I’ve played a lot ofStardew Valley, and I’ve greatly enjoyed my time on my farm and interacting with the citizens of Pelican Town. However, because I’ve had such a great experience with the game, I’ve found it difficult to enjoy certain other cozy games as much. This even includes the first cozy game I ever played, which now holds much less appeal for me, even with all of my nostalgia for it. WhileStardew Valleyhasn’t completely eclipsed my love for other games in the genre, I am now weighing my decision to play them against continuing my farm.
The games I find least impacted by this effect are games that are unconventionally cozy. For instance, I find thePersonaseries very cozy, because subsequent playthroughs make it easy to minimize time in dungeons and focus on the life-sim and story elements. Because they’re so drastically different fromStardew Valley, I’m still able to enjoy both. In contrast, the more similar a cozy game is toStardew Valley, the harder time I have getting into it again,which is the case for my first cozy game:Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Introduced Me To Cozy Games
Harvest Moon: Wonderful Life Was My First Relaxing Video Game
Back before the original games in the series wererebranded asStory of Seasons,Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Lifefor the Nintendo GameCube was the first cozy game I ever played. Technically, I had playedThe SimsbeforeHarvest Moon, but as anyone who has played the firstSimsgame knows, it isn’t all that cozy. Also, the destructive potential of the game always tempted my young distractible self to do things like light my house on fire when I got bored.
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At the time, the idea of a game where all I had to do was manage a farm felt very novel to me. It was far from the first farm simulator, and not even the firstHarvest Moongame, but it was the first one I was aware of.I was so used to violence and fast-paced action in my video games that it felt refreshingto play something that I didn’t have to pay full attention to, but still provided enough tasks to keep me occupied.
At the time, I also didn’t have easy internet access, soI wasn’t tempted to look up how to optimize the fun out of my farm. I ended up running it however I felt, and I found the game’s freedom and low-stakes to be very relaxing. After playingHarvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, I paid more attention to games like it that I could use as a way to relax when I didn’t want a very challenging play session. I ended up getting into theAnimal Crossingseries, laterSimsgames, and much later on,Stardew Valley.
Stardew Valley Improved Upon Harvest Moon In Several Ways
Stardew Valley Improved Harvest Moon’s Basic Gameplay And Added New Features
Ironically, given thatStardew Valleywould eventually make it hard for me to playHarvest Moon,it was my love for the latter that made me pick up the former in the first place. The game had started to get some positive buzz, and I found its pixel art charming and nostalgic (even if it’s not how my first farm-sim game had looked). I think it also helped that the combat reminded me of old-schoolZelda, essentially layering my fondness for two very different games on top of each other in one cute package.
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As I started playingStardew Valley,I immediately began to see how the game had improved uponHarvest Moon. The most apparent from the start was the game’s UI, which is an area whereHarvest Moon: A Wonderful Lifefeels very dated. It was nice to be able to just go to Pierre’s General Store and buy most of what I needed from the menu, instead of every purchase being stretched out into a full conversation. I also appreciated that the game just directly showed me how much energy I had left, instead of keeping it obscured behind vague gestures.
I also love howStardew Valleylooks a lot more thanHarvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.Well-done pixel art has a timeless quality to it that 3D animation doesn’t necessarily share. Games from the N64 and GameCube era look a lot more dated to me than some SNES games because of their boxy 3D models and often blurry textures. While looks aren’t everything in a game, when it comes to a cozy game, I prefer one with a more pleasant aesthetic.
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I also found the townsfolk inStardew Valleyto be more interesting. There are a lot of NPCs inHarvest Moon: A Wonderful Lifethat just mill about and spout the same lines of dialogue repeatedly. In contrast, each resident of Pelican Town has their own distinct personality, likes, and a story that you can progress by getting to know them better.Stardew Valleyalso has a muchwider range of romance options. While I don’t really take full advantage of that and simply romance Leah every time, it’s still nice knowing I have 12 people to choose from.
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I Prefer Stardew Valley In Basically Every Regard
A lot of times, I’m able to revisit my old favorite games and still appreciate them. That’s because a lot of older games still do certain things better than similar modern games. I still playPersona 4 Goldenfrequently despite it feeling dated compared toPersona 5, because I prefer the story and characters. I often revisit olderZeldagames likeOcarina of TimeorTwilight Princessbecause I misstheir styles of dungeons.There’s more for me in those older games than just nostalgia. There are also tangible aspects to them that I prefer to their modern counterparts.
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It is a very different case withStardew ValleyandHarvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. I can’t really think of anything I prefer inHarvest MoontoStardew Valley, so even my nostalgia alone isn’t enough of a reason for me to play it. I’ve seen thatStory of Seaons: A Wonderful Lifeaddresses some of my complaints, but I still can’t bring myself to pick it up when I already haveStardew Valley.
