Stardew Valley Reviews

Stardew Valley is ranked in the 99th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Dec 16, 2016

'Stardew Valley' takes its inspirations and runs away with them into not just an amazing game, but undoubtedly one of the best of the year. There is no shortage of engrossing gameplay, and it has an adorable personality. The Xbox One version has been ported over with very few issues and I see myself emerging only grudgingly from my farm work over the holiday season.

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9 / 10
Jan 1, 2017

Stardew Valley brings new life into what has otherwise been an extremely stagnant genre. While the Story of Seasons series has tried shifting its formula from time to time, none of the recent releases have made great strides in making the experience feel meaningful, especially in regard to character development. While Stardew Valley does keep the daily grind of farm simulation going, it intersperses the mundane with real storytelling moments and endearing characters that will keep you coming back for more.

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GameGrin
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Sep 23, 2016

Don't start this game if you value relationships, your job, your social life, and having free time. Stardew Valley will take all of that away from you, but it's okay because it's a great game!

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9 / 10.0
Oct 12, 2017

I've played over 30 hours of the game, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. More crops are always available to grow, more upgrades are ripe for boosting my farm, and more minerals are mine to mine. It's a game I can see myself coming back to time and time again for years, and that'll be easy to do with the portable nature of the Switch. It's a masterpiece, and a perfect game for Nintendo's newest console.

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9 / 10.0
Oct 6, 2017

Stardew Valley on Nintendo Switch is a great way to play the farming game, but it misses some obvious opportunities.

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Cubed3
Brandon (Michael) Howard
Top Critic
9 / 10
Dec 30, 2017

The portability of the Nintendo Switch makes this undoubtedly the best way to play Stardew Valley. Unless you are really keen on modding the game, the combination of easy portability and excellent controls makes this a staple in any well-rounded Switch library. It's still the same great farm simulator it was on PC - robust, full of secrets, and comes with an inescapable charm that will keep pulling you back in, season after season.

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PPE.pl
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Dec 25, 2016

Stardew Valley is a very successful clone of the brilliant Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and even more.

Review in Polish | Read full review

9 / 10
Oct 21, 2017

Stardew Valley is one of those games I could write about for pages and pages. Whatever the next day had in store for me whether it was harvesting, fishing, exploring the mines or simply running a quick errand for a friend, I couldn’t stop playing. The constant pull to earn money or better my relationship with the townspeople or just make my farm the best it could possibly be was a constant and something that continues to bring me back even now. Stardew Valley is a delightfully charming and deep experience and easily one of the Nintendo eShop’s best.

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Feb 13, 2017

Come and join the mission to rejuvenate the marvellous place that is Stardew Valley; it’ll be the best farming experience you’ve ever had!

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XGN.nl
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Oct 22, 2017

‎Even after a number of Stardew Valley years, the possibilities continue to feel fresh. No season is the same and you always have a new goal to achieve. And if you feel that you can say goodbye to your crops after fifty years, then it is definitely worth starting over as a winegrower with a different starting location. Because Stardew Valley is not boring!‎

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IGN
Top Critic
8.8 / 10.0
Mar 25, 2016

Stardew Valley beautifully combines genres to create a captivating small-town life sim.

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8.8 / 10.0
Mar 24, 2016

Stardew Valley is a fantastic game that's much more than its farming simulator sales pitch suggests

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8.6 / 10.0
May 31, 2017

Stardew Valley is a simple game at first, but you’ll find it’ll quickly suck you into a world of farming, bonding, and adventuring. It’s got a real simplicity about it which, along with its charm, makes it a really fun title that is now available on console.

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8.5 / 10.0
Dec 16, 2016

Stardew Valley represents a major break from reality. It's a game where things are simple, but there's always something new to do. It's a collector's haven; a lover's respite (at least until co-op arrives in the future). This will represent many things to many gamers. Yet the one thing it will remain for as long as people are around to play it, is a magnum opus of the indie developer. Stardew Valley is a game so completely full of content, that it is hard to fathom that it was created by a single person. With a ton of secrets to discover, and fishing, farming, mining, smelting, and even dating as activity options, this feels like a perfect mix of life simulation games of the past, with a decidedly modern take. Hopefully ConcernedApe continues in his relentless march to build the perfect game for this genre, and we can all share in the fruits of his tireless labor.

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8.5 / 10.0
Jan 10, 2017

I might not be as hypnotized with Stardew Valley as a lot of other folks, but it's pretty much the Harvest Moon follow-up I've been waiting for since the SNES and Nintendo 64 days.

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8.2 / 10.0
Apr 22, 2016

Simply by saying to grow a farm brings to the mind of the most experimented in the media the same thought: This is Harvest Moon. And in the search to get rid of early comparisons I have to agree with popular opinion: Yes, this is Harvest Moon. Its creator, Eric Barone, had the vision from the start to make an "Indie clone of Harvest Moon". Nonetheless, the fact that it is made up of its bases does not make it derivative nor it dilutes its concept. Actually, the notion of growing a farm and at the same time building up relations with the rest of the town still exists, but the treatment is different.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

80 / 100
Feb 26, 2016

Stardew Valley's blend of pixel charm and gentle pacing makes for an excellent little escape.

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Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Dec 19, 2016

The best version of Harvest Moon, or indeed any farming sim, ever made – even if it doesn't move the concept on quite as far as you'd hope.

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Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Oct 6, 2017

The best farming sim ever finds its ideal home on the Switch, with gameplay and hardware that complement each other perfectly.

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8 / 10.0
Mar 9, 2016

Stardew Valley is a highly addictive love letter to the Harvest Moon series with some welcome additions and a wide range of activities to keep you interested.

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