Stardew Valley Review – No One Said Farming Was Easy

Stardew Valley Review – No One Said Farming Was Easy

Well hey there Gamers I’m Professor Meg and welcome back to board Gameco today I have Alex Radcliffe with me in the house and we are going to be reviewing stardew Valley which is a absolute favorite of mine so in stardew Valley this is actually a game that is made after a

Video game if you know the very popular video game uh you can play on PC switch things like that I have absolutely loved I want to say like 800 hours of stardew Valley um but in the board game you’re going to be doing something very similar so you

Are going to be going around the town you’re going to be taking care of your farm you’re going to be meeting different goals and to win the game you are going to be working on different objectives so you have your grandpa’s goals that you are working towards and

You also have your junimo bundles those are going to be the two things that you’re working towards throughout the game and the game is also limited to Seasons which is very reminiscent of the video game where you have spring summer fall and winter you’re on a very limited

Time track to get everything that you need done which is a lot of goals um and that is stardew Valley beyond that you’re going to be just being exploring you can donate things to the museum for fun you can stop the evil joja Corporation

Um and you can have a cat or a dog it’s your preference anything else there’s a lot there’s a lot going on here there’s a whole bunch of things we’re not going to heavily get into everything but there’s ask for the town you’re going to be exploring from the

Way you’re going to be managing your crops up here and trying to gather various animals you always have the barn and Coop and play and those are going to allow you to take some animal tiles and eventually start rolling dice to be able to get more produce from those tiles you

Can have two buildings that are going to be in play at all times you’re going to have a farm a harvest they will place different things out just just to correction Corner uh I believe Barns and coops you have to build you have to build them yes but they’re always always

In play meaning you have two different buildings that are are variable and two buildings that are always in play you still have to build them they’re always available available they’re not in play yet they’re not employers okay until you purchase them just just okay feel free to continue Alex you’re doing great you

Mentioned already you’re gonna have the mind the mind you’re gonna exploring will and these dice taking the intersection and slowly going further and further deep down into the mine as you go you have the museum where you’re storing special items you’re gonna have the this little area here where you open

Geodes and then you’re gonna be going fishing in three separate areas all these are designed to get you the fishing is one of my least fun things until you get the fishing rod upgraded the fishing in the video game is so fun you have to like press what about in the

Board game in the board game it’s also very fun it’s dice rolling which I absolutely love and live for and I do really well in the fishing so I still love it I like the fishing once you upgrade your tools speaking of which you’re going to have different

Characters you’re gonna have you have four different characters and they have different tools you can have from upgrading your fishing rods to pickaxe giving you more tools to dive deeper to re-roll dice in the fishing giving you the things you need at your disposal while you have this whole host of items

Of Epic items of Mind events you’re gonna be dealing with regular events you’re gonna have your villagers and your friends so just a ton of things going on as you go through those four seasons of play trying to figure out the best way to drive forward to get

Everything you need and accomplish your goals the game is and the game is punishing will feel punishing and you’re gonna have to try to make sure you have your economy and intervalo up and running in order to openly achieve all the goals in play now I think we may

Have said it but just to say it again this is a Cooperative game so everyone is working together toward those goals it is your shared Farm um so there’s no competitive aspect to it which I really appreciate because it is pretty difficult um I’ve come close to losing most times

I think I’ve only actually lost this once though I have lost it I want to say twice I think I’ve won it once it’s difficult yeah which I very much appreciate I love it it is deceivingly cute it is adorable it is a farm you have bunnies and chickens and goats but

It’s tough now if you want more information for the game there’s a ton of information out there you can check out a full playthrough fun before you play I did a fantastic challenge at a full place of the game check that out uh past that we’re gonna go ahead and dive

Into the review with our thoughts of the game starting off with what we like Meg you like stardew Valley and for context I play stardew Valley zero times Meg has played what you said two hours starter Valley two hours yes two hours two hours

Just a quick just a quick two in and out yeah and for those of you who Skip straight to the thoughts part what was it 800 hours yeah something it was a lot of hours anyone has curious the only things I haven’t done in stardew Valley

