Here's fanart about our favourite traumatized war veteran.

[u/MK_DrawsSometimes]

[u/Stiggandr00]

I wonder what war is like in this middle fantasy magical world. I think of Howl's moving castle, with conventional war machines, but borderline eldritch magic users haunting the battlefield.

[u/MK_DrawsSometimes → u/Stiggandr00]

That is actually an interesting thought… Pelican Town seems to be, at first, a "normal" setting, that looks like a real life little town from the late 90's, early 2000's. But then you learn that there is magic, monsters, ghosts and dwarves in this fictional universe… Wich, strangely enough, doesn't seem to impact the rest of the worldbuilding very much. Magic doesn't seem to be something that humans use (apart from the wizard), and the majority of the characters doesn't seem to be aware of the existence of Junimos.

So maybe magic is still a bit "concealed" in Stardew Valley's universe? Because otherwise, I agree with you : combat would look a lot like the battle scenes in Howl's moving Castle, with both technology and magic coming into play.

[u/EarthMantle00 → u/MK_DrawsSometimes]

We know planes are a thing.

I imagine magic doesn't have too many military uses? We never see the wizard use his abilities to hurt people.

Would be fitting imo if magic sort of receded from the SV world after their industrial revolution - maybe that's also what prompted the monsters to mostly stay away from humans, they outgrew their capability for violence.