You can even fight dangerous monsters with full RPG trappings. By performing these central tasks you’ll earn resources that can be used to craft specialized tools or buff your effectiveness in any of these areas. Beyond farming and selling crops, players will also have the option to fish for food, forage for materials, mine for precious metals, or engage in combat with deadly monsters.

With this more freeform style under its hood, one of the key assets to Stardew Valley is its depth. There’s occasional work to be done on such a tight time limit, but at least the game never prevents you from playing it. In-game days only last about 15 minutes, which means you can fly through each 28-day season with reckless abandon. Are you tired of having to use time travel tricks or waiting in real-time to progress through in-game days on your island? Stardew Valley doesn’t have any of that nonsense and instead lets you keep playing through as many days as you can stand. Given that most casual gamers will likely leverage games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons as a point of comparison for Stardew, it’s worth noting this game has several major improvements over Nintendo’s time-sensitive take on island simulation. The plot you’ve been given is full of weeds and other gross environmental hazards, but once that nastiness has been swept or shoveled away, this charming pixelated town is yours to nurture and devour at your leisure.įarming is the main mechanic, of course, but that’s just a stepping stone to a much larger roster of possible careers.

In the vein of its contemporaries like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon, however, there’s no precise goal for how you’ll start your journey or progress within it. Tucked away in Pelican Town is a small farm, fully available for you to cultivate and design as you wish. The setup for Stardew Valley is a simple one: Your grandfather has died (sad), but he’s left you a special gift to help you in the next chapter of your life (cool). We are talking, of course, about Stardew Valley. If you have a Nintendo Switch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a great choice, but did you know that as of December 2, Xbox Game Pass has an even better, and more relaxing, video game experience? Sometimes there’s no better companion than a warm fire, a mug of hot chocolate, your favorite blanket, or better yet: a totally chill video game. With winter winds slowly making their way across the United States, now more than ever, we hunger for the coziest experiences we can find.

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