Whenever I take breaks and try to relax between homework or projects, I turn to either youtube or video games. I've seen people play some of Stardew Valley and it looked very similar to another video game from my childhood; Harvest Moon. Basically in both games, you lived out in the city and your grandpa dies and gives you the farm. Now you start your new life! I've been playing for a few weeks now, so I'm already in year two, but I'm going to talk about my farm and why this game is so relaxing for me!
First thing in the morning, I wake up! This is my house; I've managed to upgrade it once so far and now I have a kitchen! I can make all sorts of stuff to get my energy back up and work more in the fields. The first thing I do upon leaving the house is take care of my crops!
Thankfully there's sprinklers, otherwise it'd be a lot of work to water all of these. I have another small patch that just has a bit of corn in it, but these are all my crops! I get a ton of money when they're ready to harvest. After I tend to the crops, I check in on my animals.
My farm gets full of more animals almost every week in the game. The more animals the merrier! Once my far is taken care of, I go into town and check the calendar to see who's birthday it is, so I can build better friendships. I get items or recipes in the mail from some of them. I then check to see if there's a quest on the board next to the calendar. That can bring in gold and get me friendship depending on the request.
If I have time and nothing else planned, I'll end up going into the mines for the rest of the day. In the mines there's slimes and other monsters that you'll need to defeat to protect yourself. But it's worth it! You can get stuff to upgrade buildings or tools, to get more money, or items the villagers might like so you can make friends (or get a future wife/husband).
You'd better leave before 2 AM though, as you'll pass out. Someone will come and find you, but you'll have to pay a fee for medical bills. Around 12 PM it'll tell you it's getting late and that's your clue to start heading home.
I went kinda late in the afternoon to start mining so I didn't get a ton of stuff, but I got some good things! I got some ore to upgrade tools and build stuff to help me around my farm and some geodes to break open and sell the stuff.
I made a lot of money tonight! One day I made 11,000 gold though, but this wasn't bad! Also I have a husband, Elliot. He's a writer. Sometimes he'll help me out around the farm by feeding the animals, or watering the plants.
Anyway, Stardew Valley is super relaxing to me because it's kind of a mindless task sometimes. I have me routine, as I described, that is sometimes changed by giving gifts or going fishing instead of mining, or doing requests for people. It has nice calm music for every part of the game, which makes it really nice to listen to. It's kind of like Animal Crossing for me, which is another relaxing game I like to play.
I'd recommend buying this game if you've played Harvest Moon and enjoyed it, or if you're looking for a relaxing game to play when you need to chill out. It gets really addicting though so watch out!
