Over five years after its release, Stardew Valley continues to evolve and delight digital anglers, adventurers, and agriculturalists. The game's charm and sustained, free support from developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone have earned the title dedicated fans and near-universal acclaim. Its successes command a level of influence that rivals two AAA releases that continue to shape gaming trends years after their release: Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Stardew Valley stands as the benchmark for contemporary farming sims.
While Skyrim and Breath of the Wild have a lot in common, belonging to the same open-world adventure genre, Stardew Valley's formula reflects certain aspects of both titles, and stands apart in other respects. Both Breath of the Wild and Stardew have distinctive art and music styles that are often imitated by other titles in their genres, while Skyrim and Stardew both take full advantage of the PC modding scene.
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The uniting feature between all three games is an experience that keeps on delivering even after hundreds of hours. Even open-world games with hundreds of collectibles, side missions, and treasures to hunt have trouble keeping up with the enduring appeal of these titles. Their longevity is a hallmark of quality and variety.
Even players who have dominated Stardew Valley's local economy, cleared the Skull Cavern, and rehabilitated the Community Center can likely find things left unexplored. Between growing crops, animal husbandry, relationship building, combat, fishing, and item collection, a multitude of mechanics ensure there is something for everyone. Furthermore, these systems harmonize and synergize with one another, inviting players to step outside their comfort zone. Similarly, Skyrim's varied skill trees enable and promote a wide variety of approaches to the game. The meat of Breath of the Wild's variety can be found in the game's dungeon-like shrines, whose objectives vary from combat to puzzle solving to exploration.
All three games also boast an impressive number of side quests. Even though Breath of the Wild does not feature the same companion system as Skyrim, or the relationship building aspects of Stardew, the residents of Kakariko Village have a number of personal quests, stories, and problems that Link can endeavor to solve between his world-saving adventure. Other commonalities between games include the opportunity to acquire and customize housing. The opportunity to decorate a personal space introduces a potentially endless opportunity for reinvention.
In certain respects, Stardew exceeds Skyrim and Breath of the Wild's offerings. ConcernedApe's regular updates, such as the addition of entirely new areas like Ginger Island, ensure content will never truly run dry.
Skyrim and Stardew Valley have a longstanding presence in Nexus Mods' most-popular titles. At the time of this writing, the original Skyrim has 1.8 billion mod downloads (independent from the Special Edition's 845.6 million downloads), while Stardew Valley mods have 89.1 million downloads. These user-made supplements add new storylines, items, areas, and quests, as well as quality-of-life tweaks and graphical changes which further extend the games' staying power.
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Although it doesn't have the same variety of bizarre mods that Skyrim possesses, Stardew Valley has an active modding community. Contributions range from anime-style character portraits to an expansion mod that boasts enough content to be considered a separate game. This breadth of extra content is only available to PC players, but the title stands as one of the best examples of the PC's potential to enrich games through community contributions.
Skyrim has a distinctive medieval aesthetic, though its graphical presentation was fairly traditional in that it was a best-in-class portrayal of realism for its time. Both Breath of the Wild and Stardew Valley take a more unique approach to graphics. While Genshin Impact is much more than a Breath of the Wild imitator, Nintendo's influence on miHoYo's painterly, cel-shaded character style, and ruined world design are undeniable.
For its part, Stardew Valley's pixel graphics and upbeat, SNES-era music have influenced a number of similar titles, including the upcoming open-world adventure title Palia. There are developers whose imitations exceed flattery and fall into the realm of plagiarism, for instance Super Zoo Story recently made headlines for copying Stardew Valley's assets. But such cases are in the minority, and most developers choose to pay tribute to ConcernedApe with subtle, respectful homages.
Stardew Valley is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.