DISCLAIMER:
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.
NOTE: This review reflects only my playtime on a new farm in the newest 1.6 update. My true cummulative playtime is currently about 500 hours.
Despite loving all the time I spent playing this game, I was not planning on playing any more Stardew Valley even with the 1.6 update on the horizon, but after having a quick look at the big change log with loads of new content (among which were new achievements) I figured it was actually time to do a playthrough in which I actually manage to reach perfection.
I, therefore, went in with high expectations for all the new things this update would bring and, although they all work together to improve on the base game experience, nothing stands out as big or as important as 1.5 felt. They all feel like minor quality of life features scattered throughout the progression.
The bulk of the new content comes in the form of "Masteries" which are basically a final level for each of the five skills that can only be unlocked by gathering tons of experience from any source after having reached max level. I say "tons of xp" but you get so much of it by doing literally anything that it doesn't take that long to achieve. It literally took me longer to get my foraging level from 7 to 10 to unlock masteries in the first place than it took me to get the experience needed to have all masteries. The rewards vary from good to mediocre, but none stand out as amazing. I feel like some of the items normally unlocked and bought in Qi's Wallnut Room would fit better as mastery rewards, but I also understand not wanting to change the content from previous updates.
I, personally, do highly enjoy the new festivals. Both fishing mini-festivals are cool in concept and require strategy to reach their golas effectively, however I feel they are lacking in useful and worthwhile rewards. The desert festival, on the other hand, is actually very good. Having multiple quests that test different skills and reward you with a currency that you can spend on the items of your choice instead of random rewards feels very good. (I might be a bit biased as I just so happened to get the last artifact I was having trouble getting by having Vincent show up in one of the vendor booths on the third day of the festival selling me the Skeletal Hand I so desperately needed.) And most of all I loved that Year 2 had different layouts and dialogues for all festivals (along with new dialogues after quests, events, bouquets, marriage, etc.) made everything feel fresh and townpeople more alive and less robotic and repetitive. Made me wish There were even more layouts for years 3 and 4, but I also understand that the first two years are what is considered the main story.
Regarding things that weren't from the update but it was my first time doing them: I married Sam, so that was a blast; I got as many events as I could and I actually read all of them instead of skipping the ones for NPCs I didn't care about; I finally beat Fector's Challenge (although I had to resort to the save-scummy method); I played and beat the new and improved version of Junimo Kart and I loved it, I don't know why it gets so much hate; I found all Golden Wallnuts and it's still my favorite part of 1.5, they feel very much like TLoZ:BotW Koroks; I did many Qi Quests, Special Requests and Help Wanted Quests, so I always had some goal or another I was working towards; I managed to use Farm Warp Totems more effectively than ever before; I built the Farm Obelisks for the first time in my life and didn't use them even once, I'm simply not used to them; and last, but not least in the slightest, I farmed the money to buy the Golden Clock.
Either my money farming set-up was very inefficient or I'm stupid, but I just do not understand why the Clock is so goddamn expensive. It was taking so long to get the money and I was long done with any other non-repetitive task that I simply gave up playing through each day and started sleeping through them. And even like that it took seasons for me to get to 10 million gold. Had I actually played through all that, my playtime would have been shot up to 200 hours easily. I think it's an unreasonable amount of gold and not worth at all other than perfection and it should be removed or at the very least its price should be significantly lowered.
With that rant out of the way, I finally achived perfection, reached the summit, watched the short cutscene and then came the credits... Wait, what?! This game has credits scene after you reach perfection? How did I not know about this? And why was Cow (White) included but not Cow (Brown)? That just seems unfair. Anyway, that was a nice surprise I did not expect at all and it really made everything worth it. I can now say that I am done with Stardew Valley once and for all. (or until I decide to do a run with remixed bundles enabled, if I ever get around to it)
Overall, what can be said about a game like Stardew Valley that hasn't been said before? It's good, great even. It's the epitome of farming simulator games. It's so good it's capable of hooking in players who are not normally fans of the genre. Highly recommend it to everyone with no caveats.
