Stardew Valley Review - Time To Sell The Farm?

[@666lupine666]

*You lock eyes w Quinns in the town square and sprint over to him. His card indicates that his favorite item is a pear. *But, there are no pears in stardew valley *Quinns will never speak to you again

[@Meserach]

Quinns is allergic to pears, hilariously.

[@princetonnguyen9984]

So sad

[@Pseudoscorpion14]

The problem with this design is it spends way, way, WAY too much time trying to emulate the mechanics of the videogame, and exactly zero time trying to emulate the _feel_ of the videogame.

[@jeremiahschmidt6399]

Right, it does a good job emulating the challenge runs people do to complete the community center year one and have to be really efficient with their time, but it's pretty far from the regular relaxed playthroughs most people would do.

[@dj_koen1265]

that was my impression as well

[@lordvalinar774]

@@jeremiahschmidt6399 Not to mention, I like to side with Joja most of the time :P (I also play modded, like with SVE, which adds a lot more depth to the Joja characters and story). I might be trying to escape to a country life but I still wanna make money dang it >:D

[@kailomonkey]

It is. And I thought maybe I'd carry on after the year for a relaxed version but it isn't aimed at that kind of play at all. The tight deadline is the only way to feel the value of the game the way it is constructed. Their review Ark Nova looked more like the Stadrew The Videogame experience. Any other recommendations? Low Lands mentioned in the video is also interesting from what I've seen.

[@zhoujo]

It does a great job of emulating what it'd be like to be your computer which runs stardew valley

[@shadowscribe]

Oh boy, you know what end of fun month means! Cube-laying Economic Engine Day. Our most hallowed of holidays.

[@Argusthecat]

I, for one, am looking forward to Economic Hexagonal Tile Laying Fest

[@Orlandofurioso95]

@@Argusthecat But of course! Hexagons are the bestagons.

[@littlekong7685]

I think we are all still awaiting Beige Traders.

[@tomgp]

Hallelujah! My kids are really excited about the Cube-laying Economic Engine Day Bunny coming to place worker in our back garden.

[@luiscarlosqg]

@@Orlandofurioso95 Excellent quote!

[@deathdealer425]

As a farmer I can confirm that this sounds entirely too much like reality. Getting screwed by random chance happens constantly, and every now and then everything goes so right for a season that I start twitching thinking about what will go wrong to balance it back out.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

I feel this game is just accidentally set to the highest difficulty by default. Add the simple aspect of "Pick one of two choices" for each of those randomized decks and suddenly the difficulty is much lower

[@abefaerber7994]

under randy's thumb, i guess

[@spinozatheobvious626]

I love the idea that this comment might be real. That you'd actually be commenting on a comedic review of a mediocre partially farm based boardgame based on a video game as to how it relates to your life as a farmer is just too funny.

[@deathdealer425]

​@@spinozatheobvious626 It's real, I'm a dairy farmer who also loves board games. When you live in the middle of nowhere, weather is bad and there's not much else to, we play boardgames. Especially when I was growing up as a kid, board game night was every night after chores in the winter pretty much.

[@olivigarden]

I love the ever-increasing chaos: first the neighbours start drilling, then the mic's in the shot and Quinns bumps into it like it's nothing, and then "Matt" shows up and it all slowly comes crumbling apart in the best way possible. Also, great review! The fact that you can do all this craziness and still make an informative review is why I love SU&SD content so much! :)

[@Kolvarg]

I don't know, it's the first time I see Matt being truly blown away by a game.

[@fernando47180]

god, it took me far too long to get the joke

[@davidmurphy563]

I looked for a wry smirk with "soil sampler" and got nothing. We're safe.

[@MattStum]

Didn't Efka used to dance under that name?

[@windyhillbomber]

That’s wicked

[@z-beeblebrox]

Stardew Valley the video game: *relaxing farm game where you can marry anyone* Stardew Valley the board game: *STRESS*

[@SylviaRustyFae]

Stardew Valley TBG was clearly designed for the speedrunning community of Stardew Valley players :P

[@Betito1171]

It’s for people who min max the ever loving shit out of star dew MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY

[@dipnlik]

@@SylviaRustyFae if so then the designers failed again, cause speedrunners hate unpredictability and losing runs to chance

[@SylviaRustyFae]

@@dipnlik I mean, you can say that but the most speedrunned game is MineCraft which they mainly play in a way that is 100% rng

[@dipnlik]

@@SylviaRustyFae Minecraft is the exception

[@fy8798]

Played it with my group. Oh my god, the RNG is real.We only knew the game was even beatable 30 minutes before the end, and 20 of those 30 minutes were spent by all three of us going to the mine rolling for ore. We had to tell one of us to not do what was fun (care for the animals, forage, make friends) and just roll, since it was all that mattered. And so we rolled and rolled, and then we won. Yay.

