Ginger Island - a critique.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Firstly I seriously enjoy this game. It's the fifth most played in my playlist with over 700 hours in and on my main farm I've just started year six(and STILL not got all the things in the museum - Dwarf Scroll 2 has been a b...ig problem to find - inter alia - I think I'm missing two or three now.)

And I like the vast majority of the things added to the game. The boards at the bottom near the beach provide quests with huge quality of life bonuses. I loved all the things you could find once you got the magnifying glass. Animal crackers are great. Etc. etc.

And I must fully acknowledge that Ginger Island, like all the other game additions, have been very generous freebies.

But, speak it softly, Ginger Island - is it really that well designed ?

I don't like games where you have to play in Windowed mode, multiple wikis open, to make progress. And TBH with the golden nuts isn't that really what you have to do ?

Parrot quest. I arrived on a rainy day, scared one parrot, got one gem and then spent the rest of that day travelling all over the island trying to find the other parrots without success.

Pirate quest - I've got the photo. Now what ? Yes there's a wiki but I shouldn't have to check the wiki to make progress.

Golden Nut quest - how many players are really randomly digging up each square on the island and how many are poring over the wikis ?

With a slightly OCD personality - as will most people with over 700 hours in Stardew - I don't like abandoning my farm unmaintained (and yes I've heard from the chap who probably with 5,000 mods, generates 5 million gold daily all before even waking up at 4 a.m. and you can do one) even though with fed animals nothing irreversibly bad is going to happen if I'm away for a few days I still like everything ship shape before heading out which means I usually hit the island between 1600 and 1700 which makes things tight even with the return sceptre.

The Dungeon on Ginger Island is brilliant. But I honestly feel that too much else on Ginger Island is geared to people with knowledge rather than just exploring and learning for themselves. The Secret Forest and catching rare fish for the community centre were similar but I think this is worse and that Ginger Island could have been designed to be more player friendly.

Game is still great though.

S.x.

[Nakos]

Well... I won't say you're wrong, but do bear in mind, Ginger Island is really meant to be end game content. For those who've already thoroughly beaten all the mainland content and have nothing left to buy or do.

For me ... most runs last about 2 game years. Once I've hit all of Grandpa's objectives, I ... lose interest. I seldom play into the third year. I sometimes unlock Ginger Island, but I've never gotten very far with it.

It's ... just not that compelling for me. Once I have more money than I know what to do with ... well ... meh ... there just doesn't seem to be much of a point in continuing. It's ALL artificial of course, but somehow those first two years feel meaningful to me when I play, but the later years don't.

So ... I'd say that the folks who unlock and actually progress with Ginger Island are the types who really want that kind of level of ... let's say ... intensity.

Me? Yeah, I go to the wiki ... I'm already struggling to maintain interest at that point, but some people probably enjoy it.

[dalgo]

I tend to agree. With the main game I only had to use a wiki occasionally (like finding a villager on their birthday) but for the golden walnuts it's a constant chore and takes away the fun of exploring a new area.

I will say though for the pirate quest I wish now I hadn't gone straight to the Wiki as that is solvable. You are initially given a war memento. It's not a big jump to ask Kent about it and the rest are relatively straightforward.

[red255]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

But, speak it softly, Ginger Island - is it really that well designed ?

Yes, you go on to describe a bunch of brain not braining.

I grew up on Kings Quest obtuse adventure problems of the 1990s.
Tried searching for examples, the list I got wasn't great.

But I've seen puzzles with obtuse solutions and these aren't those. you are just ...not braining.

[NBOX21]

I prefer to think of Ginger Island as the post-game content, for when you've already beaten the game and want something extra to do on your current save file. Kind of like how Kanto is the post-game of Pokémon Gold and Silver as something extra to do when you've already finished the game. I consider the game to be finished once you restore the Community Centre or complete all the JojaMart development forms.

As for the golden walnuts, this may be my collect-a-thon side of things here, but I actually really love them. They provide that extra incentive to explore the island of every nook and cranny for all of the secret areas it may be hiding, and solving the various puzzles you come across. I enjoy collecting stuff in games, as well as collect-a-thons like Spyro and A Hat in Time, so it's just the kind of thing I find fun.

[Mharr]

I don't have a problem with just letting the walnuts show up at their own pace, for me it's all about having a new dungeon with new loot drops.

