Life As A Farmer - A Stardew Valley review. WARNING SPOILERS

Back in August 2017 I picked up Stardew Valley I had heard a lot of good things about the game but honestly didn't have massive hopes for the game as Farming Simulators always felt flat to me. I was expecting a small simulator with no story, bland characters  and pretty much no depth... I have never been more happy to be wrong.

Starting out when your character inherits a farm from your deceased grandfather you leave the stressful and hectic city life for the peaceful life in the countryside. You arrive to find your farm overgrown and abandoned, your home is nothing more than a shack and its clear you have a lot of work on your hands. Proceeding on through the game you come across the battle between Joja Mart (the big corporate business trying to take over the Valley's community center) and the Junimos (Spirits of the forests trying to save their home). You may choose to help either faction but the pathways are considerably different, Joja's path is all about money whereas the Junimos have you collect items relating to farming. The Junimos path is harder and take more commitment but its so worth it to get that awesome trophy.

Across the story there is a rich cast of characters all with a great stories exploring several scenarios and some dark topics too, from Shane's story of dealing with and battling depression and being suicidal, to Leah's story of breaking away from a possessive and controlling lover, or Kent the returning solider dealing with PTSD and trying to reconcile with his family including the son hes grown distant from.


That is a only a brief description of some of the amazing stories you will encounter; These stories are written with so much heart and passion that you find yourself caring deeply for them all for example there is one scene where George tells you how he ended up in his wheelchair and its truly heart breaking. Obviously these stories don.t just  happen you need to earn friendship, respect and love from all the villagers which you do by giving gifts to the villagers and depending on the gifts you give them will determine their amount they relationship changes. For example give someone a bad gift then their love/opinion of you will go down but give them something they love then you will get a high rise to your love meter.

One feature of the game is creating a family, when you get to a stage in your relationship you can make certain characters your boy/girlfriend and eventually Spouse although some characters can be a bit forward even before you start dating... although Leah's invitation was very tempting.
(Leah became my wife if you couldn't guess)

The music and sound effects really make the this game special, from the satisfying POP from picking crops to the soft swaying music that just make you feel calm and at peace. This music had such a calming effect I found my stress levels had significantly reduced after I had played this for a few days, after a few months I felt like another person as far as stress levels were concerned.    


The truly amazing thing is how this game was made by one person Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) I salute you, in my wildest dreams I couldn't do what you have done you have made a true masterpiece of gameplay, storytelling and endless fun; you have proven that games don't need to have crisp and realistic graphics all you need is well written characters, great gameplay and an awesome story. I would rate Stardew Valley 10 out of 10, any faults I could find would be very minor and don't effect the  score.