It makes for an interesting history lesson if you want to see what inspired Stardew Valley and how far things have progressed since then, but perhaps it’s time to put Mineral Town out to pasture.It doesn't get any better during the heart events, either. It’s been 17 years since the GBA version and while it’s great that they’re trying to recapture that nostalgia that made people fall in love with the genre in the first place, things have moved on. Why not go further and have an actual character creator? Being able to better make a farmer in your own image won’t take anything from the original experience. You now have some creative control over your character, but with only four avatar options (two men and two women), and three skin colour options (pale, paler, ambiguously tan) it feels out of touch. Some of the modernisations don’t go far enough. Mostly, though, this is a completely faithful recreation. You can save anywhere you like rather than just at the journal by your bed, have the ability to change outfits, and there’s an easy mode that gives you a gold boost to shipping items.
You can befriend harvest sprites to help you out with the workload, but getting them to do so is yet another daily grind of plying them with appropriate gifts. The relaxation found in this routine is the one thing that still holds up, but even that starts to feel like a grind when there’s not much else to keep you going. Progress is slow and hard-earned as the stamina bar depletes surprisingly quickly, but every tool upgrade helps you open up just a little bit more of your plot. Despite not taking to the town, I still found myself in that comforting loop of ‘just one more in-game day’ spent brushing my cows and feeding my chickens. The cycle of tilling the earth, planting and nurturing your vegetables every morning is a compelling one. But hey, at least the animal design is super cute, and all of the old game guides will work when you need to look up the townsfolk’s daily routines or figure out how to actually get the fishing rod.ĭespite all of that the act of farming is a pure joy. The mines are basically empty so there’s no real sense of exploration, and the events feel forced upon you rather than a fun change of pace. Other gripes include the farm being mostly static-the barn and coop are pre-built so there’s not a lot of layout management or customisation to do aside from crop placement.
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