This is undeniably the GOAT of farming games. No questions asked. From the get go as soon as you get past the intro you are free to do whatever you want. There are some core activities locked behind a couple of in day games but I'm guessing them being spaced out like this is to accustom you to the different mechanics and map of the game.

When you get accustomed to everything though this game just becomes so fluid. All of your core activities (Fishing, Mining, Farming, Foraging, Combat to an extent) are all interconnected into completing the Community Center which requires you to engage with all the activities. All of the activities gives you different rewards and sufficient enough income for each activity that it doesn't feel like you aren't incentivized to do one or the other. And that's what make the game so great. The fact that there isn't an illusion of different things to do, a lot of games fail from having so many activities and so many things to do but ultimately feeling meaningless as there is no incentive. I love the fact that I can feel like I can just swap activities without feeling like "but this would give me so much more if I just go do that", it makes the game feel a lot less repetitive.

I do have some minor gripes with the game. I wish the game went out of it's way more to make players read the lost books. A lot of items that are needed for the community center are practically impossible to find without the necessary criteria to obtain said items (something like weather/season conditions or exact times to find a specific fish for example). It's a shame because I doubt a lot of players would bother reading them and resort to a guide. There's a lot of neat and funny writing in the lost books too, I always disregarded them as unnecessary (why tf would i wanna read books in a game??). But honestly I wish the importance of these books were more emphasized.

Another somewhat small gripe is maintaining friendships with others townfolk. It's kinda stupid that it degrades at all to be honest I'm giving this hoe so many gems and then she gets mad I miss a week fuck you!!!!!!!

Stardew Valley is an amazing game. Definitely a 5/5. Don't use guides (dont use them too much at the very least especially on 1st playthrough) use the lost books in the museum like a chad.