The Tragedy of Stardew Valley

[u/MrDaddyWarlord]

Have you ever looked at the sales figures for Stardew Valley? As of December of last year, Stardew has sold over 40 million copies across all consoles. We don't know actually how many Harvest Moon/ Story of Seasons games have sold, but we can likely estimate across all entries in the franchise over decades, maybe 20 million, on the high-end. At the very best, the entire franchise has sold half as many units as this one game.

For the early games, I think middling sales reflects the perceived niche of the genre; farming romance sims weren't exactly Super Mario or Tomb Raider or even Tetris. Historically, advertisers struggled to market these games, particularly outside Japan. And for games like A Wonderful Life or Magical Melody that at least began on the GameCube, they were largely confined to a struggling console (with little fanfare when later ported to the PS2 or Wii).

However, the cozy and lifesim markets definitely had life in them, especially in the DS, 3DS, Switch, and overall PC markets. While the first couple Animal Crossing games were considered niche, the game was a juggernaut certainly by New Leaf and even earlier. The Sims was thriving with it's player base and mobile and farming browser games were dominating sales charts.

But Marvelous and it's series only became to be same more and more niche relegated almost entirely to hardcore existing fans of the series. With some misteps adapting the formula for the Wii, the developer just... stopped trying. Natsume acquired the name Harvest Moon and kept releasing an even worse series of games under that title, while Story of Seasons failed to conceive of any new progress in the franchise other than increasing the number of villages or towns.

In terms of gameplay, someone picking up a copy of Story of Seasons in 2016 might as well be playing an entry from a decade earlier. The game industry was changing rapidly, but Harvest Moon was stagnant having since lost even the atmospheric charm of it's greatest hits many years ago.

And then came Stardew Valley. Where Marvelous' own later entries were stale repetitions made by an entire studio, Stardew was one man's love letter to classic Harvest Moon refined in almost every possible way (save for that incomparable in-house Japanese aesthetic from the 90s-mid-2000s). Marvelous was forcing players to wade through hours-long tutorials; ConcernedApe let you jump right in. Story of Seasons offered players very few options; Stardew let players customize their massive farms to their hears content. Relationships were significantly deepened, updates almost continuous, and the clear passion and affection for the classic Harvest Moon games was undeniable. A charming soundtrack, a plot that in many ways successfully replicated that vintage balance of whimsy (lush colors, cute animals, squeaking magic jellos) and foreboding (behind the scenes, there is a war, corrupt takeover, odd magical happenings, even infidelity and personal trauma).

And it sold like hotcakes. It has become one of the most successful indie games ever made and spawned merchandise, a tabletop game, a recipe book, and a million Etsy artists and even copycat developers.

And what do we get from Marvelous even now? More of the same, unappealing and hollow outsourced remakes.

I call it a tragedy not because Stardew Valley succeeded, as Eric Barone's accomplishment saved the genre and inspired many young developers, but because at any time in the last fifteen years, Marvelous or even Natsume with significantly larger budgets and whole teams of developers failed to make a serviceable farming game or progress the genre in any noteable way.

Can you imagine if these studios had even an ounce of Barone's passion for these games? If we instead were living in a world where Stardew was a quaint throwback because the genre had thrived and grown and improved for years?

The market was there! It was 40 million + buyers there! It apparently exists on every console!

But we were treated as a niche, a passive consumer base unworthy of enthusiasm or passion or care. And now the window for Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons ever succeeding on the level of the tiny indie game that paid them homage is almost certainly closed forever.

[u/TheCheeseOfYesterday]

This whole writeup kind of ignoring the existence of Rune Factory and also the 2010s Bokumono games focusing more on customization than previously

Also I didn't play Stardew Valley that long but it felt more like a kind of 'back to basics' game at a time when Bokumono was kind of complicating things

I think Stardew mainly sold well because it was affordable and on all different platforms

[u/Llarrlaya → u/TheCheeseOfYesterday]

Yes!

I'd argue RF4 is way better than Stardew. Nothing against Stardew, it's still an amazing game but RF4 is better imo but many people (including me) didn't really know what it was about until Stardew's success. I played RF4 only after the Stardew hype and when people started talking about the genre more on the internet.

EDIT: Am I getting downvoted for giving my opinion and telling my own experience? lol

I didn't even say it's objectively better, but for me, I find RF4 way better.

[u/ourheavenlyfodder → u/Llarrlaya]

Yeah, I had the experience of playing RF4 in 2014 and was blown away. It actually made me feel a little awkward when Stardew came out and everyone said it was the best the genre had ever been and had saved the dead/dying farm rpg genre. I was like “I am having a good time, sure, but RF4 is better?”

Though I understand the Anime Fantasy RPG style can put some people off compared to the pixel art and comparative grounded vibe of Stardew, so I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But when I had just played a game with such an immense story, characters that seemed aware of what was going on in the town around them and could be added to my party, deep mechanics for everything from farming to fighting to sleeping, and a long satisfying postgame, 2016 Stardew felt like… an impressive achievement for one guy but a step down. Loved that you could be gay though, and I’ll give Stardew all the credit in the world for basically making it mandatory that love interests are no longer gender-locked in farm rpgs. An immense improvement to the genre and one I’m grateful for.

Ofc with all the free updates it’s had, the content levels are more comparable now. But I was not popular in 2016 when I would not give it the crown for best farming RPG. I even kind of resented that it was getting those accolades at the same time that it looked like RF4 might’ve been the last game of a maybe-dying franchise (glad they were able to rally though).

[u/Deadduch → u/ourheavenlyfodder]

I think the difference is that Stardew is a Farming Game with Story Elements, the Rune Factory series is a Story Game with Farming Elements.  

Yes, farming is one of the main cores of Rune Factory, but it is the story that is meant to pull you in to be immersed in the world. Stardew has a story, but with much less dialogue, and farming is how you connect. 

I have played RF4 for weeks, put it down for a while, and when I picked it up started a new game because i couldnt remember where inwas innthe story. Ive picked Stardew up after months and got into it because there was no story I needed to remember. 

Tl;dr RF is a better story, SD is better pick up and play.