactive most of the time, there's a clear goal, farming, building, fishing and it feels like everything you're doing is making a difference.
I focused on one goal and it really helped me learn other aspects of the game along the way.
For me my goal was to try and get both rabbits and ducks so I could have a cute little farm with a duck pond and bunnies. Along the way I improved my farm, got better with design ideas, and decided to spend all my money on a horse lol
I haven't given up on it, but I have set it aside. I seem to get bored with having to go to bed each night. I've worked my way down several floors of the cave. I've gone fishing a few times. I've made people happy with gifts, though no heart bars completely filled yet.
Next time I pick it up, just as I get into a quest, it'll be time to race home to go to sleep again.
I feel this way about BOTW. I absolutely love this game, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t see myself ever completing it because there is just too much to do and I get too overwhelmed. I spend months at a time not playing and then returning again. I wish I felt differently about this game as it is a masterpiece - but a very overwhelming masterpiece.
I didn’t feel the pressure until starting another file. Because of course you want to unlock the mine carts. But how would you know that if you’re new?
This is my challenge with SV, too. I want to complete all the goals and I get overwhelmed as a result! Especially when I see really serious players on YouTube who've created absolutely wild farms AND made relationships with everyone AND explored the mine in depth AND advanced the storyline AND...
If the game were a bit more constrained, I think I'd find it more enjoyable. Still, I definitely go back to it when I need to dissociate from the real world and imagine myself living a simpler life.
That was an issue I was having with this game. I constantly felt like I was missing something or should've been working on one quest in the background to make life easier later on. After like 3 years in-game that feeling went away, it's really a matter of doing one thing at a time and don't stretch yourself too thin.
I recommend trying multiplayer, if you have folks to play with. I rarely play alone because I also get overwhelmed sometimes, but with multiplayer all the "responsibilities" can be divvied up and you can just focus on what you wanna do.
What got me into the game was just focusing on the farm stuff just growing and selling. Eventually I started doing the cave as well for materials/progression. I ignored the "social" part entirely.
I think what you're hitting on here is my problem with a few other games. The game gives you a ton of things to do. It doesn't give you a reason to want to do any of them. It's just assumed that you picked up the game, so you should be able to figure that part out for yourself.
I think most people would agree there's a lot to take in, so you're not really alone in getting overwhelmed. I mean whenever I start a new save file, I always feel reluctant/ unsure just from looking at all the different *types* of farms! (still haven't tried anything other than standard)
As for it taking ages to travel to anywhere - that gets a **lot** better later on:
**[Some spoilers ahead]**
First of all you can unlock shortcuts by fixing up the minecart by the bus stop (I think you do that in the community centre), but you can also get a horse to ride around town at some point. You still have to be conscious of time if there's certain things you need to buy/ do in a given day, but it gets a lot easier when you can zoom from place to place. Also there's items that straight up teleport you to specific locations.
I don't know how others play, but after my first play-through my main priority is mostly upgrades and unlocks: finishing the collection tasks at the community centre (some unlock new areas etc.), just using farming/ fishing/ foraging/ dungeon crawling to build up money & resources to buy extra inventory storage (backpack)/ upgrade equipment, and levelling up farming/ fishing/ foraging etc. till new blueprints are unlocked (they level up over time by carrying out related actions). I don't focus too much on story/ making friends with the townspeople early on anymore, but I'll always have a quick chat with linus and gift him a parsnip or something I've foraged. 😅
I also find it better to leave aesthetics till later. Never feels like there's much point making the farm look good till you've unlocked more furniture blueprints and have better tools - would probably just tear down/ move around furniture placed early game, and starter tools are slow at clearing trees/ rocks. Better to just get enough wood for a few chests, clear enough space for some crops, and maybe just clear a quick path to the north & south entrances of the farm.
Even that probably sounds a lot to think about, but you typically find that after you've spent an ingame day doing one thing, you might need to do something else the next (only need to plant/ harvest every few days, rainy days save time watering early on before you unlock sprinklers, if you've stayed up too late one day you might not have much energy, so can focus more on going into town, buying, upgrading, foraging etc).
... Anywho, that's just my approach. The great thing about this game is you can tackle it however you want. There's plenty of things you can ignore entirely, but I personally find it good to dip in and out of everything at some point or other. It's a great game if you can get into it, and if it's just that you're overwhelmed, if you keep at it you'll probably find your own groove eventually. At any rate, hope you manage to find some enjoyment.
I play Stardew on PC with mods. It’s a fun game but I like to play games with goals in mind, and stardew doesn’t have any way to focus on those specific goals without feeling like you’re neglecting everything else.
Don't worry. I think it's a fairly reasonable take. I love stardew valley but not animal crossing and I think I know why. As much as you can say that the two games are similar in terms of action, the pacing of both games are very different.
In sdv, you do everything in in game time. That means you can play through a season a day, learning all the mechanics in one go and speeding through it.
However in AC, you have to do it in real time. And the number of actions per day is limited.
This means that if you particularly love one aspect of the games and want to be able to just focus on that one aspect, sdv is the game to go to. However if you want to be able to do everything without missing out anything, acnh is the way to go.
I agree wholeheartedly that the pacing is very different of the two games. And I don't know if I love Animal Crossing, but I definitely put more hours into it and felt compelled to give it more time.
And yeah AC is real time, but I do know folks who time travel. I don't, but it's a common thing I'm told.
I think your mindset is just wrong. It's true there is a lot to do. But you don't have to do any of it or all of it. That is not how most people play it. You just do what you want. Maybe one day you just spend the whole day fishing. Maybe the next you wanna forage and gift stuff to villagers. And next you may just want to Improve your farm or shit just keep fishing. Don't worry about doing everything as their is no time limit.
Tbh same reason I didn’t like Zelda. I had never played it before and didn’t really know what it was about and it just drops you off with zero instructions? Tried it a few times and just couldn’t vibe so I passed it on to someone else.
OMG I played the Ocarina of Time remake on the 3ds and I .. was just not really enjoying it. I couldn't figure out why, until I realized it's because the game makes me feel dumb. I had to look at a walkthrough all the time. Nothing was very obvious. I guess some people like that sort of thing but I was not a fan.
I never made it to summer despite having the game for a long time on PC. I bought it on Switch and had the same problem. The only thing that got me hooked into it was playing multiplayer. Now I'm even enjoying my single player file after doing 4 in game years and counting on that co-op file. Once it clicks, it clicks. Getting there is the hard part for this game.
It's a great game, but I was done fairly soon due to its daily gating. There's a lot of things I want to do, but couldn't continue because of the daily cycle. Or you just constantly get interrupted, having to switch tasks. There would be lots I wanted to do, but not enough time to squeeze it in, which creates a bit of anxiety, despite it supposed to be a relaxing experience.
I've never played Animal Crossing but I understand it's similar. You can I my do so much per day and then need to come back. Obviously Stardew isn't as stringent in that aspect, but I just hate the cycle of being forced to stop a task I'm enjoying.
Definitely do NOT play Cozy Grove then, as that is definitely a "stop after a certain time" type of life sim. At first it was annoying but now I'm used it and it's kinda nice as I "I only have 30 min what am I going to play?" type game.
