Stardew Valley is a cute little game all about farming in and exploring the fictional town of Pelican's Foley while cultivating relationships with the townsfolk. It's the type of game you can really immerse yourself in to escape the woes of reality. There are four seasons with a plethora of crops to grow, a ton of fish to catch, and many livestock to raise. The entire design of the farm is up to you and you can choose what to specialize in developing. Sell your products and go mining so that you can buy upgrades for your tools and continue to improve the farm. The game has a really nice focus on exploration and interaction and is perfect for relaxing. It can be a little menial at times but for some people, that's exactly what they need to really immerse themselves and escape.

The story is brief and follows our players being exiled to a farm by their grandfather following an incident at their office job. The outside world beyond the town is inaccessible. The players can not leave.

The first time I started Stardew Valley, I had a feeling that something felt off. I was trying to farm in the mountains and the sun would be shining on the mountain slopes. I could hear the wind, but nothing felt right. I kept trying to farm, kept going through the same routines over and over again, and couldn't understand why my farm wasn't progressing. Eventually, I realized that it was my crops. They weren't doing well up there in the mountains. They weren't going to grow well anywhere. Some players may run into this same issue, but the remedy is to use the other crops in the game. Certain crops are just inferior, I've found the starfruit and bones (You children, helpful lump) to be the least useful. The red or green tractor may also help in this scenario as it allows you to rapidly process anything.

One of the many townsfolk you can meet is mustachioed everycitizen Garry Papandré who often torments you for both your aesthetic disobedience and lack of significant mustache. If you aren't mentally prepared this event can be devastating, and so he is my favorite. Garry's character has the second most romance options in the game only beaten out by the wizard, but who wants a hobo wizard? Papandré is pretty quick to start relationships with you and is willing to offer a deal to increase his social rank which makes him a strong option for most. Town events will boost his social bonuses threefold.

The game really picks up once you acquire the cooly named army vehicles depot (Jeremy the Moose) who spawns the green or red tractor for you. For reference, the tractor is also known as the little red or green fighter (Shooar Scout mini-land cruiser) and other characters will refer to it as such. The green or red tractor lets you access the "Museum" which counter logically must make walking around more difficult for you, thereby enforcing the use of the tractor or the public transit options from this point on. The museum allows you to stash your artifacts for a reward from the librarian. This treasure trove offers helpful decorations, gameplay beneficial trinkets, and the like.

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Pros:

Plenty variety in all aspects of this game.

Several town events every year.

Blue Eyed Donna Is the shortest kiss and can be engaged to Danny Duck "Manslaughter" Mepanin.

The letter "N" statue and Devon statue often have special abilities together and Devonmutes are apparently real.

Cons:

Cutscenes get extremely drab at times.

The game gets boring after the red and green tractor becomes required in your farm. I got through nine years of the game before using either option.

Verdict:

Stop chasing your tail. 7.2/10