Thread by @melissa__acnh, I keep seeing a lot of "Should I get Stardew Valley/is it [...]

I keep seeing a lot of "Should I get Stardew Valley/is it worth it?" tweets and not a lot of explanation about the game so I figured I would give some more details in a thread.

Should you get Stardew Valley as an ACNH fan?

Stardew is a farming simulator. If you played the old Harvest Moon games/new Story of Seasons games, you will probably love Stardew. In general, people who are a fan of life sims in general like other life sims - that's why I see a lot of Sims fans on ac twt as well.

However, AC and Stardew vary in a lot of ways and I'll go into these more in depth but here's just a quick look:
-pacing
-social
-activities
-depth
-graphics

Pacing is the biggest difference between the 2 games and I think this is the biggest factor when someone likes one game and not the other. AC has the real time clock. Stardew's time passes more quickly - each day is about 10 real life minutes, so everything is much faster paced

I can leave my AC game open and go make dinner with basically no consequences minus a few missed balloons. In stardew? Nope. You need to either pause the game, be in dialogue, or have finished the day to stop the clock. This can be stressful to new players, but you get used to it

The other main difference in pacing is due to stamina. AC you can just chop trees forever, minus having to replace your ax. Stardew has a stamina system, so there's only so much work you can do in a day. You can gain more stamina though, and get better tools (that don't break!)

Next up: social. The social aspects of Stardew are much deeper than AC. For starters, you can get married! The townsfolk each have unique personalities instead of blanket ones like "lazy" and each one has preferred gifts. The friendships grow and you can do quests like AC too.

Dialogue can be repetitive early on (more than AC) but as your friendship grows, you gain more interactions with people, and can even see cutscenes. I think it's nice getting to know the townsfolk, but I think I prefer my cute animal villagers more. Just depends on your taste!

Activities! Like I said, Stardew is a farming sim. You can grow crops, raise animals, forage, fish (which is definitely harder than AC but just takes practice), mine, and fight monsters. All of this is kinda optional though - you can earn money and play however you'd like.

OH also you can cook and craft. You can level up a lot of these skills as well, which allows you to have different perks and bonuses. You can also design your farm/house in different ways, which feels very AC to me. It's less design-focused overall, but play how you prefer.

Depth. Stardew Valley is just deeper than AC. There's a TON of content, much of which I haven't even discovered, but that's part of the fun. I recommend using an online guide/wiki ( http://stardewvalleywiki.com ) but it's not necessary. For contrast, I rarely look up things in AC.

Graphics are another huge difference. Stardew is all pixel art. Unless you are someone who just hates pixel art, this shouldn't be an issue. Both games are beautiful, just in different ways. And same for the soundtracks.

I forgot this initially, but multiplayer also varies! PC has both local and online co-op. Consoles have online co-op, but should be getting local co-op when update 1.5 drops "early 2021" supposedly. It's super fun to play with friends, but you can't visit other's farms like AC.

OKAY BUT SHOULD I BUY IT?!?

Short answer: it depends.

Stardew is less laid back than AC, but both give you tremendous freedom with how you play and are both fantastic games. Honestly, unless you hate more time-manage-y games or farming sims, for $15 it's a steal and WORTH IT.

And lastly, the developer of Stardew, Concerned Ape, is one (1!!!) person who literally made the entire game (art, design, music, ALL OF IT) and updates by himself. It always blows my mind when I play.

Okay that's all folks! Feel free to ask me any questions :)

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