priya20 reviewed Stardew Valley

Perfection save, about 220 hours, and I played it like a spreadsheet because that's what it rewards once you stop pretending otherwise.

There's a real optimisation game in here. Ancient fruit in the greenhouse into kegs is the dominant strategy and everyone knows it, but the interesting part is the first two years, where cash flow is tight and the decision of what to plant on spring 1 of year 1 genuinely constrains what's possible by summer. Crop choice, fishing during rain, the Community Center order — it's a tight little economy and it holds up to being taken seriously.

What stops it being an S for me is that the optimal play and the pleasant play diverge hard. The game is at its best when you're wandering into the mines at 10pm for no reason, and the spreadsheet version of me never does that.

A great game that quietly punishes the way most people want to play it.