[@kailomonkey]

Congrats!

[@Ghi102]

So basically, this is like playing Stardew Valley the video game, except you're speedrunning the community center and really need to get a random item that spawns in the caravan to finish

[@amaice]

those damn red cabbages

[@aeryellae5837]

For anyone watching this in 2022, the 2nd printing has a storage solution some minor tweaks to help reduce the crushing boot of RNG.

[@jokerES2]

I think we should note this era of SUSD as the Lockdown Lunacy

[@EduardoBonet]

wtf was this then: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqG4iKx-rNxsiJY

[@rocketfallen]

@@EduardoBonet Perfection

[@rakino4418]

Lockdown lunacy is maybe 5% more nonsense than standard SUASD

[@iggykidd]

Implying that Stardew Valley isn’t a stressful game where you can never quite get everything done before you run out of time in the day/season says a lot about your experience with the video game

[@kylekylekyle505]

The irony.

[@calebgibbons-eyre8602]

oh absolutely, that game made me realise just how anxious a person I can be. It takes you right to the brink. I pretty much always needed a shower after playing for even an hour.

[@iggykidd]

@@calebgibbons-eyre8602 Yeah, idk how anyone can possibly find it relaxing. I love it, but it's very much not chill lmao

[@alex8480]

​@iggykidd there are times where we feel pressured and it's from our external environment and times we feeled pressure and it's completely internal. You feeling pressured in Stardew Valley is the latter. I know, because I was the exact same way when I played it the first time. I recently tried it again and came with a much more relaxed demeanor and I'm having as much fun with a video game as I've had in a long time. There is infinite time, no in game pressure to be on a time crunch, and you can do whatever you want. Just want to fight? Go to the mines every day for a while year. Just want to farm? Ignore everything else and make a pretty farm. Do what you want. I'm on year 3 and and haven't messed with relationships at all.

[@AaronBlasdel]

I find the game relaxing but only because I’m OK if I don’t maximize and do absolutely everything. I try to give myself goals in the game when I start but not strict deadlines or explicit SMART goals. Just like in life there is more to do in a day than you can do. Just got to do what aligns with your desires/goals and you can feel good when you go to bed. (Or fall asleep face first on your doorstep if you try and fit everything of course)

[@pudetouch]

Matt, you blew it!

[@Nildread]

I thought he was really popping off

[@dachers1238]

Ohhhh... I get it!

[@MyOwnNameWasTaken]

That rubber face of his is so expressive, but I must admit, he came off as a bit of a wind bag in this review.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

Nice of him to POP! in.

[@MyOwnNameWasTaken]

@@TorIverWilhelmsen Sure, but he sort of fell apart at the end.

[@llamaz6731]

"A drill sargent who isn't allowed to go to the bathroom until he's reached the end credits" This is one of my favorite reviews

[@HeBreaksLate]

My favorite part of reviews like this are the games that you recommend instead. "If you were hoping for this game to be x, it isn't, but you might like y or z."

[@mongoose6685]

The recommended games in this case are relics though except for Lowlands... Not interested.

[@snogurt]

As an American I’m so glad you took the time to address and clear up the Pawn/Porn confusion!

[@jamesdewane1642]

The words often and orphan were similarly confused, but to limited comedic effect, in one if the limitedly comedic works of Gilbert and Sullivan as well. Non-rhotic r's are rubbish. Long live the Greater Great Lakes economic, cultural, and linguistic zone!

[@offcialaa2progamr]

I like one of them.

[@mosquitobight]

Now Americans can explain to Brits the difference between Mother and Murder in a New York City accent.

[@jamesdewane1642]

The phrase "modern mother" is fun for English learners and teachers.

[@tahunuva4254]

"the spouse pawn is only available if you have the right epic item" *spittake*

[@ZenofireX]

I've been playing it for about a month and I've Loved it every time. I've played Solo, 3 players, and 4 players. Each time it came down to the wire of weather or not we'd be able to win. And we Loved it. It was a comfortable and awesome time. One of my favorite co-op games that I own, period. My Solo experience was Amazing. I started with the Watering can and was able to flip over and complete most things in fall (since the friend I made had a birthday then) and complete some of them same turn since i got lucky and caught a legendary fish. My final turn was an absolute Blast and I Won by the skin of my teeth. I highly suggest trying the solo experience, it was Awesome!

[@marajoy7226]

We've all reached the "build your friends out of household objects" stage of lockdown, right?