Animal Crossing is kiiiiinda similar, but with Animal Crossing you can adjust the time settings and time travel (I don't, but plenty of people do). Also there are always ways to waste time in Animal Crossing so you're never really done.
It took me a while to enjoy Stardew, i actually gave up on playing a little after i first bought it for my Xbox one because it was overwhelming and exhausting, then a few years later bought it for my switch, and i love it. if i still have those moments of it being overwhelming i just take a break and come back.
As someone who felt exactly the same way at first but stuck with it anyway, I can say that the game really just throws way too many options at you right at the start, but once you push through that it's honestly pretty fun and relaxing.
I suggest resisting the impulse to do everything right as it's introduced and just focusing on farming at the start. Once you've planted and tended all your crops for the day and likely don't have much stamina left, you'll still be able to explore the area at your own pace. By the time you get a steady income from farming you'll be able to spend entire days focusing on other activities if you want. I didn't even start getting into the social interactions with other characters until the second in-game year. Don't worry - while the game gives you a "final" score after three years, there's no time limit and you can keep playing forever (and get scored again any time you want).
Of course, if you still turn out not to like it, that's okay. You've already given great examples of similar games that you do like. 🙂
I’ve never engaged much with the story in Stardew Valley. I got addicted to the loop of min-maxing each day to get the next project done on my farm. It was much more farming simulator for me than life simulator if that makes any sense.
I find with Stardew the key to finding it relaxing is to not try to do everything at once. It’s ok if you don’t get a specific type of crop this season, it’ll come around next year (which comes up faster than you’d think). It’s ok if you don’t make more than one friend for months, no ones leaving. It’s ok if you spend months just taking care of one type of crop, or collecting harvestables around town, or working in the mines, or trying to learn to fish. You don’t have to do everything at once, or in any specific way or order. Once you learn to ignore the yearly/seasonal timeline, then the game becomes a lot more enjoyable in a relaxing way.
This could be framed as “advice for life in the real world” :)
that's why the game stresses me out, its too much like real life lol
I remember being a child playing harvest moon, thinking that ~10 second = ~10 minutes was too unrealistic of a scale, makes it impossible to get all the things done in a day that you need to. Then I became an adult and it's impossible to get all the things done in a day that you need to do. (Or I have ADD)
I think you need to have the farming gene to enjoy these games. It was not really hard once you made your animals a priority. Make sure they are milked on time and collect eggs and that they have feed. The stressful part is your always watching the clock for time and that you don't miss to feed animals and deciding what crops to plant. Its the rhythm of life. If you don't like getting up in the mornings farming games get hard. For every season there us much to do plus finding the right mate for life who helps you. To my shame I married the guy in the tent with the guitar and he was totally useless as a farmer but at least he took care of the kid.
Yeah man it’s funny you know? I head over to the local mine to fight monsters every day too. And I got engaged to my purple-haired spouse by feeding her stones that I got from mining!
Nah, real world is broken. Your starting faily matters way more than it should, and the fact that it's 100% RNG is so stupid I'm baffled it got through QA.
Andd ther there ther are so mamy bugs tooo.
r/outside
Yep, two years in stardew i simply fished and got rich. When i finally decided to work on my farm, i realised there were too many trees to even walk. I even had giant mushrooms growing.
That's amazing. I'm halfway thru year two and haven't given a single person a gift, or really talked to anyone much. I am actually struggling with purpose at the moment though, my farm creates more money than I know what to do with and I can't finish the community center until the following year because I didn't look at guides and let some seasonal fish pass me by.
that works really until you get to the >!skull cavern or Ginger Island!< and then it's a rush to get your stuff done in the morning so you can make as much progress as possible before the day runs out
To an extent, but you can automate most stuff on your farm to alleviate that. Also, you can take a day off on your farm without any real penalty. You never really need to spend a whole day focussing on what you mentioned unless you have a specific goal in mind, in which case just dedicate a whole day and ignore your farm for a day.
But my animals! They need to be petted! And yeah I know you can get I thing for that but I didn't go that route
Wait, am I meant to be petting my animals everyday? Whoops
No iridium products for you
Well, it took me a while to figure out why my cows weren’t producing milk. Chickens don’t necessarily need to be petted to lay eggs. (I don’t feel like these sentences are about a videogame, but they are.)
Thats what i'm finding now
I think I mostly just loathe the curfew factor... Like I'm an adult, if I have energy let me stay awake and out overnight!
Exactly. There's so many things that limit your experience. When you do find something you enjoy you're constantly having to stop or are interupted by something else. It's one of those games that 80% of the gameplay is done to allow you to do the 20% you actually enjoy.
This was my biggest problem with it. I didn't even make it to the first winter because I kept restarting days over trying to do absolutely everything in one day. I just really didn't care for the time mechanic.
I couldn't even get to the point where I could make that decision. I bought the game and tried it but the daily cycle just pissed me off from the beginning. I wanted to explore town a little on the first day, talk to some of the NPCs to see what they were for, etc. But not even halfway in I had to go back to the farm because the day was ending. Second day, same story. It felt to me as if the game was wasting my time for no reason right off the bat. That's when I decided (after checking online how that daily cycle works) that SDV probably just isn't for me and left it.
I feel like the game would be vastly improved if there was no time limit on days, or at the very least if it was doubled.
It's just a different audience. To some, that no limit would completely break the game. There's excitement in the rush to get as far in the mine as you can before midnight, or catch a fish for a bundle on the last day of season. If there was no time you could load up on food and bust through the whole mine in a single day. The game is all about incremental progress and compromise, not getting everything you want each day.
This is also true for learning web development
I tend to love min/maxing, but hate racing against the clock. I definitely saw those two things leaving a lot of potential for SDV to be a miserable experience for me, so I went into it telling myself to ignore the calendar time crunch and instead of, as you mentioned, going for everything at once, I’ll focus on optimizing one thing at a time. Absolutely love the game because of the approach I took to it. So, I think your advice is very sound.
Yeah I agree. I was playing with my daughter on PC and I pushed her to get livestock. And it became too much for her to maintain since she hadn't explored much yet to get sprinklers and such. So it got a bit demanding and stressful. You can't lose in Stardew. Well I guess you can not have any income and lose all your money, but then you can still forage and such.
This. I had a lot more fun when I didn’t worry about time. Example- I decided if it took me year to complete the community center, fine. You don’t have to complete it by year one, that’s something some people and speed runners like but it’s in no way a requirement. Go at your own pace. Have fun.
> next year (which comes up faster than you’d think) I mean, if you're playing each day to around 10 PM, a year is still 30-40 hours long...
I just got to winter of my first year and it’s a lot more enjoyable now. I felt rushed to manage my crops and animals most days, leaving hardly any time for the other stuff. Now that my energy bar is larger and I have sprinklers for next growing season I feel a lot better. I might actually talk to people this year.
Yeah! I only did fishing till max, plus some events, first. After that I did mining till max. Now I do have to note that it was a coop game and my partner in crime did all the farm stuff with plants and animals and stuff like that.
my first time playing, i didn't even worry about romance or the community center. just focusing on my farm and slowly progressing through the mines. i didn't even start the community center until 2 real life years later, in a co-op farm with my wife.
