Recent reviews by FimmionsSweetRoll

When I was younger, I just couldn't bring myself to get into the Harvest Moon series. I guess it was because it was such a drag at the beginning, and it was harder to get into the cycle of farm->make money->buy more farming supplies->upgrade. With Stardew Valley, it changes this by presenting a lot of things to do, all at the start. You don't just farm and try to find out what to do with the rest of your day; the upkeep of your farm is more like a chore to be completed before you can complete the various other tasks in your day. I found myself running out of time before I could do a lot, but more on that later.
I found the art style to be quite charming; reminiscent of the mid-90's SNES era graphics, and popping with color and shading that almost makes it unique to Stardew Valley. The color pallete uses a variety of greens and browns for landscaping, to blacks, purples and reds for cave exploration. I mention all of this to lend to the atmospheric effect the game has.
The fact that ConcernedApe designed and created this game all on his own is even more astounding because of the music. The songs are both thematic and ambient; calm and discordant. The music was what won me over in the beginning, and the music changes every day, the "playlist" being seasonal.
Now for gameplay. The gameplay is what really lost points with me, and for two reasons. 1) Controls: The controls are atrocious! the amount of time I wasted in a day REwatering plants because I missed the first or second time was awful! The player's cursor moves independently of where the character is facing, but you can only activate things when the character is facing the object in question. This wouldn't be so bad if the cursor was more active and the character's facing direction was passive in the programming. This was... bearable... and the game was so good otherwise I gave it a pass. now for my second qualm. 2)Timing: I was constantly running out of time and having to go to sleep way before I had felt like i had made any other progress in the many endeavors in the game. This was hindered by two things. 1. travel time: you have to travel everywhere, and it takes about an in game hour before you get the transportation means that make it bearable. 18 hours or so in a day, and that leaves you with very little after your farming upkeep. 2. Days are too short: With the problems that waste time in a day, the player would be much better off if they had maybe 1.5x more time in a day.
Overall, I recommend the game. It obviously needs polish, but it has the charm and addictive reward system that makes it worth putting up with.

I love this game it makes me happy.