[@qm230]

Indeed I just got a mannequin head and called him Rob

[@richardliful]

It's so cute how much Quinns misses Matt

[@MichaelNerman]

That "Matt Trees" bit was one of the best things I've seen from Shut Up and Sit Down! I laughed so hard it hurt!

[@Jeeplite]

I gotta say I have over 200 hours in stardew and I loved this board game! I've only played it solo so far but I really enjoyed the stress and time management involved, and I won most of my games. Def shouldnt be someones first board game, but if you play games a lot the luck and planning aspects wont be foreign to you. The organization of pieces is super annoying tho.

[@ProBadSing]

The game systems that shower you with boons that might not help you but are also irreplaceable reminds me of Arkham Horror except the theme is not the daunting task of sealing/killing an eldritch god, but instead enjoying living on a farm? Thanks for the review Quinns! Great job!

[@shutupandsitdown]

Oh my gosh it is kind of like Arkham Horror, you know! - Quinns

[@FatCastro]

@@shutupandsitdown The creator of the board game has gone on record to say Arkham Horror was the inspiration for this game so that checks out

[@richardsaunders9214]

“Like an onion dropped into the lap of a prospective spouse...” This is a family show!

[@TigerVent]

this show has never been for families.... innuendo throughout.

[@richardsaunders9214]

TigerVent I was trying to keep a short lived running joke going ... Tom would say something vaguely filled with innuendo and Matt would say “this is a family show!” See the SUSD review of Nemesis (kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXzFdnWojM-KsLs) at the 3:00 mark

[@SimonALa]

I do a lot of soil sampling and I have to say we normally use thick or waxed paper bags/small cardboard boxes.

[@flametitan100]

Each time I see some of your segments, I always have to wonder what your neighbours think is going on.

[@manic2360]

Its Brighton, theyre used to it..

[@Meserach]

They're too busy reviewing drills

[@timstimbre9762]

14:17: If you want a game about running a farm how about... *The Gric smiles on the shelf* 'Lowlands' *Gric's smile fades...* Or how about ... *Gric lights up once more* '...Nusfjord' *The Gric drops her head* '...Or if you can handle some quite heavy rules crunch...' *Gric thinks yes at last, this is meeee!* '...Hallertau... a thing of beauty.' *Gric calls the police.* (audible sirens)

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

And the sirens cry U-we, u-we, u-we... (Yes, I know Lowlands is just Rosenberg-adjacent)

[@orlandonerz2999]

Recommending farming games without even mentioning Agricola must be a capital offense.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

@@orlandonerz2999 Agricola is more a "no bricks for you ha ha!" game.

[@ClericEric]

Hearing all the components being tumbled around when you were turning the box in the intro was like anti-asmr 😳

[@Churro_Douglas]

Can I offer you a nice eel in this trying time?

[@willb1405]

Please offer me a sturgeon

[@BluWoolify]

If Quinns wants to burn the community to the ground he should get the Joja expansion where you just sell everything for money to complete the tasks

[@wombleking]

"You've been playing for 11 hours and you feel a bit sick". Could you please stop spying on me?

[@derkcast620]

why do i get the feeling that Harvey is still lying somewhere on Quinns carpet...

[@PenguinOverlord4555]

"I have a wide and varied collection of plastic bags"

[@MichaelNerman]

Interesting that Quinns mentions "months" in the video and text appears on the screen correcting it to "seasons." In the video game, seasons and months are essentially interchangeable, as seasons are 28 days long and the calender shows birthdays happening on days like "Spring 13." Did some other editor correct Quinns who had actually not made a mistake?

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

This is one of the many terrifying parts of the Stardew Valley universe. - People age rapidly, each year is just 4*28 days, and the days pass amazingly fast. - The bus route to the desert is driven by an alcoholic - They have matter replicators but only use them to produce gems - and worms? - Probably many more

[@sojou.RN.]

@@TorIverWilhelmsen -Necromancy exists and is practiced openly. -Parents may turn unwanted children into doves and release them into the wild. And most horrifyingly... -Normal wine is only ever referred to as "grape wine".

[@SylviaRustyFae]

@@sojou.RN. Hey, I like that last change as a fan of honey wine (traditionally known as mead)

[@misterlobsterman]

Funny story; i made a Stardew Valley boardgame for my girlfriend for christmas, and everyone asked if i would make it into an actual product, because they wanted one for years. A month later, the reveal this.

[@mirkwoodlodge]

If you're the one who posted on reddit, I thought about you when this game came out.

[@kailomonkey]

Can you share the rules? Or if you hoped to make money from it, strip it of Stardew Valley trademarks and release. I'd like to see how it compares to the now official one. Or give an idea of what the game was like?

