“While Harvest Moon is a clear inspiration for much of Stardew Valley, the Animal Crossing influence is noticeable as well. Like in the Nintendo series, you’ll spend time delivering gifts to villagers on their birthdays, attending holiday festivals, donating items to a museum’s collection, catching fish, and upgrading your house. Those pursuits are still satisfying, but Stardew Valley makes them feel like just a small handful of the activities that you can choose to do. With full systems for farming, combat, cooking, crafting, relationships, and more, it feels like a far more substantial experience. On top of that, a seemingly endless amount of little joys can be found everywhere. I even love activities as simple as clearing farmland at night before I go to bed, watching a cooking show in the morning to learn new recipes, and riding my horse around town to deliver meals that I cooked for my neighbors…
I went from never hearing about this game to absolutely falling in love with it almost instantly. Even after all the time I’ve already put into the game, I can’t help but get excited when I think about what my character will be doing in the next in-game year, or the one after that… Some might look at this and say it’s just a farming game, or that it borrows liberally from Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, Terraria, and Rune Factory.”