Is I haven’t gotten to level 99 in the mines yet and I never got married wow level 99 of Mines yep how many levels are there 99 how many have you gotten to remember if you get a reward for 99 so I don’t think it tracks for you how low you go

And I don’t remember how well only 12 levels in the board game though but with that let’s go ahead and dive into a review of this game starting off with like a setback what do you like about the game yeah so there are a few aspects that I really appreciate about the game

Um it definitely makes the farm a very important part which is you know the heart of the game um but also gives you a lot to do around the town so it has the different areas that you would usually visit in the video game um and they all have different action

Parts for you points for you um so I just think that was done really well something else that I really love is the foraging tiles um in the game it’s something very common that you’re walking around and you see a little squiddly sticking out of the ground and

You’re like what is that and it could be anything um so I do really like the tile system that they have and um to me it’s like this is silly but it’s a little reminiscent of uh A Feast for Odin I was thinking like just in the

Sense that they give you all these tiles and it’s so fun and you can kind of pick anything you want you do have goods and they are upgradable yeah stuff like the physical system of it there’s different ways to get your hands in them from the various animals I I buy

That I I was skeptical my face my face but I buy it now but yeah I just I you know I really enjoy this this tray like you have all these things and people you can use they’ll help you in different ways yes and that is something that I

Did want to say actually Alex was that for uh the mechanics that are in this uh so there are different people that you befriend and befriending them will give you Hearts which are a different like resource in the game that you need to do different things but people all have

Birthdays just like in the video game so I feel like with this the birthday system that they did you get a boon if you gain them as a follower and it’s already their birthday month or their birthday season and then when it is their birthday season I think you get

The thing again and then every time there’s a trigger on these cards you also get the birthday ability so I think that that’s something that just made it feel very rewarding and took something that was in the video game and made it purposeful in a board game um that I really really like

Particularly the birthday system and that it feels useful making friends whereas I thought in the video game it wasn’t that useful making friends it’s fair as far as myself there’s a few things I like about the game first of all the game is lotus charm or somebody

Who has not played a starter Valley I appreciate the degree of charm to this presentation as you wander around gather various things and there’s a strong sense of top load building as you go through it as well you are going to be upgrading and developing as you go like

I said upgrading the tools is a lot of fun you really get that flexibility of like feeling like you actually have a lot more control you can adding more crops more animals building your buildings getting further in the mine all these things you do across the

Course of the game give you a sense of more progression it starts off and you get you get three quarters of the way through the game and you’re like I don’t know how we’re ever gonna get things done and then that last quarter there’s so much that’s happening because of that

Tableau building and I really appreciate that sense of accomplishment of kind of having the struggle of the entire way through but then as you get towards that end towards that last five six seasons you really start to see the the progression you see that that lighter

Than the tunnel where you may or may not make it but you start to understand how it’s all coming together how you actually will be able to get those last Grandpa’s goals the the bundles all those things you go through and so I I appreciate that the difficulty does lend

Itself to that sense of progression as you go through it um I also believe that in this the Jojo operation is actually more difficult um for me in the video game I was able to not really deal with them uh or have too much happen with the joja

Corporation and this they can shut down things um I forgot exactly what the time they basically block the response until you do something about them yeah and then you have to deal with it and pay into that and stop that as well that I do feel that JoJo is a good threat in

This almost more than the video game as far as things you don’t like in the game what do you not like um I do think sometimes you can get a bit stuck in different areas especially in the mines I I feel like with the rolling the dice

I don’t know I don’t know how I would play it differently like maybe if the pickaxe also let you reroll certain things or something like that but I feel like the Mind system particularly I’ve never seen executed well and I want to say the last time we played you even

Went through very well but it still didn’t seem like you were even enjoying it or doing it smoothly you were like oh well we’ve we’ve fell to the bottom and I will say I believe if I’m not mistaken there are two editions of this game and I believe the second edition did make

