I've been mulling about checking out this game for a while now, and with the GOTY talks (and recent console release) it's caught my interest again, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger. My biggest concern is whether it's a somewhat guided or "do whatever you want to" game. I'm not necessarily looking for quest logs and bars to fill, but are there actual goals you're building towards or is it just up to you if you want to have a nicer garden or make everyone in the city happy or whatever ?

There actually is a "Quest Log" of sorts. You don't need to follow any of it of course, but its there if you need it

The game certainly has goals for you to focus on, but I found that they are more like training wheels to get you accustomed to its world. That's not to say the goals go away, just that as you get comfortable with Stardew Valley you'll start to gravitate to the parts of the game you enjoy more. In any case, it's certainly a more directed experience than the Harvest Moon games of old.

There's a community centre that needs to be rebuilt by foraging, fishing and growing certain items, most can only be found in certain seasons. There's a quest board in the main town square where people want things. Or you can also spend 100 hours building a beautiful farm.

If you're not bored by repetition then you'll be fine. Plenty of grinding to be done, it's pretty chill and you can vary it.

@ares42 said:

It's sorta hard to describe, so here's what I'll say about the structure:

1. The game "lasts" two years, at which point you are given a rating. The rating doesn't really affect anything and you can keep playing after.

2. Most everything you do in the game will go towards your final rating in some way. So whether you are leveling up your fishing skill, your mining skill, getting to know villagers, etc., it's all going towards that rating.

3. You don't need to do everything, or even most, of that content to achieve the maximum rating. This means that if something doesn't speak to you, you don't need to do it.

4. Each "thing" to do typically has narrative hooks built into it and milestone goals along the way. For example, if you want to fish a lot, you'll get skill ups that allow you to do more things. It might also unlock special dialogues with certain characters.

5. There is an overall "narrative" involving the Community Center vs. Evil Corporation. You can engage with it or not, and you can pick one side or the other. Like everything else, it will contribute to your overall rating. The other skills will help you advance as well, although none if it is strictly speaking "necessary." For example, you might need a particular kind of mineral for the Community Center, which you can obtain by exploring the mine. But if mining isn't your thing, there will be opportunities to just buy it.

So, yeah. The one thing the game does really well, maybe better than any other game I've played, is to tie a lot of individual activities together so that they all feed into one another. If you fish, chances are that's benefiting you in some way in another area. Same thing with farming, being social, etc.

@lawgamer: Awesome, a lot of stuff I didn't expect at all =) With the 2 year structure, does that mean you'll find yourself doing "runs" where you do different things, or is there so much more to strive towards that it's usually more rewarding to keep building on what you had at the end ?

@ares42 said:

Personally, I spent my time optimizing the layout of my farm. I think runs are a little unrealistic because the game is long. No joke. Each day takes about 12 minutes if you don't choose to sleep early. Each year is 4 seasons of 30 days a piece. So:

12 Minutes/Day * 30 Days = 360 minutes or 6 hours per season

6 hours * 4 seasons = 24 hours/year

24 hours * 2 years = 48 hours if you go all the way through.

That said, I haven't played in awhile. I know the recent PS4 version has multiple farm maps you can choose from that focus on different skills and offer different challenges. The original PC version had only one map, so the more recent versions might have more replay value. Overall, the dev has been really, really good about adding more content over time.

If I were to do multiple runs, it would be to see how different romance options play out, since there's a ton of them, and the dev has added a few since the game was released.

Lawgamer has already nailed this but just want to state that I agree with him that optimizing and designing your farm is a strong hook for me, its just a shitty disgusting plot when you start, but bit by bit you rip through the muck and end up with something awesome that you design down to the pathways, striking a balance of buying new seeds and equipment while upgrading old plots becomes incredibly satisfying, the way you go from having to manually water plants to even just getting that first basic sprinkler is a journey in itself.

Guides are nice and looking at a basic list of "How to get started" and "Easy mistakes to make" can save you some trouble down the road and here are links to non-spoiler but helpful resources PCGamer Stardew Guide and Stardew Wiki the Wiki is the ultimate cheat sheet so if you wanna know something its pretty much your one stop shop.