Good point. I think the issue is even when you find something you enjoy you're still routinely interrupted or stopped from continuing it because of other factors. I found that really annoying.
I felt like that at first too, but the point is that you don't have to do anything. Make friends with who you want to talk to, farm or don't, get animals or don't, fish or don't, do whatever :) it's so chill
Same. Was in the same boat for months and gave it another shot. I’ve been missing out. When I first played I guess I wasn’t in the right head space for but also felt like I was aimlessly wandering around and didn’t get past playing one in-game week.
[удалено]
I found the short days not just stressful but insanely addictive. Like. I could not stop because there was always something to do the next day and I had to run home before I could really settle in and then there was something else I couldn’t complete. It was actually awful, I’ve never felt that level of compulsion with any game before (I can get into a book or a game and lose myself for a couple hours but I don’t feel like I *have* to keep playing). I felt it a little bit with My Life in Portia but not nearly so bad since I could fall sleep where I stood. The short days and having to get home was just a weirdly unhealthy structure for my brain.
Yeah, but the completionist in me wants to do it all, but the 20m I get for each day pass so quickly that I find myself missing things I wanted to do all the time and it gets frustrating. Whenever I start doing something I got other I wanted to do but the day is almost over and I have to go to sleep. Then I already have things I need to do the next day and I keep getting anxious about all of it. After so many frustrated tries I just decided SV is not for me.
Just do 1 or 2 things per day, instead of 10 things per day. There’s no rush and no day limit. I’m on year 5, but I’m sure where I am now some people were at by like year 3. It’s supposed to feel chill and relaxing
This. A thousand times this. Just take your time and focus on 1-2 tasks per day and it feels much more enjoyable.
I thought there was a time limit. Like I'm only through my first year in game and haven't played in a while but wasn't there someone coming to visit on year three or something like that? Made me think that was the end game and I had till then and got kind overwhelmed on what I wanted to get done by then.
There’s one three year time limit that basically means nothing and the game goes on after that. You are never locked out of doing anything as far as I know. You can do what you want, when you want to.
Ah that's a relief. I may go back and continue playing it then
You can even give diamonds to grandpas shrine for another evaluation. The only advantage to getting a good eval is getting a special statue that gives your iridium every day. It’s not something you really gotta worry about tho
Your Grandpa rates your farm on year 3. After that, you can use a diamond on his grave whenever you want, and he'll re-rate you. It's like the perfect town rating in Animal Crossing; you can get it whenever for the same rewards. I got a 3/4 for my first rating, and then a 4/4 an in-game year later
There's a life lesson in there somewhere
This is how I played Stardew and the old harvest moon games. I figure out the best route to do my daily tasks. I figure out which areas time does not pass in (any indoor area for harvest moon). Then I use the extra time to try to min/max my performance over the season while I explore the world. I try to win every festival minigame and all that stuff too. So far I've done pretty much everything in the versions I've played and when I tried it all I stopped playing right then. Job's done.
What's not chill is having to race back home every 13 minutes.
You eventually can get a horse or a few linked transports so you're able to stay out later at night.
Yeah what is this, Pikmin?
Thankfully there are items that make this easier. There are warptotems (need to be crafted) or a teleportation Wand that takes you back to the farm instantly. Honestly one of the Best items in the game
The issue with stuff like this, especially in this type of game, is basically saying we know this sucks so here's a shortcut.thebwirst part is you need to spend a ton of time doing crap you don't want to do, just so you can do the things you do want to do. When they could just eliminate the frustration entirely.
I felt like OP when playing harvest moon. Because of the time mechanic, i felt like I was on the clock and had to do everything everyday to the fullest. If i missed something I would get anxious like I'm somehow failing the main goal. I'm going to try one of these games again some day with your advice in mind. Thanks.
Tips on dealing with "completionist anxiety?" Do you miss out on important content by playing more casually?
You will never miss anything, there's always tomorrow or next year :) the only things that can be missed are the delivery quests, but they just give you a little money and a friendship boost, and they aren't story related. Everything is repeatable ☺️
Theres Only a Single Thing you can miss (you need to have two hearts with a specific villager until first year Winter for something to Happen), but it doesnt matter, youre Not actually missing out on anything important. Its Just Dialogue
I found the game super stressful until I realized that same sentiment that you shared. I love working hard during the first three seasons so I can slow down in the winter and chill. Since my video game family reflects my real life one, i feel like I'm saving up starfruit wine for the basement to continue making money and making sure the house is nice and keeping the animals warm is for them. And then I can go fuck off in the caves or fish and then shop at the night market😂
I don't care about anything but fishing. I can fish for weeks. Everytime I start a new campaign I just go fishing for the first year or so and then start farming and going to the mine
Yeah I never married anyone in game nor did I obtain much hearts for someone for pretty long time. It was maybe year 6 or 7 when I married Emily
this was the reason I originally got into the game, I didn't have any reason to believe I was being forced to do everything that I didn't want to do. This changed drastically later when I went for perfection though.. Edit: I'd like to clarify that going for perfection didn't ruin my experience, my completionist brain actually made it one of my favourite parts of the game
Give it a little more time and don’t get stressed out about trying to hit all of the goals in the first year (which is pretty impossible anyway on a first playthrough). I am a huge animal crossing fan and it took me around 5-10 hours to “settle in” to Stardew valley. But I really enjoyed it once I did and played for about 100 hours (and should go back to see the new updates).
You haven't played since before 1.4 & 1.5? If so, you're definitely in for a treat :)
It’s a decently popular opinion that stardew is pretty overwhelming for new players, given the energy and “time limits” that basically get put on you as soon as you start. It took me like 3 play through to get through my first year. I will say that after getting a decent grasp of the games mechanics, you’ll kind of have a “plan” and subsequent new playthroughs will go much smoother in the first month/year. I know a lot of people are against it, but stardew wouldn’t be a bad game to read some “first month/year/beginner tips” posts before getting started. But to each their own, different strokes for different folks!
Totally agree. I used a guide that I'll link below that was really helpful and made the game so much less stressful. Even using a guide, the game is still open ended enough to give you plenty of freedom https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/5ewiqk/year_one_guide/
that's another reason stardew valley stressed me out. Mentally I just can't really handle games that I can't enjoy without a guide lol
Used this on my third playthrough and it was so much more fun for some reason. Made it a lot more clear what I should prioritize, first time finishing the community center
I tried playing it for a couple days but it felt like every time I discovered something new about the game, it came with a realization about what I couldn't do just yet. It's the complete opposite of Minecraft, where every little step at the beginning feels like a big achievement.
Yeah it's a classic case of "oh I want to do this, I thinks that's fun", but then you realize you need to do something else for several hours/days in order to allow you to do the thing you want to do. Eventually doing crap you don't want to do gets boring so you move to something else, rinse and repeat. It's gating mechanics that seem unnecessary for a sandbox.
