And So Life Continues
- Posted by mariteaux on January 24th, 2021 filed in Vidya
- Comments Off on And So Life Continues
So you all remember about a year ago, when I posted that Caby and I were playing Stardew Valley a bit during our anniversary? We decided to start again on our anniversary this year, after we trailed off a bit on it last year. Hoping to keep the momentum up this time.
In my defense, I never quite felt like I was actually helping out on the farm any. I definitely enjoyed it, but there was this feeling of confusion and leaning on Caby to do everything while I fished in the corner. No matter! I’m actually properly getting the hang of it this time. (Though I still fish all the time. Fish are really good snacks for long mining trips.)
For one thing, I’m the lad who runs errands in the town while Caby’s out mining. You find a lot of geodes in various situations (bonus chests from fishing, for one, and mining of course), and it’s always a neat feeling to run them down to the blacksmith and see them cracked open. It’s usually just copper ore, but we always need copper ore. There’s a museum in town, and I love watching that fill up and get…weird chicken statues back from it.
Suffice it to say, everyone in Pelican Town is delightfully odd. There’s the perfect mixture of “this town is so lame” zoomers and legit old folks, it’s kinda great. A lot of them, you can marry, but ConcernedApe was prescient enough to realize couples would absolutely be playing his game, so I’m taken by my Caby instead. (Can you guess what our ultimate goal in-game is?)
It’s not often you see a game with the character breadth that Stardew has, especially games built entirely by one person. Indie games are not exactly known for their brilliant characters (and the ones that people say have them usually reek of agenda), but Stardew gets it right. I think my favorite is probably Shane for this picture alone.
[7:57 PM] caby: heeeeee yee, shane loves animals, especially his chickens [7:57 PM] caby's badger boy: he's such a character [7:57 PM] caby: he really is [7:57 PM] caby's badger boy: drunk, grumpy dude, eats everything, walks around with a chicken [8:04 PM] caby: heeee all of the stardew lads have their lil quirks >w> [8:04 PM] caby's badger boy: heeee [8:04 PM] caby's badger boy: as they should >>:3c
But yeah, I’ve been enjoying it. It’s really easy to get sucked into a 2-3 hour play session, and slowly, I’ve been trying out all the different things to do in it. I imagine I’m the last person on earth to play this game, but the big goal of the game is to revitalize the Community Center by offering items in these bundles. There’s various bundles for produce, fish, monster drops, raw materials, and gold.
At the moment, we’re trying to complete the seasonal bundles as they go along. That means a lot of farming, and when you’ve got an entire field of crops in bloom? Man, this game’s pretty.
Stardew Valley gives me a specific kind of wonderfully wistful feeling whenever I play, the kind that those magical, wonderful early 2010s indie games always do. Minecraft is what runs through my head every time we play, specifically golden age Minecraft, but Stardew is its own beast. The days last like 20 minutes and you get into a routine of watering all the plants and waiting for the shops to open, processing geodes, and being hype when you finally start making 1,000 gold a day.
I’ve been delightfully slow on the six or so projects I’ve started lately, but believe it or not, updating this blog was one, so consider it broken ground. Got two post ideas for the group blog too, including one on Colton, who’s sorely neglected these days. The spring always wakes me up, so I’m not too fussed. Won’t be long until it’s properly warm out, lads!
