It came to our minds at some point. Wake up one day and understand that this everyday life that we immerse ourselves in is eating away at our health like a horde of termites with an old oak rocking chair. And maybe it’s even occurred to you to send everything to hell, to burn the tie that you leave the house with every morning, to go to an office you don’t want, to have money to spend on things spend that you don’t need it and say hello to people you don’t care about. It’s happened to all of us.
Luckily, eight years ago, ConcernedApe gave us a great way out to free our souls and find inner peace. I am of course referring to Stardew Valley, that life simulator that revolutionized the concept of indie games, that became a phenomenon in video games and in society and that changed the life of its creator forever by telling about a life that almost everyone day, to a forged millionaire empire that many others would have completely lost their minds over.
But Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone didn’t, and unlike all the voices around him whispering expansions and additional paid content for his farming game, he remained adamant that he wouldn’t let anyone pay for anything other than the game. In these eight years, Stardew Valley has slowly but inexorably continued to grow, on our screens and in our hearts. Sometimes I just added a few extra lines of text for a few characters and some new decorations for the cabin. Sometimes there’s an entirely new zone with a unique story and dozens of additional hours of gameplay. Free, I repeat. ConcernedApe has expanded the Stardew Valley experience once again, now on all platforms, so it’s time to put on our farmer’s overalls again and head to the valley to restore Grandpa’s old farm once again.
Advertising:
And we plunged into the new content from scratch, as this was how the developer recommended us to discover everything that this version 1.6 has to offer. In this case we have chosen the new type of prairie farm, which combines several smaller areas of cultivation with forests and pastures as well as some waterfalls, which are one of the new elements added to the game this time. A new type of bluegrass grows in these transit areas, promoting the growth and happiness of our livestock. Therefore, these meadow areas are recommended if you want to focus more on livestock rather than agriculture. However, I do not recommend starting with this farm if this is your first time in Stardew Valley. It is a model with a lot of potential for decoration and advanced design of agricultural land, but it can be depressing to start raising chickens and farming at the same time.
Although this new farming model may not be ideal if it’s your first day in Pelican Town, you’ll certainly now get to grips with Stardew Valley’s controls and interface much more quickly than you did the first time around, as another of the improvements here are new guides are and comments on motion controls, menus and tool use. Additionally, the game now adds a visual and audio notification every time you reach a milestone, big or small. For example, when you catch a new type of fish or gain a higher level in one of the character’s skills, you will now be notified in real time with the phrase “You are thinking about new ideas.” You no longer have to wait until you go to bed at night to know if you get an extra point when collecting or fighting.
Advertising:
The update is full of small details that will be introduced throughout the game, both in the first few hours of play and in the endgame. For example, a bookseller named Marcello now comes to JoJa (or the cinema, depending on the game) twice a month, where he sells tomes that slightly increase some secondary stats, such as the horse’s trotting speed or the ratio of item drops when defeated Monsters in the mine. Now there are new animations for the characters, variations of the animals in the background of the picture. A new final mission and mysterious chests from Lord Qi. More than 300 new items have been added, including furniture, cooking recipes, books, new ingredients, crops and many, many secrets still hidden in the game.
The most noticeable thing about this update are the new Squid Festival and Trout Derby events. They’re more of a neighborhood gathering with some exclusive items in the store, but Desert Festival is much larger. It works like the night market in winter, but for three days in spring we can bet on monster races, buy unique hats from villagers or buy decorations that cannot be found at any other time in the game calendar.
Despite the extra time they have dedicated to this version on consoles, this update brings certain performance issues. In my case, when playing on Nintendo Switch, I periodically noticed performance drops and small stutters that would freeze the screen for half a second. Nothing that will take you out of the game, but the problem is that they are particularly annoying when you are in combat or in the fishing mini-game. It’s more than certain that they will be fixed in a patch soon, but it doesn’t hurt to warn that it can happen if you can’t wait.
While it’s not as flashy and extensive content as the inclusion of Ginger Island in Update 1.5, this version 1.6 of Stardew Valley is “even more and better.” A new letter of thanks to the fans who continue to faithfully farm, dig and feed animals in Pelican Town after so many years, and an even deeper and richer experience for new fans. Stardew Valley 1.6 just adds more perfection to what we already thought was impossible to overcome, and once they fix these little technical glitches that are annoying but not bitter, the sweet return to digital farming will be for another 90 again to your obsession or 100 hours. Maybe more.