If you really want to max it out immediately just focus on profit and buy all the walnuts from Jojabird.

The Simon Says cave is pure evil tho.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

It's a fair observation that the game is somewhat a Frankenstein's Monster with a huge amount of extra content grafted onto what was originally a "do or die" two year limit that was brutally hard. I'm in no doubt that the extra content brings a lot to the game and also that the "Perfection" challenge really brings a finale to the game.

I'm hoping that when/ if we get the chocolate factory game Concerned Ape will have made it accessible to mere mortals. "Souls" like Stardew ? Yeeeurrchh.

S.x.

[Castlegate]

Ginger Island is frustrating at first. It doesn't really become much fun for me until I get enough golden walnuts to restore the farm hut. Before that, the time constraints are too stressful.
But after that...I really like to explore Ginger Island. Like NBOX21 wrote, there are so many little secrets to discover on Ginger Island.
I have been hoping for a Prairie Island update, as well.

[red255]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

It's a fair observation that the game is somewhat a Frankenstein's Monster with a huge amount of extra content grafted onto what was originally a "do or die" two year limit that was brutally hard. I'm in no doubt that the extra content brings a lot to the game and also that the "Perfection" challenge really brings a finale to the game.

I'm hoping that when/ if we get the chocolate factory game Concerned Ape will have made it accessible to mere mortals. "Souls" like Stardew ? Yeeeurrchh.

S.x.

what about the community center was 'brutally hard'?

[Great Sage Equal of Heaven]

Bro's it's ok to be just a casual not a serious Stardew player, but it's a bit rich to expect the game to be dumbed down to your level just because you're not prepared to put in the work.

[no1schmo]

Originally posted by Prosecutor Godot:

Bro's it's ok to be just a casual not a serious Stardew player, but it's a bit rich to expect the game to be dumbed down to your level just because you're not prepared to put in the work.

I think it's perfectly reasonable...in theory. If Ginger Island was just ridiculously difficult and felt like a totally different experience than the main game, I'd get it. Like another guy said, if it had moon logic from early adventure games, yuck. But really, he's exaggerating. Yes, it's slightly different, so it's not just precisely more of the same, but it's really not that hard to figure nearly everything out from just exploring and paying attention to clues (I mean, there's a parrot who gives you regular tips). And I too have some OCD where I don't really want to leave the farm until everything is ship shape, but that's a me-problem, not a problem with the game, and it comes up with the mines and skull caverns too.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by red255:

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

It's a fair observation that the game is somewhat a Frankenstein's Monster with a huge amount of extra content grafted onto what was originally a "do or die" two year limit that was brutally hard. I'm in no doubt that the extra content brings a lot to the game and also that the "Perfection" challenge really brings a finale to the game.

I'm hoping that when/ if we get the chocolate factory game Concerned Ape will have made it accessible to mere mortals. "Souls" like Stardew ? Yeeeurrchh.

S.x.

what about the community center was 'brutally hard'?

Nothing. But you also had to collect all Stardrops within the two years including completing the library collection. And THAT is brutally hard.

S.x.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by Prosecutor Godot:

Bro's it's ok to be just a casual not a serious Stardew player, but it's a bit rich to expect the game to be dumbed down to your level just because you're not prepared to put in the work.

But isn't that the point with Stardew ? It is intended to be accessible to all and is it even possible to "lose" the game ? Ginger Island reflects a very great difficulty spike over the rest of the game. Too difficult ?

S.x.

[Little Horn]

The only unreasoanble thing on Ginger Islandis the Mermaid quest. Hints given a... fine... but the tools used for the quest are not used anywhere else, and as such aren't obvious. Most of other things are fine.
If it's hard to get the nuts, you can buy them all from a vendor to the left of the volcano's entrance

[red255]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by red255:

what about the community center was 'brutally hard'?

Nothing. But you also had to collect all Stardrops within the two years including completing the library collection. And THAT is brutally hard.

S.x.

I would say before artifact troves its not brutally hard, just impossible.

[Xegethra]

Yeah I kinda got bored of it after a while. It was fine, just not really my sort of thing. It was a scavenger hunt, and I ended up not bothering in the end. The effort is appreciated though, but I don't think I'm going to do it again.