This game is super addictive. That's a fact. I surprised myself not wiling to let the controller down when it was 2am because I had to water my vegetables. I HAD TO.
IMHO, this addictive force is due to 5 factors:
- Routine: You know what you have to do tomorrow when you go to sleep, and you know the convenience store will be oppenned at 9am. Pace-wise, it's wonderful.
- Very good small feedbacks: The fishing sounds, the sound when you gather things, the colors of sprites... All of this is well done and polished. It makes playing the game without purpose a fun time on its own.
- Indicated hard-reward: You want a henhouse? Please bring 6000 coins, 400 wood and 200 stone. If you do so, you'll have your henhouse. Beleive me this encourage a lot mining stone and chopping wood.
- Fishing: It features a fun mini-game and can be done whenever your near water. Considering the level design places very smartly rivers, seas and lakes, you find yourself able to fish whenver you want to fill a gap in your schedule. This again, is brilliant pace-wise.
- There is no failure
Unfortunately, in my eyes, all this seem... Way too big. Pointless. I found myself walking, walking and walking again to do what? Gather shells? I Gather a TON of ressources to... To do what? Gaining access to cows, whom I'll milk, to do whoever knows what with this milk... What is the point of planting a tree that need 28 days to grow (which is an entire season) and gives fruits in spring while you already are in spring? The point is to benefit from it next year? Seriously? That means you'll harvest fruits in at least 32 real-world-hours!!!
I question myself: is it fun? I mean, it looks like work. I don't want to water my plants. I want to harvest them. I don't want to go in the mine. I want to have copper ingot to upgrade my tools. Eventually: I simply don't want to go to the convenience store because it takes me 1h in game to reach it, which is way too much.
Too much to do, so little time to do so. I wonder how a game advocating a peaceful return to what's important, to a quiet pace of life can be so stressful. Timetables are the worst idea this game might have had. It feels like this game... Doesn't care about the player. I mean yes, it is 17h10 and you end your day at 17h00. I get it. But guess what? Your a robot constituted of 0 and 1, I'm a player. Let me in, I have garbage to sell. Many many times I get to places to do a precise thing, I did other thing there, left, and totally forget about the thing I was supposed to do until I reached my house and it's 18h, which means in my eyes I wasted my day. This is one of the most frustrating feeling I ever had in a videogame.
I must point out the combat system isn't good. That's cool, because we're not here for a combat system. But here's what impressed me: you spend winter in the mine, using the combat system. This is... Audacious at least. Unseen and mad considering this is a farming game. Kudos to the devs for believing this much in the game's combats.
I must point out I played it in split-screen. This imply two major flaws:
- We can't see nothing
- The time continues to fly during cutscenes, dialogs, inventory managment, which believe me is a HUGE waste. As a consequence, I skipped every piece of narration because I wanted to not waste my day.
I get why it is the favorite game of a lot of people, but this isn't for me.
IMHO, this addictive force is due to 5 factors:
- Routine: You know what you have to do tomorrow when you go to sleep, and you know the convenience store will be oppenned at 9am. Pace-wise, it's wonderful.
- Very good small feedbacks: The fishing sounds, the sound when you gather things, the colors of sprites... All of this is well done and polished. It makes playing the game without purpose a fun time on its own.
- Indicated hard-reward: You want a henhouse? Please bring 6000 coins, 400 wood and 200 stone. If you do so, you'll have your henhouse. Beleive me this encourage a lot mining stone and chopping wood.
- Fishing: It features a fun mini-game and can be done whenever your near water. Considering the level design places very smartly rivers, seas and lakes, you find yourself able to fish whenver you want to fill a gap in your schedule. This again, is brilliant pace-wise.
- There is no failure
Unfortunately, in my eyes, all this seem... Way too big. Pointless. I found myself walking, walking and walking again to do what? Gather shells? I Gather a TON of ressources to... To do what? Gaining access to cows, whom I'll milk, to do whoever knows what with this milk... What is the point of planting a tree that need 28 days to grow (which is an entire season) and gives fruits in spring while you already are in spring? The point is to benefit from it next year? Seriously? That means you'll harvest fruits in at least 32 real-world-hours!!!
I question myself: is it fun? I mean, it looks like work. I don't want to water my plants. I want to harvest them. I don't want to go in the mine. I want to have copper ingot to upgrade my tools. Eventually: I simply don't want to go to the convenience store because it takes me 1h in game to reach it, which is way too much.
