Stardew Valley A Perfect Fit For Switch

Stardew Valley is ported to the Switch and works beautifully on the go.

Stardew Valley for the Switch released Oct 5th 2017. It is a Harvest Moon like farming simulator/RPG, i looked into this game heavily when it first released but for some unknown reason i kept putting it off until one day i finally went to buy the game for my PC but heard it was going to be released on the Nintendo Switch so i waited knowing i’d love the game more on something portable and man was i right and it worth the wait.

Indie titles like this suit the Nintendo Switch, Stardew Valley suits both of the play styles on the Switch, this alone enhances the gameplay immensely, many of the benefits of Stardew Valley are benefits due to the Switch as a console itself and why i personally think it will keep a massive indie backing to hold up the console. Games I play on the Switch are such a delight and easily portable allowing players like me to easily take it to a friends house and set up the switch with complete ease. But that's enough talking about the Switch back to Stardew Valley

Ill mainly be talking about my first year in the game as that is how far i’ve progressed in the game so far, I barely have scratched the surface of what's to come, playing through the first year took me roughly 27 hours and i know for a fact i haven't even seen half of the things you can make or produce yet meaning this game has a tonne of content and game time to it making it such a steal at the price its at.

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Story

The game starts off with your Grandpa dying and handing you a letter which you are not to open until you feel too burdened by modern day life, fast forward to the future our character obviously is getting sick of his office job and opens his grandfather's letter. He finds out it is a deed giving him some farm land in stardew valley. So off goes our character to Stardew Valley where you are quickly introduced to your farming plot which needs a good clean up and the town around you.

In the first year i have not experienced too much in terms of story myself but i have heard there is a storyline to play through

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Gameplay

Right off the bat you find out there's not much of a tutorial in this game which i love, it goes a long way in the approach of showing you what's around and not telling you making this a very hands off game leaving everything up to you the player. Obviously the main aspect of the game is revolved around farming and maintaining your farm to make a profit and slowly increase your farmstead etc.

This game actually involves quite a few other things to do inside the game which all flow together amazingly and allow very easy interaction between the activites an example of this is needing certain items from doing other activities to help get better fertilizer or sprinklers for your plants. Although if there is any part of the game you don't like there are shops around town for you to buy certain resources if you have the cash. Every day in Stardew Valley doesn't become repetitive due to the amount of things you can do and choosing when to do them and also the abundance of quests that come up and allow you to do other things including scheduled events such as birthdays for other people in towns or different kinds of festivals Long story short there’s never a dull moment and I’ve yet to scratch the surface.
A few of the activities you can do in the game are as follows;

Farming

Growing crops and maintaining them depending on what can grow that season

Rancher

Taking care of animals on your farm and meeting their requirements to give you resources

Fishing

Able to go to any water spot or better places like the beach to go fishing and catch some fish to make into food or sell

Mining

There is a mine in the town in which you can go mine and travel deeper into the mines, this features a very simple combat system and enemies that remind me playing some of the older GBA Zelda titles

Foraging

Cutting down trees and foraging any bushes around town for wild berries and plants.

Social

Everyone in the town is able to be interacted with and have very interesting characteristics to each of them few of the male and female NPC’s are even able to marry you if you get close enough with them by giving gifts

The more you perform these tasks the higher your "skill" becomes which raises your efficiency in the respective area.
Everything you do is done at your own pace and when you want to do it making the game very casual and easy to pick up and you are able to focus on anything other than farming if you wanted too

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Art & Sound

I do always adore some of these pixel farming sim games and there's no exception here the artstyle to this game is drop dead gorgeous and i just love playing and looking at my farm as i slowly upgrade it. That brings me to the soundtrack in this game, it's just amazing i really don't have much words nor am i great at describing soundtracks but there has been many times i've hit pause and gone to browse the web leaving the soundtrack of Stardew Valley to fill my room. In reality it's just great background music allowing you to have a nice chill time doing whatever you want to be doing in Stardew Valley

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Conclusion

Stardew valley has been a complete blast to play and has kept me completely hooked to play more the Farming Sim and intertwined RPG elements work beautifully to make this game a classic to me. and i know i won't stop playing this any time soon, if you haven't picked this up i highly recommend you to do so now on whatever platform you own you will not regret it at all, It's only $14.99 USD don't miss out on it

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Rating 9/10

What is your favourite thing about Stardew Valley? I want to try and start a discussion about this game and everyone that puts in comments related to the game will be upvoted by me at 30c so be sure to comment!

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Be sure to follow @JuicyShark

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