Clint is Misunderstood – Stardew Valley Hot Takes
Is Clint actually not that bad of a guy? Should the amount of energy you have be reduced? Is Junimo Kart GOOD?? All of this, and more, discussed in another edition of Stardew Valley Hot takes!
Here’s that interview with PC Gamer that I referenced a few times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olf3wAuCfeU
Sections:
0:00 – Intro
0:27 – You get too much energy
1:41 – Ginger Island sucks
2:40 – Joja isn’t evil enough
3:21 – Shane being unfriendly is reasonable
4:31 – Tomatoes should be fruits
5:15 – Clint shouldn’t be hated
6:31 – Pam is alright
7:17 – Optimizing the game is stressful
9:23 – Junimo Kart is one of the BEST parts of the game
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https://djcutman.bandcamp.com/album/stardew-chill
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22 Comments
For me, I never understood the insane obsession with becoming filthy rich in this game. I make money as I need and as I go but my focus is NEVER solely on making money. My farm is always quaint with a reasonable amount of machines (i.e kegs and what not) I don't have 500 kegs or any crazy thing like that. I sustain myself enough as I play so I can focus on the caverns and the people. So I can have fun too. I'm not trying to become some industrialized farm pumping out an overabundance of goods. Sometimes I crops will sit there fully grown for days. Or my machines will sit there with products in them for days. Like I just started Fall Year 4 and I've made roughly 6 million total. I could have easily made a lot more but I don't like that "grind". I'd rather just be casual about it. I'll make money when I want.
I used to optimize playing. Recently, I changed. Now I play each day as I want. If I don't want to plant crops, I don't. If I want to fish for 1 week straight, I do. I love the idea of farming flowers and a coop full of bunnies, so I do. It's so freeing.
I do miss the energy management of the early game sometimes. Honestly, it's not a REAL limit past like the first few days because you get salmonberries so early on and if you're really pushing yourself your tools and can skills can be leveled up very quickly.
Clint is a bit of a loser but that's it. I've never really understood anyone having a strong opinion about him one way or the other.
The reason people like fishing but dislike Junimo cart is A. it's more rewarding B. it IS easier and C. fishing minigames are everywhere, so there's less of a feeling of incongruity. They're not just common in farming sims, they're also fairly common in [=RPGs=] and [=MMOs=] and whatnot as well.
When it came to your poll about fishing… I think that overall fishing feels very balanced. But i also think it starts out way too hard. ive gotten good at even level one fishing after hundreds of hours in the game, but for people just picking it up for the first time it can be difficult to the point of giving up
I haaaaaate fishing. So frustrating and trash happens way too often. My least favorite aspect of the game, along with the caves lolol
My hot take is the game needs to require the wiki less. For example; if I am trying to give a gift to a non-shop owner my options are either check their schedule on the wiki or get lucky with finding them. My solution would be to have a phone similar to the one for shops where you can call a house and they can give rough directions to them. Such as 'Haley can't come to the phone right now, she went out to the river'
Or when I am missing just a few gems/artifacts there's no way to tell which ones drop what I need without either memorizing their tables over multiple playthroughs. Maybe Clint could get an option where you bring him a geode and he will either outright tell you what it can drop or just tell you if there's anything you are missing from it
FIONA MENTIONED!
Apparently the Animal Crossing villagers being less nice in the early days was because of the American localization. They were still nice in Japan, so it carried over to America in the newer games.
Hot take for animal crossing actually, in the older games (specifically GameCube Animal crossing) the villagers weren’t “poking fun at you as friends” or being a little antagonistic they were straight up MEAN.
(Which I absolutely love. But they were brutal)
These are actual dialogue lines;
“Hey! Are you some kind of antisocial freak or something?”
“Do you have some decent cloths to change into? Something not so… ugly”
“I don’t want anyone to think we’re friends or anything”
“You seem to be a little touchy [Player], I guess your still just a burden on society”
“Just look at you, my rugs more fashionable”
“I think I have- what’s it called… insanity.”
“Oh! You were looking for friends? That’s so sad”
And my personal favorite:
“Why, Oh Why, do you INSIST on making so much noise this early”
Not really a hot take, but I wish characters interacted more. Or at least have some dialog about certain characters.
For example: Alex could mention liking to hang out with Sam cause they both have similar interests, whereas, Alex doesn’t like spending time with Sebastian cause he's too much of a downer (and he doesn't like Seb's smoking habits).