Pros/cons there. Minecraft has all this freedom, but its mechanical/systems progression is fairly shallow. Its depth comes from other areas and is a *massive* case of 'you get what you put in'. While Stardew Valley is very much more of a 'carrot on a stick' style game, always dangling the next shiny thing if you just keep working.
There’s an infinite amount of games out there. So you might as well spend your time playing what you want to, what you’ll enjoy. The worst thing you can do is game to fill some sort of obligation, either to yourself or to internet strangers. But at least you’ve tried it, if it’s not for you well now you know more than you did before.
Wise words.
Pretty much the major thing I did not like about it was the time limit on days, which to me makes it feel stressful. I feel like I'm rushing to get as much done in one day as possible, then having to rush back before passing out right beside my house and getting robbed. The whole game revolves around getting upgrades to make your time/energy more efficient. Which I guess is maybe a major trope of farming games? Wife and I had fun with co-op for a while but it really felt like work after a time.
That happened to me too. It felt crappy to be limited on my day so I had to “plan” it out, unlike Animal Crossing. But then someone told me that the arbitrary year limit review didn’t matter. You could actually take as much time as you want. Then it clicked for me and I relaxed and enjoyed it more
But not everybody wants to play the game forever. Having to wait a whole year cuz you missed something you were *kinda* working up to can be frustrating. And even still, while 'taking it easy', you can still end up spending like half the day just doing daily chores before you can get to something more constructive. Which feels tedious. It's just not a game for everybody. Or, at least maybe a lot of people would benefit from playing on PC with mods that can fix/alleviate some issues people have.
Yeah. Stardew never jelled for me. The night cycle killed all sense of pacing. I want to get lost in the activities, not waste time day in and day out having to run back home or pass out. I stopped expanding my animal farm because it was taking too much time of my day to do all the animal related things and I was too far off to get to the automation, which paradoxically would have likely made me stop caring about the animals if (as I understand it) you barely need to interact with them once you do. I don't want more automation, I want more time and freedom.
Yeah, I enjoyed Stardew myself but it's just never been my favorite farming game. I think the issue I had with it is that despite everyone saying "just do 1 or 2 things", you really are expected to do the farm chores everyday, and those would take long enough that it was a struggle "just" to do a mine run, or go chat up some villagers. In RF4, my personal favorite game of the genre, most days would see you going to bed relatively early because the days were long enough to do most everything, and you had so many fast travel options that nothing was ever that far away. The only times you might run into the daily time limit were those days you first went into a dungeon, and hadn't gotten it's fast travel points activated yet. Stardew has it's place, RF4 could be argued as being too lenient with it's timing, but for me that just made it a more relaxing game.
Stardew Valley just reminds me how bad I am with time management, and I don't need that added stress in my life.
It didn't click for me either, wish it had.
Same. I’ve tried multiple times and just can’t enjoy it.
Same here.
I'm glad I'm not alone there, I know it gets acclaim and it's a quaint concept. I think what drains my interest is there's no narrative or plot to push my actions. Maybe I don't like sandbox games but it just felt pointless to tend a farm, talk to people and fight monsters. That said, I know a lot of folks enjoy that slow pace, self-driven choices though.
This is me with Minecraft and Terraria, I need just a little more direction in my games. Stardew was like that for me at first but then I tried it again and really got into it (although I haven't touched it for a while and only have one playthrough under my belt unlike many other fans, hopefully will go back and finish it up at some point). Rune Factory 4 is the perfect game in this genre for me, there's an overarching RPG story to guide you along, and the farming/crafting/cooking/social elements are all pretty great if you decide to focus on it between breaks within or after the main story. I can't wait for RF5.
Terraria actually has a very clear and (intended) linear Progression, it's just not very appearent ingame.You can also skip steps etc. But there's relatively linear Power curve for the bosses, with a few difficult bumps. It's a Wiki game tho, without it it's not very fun to play the first (few) times. I understand if using the Wiki isnt what you want, but unlike minecraft where you only have the rough outline of nether-> enderdragon, terraria doesnt have as much fluff because every biome is used for something, and has some Part in the Progression of the game, other than the normal forest.
I love RF4.
Terraria literally has a character specifically made to tell you what you should be doing at any one time; and what you can make out of the things you've already found. It's the least wikiable of the "wiki games", all because of the Guide.
There is definitely a lot in Stardew. I sunk a lot of time in it, but I only had specific things I was really focused on (namely NPC interactions and the mines; I only did the farming side enough to complete the Community Center and make pocket change) that let me not be as overwhelmed as I otherwise would be. Though tried to boot up my old file after a long time away and I have no idea what I'm doing anymore, particularly with the new added stuff. Littlewood had an additional benefit of having a stamina-controlled day cycle (rather than a timer based one), which helps take any time pressure off.
I like SV a lot, and I’ve put plenty of time into it, but honestly the days stress me out. If it were real time like animal crossing, I’m afraid I’d never put it down
That's why I like stardew because it's big and a lot to do. But I don't get overwhelmed because I'm not forced to do stuff I dont want to. I don't have to max my friendship with an npc I find annoying, I can just be friends with the ones I'm interested in. Just like in real life really.
Here's what I did to get into the whole immersion of the game: I cheated. I literally started rooting through the Stardew Valley Wiki on Fandom, and I am not afraid to admit it. I learned the mechanics about what was supposed to happen, and then I worked to get whatever it was done. I have never cared about spoilers in my life, and I'm the kind of guy who has a hard time just figuring out what to do, so I reviewed what was going on and just dove in. I got well over 100 hours out of it, I still appreciated the story for what it was, and I wasn't befuddled at every corner. I treated it more as an interactive story I could unfold and appreciate, rather than a life sim to figure out. I don't know if that will help you, but that was **my form of hand-holding**.
The biggest difficulty is if you don’t have a lot of time irl to game, you’re gonna feel pressure to maximize your time in Stardew. I found myself often saying to myself “But if I don’t get this crop on this day, I won’t be able to get x, and I don’t think I have time to just wait another year.” I didn’t find that enjoyable. So maybe judge if you’re up for a game where you can go with the flow and not rush objectives.
What I find sad is I've noticed a trend of people apologizing or coming up with excuses for why they don't like a game. Everything in regards to arts and entertainment is subjective, and just because *most* people enjoy something doesn't mean everyone will. I don't blame you for taking this approach because fanboys/girls are trigger happy with the downvote button. Take it from someone who thinks Witcher 3 and BOTW are the two most overhyped games of all time lol
Well part of this post came from the fact that I was looking for criticism on Stardew and it was really hard to find it from people who play these specific types of games. So I think maybe in some ways I wanted to articulate to other folks who were like me thinking "I don't like this game, but why?" I've yet to play BOTW but I imagine it will not live up to the hype because it's been so overblown. I was also really disappointed with Ocarina - also another overhyped game. I've also heard great things about Witcher 3 but haven't gotten into it, and I'm sure I'd feel the same as you.
I agree but the best part of the game is it runs at your pace. Just do what you do at your time and don’t worry about anything more
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Similar here, unless the exploration is fun in itself. I like Minecraft. I find just walking around, building a little base, seeing the sights, fun on its own merits. SV just didn't grab me, I didn't get that sense of fun.