Some corrections to that aspect or to some aspects I think the mine was one of them I think in general the mind is recognized as the hardest goal to achieve going through all the levels of the mind is just very very hard to do across 16 seasons and so 16 turns not 16

Seasons but yeah I think the mind is generally recognized to be the most difficult I find mine fun but as far as accomplishing the actual progression of it that one tends to be hard I think there’s gonna be a bunch of things the first thing is going through the

Difficulty scaling I find this is a game that when you’re playing with the full character four characters whether or not the number of players you can control multiple characters each but when you have the full four characters it feels like you have a chance and whenever I played at anything other than four

Characters that’s why I just I feel feel like I’m like okay great I just don’t think I don’t think this balance and again I don’t know if I can just adjust to that for that or not I have played this both physically and online to clarify Alex is saying all of these

Goals that you’re trying to meet there is always six genomo bundles and there are always four of Grandpa’s goals so you always have to meet all 10 of these goals now the one thing that you can do is I believe there’s a mechanic where if

You can’t do these cards if you’re at a point where you can’t do them you can pay to uh change it out but then you have to be able to meet those cards so like Alex is saying you could have one character and it’s left to meet all 10

Of those goals yes and there is a degree of most of the goals do have a degree of progression scaling around the character count so that you have that balance but it’s a sheer action economy of moving around especially because you have to move around the board and do things the

Action economy just gets very very stagnant at lower player accounts I found four it is a challenge anything less than four and I almost feel like it’s not worth playing uh the second thing I’ll say is that while I enjoy the Arc of the game it’s an arc that for me

Didn’t last that long as I played the game more and more I find that the the course the core Arc of what you’re doing is very similar very procedural game to game and not a lot of things mix it up for me especially because you anyways want to include all four characters so

By the time I’m three games into it I feel like I enjoy it but I’m doing some degree of the same thing and that kind of lends stuff hand in hand with the last thing I have to complain about which is I think the game is too long

For what it is I think this game feels like a defensive opinions I feel this game feels like it goes It goes like to two hours long I don’t even disagree yeah but I think to match the video game I just don’t know how you do it better I

Don’t disagree with that either but at the end of the day I feel that to me once I play like the first time sure the first time I kind of got I’m fine with it but from subsequent plays I feel that this ends up feeling like a an

Experience that should have been 60 to 90 minutes and runs two hours plus to actually play through I think it runs a little long I would agree I’m pretty Snappy and quickly I like I set it up without stuff like that and it still does play pretty long

Um one of the things too that I was going to touch on was the uh Museum yes the museum I feel like never really does anything you can donate things to it and I believe it does different stuff I think maybe sometimes the Juno June more

Rewards have to do with it but honestly the museum I’ve never really seen successfully donated to and the other thing is this Crow track so this is where you’re going to be putting your crops um so none of these are crops yeah pumpkins are crops so if you had a pumpkin

Um because it is a five you would put it here at the five and then every time it rains you would move it down this track but if it’s in the red when a crow card is drawn it would get eaten on you so I just never saw that Crow track ever be

Formidable either like you can fill crops so quickly I don’t I don’t think girls ever even eat the crops anyway yeah yeah as far as final thoughts and rating and I don’t think I actually prepped you a fact that there’s me a reading gear but as far as final

Thoughts are reading I’ll go first in this one uh for me I enjoy stardew Valley I thought it was very fun and compelling the first time I played I thought it was fun and compelling the second time I played and I thought it was a little long for what it is the

Third time I played it’s one of those games that for me did get a little bit worse as I went through it as it felt of the semi game to game I think that is a good game and I had fun with this one and it’s an experience that I think does

A great job from what I’ve heard from what I’ve seen although you address that more does a good job of turning the video game into a board game while maintain that sense of feel to it ultimately for me it runs a little long it doesn’t have the great difficulty

Scaling and it does feel a little procedural game to game so that while I enjoy it I recommend it I kind of enjoy it as a like a good game to experience as opposed to one that I necessarily think lasts as long at least for me for