Idk, it's a very small town, and I'm surprised not many characters actually talk about each other. I'm not saying they should all be friends, but people in small towns love to talk about other people's business.
My hot take is married emily on clint birthday
Finally another stardew vid!🚡🚡🚡
um actually clint hangs out with the fisherman in the bar
That tomato classification change would be so funny, I approve.
I agree on the energy scaling. There's got to be a sweet spot between early game and the entire mechanic no longer mattering. I guess we could just not fully upgrade tools, and I'm considering it on my current run, but the time save matters more in that case than the energy save. I guess it's fair for time to replace energy? Sort of? Except both of them are a concern early on so why should that change so much? I don't know. Just scaling it more slowly seems like a decent idea to me. Maybe they shouldn't consume less stamina, they should just let you get jobs done faster. Iridium sprinklers already make the watering can almost irrelevant and that's half your energy use (or more).
My lukewarm take is that marriage is boring because everything that made the character interesting stops. I know we can't really have unlimited peogression, but like, marry Abigail and have a couple variations on random scenes where you play games or go adventuring? Anything?
I like Salmence and BlaDe because they're not trying to chase popularity with small lies and making things up and telling everyone it like it's God's word or something when this game was made to be chill and played around with.
I appreciate Salmence being a minmaxer who can appreciate people not being that. Many people can't. One of my closest friend's boyfriend is like that and though I actively seek to hang out with him I have to shut down conversations like that because he just doesn't understand.
Re: Ginger Island
I hardly use the farm myself after getting the walnuts.
Re: Interacting with Shane in morning
Introvert here. I agree with that community member. If you want to strike a convo with me, I'll refuse.
Casual/cozy players going after speedrunners/challenge runners are genuinely the most insufferable people you can interact with.
The irony of verbally attacking someone for playing a singleplayer game in a unique way, because it breaks your entitled vision of how the game is supposed to be played and enjoyed.
why is the trash bear has tail of a raccoon? only comes out when the green house is done before the racoon's house is done, why does birdie said her husband was a pirate on the boat and kent said he died in battle? how do I get my tomato salt back? I stoped the game for the night and when I returned it was gone
I am a clint defender bc i kinda see a little but of me in him. Its not always easy to make friends or get people to like you. Hes stuck in a job he was forced into. It also doesnt help that dialogue doesnt change for when you are married nor heart events so if you marry emily he still is on her and thats not really his fault thats something CA shouldve changed. I also dont think that emily should get with him tho. It would be nive uf clint had an arc where he learns to let her go and make friends with other villagers. I think marlon could be cool. He really should've get the hate he does as its mostly CA's fault and kinda the commuies as if you remember enily wasnt originally romancable. It was put to a vote by the community who should be the next Bachelorette and emily won so clints story was already written with us not being able to date emily. I domt think people know or realize that. Now yeah clint does some questionable stuff but its not really out of malice. He doesnt plan on stalking emily he plans to try and talk to her but he is consumed by anxiety and chickens out
FIONA SANGSTER MENTIONED OHHHHHH my queen i love her stuff so much
TOMATOES ARE A VEGETABLE
ANDA FRUIT. FRUIT IS A BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION WHILE VEGETABLE IS A CULINARY ONE. CAN WE ALL STOP ARGUING ABOUT IT NOW PLEASE 🤣🤣My hot take is that Krobus shouldnt be psuedo-romancable. At all. The fact that he is and yet other similar NPCs arent is baffling, especially considering that he cant be out in sunlight, unlike the Dwarf or Wizard or the "less mystical but serves a very similar role" Sandy.
To note: i do not dislike Krobus, nor do i blame people for loving him. But the fact that he's able to be basically romanced and have move in with you, regardless of if it's "roommates" or not, is a baffling outlier and it's an outlier case for arguably the character it makes the least sense for. If he is to have that privilege, the others i mentioned (and maybe more!) should be as well, and if they arent, he shouldnt.
My other hot take is Clint should have been added as a romance option. The only reason he wasnt is because he lost a poll, and the vast majority of what makes him come off as is weird is because Emily became romancable and he stayed the same. If he too became romancable he'd have gotten an overhaul, and there's been so many updates since that poll he definitely could have been added since then, despite losing the poll.