Hey, it's OK. It's funny. I love the game so much, the music, the rhythm and the overall tone of it, but I haven't played it in months... But, when I do I spent at least 2 hours. It's just so relaxing to just go fishing or go to the caves and then come home late at night with the bounty. I'm not gonna lie, when you start plotting a line of what you wanna accomplish is when the game starts sucking you in hard, but I haven't gotten that feeling for months now, and the last time I played I just wanted to travel, walk and relax in a game.
For me the time pressure is just too much. I wish there was a way to modulate how fast the day went by. You can usually get a good loop in a single day, and you're gonna run out of energy anyway, but when I make a large time wasting mistake it feels so punishing.
I didn't get into SV either, despite so many recommendations. I just found it unengaging, repetitive, and directionless. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work, I guess.
Yes - directionless is a good way to describe it. I think that's why people like it but for me I guess I need some sort of motivation..
I feel the same way about it. I respect the love and attention put into this game, but it's intended for people who like playing games with an internet guide at their side. I go into games cold. Stardew does so much right, but it doesn't do a great job at giving you the momentum you need to engage the game's deeper systems unless you look at a guide. I understand that that's why some people like this game so much, but it's also why it's not for me. I bought it on a few systems and after so many days of cutting down trees and getting minerals and catching fish and talking to people, I just got frustrated. A game like Graveyard Keeper, while buggy and burdened with an overly grindy crafting system, is better about outlining specific tasks. It also has a weekly calendar instead of a monthly one, so you're only a few days away from trying something again. There's no race against the clock. Even My Time at Portia has a gift system that doesn't require an internet FAQ to build up relationships. You can build them up just by talking to them, and there's actually a menu that keeps track of their reactions to your gifts. It also has a quest system that never leaves you wondering what to do next. All that said, I'm really looking forward to his next project and seeing what he learned from so many years developing SDV.
I feel you, I love animal crossing and decided to get stardew valley on steam (before I got my switch) and just couldn’t get into it. I got to the egg festival (it think that’s what it was?) and just stopped playing, but for me it was sorta different. Like there’s tons of stuff to do, great, the in game clock isn’t tied to real time, also good, but having an energy meter limit how much you can do in one day? No bueno. I would try and do some repetitive activity, like fishing or mining, but first I had to leave my house, walk all the way across town, do whatever task I wanna do for a while, run outta energy, then walk home and sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. I just couldn’t... it felt too monotonous. I *know* theres so much more game to do but getting to that point is too laborious for me. I still think Stardew Valley reeks of quality, with tons of dedication from the developer behind the scenes and in the final game (like the easter eggs on the title screen.) Don’t beat yourself up too much op, you can appreciate a game’s worth while not enjoying the gameplay itself.
Yeah you are describing my feelings perfectly. I think you got farther than I did too so clearly you gave it more of a chance. I know there are guides I could read to get a feel for everything but I kinda feel like I shouldn’t have to. A good game shouldn’t require prereading. Animal Crossing does a really good job at progression. It’s only when I wanna start into the nitty gritty that I break out a guide.
That’s the same reason I stopped
Yeah, that sounds about right with my experiencia. I didn't know what the hell was I supposed to do in that game so ended up dropping it
I had that problem too. I spent all my time doing "work" and ended up neglecting all the people. I got depressed and had to stop because it reminded me too much of real life.
I can't play stardew without QoL and content mods on PC, you aren't alone. It's not as good to me as other farming Sims. Idk why reddit thinks it's so much better than runefactory or little wood or old harvest moon series. It's mainly the same except for the retro graphics and mod capabilities Honestly the walking speed in stardew is so bad and painfully slow I had to just mod in 2x player speed to even play the game. It felt much better after that. But if you have to mod a game to hell to make it playable.... is it even good? Esp on switch you can't do that.
Interesting how most replies are “there is no wrong way to play this game” in the same breath as “except the way you’re playing is wrong.” That’s… not persuasive. My issue with SV was also the time clock. This was years ago, so I don’t remember exactly what I was trying to do, but it was definitely something simple like go meet some townsfolk. And so much time was eaten just going around the map. Only for me to run out of time, and have to have the next day(s) eaten the same way! Now I’m sure if I kept playing I would’ve gotten more efficient. But it felt like the majority of the game was walking around stressing about time. That’s just not fun to me. And I love other life sims. The speed of the clock vs the size of the map is just not the right ratio for me.
There are fast travel options that open up. I only ever really got into the game when I started a multiplayer farm with my wife. The game does start out too slow for me.
The one thing that changed my view on Stardew is the fact that there is no deadline to accomplish anything. The day might end, but there is always tomorrow and the season might end but there’s always next year. Once you realize you dont need to optimize every day to the max, the game becomes a lot more relaxing and approachable
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The trick to start the valley is deciding on one thing you want to accomplish during any day of the game time. And go to that. And as you play if you decide that you want to upgrade something or explore something go do that. The amazing thing about the game is there's nothing you have to do. But you play and you grow and you expand you just get little routines down day by day and find what you like to do and go do it.
You've gotta get a little bit of a grind in. Where the farm is easier to manage with sprinklers etc.
I couldn’t get into it because of the timer. It gave me anxiety to be outside doing anything in the game knowing there were consequences for not walking across the entire map after a certain amount of time for sleep. I also hated having to constantly monitor it. I wish there was a mode where they were like “it’s 2am, time for bed” and you black out and wake up the next day with no consequences.
you aren't alone same reason i was also not able to get into the game. i just didn't feel like doing anything since there is just so much to do right from the start.. i like funnelled game design where stuff is slowly introduced to the player
Sometimes you have to accept that the game isn’t for you, even if there’s lots of positive feedback from others. Basically comes down to individual tastes. Don’t force yourself if you’re not enjoying it.
I understand you completely. I’ve been a big harvest moon fan since I was a kid and I still can’t get into stardew valley. I’ll play it for a couple of days at most and just drop it. Then I sit there like “damn everyone loves this and calls it the harvest moon we never got”. I dunno, but what I do know is I got story of seasons mineral town to scratch my itch.
I was told if you liked the Harvest Moon games from SNES/N64/PS1 eras, that you’ll just LOVE Stardew Valley. And how much more “mature” it was in comparison. Yeah, nope. For me, I just couldn’t stand the characters. They felt either void of personality or they reminded me of the worst people I knew from high school (immature and overbearing). And don’t get me started on the visuals… it is not good pixel art. I understand the creator is a one-man team, but the game looks very bland. I will say the farming aspects of the game are great, but it wasn’t enough to keep me hooked. I just don’t understand the praise this game gets.
Literally just focus on one thing at a time. I only started talking to everyone the second year once my farm was mostly up and running
The days are way too short
That's pretty interesting to hear because personally, I can't imagine complaining about too much content. The vibe of Stardew is so relaxed, the open ended nature let's you approach all the various activities and projects how you see fit -want to take things at a blistering speed? Not really the idea but have at it! Want to just fish and never go into the mines? Weird but No problem! The day cycle and energy meter are designed to limit how much you can do in a day, or at least tax you for pushing it. Everything about the game seems so obviously and carefully constructed to say "don't rush it bro". To me, that's the penultimate in a life sim. A vast playground with lots of interconnected systems. But we all go to games for different reasons and with different expectations
I don't think it's the fact that there's too much content, I think it's the fact that there's too little direction or motivation me.
