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Fishing is probably my favorite aspect of the game. I enjoy the challenge of catching all the different species. It's extremely rewarding, especially given how difficult some of them can be to catch. Nothing beats finally reeling in one of the Legendary Fish. I also really enjoy the NPCs and building relationships with them. I think it's fun to get to know everyone in the town and learn their quirks and interests. Some of the NPC cutscenes are so cute!
I'd say combat is probably my least favorite aspect. I find it to be kind of stressful and tedious and not as rewarding as the other skills.
This!
I managed most of the caverns (with a struggle!) but I could never get past the level 5 merchant on Ginger Island's volcano. I was able to buy the Cinderclown shoes but never was able to get beyond that to the forge at the top to make the unique weapons and more importantly, the way in-and-out again. That's when I quit playing a couple years ago and moved on to other games.
- economics
- different possible decisions which doesn't feel like i need to sacrifice half the fun for one way or the other
- coop option
- easy to play and i can do it without paying full attention or the need to push it into min-max territory (unless i want to obviously)
- reminds me of my childhood
I still remember the first time playing it. My character was just a poor dirty done dirt cheap corporal slave wage that finally decided it's enough. And then the game proposed the character to farm. Weird and oddly enough.
Coming to the grandpa's farm and you are still... dirty done dirt cheap. But hey, at least the farmer got someone who kinda warmed up to them.
The moment my character get something new, and it's always a fun choice. I always fascinated by more options available in the game. From the best like farming to the worst like foraging, combat; it's still entertaining. I did modding a lot to remove lots of hard parts though
Stardew Valley starts on a positive note already with its main menu, the choice of music and visuals and input feedback (like clicking buttons) are already fun in their own way.
The fun mostly comes from:
"here be dragons and their cave, do whatever you want with them, also your actions have some impact on the dragons and the cave".
"look at all the [???] pokemon slots you havent found!!! oooh, mystery :)"
The game isn't even a sprite art masterpiece, but it is captivating because of many small things that have attention to detail, e.g. nobody ever tells you to fill that bowl with water, but on a random chance that you try, it does. Seasons change and many things with them.
Its like a relaxing playground, that you can turn into an industrial revolution 2.0 if you want, for some reason.
The only part I dont like about Stardew Valley is that the passage of time in the town is as fast as in the farm. I sometimes get a bit anxious feel because of the "timer". I just want to explore and interact with the world a bit when im not "working on the farm".
I understand the whole game design aspect and the limitations for progression, but I feel like it was a mistake to have same time progression in the town with NPCs as outside of town.
Sure the minmaxxers would fish in the town 24/7, but really, who cares about them, i wanna chill a bit.
human brains go nuts on "one more turn" type stuff. playing "one more day" because your crops are almost ready, your tool is almost ready, it's gonna rain tomorrow, the festival is tomorrow, etc was the gacha before actualy gacha became a thing.
First Spring - Bottom of Mines & The Legend Caught.
First Summer - Married.
First Winter - Community Center Completion.
Second Year - Perfection.
Stardew is fantastic for an 'optimiser' like me. To name a few other games I like for the same reason - ULTRAKILL, Gloomwood, and Warhammer Vermintide 2.
All games that are definitely similar to Stardew.
I think a big part of it, is how relaxed the game is.
It doesn't throw any major time limits at you, with the exception of a few optional quests (mainly Qi's challenges), unlike the Harvest Moon games (at least some of the earlier ones).
There's no Gone Forevers, so no stress or anxiety about permanently missing out on something (other than the CC/Joja choice at the beginning of the game that is mutually exclusive with each other).
The game gives you many different ways of attaining your goals, it gives you a variety of activities you can do, and it encourages you to do all of them, but doesn't force you to do any of them other than maybe a little for the CC Bundles if you go the CC route. Otherwise you are free to do whatever you want, however you want.
As for the activities themselves, they are reasonably fun and engaging, but without a ton of micro-management. You don't need a spreadsheet or a PhD or a guide to figure out how to actually be successful. If you want to be more successful, you simply do more of what you're doing. A lot of other sim games, a lot of times, I'll start a game and it's "how the frick do you ACTUALLY get anywhere in this game?" because there's some magic trick to actually getting started that the game doesn't explain very well. That leads me onto my next point...
The game is balanced reasonably well, that most activities and most things will get you progress. There's no "this is absolutely useless" (regardless of what min-maxxers will tell you). Again, a lot of games will present you with some options, but some of those options just aren't even worth pursuing because they give so little return, but a new player to the game wouldn't know that.
The art style has quite a bit of charm, the controls of the game are simple, and (for the most part) they do exactly what you'd want them to do, nothing more nothing less. The music is also pleasant to listen to, as you go about your daily life in the game, having enough varied tracks for the seasons, that you aren't listening to the same thing over and over again. There are, IIRC, 3-4 tracks for each season, and they are mixed so that you never get the same track two days in a row, and each season is only 28 days, so you don't hear a singular track that often.
It's just... farm simming done right. Not sure how else to really describe it.
EDIT: The lack of a weapon/tool durability/breaking is also awesome. My #1 pet peeve in games that try this kind of style, is your tools breaking on you constantly. That is never fun, nor engaging. It's pure frustration and annoyance. In fact, that's another thing that I love about SDV. Fences are the only thing that require maintenance (and even then, it's quite generous, with the weakest fences lasting almost half an in-game year). Once you build or make something, it's yours to keep and you don't have to do any tedium to maintain/fix/repair/whatever.