[@misterlobsterman]

@@kailomonkey I havent made a rulebook for it. It was just a one time gift. Biggest difference i guess is it's competitive, but in a friendly way. You grow crops, buy stuff from the store, to complete quests for the townspeople, which gives you bonuses, or recipes to make more complex goods. The endgoal of the game is to finish quests to renovate the community hall, which requires a lot more effort, but it's a collective goal. Each quest you finish gives stars, community goals give more, which are basically victory points. My version has no mines, fishing is also very basic, and it has almost nő random elements except the store's supply, and all the quests are decks of cards. You can look it up on reddit, I go into more detail there.

[@lexlowe4241]

I’d love to see your rules!

[@MrBongoking]

When Cube Boy's exploitative relationship with Tom is the most healthy of the team's lockdown buddy friendships, you know things are going badly.

[@2Percent794]

Making a friend is easier if you know the person’s birthday...so my inability to remember dates have been the reason I have no friends.

[@ManFromTheFizz]

Don't give up John, it's all about going outside your comfort zone and not caring about other people's judgements of you! The more you do it the more you'll realize it's worth it and the easier it gets!

[@Betito1171]

That’s why you write it down the moment someone tells you

[@daleburgess6223]

@3:00 oh brilliant, i'm in the market for a new drill, could you link me to your next door's channel?

[@TheCrazyhairdude67]

Great video highlighting this game's weaknesses. I will say, the game has been updated since this was posted. I'm a brand new player so I don't know everything that was changed, so I'm just going to give my perspective on the entire package as I've experienced. First, there's a tray for materials now. Forageables, small cards, large cards, animals, buildings, it is now very easy to set up and take down. I'm shocked that wasn't present on release, but that issue has been entirely resolved. Second, I'm not sure if this was in the original manual, but my version presents a number of different "difficulty" options - essentially giving a sliding scale of victory. Winning the game at the lowest level means clearing grandpa's goals only. The next level is grandpa's goals plus the community center, and the final level is all of the above plus clearing every Joja tile. Out of the 4 games I played this weekend, my partner and I beat all 4 at the highest level, with a high score of 9 joja tiles cleared in a single game. I think that's a great way to score this game; treat it like a high score chase where you try to clear as many goals as you can. Some of these complaints still absolutely land. In particular, the mine locks up so much of the rest of the game. It's the only source of bug meat for fishing and ore for tool upgrades unless you get very lucky with friends or items, and I've spent many full turns in this game in the Mine Casino. It's to the point where I'm probably going to find some way to home-rule around it. Maybe include other places to acquire those materials. Speaking of home rules, that "bottom of the mine" goal is utter trash and it makes no sense that it doesn't scale with player count like the rest of the goals. Just read it as "Descend to level 3 x (players) of the mine". It is not feasible to achieve that goal in any less than a 4 player game, which brings it down from unfair to only annoying. I genuinely had a ton of fun, but the game absolutely still has its rough edges and it will not be for everyone.

[@devincross2205]

The April Fools' joke here is recommending the criminally out-of-print Lowlands. :'(

[@andrewbellavie795]

That breaks my heart I should've picked it up years ago

[@devincross2205]

@@andrewbellavie795 I finally managed to get a copy through a BGG trade locally. Worth seeking out for sure, but takes nearly as much luck as Stardew Valley the board game, apparently.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

- Yu can get Highlands instead! - No chance of flooding there, though. - Nae!

[@saw516]

I picked up a new copy of lowlands literally last week on Zatu games, as far as I know it’s still in stock on there

[@bearhustler]

Lowlands is lovely but dear lord the icons are awful.

[@JosephGorndt]

The irony of the US "Buy This Game" link being Amazon is palpable.

[@Antherage]

I got this game for my wife and I because she is a massive Stardew fan. She has millions of gold both on PC and mobile versions now at this point. She loves the artwork, the feel, the everything about the game. I wouldn't say if you're a fan of Stardew you won't be a fan of this game because she likes board games, but isn't a HUGE fan of them, but she likes this game a lot. We just play it casually, going through a day and having a year in the life of our two characters just like Stardew Valley. I mean, the objective is to complete the goals of the game and win, but Stardew was never about winning, this is just an objective to complete for the sake of having one and taking it slow, chilling, and just playing it like Stardew is the best option, I think. That being said, we've not "lost" yet. We've had some bad luck cards as well, and even added a 5th grandpa objective and completed that game, too. We now have to basically sub out all cards and place as many Joba tile cards as possible to make it something where you run into an issue achieving victory. This is all two player, and I've never played it solo, so it could be an entirely different experience. It might just be our run of luck, but my review of Stardew summarize is basically... It is casual, fun, able to be learned quickly even if setup is daunting at first. It has great theme, Stardew fans should actually like it(imo) and it is fun to play if you just play it like Stardew. We're just farmers, going through life, making friends.

