As a board game, Stardew Valley: The Board Game has the seemingly impossible task of recreating one of the most beloved indie video games of all time. While it’s beautiful, it’s also extremely frustrating to play because of the high level of difficulty.
As a farming simulation, Stardew Valley has plenty of other activities to keep you busy. Making friends with the villagers, upgrading tools, exploring the monster-infested mine, fishing from various vantage points, and even chopping down trees and cracking open geodes are all part of the fun.
To restore the community centre and complete four of Grandpa’s Goals, players must complete a series of six randomly generated bundles, each requiring a different set of items. At the beginning of each game, a random goal is drawn that dictates how the game should be played.
Filling out the museum or fishing for legendary fish can be comfortably skipped if they don’t arise while making friends and amassing wealth are things you’ll have to do regardless. Getting both the mining and fishing objectives at the same time is a sure way to lose.
Each player has two actions they can perform on their turn by moving around the lovely map of Pelican Town after selecting a profession and a starting tool.
One of the best aspects of Stardew Valley: The Board Game is the components. For example, you can fish in a lake or visit Pierre’s General Store and a museum while also playing cards and tiles feature vibrant images of various types of crops, people and other goods that you can see in the video game.
Each round begins with a player drawing card from the season deck. At setup, a larger set of cards are used to create the deck, which adds to its impressive – but at times frustrating – randomization.
After the first game, you’re encouraged to switch to a larger deck with a different set of cards for each season (though still limiting it to four cards per season). As a result of this, we were able to quickly snag the otherwise extremely difficult to catch legendary fish in a single game despite receiving almost no free villager gifts from the season deck.
Each round begins with a player drawing card from the season deck. At setup, a larger set of cards are used to create the deck, which adds to its impressive – but at times frustrating – randomization.
After the first game, you’re encouraged to switch to a larger deck with a different set of cards for each season (though still limiting it to four cards per season). As a result of this, we were able to quickly snag the otherwise extremely difficult to catch legendary fish in a single game despite receiving almost no free villager gifts from the season deck.
In the video game, making friends with villagers is completely optional, but in the board game, it is essential. You can draw from the villagers’ deck to see if they accept the resources you’ve acquired by acting. You can earn their friendship and generate one to three hearts by giving them a one-time gift.
For the community centre packages to be revealed, you’ll need hearts. Three players require a total of 18 hearts, which means you’ll have to put in a lot of effort. While making friends is an important goal, it’s also a gamble as to which friends you’ll draw and how useful their future gifts will be (or whether you trigger them at all).
Disappointing features include dice-powered mining and fishing. But your location and the number of fish you’re able to catch are constrained by what’s in a bag and your dice roll results.
A crab pot may be necessary, in which case good luck (bug meat). It’s unclear why in-game trash items like bug meat are so scarce in the board game, where those fish can effectively shut down the fishing line.
Aside from that, the mine is based on chance. When it comes to a mine that is complex and lengthy, there are far too many blank spaces that result in many actions that go nowhere. In a game with a limited number of turns, it is incredibly frustrating to spend both actions in the mine and come out empty-handed.
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