- [RoboKast] When it comes to indie games, there are two types. They're either like "Valheim"
or "Reign of Kings," like "Portal Knights" or "Cube World," like "Rust" or like "Rust." Indie games are always a
hit or miss experience, and I've made a lot of videos covering some of the most disastrous ones and some of the best ones. It's all a matter of perspective. If you think a game is bad,
then I respect your opinion. Unless you say that
about "Stardew Valley," then I think you're a (squeaks) idiot. Farming games are one of
those weird genres of games that in theory shouldn't be that popular. Whoop de doo, let's go plant some wheat and drive a virtual tractor
around for a thousand hours. - Why, why, why? - I mean, I do have 1900
hours in "Unturned," so I can't say much. But the thing is, these types of games are
actually extremely fun. Even the more monotonous
ones like "Farming Simulator" can be a great 5.4 hours of fun. The trend got popular with a
game called "Harvest Moon," and ever since, farming
games keep coming out on a regular basis. But none of them are as
iconic as "Stardew Valley." "Stardew Valley" is a game where you spend every waking moment of your life being both a figurative
and literal Santa Claus to try to win over a girl who eats rocks from the
museum gift shop as a hobby. Mm, quartz. In between trying to convince Abigail that you'll supply her with a lifetime of depression and amethyst, you farm, mine, socialize, fight monsters, and also flirt with
all the other villagers behind Abigail's back. The game is a mix of a farming tycoon, an RPG, and a life sim, and even that doesn't fully explain what "Stardew Valley" is truly about. Even more impressive than the overwhelmingly positive reviews and insane sales numbers on
every platform imaginable is the fact that all of
this was done by one person. One person made a true
masterpiece like this with deep character development, an awesome story, and nearly zero bugs. But yet a team of 20 people
are taking like 65 years to make "7 Days to Die"
into something playable. It's genuinely impressive. So what's so good about "Stardew Valley" to warrant over 10 million sales and a ranking of number seven on the highest rated
Steam games of all time? Why is "Stardew Valley" one of my favorite indie games ever made? And why have I spent days of my life trying to befriend a virtual blacksmith with the personality of garlic powder? We're gonna answer all of those questions and talk about why Clint
is a trash-tier character who doesn't deserve the gifts I give him to try to win him over as a friend in today's video talking about why "Stardew Valley" is so awesome. If you like this game or this video, drop a comment explaining why and maybe share the video with a friend. - And this, my wife Oksana. She's a boring. (Oksana speaks in foreign language) (Borat speaks in foreign language) (Oksana speaks in foreign language) (Borat speaks in foreign language) (Oksana speaks in foreign language) (Borat and Oksana speaking
in foreign language) - I gotta take a break
from my failing marriage to dive into the history of
how this game came to fruition. Developed by a very wholesome
guy named Eric Barone, "Stardew Valley" started as
a mere "Harvest Moon" clone that was supposed to be a project to help him get better at game
development and land a job. But he quickly realized that he could make
something truly special, and the game was announced
on Steam Greenlight in 2012. He partnered with Chucklefish
and after years of development released a single player
version of the game in February of 2016. Within months, he had received
absolutely astronomical amounts of praise and recognition for his beautiful creation, and people knew that "Stardew Valley" was something very exceptional. And that is still the case today, with the game having well over
25,000 concurrent players, even in July of 2021. So what specifically
makes this game so good? Well, everything. But in order to cover
all that comes to mind, we need to start with the core of the game and the place where it
all begins: the story. "Stardew Valley" follows the story of you, the main character... Wow, that was the dumbest
thing I've ever written. Anyways, you receive and
rundown and desolate farm from your grandfather after wanting to escape the misery of a corporate nine to five. This farm is located outside
of a place called Pelican Town, and you move there to take over the farm and bring it back to its former glory, but you aren't in this alone and you end up having to work with the citizens of Pelican town to form relationships and
build up the town as well. There's an old dilapidated building called the Community Center, and if you decide to partner
with the town to fix it up, you can turn it into a thriving community. You can make friendships and form relationships along the way and create something beautiful. Or you can support the Joja Mart, the lifeless corporation
that's causing Pelican Town so much grief to begin with. Or so you may think at first glance. More on that in a bit. As you upgrade your farming abilities, you begin to collect different resources that you can then throw
into the Community Center to complete the repairs
and progress in the game, unlocking new perks as you go. If you decide to follow this path, which is what most people do, the progression is very logical and the game is extremely rewarding. It's a big part of how the game works, and it's the next thing
that I wanna talk about. When you come into Pelican Town, everything is pretty much in shambles. The bus is broken, the
mine cart doesn't work, and there are two bridges that
have fallen into disrepair, and pretty much everything
is going downhill. If you donate items to
the Community Center and fill up the various
