Recent reviews by Stylish Notions

Stardew Valley EPIC MODE review :O
(Disclaimer: I've only played the singleplayer experience, so this review is written with that in mind)

Stardew Valley is a cozy, calm, and sometimes frantic game about leaving your city life (and minimum wage white collar job) behind so that you can pursue a prosperous farm in the countryside.

At it's core, Stardew Valley is the objectively better version of Harvest Moon. It has bountiful quality of life improvements over most Harvest Moon titles, ranging from each season being equal in length, to the schedules of stores being listed on the *MAP SCREEN* instead of being stashed away in a bookshelf or only told to you once.


Stuff I don't like however, let's get out of the way early:
- The penalty for 'fainting' in combat is hit or miss. You either lose your one of a kind weapon and the best items in your inventory, (plus 10% of your current money) forcing a reset, OR you lose 10 random trash items + 10% of the money. You CAN recover ONE item (a full stack if the item recovered is in a stack), but the rest are lost. This is a real big frustration when you are unprepared, but really this can be negated by playing safe and healing yourself whenever you are low.
- Super "Luck" quests. There are like 2 quests that rely HARD on you getting a lucky drop or a rare enemy showing up. One is reliant on a monster drop from an enemy that's rather frequent, while the other is tied to an enemy with a whopping 1.2% spawn chance to show up, and it's also affected by a 'luck' mechanic. You can cheese both of these quests, but without knowing how to do so they will leave a sour taste in your mouth if you're going for completion.

As for the positives, there are numerous things that this game has going for it that make it a great game to play alone or with friends.

There's always something to do! Regardless of where you are in the game's state, there's always something to work towards. Early game you might want more stamina or better tools. Alright, well to do so you have to go out and grab some ores yourself in the mines (or pay for the ores yourself, not recommended).
Middle game you might realize you want animals or ways to automate your farms to maximize your stamina to do other things. And so on and so on. There's never a dull moment, provided you have a general idea as to what you're working towards.

That being said, there aren't any time limits! There is a SMALL one but it's not a 'hard' limit in the sense that it locks content from you, but rather just rewards you for doing well in the early years of the game. You're absolutely allowed to take as much time as you want to play the game and reach the ultimate 'ending', and that's one of this game's biggest strengths. You're allowed to take your own pace to get goals done, and the only real 'limit' is your patience, and your commitment to the game.

It is true that there is a time system in the game, but it works more in the game's flavor and immersion. You only have so much 'time' in a day before you get exhausted, and that serves to act as a means to capitalize on the player's gameplay. Early on in the game you will spend a lot of your day watering crops one by one, but later you can unlock more and more means to keep crops watered, animals satisfied, and so on to help you get the absolute most out of each day in game.

Stardew Valley is a game with an absolutely wonderful cast of characters, each with their own stories and personalities. You're able to treat them all nice and give them gifts, or give them items that they hate and treat them like garbage. I do think that there are some questionable dialog choices that you can choose during some events, such as rude/creepy ones during scenes you have to work hard to see, or residents openly telling you about things others hate just like it's casual conversation. (Ah yes, let me give one of the characters one of the rarest items in the game just because she hates it)

That being said, each one of the characters have their own unique events to witness, and certain ones (I believe it's like 12?) are able to be married, regardless of if you're playing male or female characters. (Even more neat is that there's custom dialog if you go for characters the same sex as your own)
I feel like there are a few trope-ridden characters that don't have much 'surprise' to them, but it's not enough to break the game or ruin it for me. I was pleasantly surprised by the majority of the cast, and there are plenty of scenes to witness if you treat the folks of Stardew Valley nicely that flesh out their personalities and intricacies.

Secrets! There are numerous secrets to discover, and plenty of them are just sitting there in plain sight.
There's even a cute 'cheat', that you can do at the character creation screen by naming your character after item ids to spawn items whenever your name is said.

Another SPECTACULAR aspect of Stardew Valley is that it's INCREDIBLY optimized. There was NEVER a point in my entire time playing this game that I experienced a stutter, frame drop, or major crash. I had a consistent 60fps the whole way through, and the game was silky smooth. I never had to fumble with graphics settings, worry about resolution, or what have you not. The game is incredibly great for this aspect, as your time playing is never faltered by choppy framerates or buggy crashes. :)

Going for Gold! - If you're ABSOLUTELY serious about beating this game to it's completion, you're in for a considerable journey unless you gear up and get money making fast. This game has a very big hurdle to overcome to see it's credits, but if you keep at it slowly and work on it as the years progress rather than one by one, you'll have a pretty smooth quest playthrough. Of course there's nothing stopping you from just ending the game wherever you want, there is a real urge to finish the game to it's fullest by certain characters who keep the game going after you think you've beaten the first half. The newest 1.5 patch adds a lot of late game content, primarily to add a sense of completion and 'ending' to the game that you'll feel great about.

I'd say that if you're a fan of Harvest Moon titles (Or now better known, Story of Seasons), then you'll enjoy this game greatly. However if you're completely out of the water on those franchises, then there's still a delectable and splendid game to be had here. If Stardew Valley ever goes on sale, it's a definite great grab, but I'd say it's worth every dollar, euro, or yen that you spend on it. This is one of those games that you can play tons of different ways, and at the end of the day the main attraction is the experience you get out of it. Whether it be a mad dash to see how much money you make early on, or silly self-imposed challenges, there is something to be had here for everyone and anyone who plays this game. :D

THIS IS THE ULTIMATE way to play modded Terraria, I have tons of fun playing both with friends and by myself. There are tons of mods to play with, and the only thing you really have to worry about is the occasional crash that's probably caused by some of the billion mods you install. :)

Very calm and relaxing game about maintaining a small garden that sings.