Stardew Valley Review - Time To Sell The Farm? 

*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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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! :)

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Matt, you blew it!

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

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

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."

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!

"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

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

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!

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!

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

It's so cute how much Quinns misses Matt

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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)

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Next up, Horror month staring Mathew Trees! :)

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

12:17 Curiosity killed the scarecrow 😂

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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.

Stardew Valley: How to hide a body edition.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

I haven't laughed this hard at a board game video ever. I knew something great was coming at the end of the Paleo video... :)

Every time I catch a glimpse of Quinns tattoo... I think it's Rammstein's logo o_0

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

Isn't Sheriff of Nottingham a Robin Hood game ... kind of?

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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."

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

Ah yes. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. The four months!! Love the video!

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)

Great April's fools video! You almost got me! Who would make a Stardew Valley board game, haha!

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

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

Quinns I feel like it would be really good for your SEO if you could just say 'Spouse Pawn' a few more times.

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

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

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

Have you checked out Aquicorn Cove? Cooperative game, rebuilding a seaside town amidst some seasonal storms, as well as fishing and farming responsibly and protecting the reef just offshore. Might seem a bit too "kiddish" but it sure seems to be a better game experience than this is, and with 10x the thought and heart.

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.

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.

@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

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