Me it’s a 3.5 out of 5. I enjoy it I like it but I’m also ready to move on from it yeah for me I’m not gonna give it a reading that’s fair because I want to do that but let me know if you guys want me

To maybe I’ll figure out a rating skill because I don’t even have one um but the thing that I was thinking as you’re saying this which I kind of forgot Alex is that part of where this game fell flat for me is that you’re building out your form that is the heart

Of the game everything else is secondary that’s how you’re getting it so you’re building out your farm you have to go to shops to buy seats you have to go here to buy animals all those different things and that’s why you leave your farm and in this there’s so much focus

On the town in stardew Valley that you don’t really experience the farm that much and in the video game Alex you you have an entire Farm where you place different things and you set up where your crops go and it’s it’s a really fun puzzle that I wish in this there had

Been some sort of secondary border Tableau to really build your farm um because I think for for it to be stardew Valley it did everything great except the farm um and to me that’s disappointing to me I wish there was a mansion yeah or like a stardew valley 2.0 yeah that’s that as

Far as other game recommendations if you like this if you want to see something else if you want to get another game out there for myself I’m gonna recommend flamecraft a very different game but I think stardew Valley one of the areas where potentially Falls flat is how

Punishing it can be especially if you’re someone walking in expecting a lighter experience and this is not that a game that’s very different in many senses but kind of gives me the same feeling and Vibe and charm but while being I think a lot more accessible is flamecraft from

Carbon alchemy that I think has a lot of charm around the dragons and the creatures competitive as opposed to Cooperative but just a very Charming game that gives me the same Vibes interesting and yourself so this is funny Alex asked me what game I would

Compare it to and he asked me about five minutes before we started the video and I was like I don’t know and then I thought about it and I thought about it and I thought about a game where you go location to location over a map that’s Cooperative that’s very punishing and

Difficult that has six to ten goals that you’re trying to beat and you’re picking up different clue tokens along the way so I thought yours going towards landcraft there the way you kept yourself oh no it’s like interesting five minutes before I also thought no it

Honestly reminded me a lot of a light Farm based foreign which sounds insane but if you took away the decks and you just moved around the map looking for clue tokens and monsters and things along the way kind of similar so you went mechanics I went charm and feeling yeah which

Honestly is part of the problem this game has the charm and feeling of flamecraft and the uh the toughness of a game like Arkham Horror that is kind of yeah cool in any case that is basically it until next time I’m Alex Radcliffe from Morgan Co I’m Professor Meg and

Have a good one bye

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A cooperative board game of farming and friendship based on the Stardew Valley video game by Eric Barone. Work together with your fellow farmers to save the Valley from the nefarious JojaMart Corporation! To do this, you’ll need to farm, fish, friend and find all kinds of different resources to fulfill your Grandpa’s Goals and restore the Community Center. Collect all kinds of items, raise animals, and explore the Mine. Gain powerful upgrades and skills and as the seasons pass see if you’re able to protect the magic of Stardew Valley!
The goal of the game is to complete Grandpa’s Goals and restore the Community Center, which requires you to gather different types of resources represented by tiles. You have a fixed amount of turns to accomplish this. This is driven by the Season Deck of 20 cards, one of which is drawn each turn to trigger certain events. Cooperatively the players decide each turn where they will focus their individual actions and place their pawn in that part of the Valley. Using their actions, they visit specific locations, trying to gather resources to complete their collective goals. Actions include things like: watering crops, trying to catch fish, rolling dice to explore the mines, and many more. When the Season Deck is exhausted, the game ends.

BGG Link – https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/332290/stardew-valley-board-game

TimeStamps:
0:00:00 – Overview
0:04:15 – What We Like
0:07:44 – What We Don’t Like
0:11:42 – Final Thoughts
0:13:36 – Recommendations

5.0 – My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 – Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 – Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 – Really enjoyed, don’t love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 – A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn’t lose any sleep.
2.5 – A game I’d play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 – A game I don’t want to play again
1.5 – A game I can’t find any reason to recommend
1.0 – A game that is just bad.

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