Recent reviews by Chowwie

I tried the game out for 2 hours and I felt like the gameplay was repetitive. I could not see myself replaying this game over again. Tutorial does not explain any of the features very well. I decided not to keep this game in my library.

One of the best city builders I've ever played. I do like how it has similar gameplay to Anno 1440 and embellishes on the mechanics. The notable differences from the Old World and the New World are refreshing changes that prolong gameplay with the addition of expeditions.

Honestly easily 100+ hours invested and is worth the money for the base game. Can't speak too much for the DLC but for fans of the City Builder genre and games like City Skylines...really you can't go wrong with picking up this game. 9/10 score from me.

Extremely Addicting.

I've played almost all the Harvest moon games from Gameboy, Playstation, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS. I can honestly say that Stardew Valley takes all the great features of the Harvest Moon classics. Stardew Valley features combat which is not as complex as Rune Factory, however, its simplicity is not a con.

FISHING (8/10 -GREAT): For fans of Natsume's Harvest Moon games prior to the 3DS and one of its game titles, River King, you will enjoy the addictive fishing featured in Stardew Valley. There is a wide variety of fish throughout the seasons and you have a broad selection of tackle to choose from. The great part about Stardew Valley is that most everything is craftable or something you can forage, mine, and fish for.

While Harvest Moon and Rune Factory titles pressure the player to complete dungeons or wait seasons in order to unlock certain features of the game, Stardew Valley eliminates the pressure of needing to accomplish difficult tasks. The game casually throws events and cutscenes at you but does not force you to complete a task you do not want.

MINING (8/10 - GREAT.): Frustrated with the mining restrictions present in the newest Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons titles? You should be excited to know that there are no mining restrictions. Stardew Valley features more than fourty floors of mining included with elevators to floors (by 5's), staircases, and ladders. The only element Harvest Moon players may not be used to: Enemies. The randomized floors are always filled with surprises. Green gases signaling an onslaught of flying insects, evolving worms, jelly mobs filled with more jelly mobs, etc. Not only do you need to worry about your energy and health...you need to worry about being able to get away when you are stricken with an awful status ailment.

FARMING: Surprisingly, I've yet to really get into the farming feature of the game. I've spent the majority of my first 24 hours in game, focusing on fishing and mining. Although, I can say that the farming in this game features very similar farming to Harvest Moon. In Stardew Valley, your farm is HUGE. It's like a jungle. I didn't even know I had a small lake on my farm until I chopped the thirty trees and stones, and cut all the grass and weeds away. It took me two seasons to get a rough idea of how big my farm is.

Stardew Valley features requests boards which you may recognize from Rune Factory titles and Harvest Moon Tale of Two Towns. I have to say: I LOVE request boards. Helping Stardew Valley citizens makes them like you more and gives you a reward. I also like reading the quest descriptions. The only enigma to me is why citizens stick their requests into my mailbox. (My thoughts? I DON'T FEEL LIKE DOING YOUR STUPID REQUESTS...IF I I DID I WOULD HAVE CHECKED THE REQUEST BOARD. Seriously. I always look forward to my mailbox with announcements until I see an impatient person's request notice in my mailbox.)

The town characters are vibrant with dimension and events with them are great. I remember in some Harvest Moon games I would see an event for the town on my calendar and proceed to sleep through to the next day. Those notifications for when the event starts on the corner of my screen make me OH SO GUILTY. So I end up going to the event anyway.

All in all, Stardew Valley is a worthy contendor among Rune Factory and Harvest Moon titles. Only one person worked on this game for four years and has produced an amazing game. It really is a solid farming and relationship sim.

For $15, the price doesn't get any better and any lower and I'd feel guilty for getting it so cheap! This game starts at more than half off the price of retail games in its genre and bring the same amount of fun and addictiveness to the table.

So what are you waiting for?

Buy Stardew Valley. Nevermind the graphics. Nevermind your preconcieved notions about whether it lives up to the Harvest Moon titles you've played. Trust me...Stardew Valley more than exceeds your expectations for a true blue farming and relationship sim.