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.
NOTE: This review reflects only my playtime on a new farm in the newest 1.6 update. My true cummulative playtime is currently about 500 hours.
Despite loving all the time I spent playing this game, I was not planning on playing any more Stardew Valley even with the 1.6 update on the horizon, but after having a quick look at the big change log with loads of new content (among which were new achievements) I figured it was actually time to do a playthrough in which I actually manage to reach perfection.
I, therefore, went in with high expectations for all the new things this update would bring and, although they all work together to improve on the base game experience, nothing stands out as big or as important as 1.5 felt. They all feel like minor quality of life features scattered throughout the progression.
The bulk of the new content comes in the form of "Masteries" which are basically a final level for each of the five skills that can only be unlocked by gathering tons of experience from any source after having reached max level. I say "tons of xp" but you get so much of it by doing literally anything that it doesn't take that long to achieve. It literally took me longer to get my foraging level from 7 to 10 to unlock masteries in the first place than it took me to get the experience needed to have all masteries. The rewards vary from good to mediocre, but none stand out as amazing. I feel like some of the items normally unlocked and bought in Qi's Wallnut Room would fit better as mastery rewards, but I also understand not wanting to change the content from previous updates.
I, personally, do highly enjoy the new festivals. Both fishing mini-festivals are cool in concept and require strategy to reach their golas effectively, however I feel they are lacking in useful and worthwhile rewards. The desert festival, on the other hand, is actually very good. Having multiple quests that test different skills and reward you with a currency that you can spend on the items of your choice instead of random rewards feels very good. (I might be a bit biased as I just so happened to get the last artifact I was having trouble getting by having Vincent show up in one of the vendor booths on the third day of the festival selling me the Skeletal Hand I so desperately needed.) And most of all I loved that Year 2 had different layouts and dialogues for all festivals (along with new dialogues after quests, events, bouquets, marriage, etc.) made everything feel fresh and townpeople more alive and less robotic and repetitive. Made me wish There were even more layouts for years 3 and 4, but I also understand that the first two years are what is considered the main story.
Regarding things that weren't from the update but it was my first time doing them: I married Sam, so that was a blast; I got as many events as I could and I actually read all of them instead of skipping the ones for NPCs I didn't care about; I finally beat Fector's Challenge (although I had to resort to the save-scummy method); I played and beat the new and improved version of Junimo Kart and I loved it, I don't know why it gets so much hate; I found all Golden Wallnuts and it's still my favorite part of 1.5, they feel very much like TLoZ:BotW Koroks; I did many Qi Quests, Special Requests and Help Wanted Quests, so I always had some goal or another I was working towards; I managed to use Farm Warp Totems more effectively than ever before; I built the Farm Obelisks for the first time in my life and didn't use them even once, I'm simply not used to them; and last, but not least in the slightest, I farmed the money to buy the Golden Clock.
Either my money farming set-up was very inefficient or I'm stupid, but I just do not understand why the Clock is so goddamn expensive. It was taking so long to get the money and I was long done with any other non-repetitive task that I simply gave up playing through each day and started sleeping through them. And even like that it took seasons for me to get to 10 million gold. Had I actually played through all that, my playtime would have been shot up to 200 hours easily. I think it's an unreasonable amount of gold and not worth at all other than perfection and it should be removed or at the very least its price should be significantly lowered.
With that rant out of the way, I finally achived perfection, reached the summit, watched the short cutscene and then came the credits... Wait, what?! This game has credits scene after you reach perfection? How did I not know about this? And why was Cow (White) included but not Cow (Brown)? That just seems unfair. Anyway, that was a nice surprise I did not expect at all and it really made everything worth it. I can now say that I am done with Stardew Valley once and for all. (or until I decide to do a run with remixed bundles enabled, if I ever get around to it)
Overall, what can be said about a game like Stardew Valley that hasn't been said before? It's good, great even. It's the epitome of farming simulator games. It's so good it's capable of hooking in players who are not normally fans of the genre. Highly recommend it to everyone with no caveats.