Sometimes I just need to unwind. For that, I play a game called Stardew Valley. The setting is lovely and romanticizes living simply, growing your own food and raising animals, which is a far cry from what my life is like now. Sometimes, urban life becomes tiring, and I like to retreat to something nicer and less crowded.
Stardew Valley (I’ll be abbreviating it as SDV from this point forward) is a cute open-ended farm life simulator. You customize your character and insert yourself into their shoes - tired of the boring and abusive 9-5 job, you open a letter from your deceased grandfather that he gave to you to open when you’re in need of a change of pace. Inside the letter is a deed to the family farm in Stardew Valley, which he has left to you.
So, you take the bus from your home in Zuzu City to your new life. Robin, the town’s carpenter, meets you at the bus stop and shows you to your farm - it’s in pretty rough shape, left to the weeds for years and years and overgrown. But, like Robin encourages you, there’s plenty to work with.
From this point on, you work on and invest in your family farm, starting by planting the 15 parsnip seeds the mayor gives you to help you on your way. You can buy your seeds from the local shop, Pierre’s, which change every season so there’s always a new rotation of crops to try out. Fruit trees come into the equation later, but they take a whole season to grow so you have to plan carefully.
You can also build barns and coops for animals, which can be cared for alongside or as an alternative to crops. Personally, I choose crops, just because they’re more colorful and I like the satisfaction of finally picking them after waiting for them to grow.
Overtime, you’ll rearrange things and decorate your farm, until you end up with a satisfying setup that you look at one day and see just how far you’ve come. It takes patience, but with effort, you’ll eventually end up with something complex and lucrative.
While you build up your farm, you can walk around town and make friends with the local inhabitants. The more you talk with them, get to know what they like/dislike, and give them gifts, the more “hearts” you build up. Eventually, if your friendship level is high enough, you can ask to date the available bachelor/bachelorette, and even marry them. They end up moving into your house with you and occasionally help out on the farm. If you’re an opposite sex couple, you have children; if you’re a same sex couple, you adopt children.
SDV also has mining - is there anything this game doesn’t have? There are actually 2 mines, one near the outskirts of town with 120 total levels to explore, and one in the desert with unlimited randomly-generated levels. You’ll find all sorts of gems and creatures down in these mines, so bring both a pick and a sword if you want to be prepared. The further down you traverse, the more valuable ores you find and the more dangerous monsters attack you. Luckily, your equipment gets better as the difficulty level rises.
And, before you ask, there’s absolutely no shortage of items to grow, cook, catch, and find. Just look at all of these!
Like Terraria, SDV is a game that I have to force myself to put down. I love when I can get creative and set goals for myself - and not be pressed for time when I’m doing it. It’s relaxing, engaging, and full of possibilities. I highly recommend this game.