[@trimeta]

Hitting your head on the microphone at 6:03 was way more noticeable than your neighbor's drilling.

[@stumbling]

I get the impression those notices aren't for us.

[@ZenofireX]

As a fan of Stardew Valley this game feels like the first year of the first time you play. Fighting with Stamina when you need to clear the fields and plant and water.. You have so much to do but only so much time to do it. And that's this game. You're struggling to get money and gifts, then hopefully get a good friend so you can flip over the Bundles asap so you can plan the rest of the game. But 'asap' usually isnt till like, fall, but hopefully by then you have money and crops and forage to at least get a few done. But I'm just rambling at this point. I love this game. Solo, 3 players, and 4 players have all been super fun for me and I played with different people each time. Pandemic tends to have 1 person controlling all the action becuase they know the game so well. But with this we really had to work together and hope it works out, which I ended up enjoying Way more than Pandemic. I always find new things in this game since Epic items are so hard to get ahold of and theres So many items and events. Honestly I just adore this game. I hope yall have fun with it if ya give it a shot

[@aidam6152]

I think you must have played some other version of Stardew Valley the pc game. In Stardew Valley there is no time limit no fail state. You can play it your pace, take ingame years to do anything and the game doesnt punish you. That's kind of a integral part of what makes the game so relaxing I think. "You have so much to do" but you have unlimited time to do it. And that's not this board game.

[@ZenofireX]

@@aidam6152 Sure I have infinite time to do it. But I love to optimize my time. I need to clear room to plant crops, get forage to sell for seeds and start waterin so I can get money and materials to upgrade my house and build a barn and a coop and all the other fun stuff you can do in that game. I wanna go fish, I wanna mine, I just dont have the stamina to do it all. And the PC game sure you have 3 years to do it all, which is plenty of time. But this game is just 1 year. 1 year to rush and get it all done. And I like that. I don't think it would be satisfying as a board game if there wasn't that restriction. Cuz you can just add another season deck if you want. Make it 2 or three years. You'll have plenty of time for sure. It's not built around that, but if that's how you have fun, theres nothin stopping ya

[@aidam6152]

@@ZenofireX No i think its fine to enjoy speedtunning and optimizing Stardew Valley. It's just a specific way play the game that only a part of the player base likes. I'm not sure what is the 3 year limit you mentioned.

[@adfqwed]

Yeah I've played this a few times and this game isn't really far off from how my friends and I play on our multiplayer stardew farm. Sure there's no time pressure per se, but we do have goals and things we want to build and get done in a somewhat reasonable timeframe (don't wanna have to wait another whole year to complete certain community center goals, especially when they unlock certain locations etc.), so theres definitely a major element of managing time, stamina, resources, money, making good plans for the day so we don't spend half of it running around trying to catch up with each other etc. The board game's more stressful/time-crunched, and the goals are specific and set out for you instead of "huh, i think i'd really like a big ol' dairy farm right here", but the underlying management puzzle aspect isn't far off.

[@fitandhappy42]

I can see the Argus headline already: Local Scarecrow Disembowelled in Brighton Stairwell.

[@steverodriguez123]

As someone who samples soil for a career, I can confirm that we don't really use plastic bags, and the standard practise is for Amber glass jars.... Also great video having watched a few times since release

[@rown2k4]

Person with a lot of plastic bags: 1) board gamer 2) drug dealer 3) soil sampler I got 2 out of 3!

[@LexOnTheWeb]

As someone who loves the Stardew Valley (the video game) loop of “Grow Crops, Sell Crops/product, Buy upgrades, repeat” Viticulture also scratches this itch really well in board game form, and is fun to play 1-4 players.

[@OmySpy]

My wife and I played this for the first 2 times yesterday and had a blast. I agree with pretty much all of Quinns' criticisms, there is a lot of randomness and you can feel totally screwed due to no fault of your own. In game #2 we actually did feel like that: terrible luck, getting Stones every turn and no Ore until like Fall, a Legendary Fish goal, we thought we had no chance of winning but were still enjoying giving it our best shot. In a shocking twist, we had some ridiculous luck in the last 3-4 turns and managed to complete our last goals on the final action, it was insane! Who is the game for? I don't know, if you like the Stardew aesthetic, collecting items and upgrading yourself, relying on luck, and having a chilled out time in a game you very well may lose, then you might have a great time like me. One thing I do like is how easy it is to adjust the difficulty if you want to; just remove some objectives (or add more if you think it's too easy??), you could even add a 2nd year of season cards if you wanted. Some may say that's not the real game, but if you're having fun who cares? Playing the game soundtrack at the same time is also a nice touch :D

[@trickytreyperfected1482]

I just played it solo for the first time tonight (recieved it yesterday) and I have to say, while it definitely has its downfalls, I personally enjoyed it. And the great thing is that one of the criticisms has been amended!; The versions of it coming out now have storage trays where everything fits nicely.

