Stardew Valley

I've spent a lot of time playing this game, I personally love it. I'm currently married to a ghost after divorcing my wife and turning my kids into doves.

and prefer it over acnh, and i love the characters and the ability to date, also the heart events. i do find it a bit boring, so i may try it with mods.

There have been two games that I have played for 12 hours straight. One is Disco Elysium the other is Stardew Valley. The former is possibly the most engaging story I've ever experienced with more interesting characters and locations than you can fully experience in one playthrough. Stardew Valley on the other hand has nowhere near the depth, the titular town doesn't have the detailed history of Martinaise nor the mystery of who you are to hook you in. So why have I played them both for such an extended time and why have I given them both 5 stars? This is because Stardew Valley has possibly the most accessible and addictive gameplay loop in any video game I have ever played. There is always something to do, to strive for, another fish to catch, another dungeon to delve, another plant to water, another sewer-dwelling shadow monster to make your roommate. and most notably you can take it at your own pace. Because of these reasons mentioned Stardew Valley is one of the very few games I'd recommend to everyone and anyone even those weirdos who don't play games. I know people who played long enough to get to Skull Cavern then treated it like a roguelike, I have a friend who played like a combination fisherman and pokemon trainer trying to catch em all. I myself had two goals to kick out Amazon stand-in Joja and marry Harvey because apparently, I have a thing for nerdy brunette guys with glasses who had aspirations for aviation but were held back by their bad eyesight (see also Kim Kitsuragi from the aforementioned Disco Elysium) The queer romance cottage-core fantasy is what draws a lot of people to this game especially more recently. One thing not often discussed is Stardew Valley's timelessness since its Steam release in early 2016 Stardew Valley has only dropped below 10,000 concurrent users once in September 2016 and has maintained somewhere between 20,000 to 50,000 since with a massive peak of 95,000 on Christmas Eve 2020. 7 years on Stardew Valley is still going strong and I can see that continuing far into the future. This continued popularity and positivity has put developer Eric Barone (better known as Concerned Ape) in the pantheon of solo developers among the likes of Lucas Pope (Papers Please, Return of the Obra Dinn) and Toby Fox (Undertale and Deltarune)

TLDR:
Damn good game with an engaging loop and something for everyone, strong recommendation for anyone who has a computer with more processing power than a mobile phone. 5 Stars

The best fishing simulator i've ever played

This game kept my mental stability in check during the start of quarantine. super therapeutic and relaxing, fun characters, gorgeous art. concernedape is an amazing dev, one of the most caring and committed to his art out there. great OST. highly recommend to those looking for a calm, mostly mindless game that you can listen to podcasts while playing.
also, marry Harvey

This game is basically a Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town clone with ugly art. People were going on about how "innovative" Stardew Valley was, so my disappointment was massive when I actually played the game because there is literally nothing in Stardew Valley that hasn't been done before in a Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game.

It's sad that Harvest Moon created an entirely new genre, yet Stardew Valley reaps all the credit for that and is treated like the Holy Grail because a lot of people simply never played Harvest Moon.

I do respect ConcernedApe for continually updating the game so players have more to do though.