Introduction
---The Game---
Take inspiration from what you love, then beat it at its own game. This was most likely ConcernedApe's mindset when he made Stardew Valley, a game heavily inspired by Bokujou Monogatari, particularly the original SNES Harvest Mooon, that easily stands beside if not above the best of its influences. The premise is identical to the early games: take over your late grandfather's farm, work it until you're rich, and work the townsfolk until you're rich with a spouse. But there's also a slew of new ideas, updates for the modern age (E.G.: wooing any gender, a Steam contract-mandated crafting menu), and more mature storylines for the characters (E.G.: alcoholism, depression, actual dysfunctional families).
It's a solid core game that has worked hard since its release to elevate itself and the very idea of casual farming sims, and as of content update 1.2 (which the majority of this LP employs) it's one of indie gaming's most-replayable and satisfying success stories.
---The Story---
The Best clan has an illustrious farming dynasty reaching from the flawed paradise of Castanet Island to the capitalist wasteland of Not-Germany. Theories abound as to how these mysterious women began taking over entire villages through the sheer power of farming; some scholars believe the clan's origins lie at the end of the Rat Prince Pubert's reign over Selphia, but new studies show the origins may lie with a mysterious, unsolved alien encounter at the borders of Pelican Town in the Ferngill Republic. Shortly after a UFO sighting, locals reported a strange figure posing as the local late farmer's granddaughter, claiming his farm for her own, and drowning in money within a few short seasons.
These reports were true. Except the UFO was a bus.
This alien creature, designation 8357, has come to Earth to understand its people, its creatures, its plants, and its money. She's also come for them hot young singles. All of them.
(The actual story: Grandpa died, left you something for when life sucked, working for Joja sucked, the thing he left you was a farm, so now you're a farmer. I like mine better.)
---The LP---
This is about as close to a 100% LP as reasonably possible. All collections, all items, all upgrades, every villager to 10 hearts, all achievements, etc. The core LP with 8357 was voted by viewers from the previous Harvest Moon-ish thread to use the Wilderness Farm and to eventually marry Sebastian.
I will show off the different farms and some of the other people you can marry near the end of the LP, including a Joja Drone character made purely for helping out Joja Corp and doing other horrible things.
Mods will be avoided until the latter end of the LP, when there's not much else going on and I feel like I could stand to speed a few things up.
As stated, the LP uses Version 1.2, though I will also show off 1.3 and multiplayer.
My co-commentators are YamiNoSenshi and IrishRodent. Yami is a fellow Bokujou Monogatari fan but has not played Stardew, while IR has played enough of Stardew for everyone in our Discord.
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(By Natália Santos)
(By MonsterMomma)
(By Xel Esparza)
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Something I've wanted to do as an addition to this thread since the beginning is take a look at a similar game that I've enjoyed for many months now, and which Skippy Granola recently picked up himself: My Time at Portia. It's a crafting/construction game in the vein of many such games on Steam right now, (Rust, ARK, Minecraft, etc), except the crafting isn't a hollow replacement du jour for an incomplete concept. Crafting is the point, and so the developers, Pathea Games, built the game around it and populated it with its own unique art direction, characters and worldbuilding. The result fits nicely between Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and a bit of Stardew Valley.
Portia is still in early access, but the devs are constantly adding to it and improving the quality-of-life, and though yes, it can be pretty grindy, it's already a relaxing and engaging game that Skippy and I both recommend. If that doesn't convince you, then at least enjoy our adventures with grumpy, honey-voiced grandma Lurmph.