[@JessWLStuart]

Laughed so loudly when you were running Matt out the door my neighbor complained!

[@Jagar_Tharn]

The way you describe the board game is EXACTLY how the real game feels. I bought it to relax. I ended up racing around til 2 am every day nearly losing my mind trying to get everything before I had to wait another year for the chance.

When the video review is way cooler than the game it reviews

[@TMHUpNorth]

It seems like most of the problems this boardgame has could be fixed by categorising the objective cards based on difficulty, changing the friend thing to give you one more turn at least to get the thing they want, and a system to change dice rolls.

[@tinvahtaric8680]

12:17 Curiosity killed the scarecrow 😂

[@CompressionPolice]

I pretty much just got the game to have it as Stardew Valley merch. I've organized the pieces but I still haven't played it. Also I was surprised you didn't mention the unattractive pawns or Joja tiles that were printed backward.

[@goblingon]

why did you break the shrink

[@lux0rd01]

My friend bought this and it was just straight up missing multiple things

[@One_Odd_Ood]

I had to pause the video to say the sound effect accompanying your naughty British lip curl was the funniest thing in the world and I’m still laughing about it.

[@matthewjanzen4837]

Naughty British Lip Curl is my new band name

[@TimeSpaceWormsNow]

Stardew Valley: How to hide a body edition.

[@phillipbirt5884]

it seems like the biggest issues were the unknown objectives and lack of dice mitigation.. I wonder how it would play if all objectives started known, and the hearts you earn from the townspeople could be spent on rerolls.

[@cadeimond]

There is some dice mitigation in the game, such as upgrading the pickaxe. Even just the first level, for one copper, your options in the mines go from picking 1 of 2 to 1 of 3-4, and it only gets better

[@DaniloakaOlinad]

I actually kind of enjoyed playing the game solo, but I get your points loud and clear. It's very random, but the variety of cards and nods to the original game is actually pretty cool. Neat experiment, I don't think it was meant to win any awards... it's great that you guys got to review it though!

[@jjudge001]

my feelings exactly

[@Antherage]

I honestly think the year objectives are just to have something to aim for and the game really is meant to just be played like Stardew. You just do things, have fun, fish some, farm some, meet some friends and go to a festival.

[@Alastor255]

this game is so much people with custom house rules like when you go meet a new friends, you can choose between 2 or 3 people in the pile instead of just 1 person, that way, it feel more natural to meet someone at a bar or café. Also, with 2 players games, i would either add 1 more turn per player or add 1 more season card per season.

[@LevelWithUs]

How is this not for fans of the video game? Design aside, It sold out almost immediately because people who enjoy the video game want more ways to experience it. Even if it has a "death clock" I've heard it captures the spirit of the video game rather well.

[@pablocamarasa9633]

Regarding the community center goals, there are only 2 of the 6 rooms with a chance of being impossible to complete so, if you rush to discover those firsts, then, you can lay down (at least, on that regard). And the game gives you several tools to mitigate luck (with profession's upgrades an items) so it's not as harsh as described here. But, I can totally see a player drawing exactly what they don't need every single time.

[@naterkirby]

I can see how this might compare to Robinson Crusoe. Strategically placing action tokens all over and hoping most of the dice rolls go your way, or at least don’t completely destroy your plans.

[@HeinzMcDurgen]

How did we not get Agricola (farmer) as a "running a farm" game?!

[@gabriellegouellec8249]

Next up, Horror month staring Mathew Trees! :)

[@reinreed]

Me at 11:39: Did he say "spouse porn"? Quinns at 11:56: I did not say "spouse porn"

[@dachers1238]

12:03 That whole bit had me dying from laughter. Quinns is amazing in front of the camera. Bravo.

[@csaey4472]

As a frequent board game player, it's strongly recommended to create house rules as you learn the game to make it something YOU like. Same as cooking something from a recipe site, if you don't like it like this you change it up next time.

[@wizzlet6821]

Him addressing the spouse pawn thing right after I was thinking the exact same thing was like he read my mind

[@stumbling]

2:55 "... but if you're looking for something a little more... noisy, the Makita HR2630/2 is the powerdrill for you: AS YOU CAN HEAR, IT'S INCREDIBLY LOUD JUST ON THE DEFAULT SETTING BUT SWITCH ON THE HAMMER FUNCTION AND [inaudible]... [inaudible]... *WHIRrrrr* which might even result in a visit from your local police."

