A while back I talked about that crummy feeling of missing out on something fun when your friends are all playing a game you are not. So when I saw a large fraction of my Twitter feed talking about Stardew Valley over the weekend, I took a closer look to see what all the fuss was about. Usually the Animal Crossing style of game doesn’t do a whole lot for me, but it looked like it had some neat elements and the price was low so I figured I’d give it a shot.
They have a jellyfish festival! What’s not to love?
Now I can’t decide if I regret the purchase or not, because this little pixel town is so engrossing that I have barely touched any other games since I got it. I guess that means I like it though!
When looking up the game to see what all the fuss was about before I purchased it, I read somewhere that unlike a lot of other titles in this genre, there’s no rush to focus on a specific aspect of the game. I hope this is true because it really freed me to just explore and try a bit of everything without worrying that the girl I like will end up marrying someone else before I get a chance to win her over. What can I say? I enjoy exploring the mines all day and I’m bad at remembering birthdays. There’s always next year.
I’m not even through one full year cycle in the game yet anyway. There are still places I can’t explore yet and many upgrades and systems still completely out of my meager farmer-and-monster-hunter budget but that’s okay. I’m already planning ahead for the next harvest, and hopefully by next spring I won’t be all alone at the dance.