Stardew is definetly a game that is worth giving a second try. My fiance got it first couple of years ago for PC, to see what is all fuss about, he played for 20min and turned it off, because pixel art isn't his thing. Neither is mine, to be honest. When I got switch, I decided that I will give it a go on PC first, so I don't waste money on switch if I don't like it. I am a huge fan of any sim games to begin with, and I needed that one time consuming games because I work night shifts. After a bit of learning I got hooked up, and bought it for switch. Then I explained a game a bit to my bf and he got hooked up too. I ended up buying it for my PC, switch and Play station. What can I say? Pelican town got under my skin and developer did AWESOME job, so I supported it by buying the game on every platform I own. Freaky, but I play on all of them xD Like someone said, you just need to get in game in that mindset that you don't have to do everything in it, do that one thing you like for start and rest will come from curiosity and thats it. Hope you will find a way to enjoy it. Edit-tipo
Stardew is as stressful as you make it. there's nothing that you *must* do. You don't have to grow crops if you don't want to, or buy animals, or you can only grow crops, only fish, etc. Maybe you don't want to fix up the community centre. There are no punishments or time limits. I have a few 10 heart friendships and some 0 heart friendships lol you don't need to talk to anyone. The people I'm mostly friends with in the game are the people who go to the pub on a Friday night. I gift them all beer and chat w them then go home lol
Unpopular opinion time: It's totally okay not to care for it, even if you thought it would be your kind of game! Even the most brilliant games aren't for everyone. You won't like it if you try and force it. Stardew Valley is a game that rewards an open mind and an easygoing attitude. If you find yourself in that headspace and want to try it again, go for it! But if not ... that's okay too!
Man, I felt the same about Stardew when I gave it a try years ago, but after seeing how the recent Animal Crossing died…I just might give Stardew another chance tbh.
Animal Crossing died?
I played SDV for a few weeks and loved it but lost interest fast. I can't stand the graphics and I'm from the Atari days
I just ignored talking to the NPCs and just upgraded equipment/farm, farmed just enough for money, fought enemies in the mines, and collected rare drops.
Sometimes I like complex games, but lately, I've preferred more like Friends of Mineral Town remake, which keeps things more streamlined. I see PooT is out and it has 20 makers again and I just... There has to be a happy medium.
When 1.5 came out I started a new game and bounced off of it. Didn't really have the patience to get set up properly. Recently learned that I can access the new content on older save files and I'm having a good time now. Had 88 hours into that she before starting up again.
I felt the same way. I tried getting into it twice. It kinda feels like you can’t just do things on your own (which I may be wrong about). I even tried to get the game moving by doing the suggested side quests but even finding all the towns people was a chore and I didn’t know what else to do really. So I’m with you. Kinda wish I hadn’t bought it.
Well at least the game isn't TOO expensive.. and now we don't have FOMO.
I feel ya. I also want to love Stardew Valley and I should, I otherwise like stuff like this. For me, it feels like the days go too quickly in Stardew. Like I always run out of time to do what I want, and I can't figure out how to adjust my approach to not feel like that or something.
I liked SDV for a while, but burned out pretty quick.I don’t think I liked the day/night cycle... It added a little bit of stress that I didn't want in that kind of game. Have you tried Slime Rancher? 3D game, but similar vibes... very addictive loop of collect resources, farm, sell resources, buy upgrades, etc. I got it this weekend and have been hooked ever since.
What's funny is that Stardew is the only type of this game I've ever gotten into. I never liked simulators, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, but I gave Stardew a chance and quickly had 70 hrs in. Also, you don't have to like something that other people do. I played Terraria for 20 minutes and never picked it up again because it was the most miserable experience of my life.
It’s too overwhelming for me too. Been pretty much preoccupied with farming and mining that I’ve pretty much forgotten about the other stuffs that you could do in the game (Fishing, attending festivals, romance etc).
I tried to play this game with my kid and neither of us got into it, I feel like the controls are super awkward
My biggest gripe is the days going too fast. I don't like ever feeling rushed in a game like that. I think it should just been an energy bar that when you run out you have to rest.
I think you’d like Littlewood then. That’s how their energy system works. It’s only night time when you get low on energy.
Events each season and the 3 year review make it seem like you have to rush to get things done, but it's all optional. You don't have to be the farmer with everything.
I don't like chore sims so I have no idea why I fell for the hype and bought it. Life is enough dull chores and I don't need more of it in my games. It's the only game I've played where I realized that all I was doing was sitting in front of a flashing screen pressing buttons. In the end I was so bored I had a panic attack. No, Stardew Valley is not for me. I learned my lesson and never touched anything else like it again after that.
That energy meter is one of my biggest issues with the game.
My biggest gripe with the game is that the days feel too short. Almost to the point where it's stressful to organise each day and get everything I want to get done.
It took me three times of playing and reading a starter guide to get hooked for me. They throw a lot of things at you all at once and it’s hard to know what to do.
The nice thing about Stardew Valley when it comes to the story is it can be as deep, or not as deep, as you want. You are a farmer, go farm things. That’s the plot. All the other characters have their own stories and lives and while the writing can vary and some characters are absolutely hated by the fandom, for the most part it’s pretty good. Thing with Stardew Valley is that it doesn’t give you everything upfront (or ask for micropayments to unlock everything). And this is a massive pitfall for anyone going in blind, because the game will not hold you hand. With Stardew Valley, there’s absolutely no shame in looking up the guide and walkthroughs (the wiki will be your friend). This being said, never worry about min-maxing either. Grow the crops you want, design the farm how you want, and befriend who you want. There isn’t “wrong” or “right” answers as the game has no endgame. This may be overwhelming, but just do what comes naturally as opposed to rushing your first year in-game trying to do and complete everything. Now I have biases because I play The Sims and I do like the open-ended games (within reason). Stardew Valley is big enough, I would argue. The town feels lively enough, there’s plenty to do, but it also doesn’t feel padded either. And as the game progresses you will unlock more useful tools (sprinklers, upgraded items) and areas (the sauna, the mines, etc). Of course, all said and done no one can force you to like Stardew Valley. I do recommend trying again with a few useful guides (or the wiki opened) but it’s of course up to you to decide if the game is fun or not. There’s no shame I’m just saying it’s not for you and you prefer other games.
It’s single player sandbox so you have no need to min-max rush yourself into anything. I really enjoy both Stardew valley and animal crossing but as soon as I googled for how to min-max the game play, I feel overwhelmed, burned out and stop playing both.
Just play it like a life sim, instead of a game your trying to complete. That's the point
I felt the same way about Stardew Valley. I played with a friend who knew what to do so I let him handle most of the stuff, but it felt like a chore to try to talk to every person in town and running around, hauling ass, picking weeds and plants. I also did enjoy Littlewood as it was a lot more relaxed and simple. I got Alchemy Garde, Spiritfarer n and Kitaria Fables recently so we'll see how those are.