[@theTuism]

That sounded enough like "stodgy valley" that it's going to be my headcanon from now on :)

[@CaptainFlatulence1]

Definite thumbs up for A. Getting Matt to look exactly like Matt and B. Detailing the differences between spouse pawn and spouse porn

[@bigliquidd]

just ao yall know, youre allowed to add more cards to the deck, adding way more turns to the game, and also can trade out a comm center objective for free if its impossible during the gamestate

[@apagnan]

When you pushed all the pieces loosely into the box, I think my anxiety levels skyrocketed 😂

[@hjordiswolff]

what about he flipping out for Matt while throwing away the black pen on the boardgame?

[@TravisEatWorld]

I'm curious to know how much it would fix the game to just shuffle up and play the season cards again when you finish Year 1. So, just play indefinitely, until you complete all the objectives. This way, you can't lose (just like in the video game) and you just play until you don't want to anymore or have done everything there is to do (just like in the video game). And if you want the competitive edge, you can try to beat your previous scores (e.g., "Last time we completed all objectives in Summer of Year 2, but this time we did it by Spring of Year 2!"). What do y'all think?

[@eldestisland4520]

I like the idea that Quinns lives in a whole appartment complex of different types of reviewers. The SU&SD Extended Universe

[@kailomonkey]

I have this game finally. I knew what it contained. But so many different decks to spread out I can not find motivation to play it for the first time, on my own or subjecting others. Can't even motivate to relearn the rules after waiting a year for the thing to arrive. Next Day Update: I looked at the cards and got over the intimidation factor. Played it and lost with 9 goals out of 10 complete! Pretty easy goals relatively but not having other players meant detouring to activities I didn't really need just to collect wood that I think would have been mopped up more easily by other players spreading their activities about the valley. Joja and Winter eventually crippled my farm-centric character too, making me penniless just when I really needed to homerun 2 coin-heavy goals and could only knock out one or the other in the final turn. All in all I have to say I enjoyed that chaos and as much as I see the drawbacks of the game, once playing I didn't find they mattered. I was just more excited by the tension of whether I'd succeed or not! And I learned not to count on farming to get money when there's not enough players to water enough turns before winter, Joja and crows crush you.

[@Interesting_Failure]

I do feel like this game would benefit from a simple line in the rulebook saying "you can take two years if you want". (EDIT: and other stuff like picking objectives and general tweaks to let people just goof around a little)

[@toyfreaks]

Also, they went to the trouble of making a vacuform tray for the little tokens, why not one more with deeper slots for the other stacks / shapes of cards instead of the big cardboard spacer?

[@ghostmutton]

Little-to-no agency, with success ruled almost entirely by random chance. So it's like a cutesy Arkham Horror?

[@catanoxunleashed6959]

I was wondering if you guys were gonna review this game! Excited to see your thoughts!

[@YourAverage_J0e]

Personally my little brother and I had a lot of fun with the game. 2 things I feel I should point out that the review was wrong about: dice roles can be affected, both the rod and pickaxe allow this, the rod allowing you to reroll and the pick allowing you to pick a different square also getting a spouse is not random, it is guaranteed to get you the item you need to get married by building the farm house. All-in-all I felt exhilarated playing this game. Usually I hate randomness in games, but the objectives feel so tight that when you win or loss its always close. There is a lot going on here, but 3 games in (1 with standard cards and 2 times on highest difficulty with all cards) and each time it felt so satisfying to take these random events and items and work them to your advantage in some way to come out on top in what felt like 1 stroke of genius after another with constant nail-biting. The game is also very customizable in that you can remove a number of or certain goals to tailor the game to your fun level. Then again maybe we just got really lucky.

[@AustNerevar]

It is rare when somebody makes me laugh out loud for longer than 5 seconds. You have my subscription.

[@andresgalvez]

Late to the party but I play this often solo. The storage in box sucks so I bought a mini hardware/ craft sorter box thing to solve that. There’s a sentiment that the feel of Stardew Valley the game isn’t emulated well in the board game and with regard to that I’d say house rules are the way to go. Which I know will turn folks off. But I thoroughly enjoy the game and the board game because I play both how I want to play them. House rules and stacking the deck a certain way, making sure certain items will be available, introducing dice mitigation, extending the seasons all help to the make a play through pleasant. I think if you love Stardew valley you’ll also love the board game provided you give yourself the freedom to make up your own way around the sometimes stressful variance :)

[@D0cSwiss]

@4:10 Months isn't too inaccurate there, since each season is 4 weeks long and I don't think they gave another name for each month

[@THESP-rz3hg]

I'm a little reminded of your review of "Fallout: the video game: the board game" and thinking there may be some trouble translating between media.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

Even the designer Ignacy Trzewiczek acknowledges that The Witcher Adventure Game was not his finest hour, yes.