bundles of items that you get as you progress through the game, you can fix these things and bring the town to its former glory. It's by far my favorite way
to play through the game, and it sets goals that you work
to accomplish along the way. But after a couple playthroughs, I figured that you may wanna
step back and ask yourself, why is the town so bad in the first place? How did Pelican Town's
infrastructure becomes so obsolete? What is the mayor doing
with the town taxes? Well, my friend, now
for your first dilemma. The game makes you assume that the guy who looks like the bad
guy is, well, the bad guy. And you hear this from the
perspective of the mayor and from the general
store owner named Pierre. And why do you think Pierre says he's bad? Well, because he's the competition and it's hurting the only thing that Pierre cares about: his profits. But these themes that I mentioned are themes that you
could dive into further if you decide to, but who
cares because Morris stinks and the Community Center is way cooler. That's the story. And like I said, it creates the foundation for the rest of the game and encourages you to do
the things that you do. But what exactly do you do? There are four seasons in the game and it constantly cycles
between them as time goes on. The main focus of the
game's gonna be your farm, and in each season you can
grow season specific crops that all have different properties. There's a total of over 50
plantable and harvestable crops and fruit trees, and the amount of money you make depends heavily on what
you decide to grow. This large range of items can really change up
your gameplay experience and you can strategize to grow things that will help you reach your goals. Yeah, you can grow the
crops themselves to sell, but you can also use them as
part of your overall strategy. For example, you can grow the
fairy rose next to a beehive to make a rare and
expensive form of honey. Or you can grow grapes to make wine and poppies to make decorative
floral arrangements. I found myself trying to plan out my farm to be both productive and to look good. There's something so appealing about having a nice looking farm that makes you a lot of money, and I love the process
of trying out new crops to see how they look and
how much money they make me. On top of all the crops, there are quite a few different
animals and facilities to deepen the farming
experience even further. You can raise chickens
that you forget to feed or cows that you forget to feed or even ostriches that
you also forget to feed. Then adding another layer, you can take the products
produced by these animals and combine them with other
farmed or forged ingredients to make food dishes or specialty
products like mayonnaise. These other facilities
are quite important, especially when winter rolls around and you're dying of boredom
due to a lack of farming. And finally, when it comes to farming, there are a lot of different tools that you can use in advance to
make the experience smoother. For example, in the beginning of the game, you have to manually water
all of your plants every day like you live in rural Vietnam. But as you gain money and levels, you can get sprinkler systems that do all of the work for you. These various crops, animals, and upgrades makes for a very in-depth
farming experience that gives you a near
infinite amount of enjoyment in a simple and easy
to comprehend package. While farming is usually
a majority of your focus, you really only have to
plan, prepare, and then wait. Other than the occasional
watering and harvesting, farming doesn't take up a lot of time. And time is something
that's very important in "Stardew Valley." You see, the game goes in a cycle of days. Every night you go to sleep and the game summarizes what
all you accomplished that day. Then you wake up and
start over in the morning. As the days pass, the seasons change and it ties in directly with
what you're doing on your farm and around Pelican Town. I often would start the day by farming and watering my plants. And then I would go into town, talk to some of the NPCs to build up my relationships with them, and then head over to
mines to fight monsters or go over to the ocean
to catch some fish. You have to hop between activities to accomplish your goals
before the season ends, and every minute of your day is important. In theory, this may sound a
bit daunting and stressful, but remember there aren't any
pressing goals in this game. You can either rush to
rebuild the Community Center and beat the game, or you can take your time
and enjoy the process, which is often what I found myself doing. It's a relaxing and calming experience and rushing it to reach
some meaningless goal takes away from what
the game is meant to be. So take your time, take a step back, and enjoy planning your
farm, meeting new people, and exploring the world
of "Stardew Valley." One of my favorite things
about "Animal Crossing" is the ability to collect all
of the items on the island. It's always extremely satisfying to see how far I've progressed,
how many bugs I've caught, and what's still out
there awaiting discovery. But "Stardew Valley" does this even better than "Animal Crossing," and it makes trying to discover all of the potential
crops, fish, resources, and artifacts around the island an extremely rewarding experience. When you find a mineral or artifact that you don't know anything about, you can take it to the museum and put it on display on the shelf. As you get more items, Gunther will give you a little
rewards like decorations, and you can walk in at any time
to see your collection grow. I always tried extremely
hard to find more artifacts when I played "Stardew." Every time I got a new resource that I hadn't yet discovered, I would set it aside and
