I have not played this game a whole lot in part due to this fear that I will miss really good optional developments in the story or with different characters along the way. Is there a lot that is based on choices where, you cannot experience both versions after you make a major choice? I do get that it could be like different romantic partners being worth re-playing to experience, but that is more obvious. But like, even changing who I date I could still pick the wrong thing and miss story content that I would not want to miss. Does that happen a lot? How easy is it to miss things, and then if that is the case, how do I even look it up without immediately spoiling things?
by jetmanda
6 Comments
There is no fomo in this game. No decisions are locked in and can be reversed with time and money
Half the longevity of the game comes from doing it again to get scenes you miss. There are events that won’t happen or happen differently depending on dialogue choices and cutscenes that depend on how much you’ve interacted or built a friendship with another villager. Like any choose your own adventure mechanic you’re going to unwittingly miss stuff on a first playthrough. It’s why people have multiple saves or willingly restart their day. You can’t really softlock yourself and it is forgiving if you forget to do things, but I don’t think there is a lot you can miss entirely storywise. It encourages f’ing around and finding out.
The only major choice really is whether you choose the community centre route or the joja route. You also never miss any heart events. For some events it says you have to meet someone at a certain place / time but it doesn’t matter if you miss it because you can trigger the event any other day
There’s really only a handful of heart events that have dialogue options and of those there tends to be obvious good person answers vs jerky person answers. And even then what you pick has little effect outside of what a character says in that particular scene. It doesn’t change what their next heart event is or what someone else’s heart event is.
It’s genuinely hard to miss story elements in this game unless you’re actively skipping cut scenes or mashing through text. The heart event triggers are based on entering a specific area (house, town, woods etc) at certain times of day. And if you never or rarely enter at the correct location at the correct time, the game just “stores” the information that you have enough hearts to trigger that event. Even if you’ve seen a characters 4 heart event before their 2 heart, it’ll still show you the 2 heart when you eventually get around to triggering it.
As for looking it up, the wiki does not hide the details of each heart event. So if you’re trying g to avoid spoilers, I do not recommend reading the wiki. I can give you a few non-spoiler hints, if you want them. I hid them in case you don’t. >!Remember to enter character homes from time to time. In a few of the homes there will be locked doors, I recommend trying those every once in a while too. Enter different parts of the map at both day and night as some events only trigger at specific times.!<
You really wanna lower your expectations for what constitutes “writing” in this game. The way you’re talking sounds like you’re expecting a whole ass RPG full of complex developments and moral choices that lead to branching paths and story arcs, this is not _at all_ what Stardew is about.
This is a farming game first of all, with the average very minimal and simplistic type of “writing” of the genre; where you worry more about missing the last day to plant a certain vegetable than missing out on the paper-thin plot that barely exists.
Just make sure you know what kind of game you’re actually looking into playing, because you’re gonna be very disappointed if you come into Stardew Valley expecting Dragon Age.
If you are asking if there are any real consequences in the game no there are not. The game is not like baldur’s gate when it comes to what choices you actually make mattering.