Genre: Farming, Life, RPG, Open-world
Developer: ConcernedApe
Played: 40 hours

If you've never played Harvest Moon before, it's basically a Japanese-ish farm life simulator. PC gaming as of yet, has not seen the series' presence but that didn't stop developer ConcernedApe from making Stardew Valley which is essentially Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on a healthy dose of steroids.

Fans of the Harvest Moon genre, like I am, can simply close their eyes and get this game. They won't be getting a Harvest Moon clone but something like HM's rebel little brother. The Bean to Harvest Moon's Ender. 

Straight off the bat, the game shows the protagonist working in a dead-end job at Joja where one of the cubicles feature a skeleton. Joja Corporation is like your stereotypical capitalist villain who tries to do nothing but make profits and then stamp out local competition using competitive pricing. Afterwards, your dying grandfather leaves you a farm for this exact moment when you're tired of your job. All of this is done with the subtlety of drone missile strike. What ConcernedApe does best with reinventing HM is to strip away the Japanese art style and introduce western art direction. That's one qualm I had with the original Harvest Moon but as far as I know, most fans loved it. As you can see from the screenshots, it doesn't change much but it reaches a subtle middle-ground. Secondly, ConcernedApe does away with the cutesy feels of HM and introduces grounded characters who feel like real people. I can bet that you'll want to be best friends with Linus or if you're into it, a drunk Marnie. 

When you start out with your farm, the game sort of holds your hand then sets you free in an unnecessarily huge but beautiful world where going from point A to B becomes a chore a [game] year down the line. With the soundtrack and the beautiful daytime textures, I didn't mind it that much. But once night hits, it's like wearing heavily tinted sunglasses and looking at the screen. That bit needs a little fixing. 

Your job as a farmer is to rummage through people's trash, get a girlfriend, fight monsters and mine, cook, find the mayor's shorts, and finally, help little jello creatures achieve worldwide dominance with your hard work and money. 

As with any other open-world game, the quests are pretty optional but there's a certain lack of a main quest. Of course, you will find the community centre quests as soon as you start but they're the closest you'll get to a main quest. I felt that a main quest may have given the game more options in terms of gameplay but it's not something that I sorely miss. Just an absence of something that'd fit in nicely. There are everyday radiant quests that involve with you fetching a specific item or doing a favour for someone, the pay is usually pretty good during the first year or so if you're not minmaxing. So I suggest you do that. 

The fishing minigame is actually either very, very difficult for some or extremely easy. One thing I'd like to say about fishing is that it's extremely rewarding. If you have a controller, I'd advise you to use that because even though I'm dominantly a KB/M player, the controller felt more natural. Remember, there are two mods to change the difficulty of the fishing minigame. 

Mining and combat, I felt, was the highlights of the game. In fact, my entire game revolved around the uber-simplified, yet satisfying combat. For others who may consider going by this method, know that you'll probably be broke most of the time. The combat is similar to the old top-down GBA game combat; that we saw in A Link to the Past. You click to swing, right-click to defend and WASD to move. That's pretty much it apart from the horrendous aiming of the slingshot, the game's only ranged weapon. If you are hell-bent on using it, you can try aiming with the C button instead of holding your left mouse button.  

Secrets!

The game is deliciously littered with all sorts of secrets, unlockables and mysteries. Starting from new areas, artifacts to crops; you can never be sure that you've seen them all. ConcernedApe took a lot of time to hide the tiniest little details in his game. You'll often end up doing double takes at the level of depth the game can offer in terms of both storytelling and world-building. 

If you're thinking about getting a relaxing game you can get lost in, Stardew Valley is absolutely perfect. Zero stress and a ton of meaningful fun. 

Rumman R Kalam is a Sub-editor at SHOUT and when he's off-duty, he likes to be a goat with opposable thumbs at Rantages. Send him mail to tehgoatlord@rantages.com. 
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