Random Video Game Review - Stardew Valley

Any of you remember Harvest Moon? Well funnily enough, this game was originally going to be a fan made game based on the series, but the developer soon realised how big of a game it would become and thus made it into a similar but different game. The idea was to make a game like Harvest Moon, but would enhance the gameplay and would address the issues that the Harvest Moon games had such as you have to complete everything in 2 years just to name one of many problems with that series. So what was meant to be a fan game, ended up on Steam and became quite successful upon its release. And it even takes gameplay aspects from other games like Animal Crossing, Minecraft, Rune Factory and Terraria. So let's dive in:

So you play as this user created character who is trying to escape the busy life of an office. His or her grandpa makes contact and says that he has left the person a farm in Stardew Valley of which the person then moves to and gets into farm life. From that point on, you decide where things go from there. So while your primary objective is to maintain a farm where you can look after animals and grow crops, you can also do other things such as funding repairs in the town, doing jobs for the locals, mine in the mines, fall in love with NPCs (which would then lead to marriage and possibly make babies), just to name some of the many things you can do. Plus unlike Harvest Moon but like Minecraft, its open ended so you can take your time with doing everything and unlike Animal Crossing, the days normally last for just under 15 minutes as opposed to following the computer clock.

So of all the casual games I've played that are like this, this is by far the best one I've played. Its relaxing, you don't feel pressured to do things as quickly as possible and the developer has done an amazing job in trying to make a Harvest Moon fan game where everything that was wrong with that series is fixed, although its now considered to be a completely different game to that series now. Plus I quite like how the NPCs look very distinctive and in some cases, quite attractive too. A great game in my opinion and one that will no doubt capture your nostalgia not just for the graphics. 9/10