Gamers who love Stardew Valley are in for an absolutely incredible treat: They will really enjoy playing more Stardew Valley.
Since Stardew Valley’s 2016 release and rise to popularity, there’s been an explosion in farm life sims and other so-called cozy games. Fans looking for a similar experience now have a seemingly endless number of options — but why bother with any of them when you could just play more Stardew Valley?
You could sift through reviews of countless farming RPGs in search of a new gem, but that would just be wasting time you could spend playing Stardew Valley. Besides, those other games cost money, and you’ve already spent money on multiple copies of Stardew Valley.
Instead of trying a bunch of new games you know can’t possibly be as good as one of the greatest games of all time, why not keep playing a game that you already know is one of the greatest? If you’re looking to recapture the magic of your first 300 hours in Pelican Town, nothing will do it like another 300 hours.
Despite being created by just one person — the brilliant Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone — Stardew Valley has a breathtaking amount of content. Unless you’re the most diehard fan, you haven’t seen everything the game has to offer yet, so your best bet is to keep playing it until you have.
Make it to level 100 in the Skull Cavern. Find all the artifacts for the museum. Find all the Golden Walnuts on Ginger Island. Adopt all the pets. Use the catalogs to decorate your farmhouse. Obtain perfection. Build a dozen Gold Clocks and fill a Big Shed with 137 Statues of Endless Fortune just because you can. Keep divorcing your spouse and marrying one of the game’s other bachelors or bachelorettes until you’ve married and divorced them all. Come on, there has to be something you still haven’t done in Stardew Valley yet.
And if there isn’t, you could always start a new game of Stardew Valley.
You could try one of the other farm layouts, or playing with remixed Community Center bundles, or a co-op game. You could try speedrunning or mods. There simply isn’t any point to playing any other games until you’ve squeezed every last conceivable second of entertainment out of Stardew Valley.
Well, at least until ConcernedApe finally releases his next game, Haunted Chocolatier. Then, all bets are off.