Too much to do, so little time to do so. I wonder how a game advocating a peaceful return to what's important, to a quiet pace of life can be so stressful. Timetables are the worst idea this game might have had. It feels like this game... Doesn't care about the player. I mean yes, it is 17h10 and you end your day at 17h00. I get it. But guess what? Your a robot constituted of 0 and 1, I'm a player. Let me in, I have garbage to sell. Many many times I get to places to do a precise thing, I did other thing there, left, and totally forget about the thing I was supposed to do until I reached my house and it's 18h, which means in my eyes I wasted my day. This is one of the most frustrating feeling I ever had in a videogame.
I must point out the combat system isn't good. That's cool, because we're not here for a combat system. But here's what impressed me: you spend winter in the mine, using the combat system. This is... Audacious at least. Unseen and mad considering this is a farming game. Kudos to the devs for believing this much in the game's combats.
I must point out I played it in split-screen. This imply two major flaws:
- We can't see nothing
- The time continues to fly during cutscenes, dialogs, inventory managment, which believe me is a HUGE waste. As a consequence, I skipped every piece of narration because I wanted to not waste my day.
I get why it is the favorite game of a lot of people, but this isn't for me.
2 Comments
I get it, I actually think you're totally right. Indeed, there are no failure in this game, which ultimately mean nothing is a threat and nothing should stress you. But here's the catch: having no failure doesn't mean to progress. Technically, you can play this game without touching your keyboard: the time will go on and everything will be right for you. But will it be fun ?
IMHO I consider the player to be... I was about to say never but I'll say very rarely wrong. If the player does something or feels something, the game should consider it. That's all the point of horror games, which include the player's behaviors in their design.
I feel like Stardew Valley doen't care at all about me (even though he gives me 50 wood some mornings) in a way strangely comparable to the souls games. It appears to be a feeling a hate (I speaking for myself here, I'm nobody else spokesman). Because I hate this feeling, I become vicious: I start to wonder if it is "correct" to give the player a tree to plant considering he'll only be able to harvest it in 32 IRL hours. I mean, is it a sort of punishment? Then, I extrapolate, and I come to the conclusion this precise design of time-locking things behind waaaaaaaaay too long to pass walls is a basis of Stardew. For instance, you have to beat the community center to obtain key items in the game. Some items appear only in very specific condition: let's say during THE event of A season (i.e: ice carrots). If you miss it, your solution to retry you chance is simple: wait for your doom, during 32h. I mean, presented like it, it's awful isn't it ? ^^ I know I'm not fair with the game when I think like that, but I actually sometimes really feel that this kind of design is deliberately painful. Fortunately, most people don't think like me: the game's super popular and sold over 20M copies, which is great
IMHO I consider the player to be... I was about to say never but I'll say very rarely wrong. If the player does something or feels something, the game should consider it. That's all the point of horror games, which include the player's behaviors in their design.
I feel like Stardew Valley doen't care at all about me (even though he gives me 50 wood some mornings) in a way strangely comparable to the souls games. It appears to be a feeling a hate (I speaking for myself here, I'm nobody else spokesman). Because I hate this feeling, I become vicious: I start to wonder if it is "correct" to give the player a tree to plant considering he'll only be able to harvest it in 32 IRL hours. I mean, is it a sort of punishment? Then, I extrapolate, and I come to the conclusion this precise design of time-locking things behind waaaaaaaaay too long to pass walls is a basis of Stardew. For instance, you have to beat the community center to obtain key items in the game. Some items appear only in very specific condition: let's say during THE event of A season (i.e: ice carrots). If you miss it, your solution to retry you chance is simple: wait for your doom, during 32h. I mean, presented like it, it's awful isn't it ? ^^ I know I'm not fair with the game when I think like that, but I actually sometimes really feel that this kind of design is deliberately painful. Fortunately, most people don't think like me: the game's super popular and sold over 20M copies, which is great
Ardos
5 days ago
While I personnaly enjoyed the game (I was able to talk to NPC because I played alone lol), I completely get what you say about the game being about a peaceful return to what's important, but making the player feel the exact opposite way. But maybe this is something that is created by the players and not the game. I mean, you are not obligated to optimize your days, you are not even obligated to be profitable, because you don't have to pay your taxes in the game.
If you don't try to upgrade your farm as fast as possible, then the game becomes a lot less stressful. You can take your time to build relationships with the NPCs, plant trees not for the money you will get, but because you want to create a nice looking garden and take time to explore the map in search for secrets and quests. There's no real point, but it's fun, because it's creative to imagine, build and arrange your farm! Kinda like the fun you can have to create your town in Animal Crossing.