take it to the museum as soon as possible. It was one of the most satisfying
parts of the game for me. While the museum holds the
minerals and artifacts, there's also a catalog
to track everything else that you find along the way. You can see how many of the 60 plus fish you've managed to catch, or how many of the countless food recipes you've made in your overpriced kitchen. And on top of this, the catalog goes quite well
with the Community Center. You can easily see which items you need in order to fill up the remaining bundles and repair the broken
facilities around the center. It all flows really well and makes for a super unique experience that keeps you interested in
the world of "Stardew Valley." Now, now, I know the suspense
has been killing you. What the hell is going
on with the rock eater or the guy who behaves
like a jar of mayonnaise when you give him a gift, or the corrupt mayor, or the homeless man who gets sympathy for digging in the trash while I get yelled at
for doing the same thing? The characters in "Stardew Valley" are the best part of the game. If you wanted to farm, you could go play "Minecraft"
or "Farming Simulator" or any other game with farming. People play "Stardew"
to fulfill their dreams of wifing up a weird-ass
e-girl that eats rocks or befriending a grumpy
old man in a wheelchair. It's much different. Each of the villagers in Pelican Town and the various characters that you meet while playing the game are super unique, each with their own
personalities and quirks. There are different benefits to befriending different people, and everyone does their own
thing throughout the day. The game feels truly alive and it seems like all of these villagers would continue to live their lives even if you weren't there. I love walking around the town and seeing what everybody
has going on in their lives and seeing what they wanna talk about. I like when I go to the mines and get to interact with Linus, who I'm trying way too
freaking hard to befriend after I accidentally was a jerk to him early in my playthrough. You can gain hearts with
each of these characters and increase your friendship level by giving them gifts, completing quests, giving them more gifts, and, oh my god, why do these people need so many things to become friends with you? One of the best parts of the game, and one of the reasons why
so many people love it, is the romance system. Say you're getting a
bit lonely on the farm and you want some company and
free items on a regular basis. Well, go get married. Once you reach an eight heart
level with a single character, you can give them a bouquet of flowers and show your romantic interest in them. When you reach 10 hearts, you can propose and get married. They then move in with
you and you can have kids and wallow in the misery of
marriage on a daily basis. There are six dudes and six girls who are single characters in the game, and you can pursue any or all
of them if you're interested. Speaking of which, if you've
ever played "Stardew," who do you think the best
romancable character is? My friends and I were
having an argument about it, and I wanna see what everyone thinks. So drop a comment below
with your reasoning. Everything that I've mentioned so far is a lot of fun on its own, but it's 10 times better
when you're doing it with up to three of your best friends. The game has an outstanding
multiplayer feature where you all share a
farm and work together to bring Pelican Town
back to its former glory. It takes the amazing
single-player experience and expands it directly into multiplayer for it to be enjoyed as a group. Some of my favorite memories in this game are the ones where my friends
and I are just goofing off and trying our best to make things work without a real goal or focus whatsoever. (flame sizzling) (explosion booms) (player gasps) - [Player] I thought it
only blew up certain things. - [RoboKast] Both solo and with friends, you could easily get hundreds of hours out of the vanilla version of the game, but raise that number to infinity once you add the modding and community found in "Stardew Valley." This game has one of the best communities out of any game I've ever played. The memes on Reddit are hilarious, and everyone seems to
be at a common consensus of what "Stardew Valley" has accomplished and how it's changed indie games forever. This is compounded when the
modding comes into play. The game has full modding capabilities, so there's everything from item spawners, to overhauls, to anime mods. And there's even one that
reskins horses to look like cats. It's amazing. And the mods allow for countless ways to customize the game to your liking. "Stardew Valley" is a once-in-a-decade indie game experience. It's given Eric Barone
an outstanding reputation in the indie game community, and it's had an impact on
countless people's lives. A lot of reviews mention
people going through things and how this game helped
them to deal with reality. And I could totally see it. It's one of those games
that has a lot of charm behind every aspect of it. So if you haven't played "Stardew Valley," I definitely recommend checking it out because it's 1000% worth the price. Also, while I'm on the topic,
check out my last video talking about meaningful games to see some of the other games that make you think about life or that could help you get through things. I'll put a link in the description below. Anyways, that's gonna
be it for today's video. Do you play "Stardew Valley?" If so, what do you think of it? Is it one of your
favorite games of all time or do you think it's not
as good as people say? Let me know in the comments, I hope you all enjoyed, and if you did, please subscribe and share
this video with a friend. I will see you guys next time and peace.