[@WadeAllen001]

Unfortunately the only real way to make an entirely co-op game challenging is to have lots of randomness. You could design it to be hard without any randomness, but then what happens is you and your friends play it and lose a couple times until you realize what the right strategy is to overcome the difficulty floor, and after that it's now easy so long as you keep employing that strategy. And then on the other end of the spectrum the game isn't even challenging to begin with. So I'm sure that's probably why they decided to go with so much randomness in this game. If they removed it then winning would just be a matter of finding the right formula to win, and after you do find that formula the game is no longer very much fun.

[@rmsgrey]

The trouble is that too much randomness doesn't make the game challenging; it makes it pure luck. Rather than figuring out the correct formula to win, and the game losing its appeal, you either figure out the correct formula and then discover whether or not the game will permit you to win, or you figure out a range of potentially correct formulas, pick one at the start of the game, and then discover whether you've picked the correct one for that play-through.

[@WadeAllen001]

@@rmsgrey Yeah, that's true. Which is why I wouldn't buy this game. I just don't know if there's a good way to make an entirely co-op game challenging and stay challenging aside from using randomness. But they definitely went overboard on the amount of randomness they put in. There are ways aside from randomness to keep the game fun though, like by making your game sufficiently complex so that you can keep running into interesting game-states that you haven't seen before. Or by introducing new rules or components to play with over time. I think Gloomhaven does a good job at this. There is some amount of randomness like in how effective your attacks will be, what the enemies will do, etc, but it's far less random than Stardew Valley seems to be. But Gloomhaven is also a legacy game that has enough content to last you upwards of 200 hours of playtime (I'm currently at 150). You gradually unlock new items, new classes to play, new abilities for the class you're playing, new maps to play on, etc, so there's always some new thing to look forward to. And the amount of possible combinations (like in the party composition and what enemies you're up against) ensure that you'll regularly encounter scenarios you haven't been in before. The difficulty in Gloomhaven is often well-tuned, where you feel as though you're going to lose this mission but then you just barely manage to scrape by. But honestly, that difficulty is mostly in the early game. Once you've acquired plenty of experience with the game and know how to play it well and your characters are in the higher levels and decked out in items and enhancements, the game isn't very hard anymore, even with the enemy scaling. But it's okay that Gloomhaven doesn't remain challenging the whole time you play it because it has enough other things going for it to remain fun the whole time.

[@mynameisthis192]

Quinns heard some people claiming Tom had gone more insane than him and decided to prove them wrong.

[@greensun7099]

I'm not into playing board games, yet this review brought me so much fun & inspiration. Thank you!

[@tomasxfranco]

I'd recommend Horrified over Pandemic. More variety in the base game.

[@projectdaaltaran]

I'm glad he mentioned that you can swap out community bundles. I hadn't heard that before and wondered what would happen if you discovered in summer that you needed spring crops

[@doggyaugie]

I'm frankly shocked Fields of Arle wasn't mentioned at the end for a sandboxy farming game

[@GoodTimeSociety]

You become more and more my favorite person with every second of video I watch. Good thing KZbin comments are anonymous. I'm gonna go find some pawn(s).

[@MichaelM-ev9ek]

I can deal with the low-hanging mic at 06:00 and I get the occasional car alarm in the background, but why does it always look like Quinns is living in a office building, hotel or a convention centre whenever he's leaving his apartment?

[@kerim8666]

Quinns what was the game you were going to recommend before the cut at 14:31? btw if you haven't, check out Clans of Caledonia, wonderful farming game!

[@jasongrundy1717]

Pandemic frequently has a deck configuration that is completely unwinnable but people like it. For some reason.

[@lexta13]

This certainly happens but it is quite rare once you have some experience. Especially at the beginning of the game it is a question of deciding how much energy you have to invest into dealing with the acute problems and which problems you can (relatively) safely ignore. Also, Pandemic - played with the right group - offers the feeling of being part of a panel of experts, which I think is the reason why people like it.

[@linneagistrand822]

@@lexta13 it also kind of fits the theme of a pandemic that it’s hard to beat IMO

[@Kajotex]

Whats the music starting at 12:21?

[@darkangelsmarine]

I loved the note on your neighbors likely careers as drill reviewers. That was amazing. I just watched the wingspan review so that while home renovation thing was both relatable and hilarious. Sorry that it makes editing a slog though!

[@Matthew_Calmert]

You're like the perfect mix of stephen merchant and alton brown