8/23/2023 0 Comments Star dew valley ps4Still, most of my time was spent farming, talking with neighbors, or in dungeons, so this wasn't a deterrent for me when playing these versions. The controller mapping is taken from the PC version, so they're familiar, but the mouse cursor that's used to navigate menus is a little on the slow side. Both the PS4 and Xbox One versions include the great post-launch updates we've seen in the PC version, like the new farm templates, divorce, bug fixes, and more romance options. Stardew Valley's transition to consoles is a smooth one. That route just doesn’t feel fleshed out quite enough, though learning the ins and out of Stardew Valley’s social aspect is still rewarding as a piece of fiction that fits relatively well into the more developed parts of rural life. Marriage is one way to go, and your partner can even get jealous if you give gifts to other previous romance options. What would’ve been even more meaningful is if there were something more I could do with this intimate information and these relationships. Even though becoming his friend was uncomplicated, being his friend felt more meaningful. I watched a grumpy old man yell at him for digging through the trash for food and another man in town offer to give him food if he needed it, and as I befriended him (by giving him meals I’d cooked), I learned more and more about his struggles and successes in living off the land. There’s also a homeless man, Linus, who is completely ostracized by most of the town’s residents. Once I’d gotten a girl’s heart meter up enough - which indicated that I’d given her enough of the right presents, I guess - she told me all about wanting to be a successful artist and how her ex didn’t support her. One kid spends a lot of time in his room because he thinks his mom and stepdad favor his step sister over him, and another girl has a strained relationship with her mom because of her “alternative” lifestyle.įestivals and cutscenes in particular made me feel less like I was just gaming a system. One quest tasked me with finding the mayor’s “shorts,” which ended up being somewhere very scandalous. “It’s frustrating, because the mechanics of forming relationships don’t at all match the depth of the townspeople and their interconnected lives. When they did, I was a bit disappointed at how basic the process of getting to know them was - “making friends” is as simple as making daily small talk, trial-and-error gift-giving, and doing random favors, and I did a lot of that, with varying degrees of success, and eventually forced my way to popularity. It wasn’t easy or even all that rewarding at first - even the friendlier townspeople wouldn’t open up to a complete stranger, which is admittedly pretty realistic. Complex People, Simple SocializingWhen I wasn’t busy tracking down items or figuring out which crops were the best to grow each season, I tried to socialize around town. The solemn, pretty music helped keep me from getting stressed about combat and instead let me focus on the beauty of the underground. ![]() I spent a lot of rainy days and time between harvests underground, fighting slime monsters and skeletons and getting really excited every time I found a rare, useful ore. The simple hack-and-slash combat in the mines is a bit of a grind and not particularly challenging, but the fun comes from the mystery of what comes next and the satisfaction of finding the right items for whatever else I needed and wanted to do. Most of these tasks would become old quickly if you did only that, but the need to change up your activities keeps things from becoming stale, and there’s usually more to them than it initially seems. It’s relaxed, sure, and lets you grow at your own pace, but it’s a rich world once you get past the slow first season. Fitting, since my character had just left a stifling job at the Joja Corporation - Stardew Valley’s ever-present reminder that capitalism can grow soulless - for a simpler life on grandpa’s old farm. Having to plant the right seeds, water your crops, and wait for the harvest before making any real money means there’s not a lot to do right away. Each day in Stardew Valley takes around 10 to 20 real minutes, and several of them are occupied by the slow business of starting a farm from scratch. ![]() As I ventured off my plot of 16-bit land and started to explore, I began to really enjoy the days for everything they are - and how its parts fit together to build a captivating rural life. But the secret of the Valley is that it’s much more than making each day productive on the farm alone. ![]() ![]() It’s not apparent at first - when I started my farm, I planned each tile for maximum efficiency and reset when I accidentally bought the wrong seeds. My favorite thing about Stardew Valley is not just that there’s a lot to see and do, but that it’s (almost) all intertwined.
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