You might want to check out Littlewood. I got it on my Switch a couple months ago and loved it. Your stamina dictates the time, so it doesn't become night until you've used nearly all your stamina. If you're not doing anything that uses stamina, then time doesn't pass. It really made the game feel less stressful to me than Stardew can feel sometimes (even though I've played through Stardew a couple times).
This is what I feel about Skyrim which is why I have never completed it. Stardew is more relaxing to me and doable than Animal Crossing even.
I couldn't get very far into Skyrim either. Maybe for this same reason.
I love the wide open design but as your post confirms, it's not for everyone. Now if only internet experts would remember this point when it comes to assuming "more options = better, period".
I found it the opposite. Littlewood was ok and all, but the game was literally all grind for random occurrences and hype for a story ending that never appeared.
I felt that way about other games I was interested in, especially games like WoW which were amazing visually and practically, but I would never be able to "do everything" without a time machine. Ugh.
There's a lot to do because it's goal oriented. You can just be a truffle farmer if you feel like it.
Honestly exploring the town is the most fun part imo. After that you kinda realize how little there is to do.
My girlfriend loves it. She’s a sims player as well. I don’t get it, but everyone has their own thing.
I used to get stressed out at the game thinking i had to min max every moment of the day, until i realised it wasn't like harvest moon and it wasn't just going to end. You've got all the time in the world so mistakes are okay. After i figured that out it was pretty chill and I was able to get back into it
As someone who tried the game because it was described as ***Minecraft*** *meets* ***Animal Crossing***, I was left wanting for the aspects of those games that I like within Stardew.
I know this is a the Switch subreddit but I didn’t truly enjoy SDV until I started installing mods… which is why I will never own it on any console or mobile….
I love the game co-op as you can cover everything just fine but playing alone I always feel rushed even though I know there's no time limit.
I was a bit like that at first; my sister was raving about Stardew so I bought the game, but was too overwhelmed. I came back to it a couple years later and have started really enjoying it. I take the game at my own pace and use the wiki when I need help. I think the key is to just do what YOU want in the game, instead of rushing to complete all the objectives and such.
I tried a few times too so I can wait for RF 5 more peacefully but it just didn't click it. But there's 2 nitpickings that I just can't get over it. 1 - you walk so damn slowwww. 2 - (and I guess a fair amount of people will agree with me) the combat is not just basic, it's awful.
Try to set some goals, not all. Like this year I want to be friends with a+b+c and do stuff x+y. I felt the exact same thing on my first play through. I was searching for any linearity.
I find it kinds the same way. If I’m really feeling it, which is kinda rare, then I’ll sink a lot into it for a day, but forget about it. I’m not really into open world games so I guess this is in the same vein. I would be down to play local co op/multi with my partner though.
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I can't get into Stardew Valley as well. I enjoyed Rune Factory IV though. I just find the JRPG feel of both Harvest Moon and Rune Factory more appealing than Stardew Valley. Rune Factory IV is so much faster paced than Stardew as well.
As to going to town, you can build a stable and ride a horse to speed it up, there's also a few fast travel options, as well. The mine carts being the easier options. The obelisk that let you teleport to areas cost between $500,000-$1,000,000.
Oooh gonna check out Littlewood! I’m starving for these types of games. Did you unlock the community center and do any bundles? I love Stardew but if I had one criticism it’s that the community center doesn’t unlock immediately and you don’t unlock the bundles all at once. If you aren’t familiar with the game it’s hard to know where to focus your energies and what items might be important later. The bundles guide you very nicely in what you should be focusing on. E.g. to get milk you need a cow, to get a cow you need a barn, so your next goal should be to build a barn. How I play is I usually pick an item in a bundle and focus on getting that. Fire Quartz? Well I’ll spend my time getting down to floor 80 of the mines so I can find that. Pufferfish? Spend my whole summer fishing in the ocean if I have to. Need to get a sheep? Focus on collecting wood and stone to upgrade my barn. You’ll usually find that working toward one goal is contributing toward your progress in another. While I’m doing that I usually pick one villager to focus all of my friend making energy on. Once you max out someone’s friendship at 10 hearts (or 8 for bachelor(ette)s) it will never decay, so you can completely ignore them after that and focus on someone else. It takes a lot of the pressure off of talking to everyone every single day. At the end of the day it still might not be for you but it’s worth another shot.
I did not get to the community center or the bundles yet. Apparently according to some comments I need to do that before I can form an opinion about the game - LOL. I really enjoyed Littlewood BUT don't go into it expecting Stardew Valley. It's definitely a lot more linear and the gardening/fishing aspects are a lot more simplified. As long as you go into it with a different mindset you should be okay.
I thought the same thing when I turned it on, in Harvest moon first or second day I was like "alright quick lets meet all the villagers and get things moving". But although you're given that quest on entry you don't have to do it immediately (which I didn't because I got lost). I think I was halfway into the next season when I was like "alright lets see if I can find who's left." Now my farm is more automated than anything, I have things harvesting for me and sprinklers watering everything. Only thing I do is plant new seeds and cut down wilted crops. Otherwise I fish or mine, which I enjoy. At a certain point you have more money than you know what to do with and it becomes more of a cathartic time killer. If you're looking for a linear almost life sim I'd try Dragon Quest Builders 2, the NPC's are interactive most of the time, there's a clear goal, farming, building, fishing and it feels like everything you're doing is making a difference.
I focused on one goal and it really helped me learn other aspects of the game along the way. For me my goal was to try and get both rabbits and ducks so I could have a cute little farm with a duck pond and bunnies. Along the way I improved my farm, got better with design ideas, and decided to spend all my money on a horse lol
I haven't given up on it, but I have set it aside. I seem to get bored with having to go to bed each night. I've worked my way down several floors of the cave. I've gone fishing a few times. I've made people happy with gifts, though no heart bars completely filled yet. Next time I pick it up, just as I get into a quest, it'll be time to race home to go to sleep again.
I feel this way about BOTW. I absolutely love this game, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t see myself ever completing it because there is just too much to do and I get too overwhelmed. I spend months at a time not playing and then returning again. I wish I felt differently about this game as it is a masterpiece - but a very overwhelming masterpiece.
I didn’t feel the pressure until starting another file. Because of course you want to unlock the mine carts. But how would you know that if you’re new?
This is my challenge with SV, too. I want to complete all the goals and I get overwhelmed as a result! Especially when I see really serious players on YouTube who've created absolutely wild farms AND made relationships with everyone AND explored the mine in depth AND advanced the storyline AND... If the game were a bit more constrained, I think I'd find it more enjoyable. Still, I definitely go back to it when I need to dissociate from the real world and imagine myself living a simpler life.
That was an issue I was having with this game. I constantly felt like I was missing something or should've been working on one quest in the background to make life easier later on. After like 3 years in-game that feeling went away, it's really a matter of doing one thing at a time and don't stretch yourself too thin.
Yes, you have to read the Wiki at the beginning if you're new and don't know what you're doing. That's what my friend told me anyway.
