A Love Letter to Stardew Valley

A game that is truly the cream of the crop.

My riverland farm layout, eight years in.

After several real-life months (or eight in-game years) of wine-making, cheese-aging, fruit-dehydrating, pickle-preserving, sheep-shearing, truffle-picking, cow-milking—you get the point—I’ve reached 100%—or, Perfection—on my original Stardew Valley save file from the game’s release on Mac in 2016.

A whopping 0.8% of players reach 100%, a feat which requires:

• Reaching level 10 in all skills

• Cooking 81 recipes

• Shipping 155 Farm & Forage items

• Crafting 149 items (which implies obtaining their recipes as well, often exclusive to villager quests)

• Catching 72 fish

• Completing the Adventurer’s Guild monster slayer quest by killing:

  • 1000 slimes

  • 150 void spirits

  • 200 bats

  • 50 skeletons

  • 80 cave insects

  • 30 duggies

  • 500 dust sprites

  • 60 rock crabs

  • 100 mummies

  • 50 pepper rex dinosaurs

  • 250 serpents

  • 150 magma sprites

• Finding all 130 hidden Golden Walnuts

• Building all four biome Obelisks, a total cost of 4,000,000 g

• Building the Golden Clock (10,000,000 g)

• Reach max friendship with all 34 eligible villagers

• Obtaining the seven rare Stardrops

• A ridiculous amount of mental fortitude.

To give you a reference just on the amount of gold required for Perfection (not including the behind-the-scenes cost of paying for supplies), a strawberry takes 8 days to grow and sells for 120-160 g, depending on its star rating. It would take 87,500 gold-rated strawberries to earn 14,000,000 g, enough for the golden clock and obelisk construction costs. Of course, selling raw materials is not the most efficient way to make gold, and many who came before me have figured the best get-rich-quick schemes. That’s beside the point.

An upgraded shed I filled with kegs for winemaking. Note my jester outfit since I felt like a clown trying to get this achievement.

Eric Barone, Stardew Valley’s sole developer, took heavy inspiration from well-established, wildly successful games like Harvest Moon, Terraria, and Animal Crossing when designing the game; however, in my mind, it stands alone in the genre.

The attention to detail, atmosphere, and replayability are all exceptional, but those qualities aren’t unique to Stardew Valley. Many cozy and farming RPGs have achieved fame in the industry like Sun Haven and Coral Island.

However, no other games have managed to achieve the same level of emotional realism and heartfelt connection. Each character is wildly different in likes and dislikes, career goals, mannerisms, and upbringings, but what makes Stardew Valley so captivating is the characters’ flaws and problems are real.

Kent, a veteran whom the player meets starting in Year 2, battles post-traumatic stress disorder while raising two sons. Shane struggles with his mental health and tends to keep others at arm’s length. Sebastian has trouble accepting his mother’s second marriage and resents his stepfather, Demetrius, and half-sister, Maru. Evelyn and George adapt to disability in old age, having lost their daughter and subsequently taking in their grandson. Mayor Lewis blames himself for how the town has fallen into disrepair and struggles to accept that he deserves happiness from a secret romance that may threaten his public image. Pam struggles with alcoholism and maintaining her relationship with her adult daughter, Penny. Linus, a homeless person, sees himself as an outcast and has become extremely distrustful. Sisters Emily and Haley live on their own while their parents travel the world without knowing when they’ll be home (Okay, maybe this one isn’t so realistic.). The town wizard, M. Rasmodius, lives a life of isolation on the outskirts of the Valley, watching his illegitimate (either Abigail or her mother, Caroline, it’s never quite confirmed) daughter grow up from afar. Even the player has recently experienced loss: losing their grandfather, suddenly inheriting the farm, and adjusting to their new life in the Valley.

To make a crude comparison to another leader in the genre, Animal Crossing: all 413 villagers have one out of eight possible personality types. There just isn’t the same level of empathetic connection for the player (and the game wasn’t ever meant to do that, to be fair). The most real-world issue in Animal Crossing is that Tom Nook scams you into paying millions in loans, and he makes his twin nephews run the local store. Arguably child labor. However, you do slowly befriend the introverted Sable after speaking with her daily for several weeks, a friendship that still tugs at my own heartstrings almost 10 years later. The rest of the game’s conversations are something akin to “I can’t wait to take a nap later!” or “Want this green-striped shirt?”

But beyond the limited emotional realism, Animal Crossing still has a major “achievement” component: catch all of the fish and bugs, complete the Museum fossil collection, buy all of the rare and valuable art pieces, collect all DIY crafting recipes, and receive the top rating from the Happy Home Academy—then what? Of course, the player has full creative freedom to decorate their island or town however they please, but the replayability component of the game is decidedly lacking compared to Stardew Valley.

This isn’t at all a slight on Animal Crossing; I have a collective 1,500 hours of play across the franchise. I’m writing this post at my desk next to my Animal Crossing bell bag pen holder, Rover and K.K. Slider plushies, Punchy holographic stickers, and my Nook’s Cranny beanie that I wear for emotional support every single day of the fall and winter seasons while wearing my Nintendo-licensed Animal Crossing socks. However, Animal Crossing caters to a smaller variety of players compared to Stardew Valley. This is what has propelled Stardew Valley, a game developed by a single computer science engineer, to “stardom” in such a short time.

Stardew Valley has combat, romance, crafting, mystery-solving, farming, fishing, foraging—whatever you want to pursue, you can in Stardew Valley. It has brought millions (literally) of new players into the cozy RPG genre since its 2016 release. And all of those too-real issues from each character I listed—those get better, too.

Kent begins to feel more at home following his return from war as he grows closer with the player. Shane finds joy again taking care of his rare blue chickens, a hobby he has missed for a long, long time because of his depression. Sebastian learns to manage his social anxiety and vocalizes his dreams of moving to the big city. Evelyn and George find peace in each other’s company and raise a wonderful grandson, Alex. Mayor Lewis works together with the player to bring new, bustling life into the Valley. Pam starts a new life after the player helps upgrade her mobile home, gets a job as the town bus driver, and finds faith in Yoba, an in-game deity. Linus starts to trust again and befriends both the player and Leo, a young boy who lives in a treehouse next to Linus’ tent. Emily rescues and rehabilitates an injured parrot, and she teaches the player to sew. Haley hangs on to her family, remembering her great-grandparents with a cherished bracelet, and learns independence living with her sister. The wizard shares his interest in the supernatural with the player, dutifully documenting the strange happenings in the Valley, making potions and reading old texts in his pastime. Eventually, the spirit of the player’s grandpa visits the farm to congratulate you on how far you’ve come and how proud he is.

Most importantly, the player has an active role in the fate of the town and its residents; rebuilding the community center, driving out the predatory Joja corporation, contributing to the town’s library and museum collection, and other community initiatives vastly improve the quality of life for everyone in the Valley. Without you, the town is static with little potential for growth. As the player, though day-to-day you may not notice it, you are healing the town and its residents.

The official Stardew Valley cookbook I purchased to commemorate achieving Perfection.

So, here it is. My letter to the greatest game of all time, the game that has consistently brought me the most joy in my eight years of play time, a game that stands next to Tetris, Pong, and Minecraft in fame and stature, the game that tested my patience, the game that made me feel.