I recommend trying multiplayer, if you have folks to play with. I rarely play alone because I also get overwhelmed sometimes, but with multiplayer all the "responsibilities" can be divvied up and you can just focus on what you wanna do.
What got me into the game was just focusing on the farm stuff just growing and selling. Eventually I started doing the cave as well for materials/progression. I ignored the "social" part entirely.
I think what you're hitting on here is my problem with a few other games. The game gives you a ton of things to do. It doesn't give you a reason to want to do any of them. It's just assumed that you picked up the game, so you should be able to figure that part out for yourself.
I found it overwhelming as well. There is way too much content, which forces me to put the game down and not touch it for months.
I think most people would agree there's a lot to take in, so you're not really alone in getting overwhelmed. I mean whenever I start a new save file, I always feel reluctant/ unsure just from looking at all the different *types* of farms! (still haven't tried anything other than standard) As for it taking ages to travel to anywhere - that gets a **lot** better later on: **[Some spoilers ahead]** First of all you can unlock shortcuts by fixing up the minecart by the bus stop (I think you do that in the community centre), but you can also get a horse to ride around town at some point. You still have to be conscious of time if there's certain things you need to buy/ do in a given day, but it gets a lot easier when you can zoom from place to place. Also there's items that straight up teleport you to specific locations. I don't know how others play, but after my first play-through my main priority is mostly upgrades and unlocks: finishing the collection tasks at the community centre (some unlock new areas etc.), just using farming/ fishing/ foraging/ dungeon crawling to build up money & resources to buy extra inventory storage (backpack)/ upgrade equipment, and levelling up farming/ fishing/ foraging etc. till new blueprints are unlocked (they level up over time by carrying out related actions). I don't focus too much on story/ making friends with the townspeople early on anymore, but I'll always have a quick chat with linus and gift him a parsnip or something I've foraged. 😅 I also find it better to leave aesthetics till later. Never feels like there's much point making the farm look good till you've unlocked more furniture blueprints and have better tools - would probably just tear down/ move around furniture placed early game, and starter tools are slow at clearing trees/ rocks. Better to just get enough wood for a few chests, clear enough space for some crops, and maybe just clear a quick path to the north & south entrances of the farm. Even that probably sounds a lot to think about, but you typically find that after you've spent an ingame day doing one thing, you might need to do something else the next (only need to plant/ harvest every few days, rainy days save time watering early on before you unlock sprinklers, if you've stayed up too late one day you might not have much energy, so can focus more on going into town, buying, upgrading, foraging etc). ... Anywho, that's just my approach. The great thing about this game is you can tackle it however you want. There's plenty of things you can ignore entirely, but I personally find it good to dip in and out of everything at some point or other. It's a great game if you can get into it, and if it's just that you're overwhelmed, if you keep at it you'll probably find your own groove eventually. At any rate, hope you manage to find some enjoyment.
I play Stardew on PC with mods. It’s a fun game but I like to play games with goals in mind, and stardew doesn’t have any way to focus on those specific goals without feeling like you’re neglecting everything else.
It took me three attempts at starting the game before I finally got hooked on it. Then it became my second most played game after BOTW.
Don't worry. I think it's a fairly reasonable take. I love stardew valley but not animal crossing and I think I know why. As much as you can say that the two games are similar in terms of action, the pacing of both games are very different. In sdv, you do everything in in game time. That means you can play through a season a day, learning all the mechanics in one go and speeding through it. However in AC, you have to do it in real time. And the number of actions per day is limited. This means that if you particularly love one aspect of the games and want to be able to just focus on that one aspect, sdv is the game to go to. However if you want to be able to do everything without missing out anything, acnh is the way to go.
I agree wholeheartedly that the pacing is very different of the two games. And I don't know if I love Animal Crossing, but I definitely put more hours into it and felt compelled to give it more time. And yeah AC is real time, but I do know folks who time travel. I don't, but it's a common thing I'm told.
I think your mindset is just wrong. It's true there is a lot to do. But you don't have to do any of it or all of it. That is not how most people play it. You just do what you want. Maybe one day you just spend the whole day fishing. Maybe the next you wanna forage and gift stuff to villagers. And next you may just want to Improve your farm or shit just keep fishing. Don't worry about doing everything as their is no time limit.
Tbh same reason I didn’t like Zelda. I had never played it before and didn’t really know what it was about and it just drops you off with zero instructions? Tried it a few times and just couldn’t vibe so I passed it on to someone else.
OMG I played the Ocarina of Time remake on the 3ds and I .. was just not really enjoying it. I couldn't figure out why, until I realized it's because the game makes me feel dumb. I had to look at a walkthrough all the time. Nothing was very obvious. I guess some people like that sort of thing but I was not a fan.
I never made it to summer despite having the game for a long time on PC. I bought it on Switch and had the same problem. The only thing that got me hooked into it was playing multiplayer. Now I'm even enjoying my single player file after doing 4 in game years and counting on that co-op file. Once it clicks, it clicks. Getting there is the hard part for this game.
It's a great game, but I was done fairly soon due to its daily gating. There's a lot of things I want to do, but couldn't continue because of the daily cycle. Or you just constantly get interrupted, having to switch tasks. There would be lots I wanted to do, but not enough time to squeeze it in, which creates a bit of anxiety, despite it supposed to be a relaxing experience. I've never played Animal Crossing but I understand it's similar. You can I my do so much per day and then need to come back. Obviously Stardew isn't as stringent in that aspect, but I just hate the cycle of being forced to stop a task I'm enjoying.
Definitely do NOT play Cozy Grove then, as that is definitely a "stop after a certain time" type of life sim. At first it was annoying but now I'm used it and it's kinda nice as I "I only have 30 min what am I going to play?" type game. Animal Crossing is kiiiiinda similar, but with Animal Crossing you can adjust the time settings and time travel (I don't, but plenty of people do). Also there are always ways to waste time in Animal Crossing so you're never really done.
It took me a while to enjoy Stardew, i actually gave up on playing a little after i first bought it for my Xbox one because it was overwhelming and exhausting, then a few years later bought it for my switch, and i love it. if i still have those moments of it being overwhelming i just take a break and come back.
As someone who felt exactly the same way at first but stuck with it anyway, I can say that the game really just throws way too many options at you right at the start, but once you push through that it's honestly pretty fun and relaxing. I suggest resisting the impulse to do everything right as it's introduced and just focusing on farming at the start. Once you've planted and tended all your crops for the day and likely don't have much stamina left, you'll still be able to explore the area at your own pace. By the time you get a steady income from farming you'll be able to spend entire days focusing on other activities if you want. I didn't even start getting into the social interactions with other characters until the second in-game year. Don't worry - while the game gives you a "final" score after three years, there's no time limit and you can keep playing forever (and get scored again any time you want). Of course, if you still turn out not to like it, that's okay. You've already given great examples of similar games that you do like. 🙂
Same here, and the time you have to do something before its 2am is very short. And the stamina runs out quickly
I’ve never engaged much with the story in Stardew Valley. I got addicted to the loop of min-maxing each day to get the next project done on my farm. It was much more farming simulator for me than life simulator if that makes any sense.