/Gaming

I will admit here, up front, that when my daughter suggested playing Stardew Valley together my inner monologue was less enthusiastic than I was in my outward expression. I have owned the game since I [bought it during the Steam Winter Sale of 2016](https://tagn.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/steam-winter-sale-2016-results/), but haven't played it all that much. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/stardewvalleysplash.jpg) Stardew Valley Splash Screen This is largely because it struck me as a nice little farming and social simulator, but that wasn't enough to really pique my interest. Nobody told me it had blackjack and hookers. Or, blackjack at least. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_gamblingsomeday.jpg) Get me to the tables! I haven't made it that far yet, but I watched the Honest Game Trailers for it that I had somehow missed and it spilled the beans on that. My daughter and I started on our third play session in the game this past Sunday, that being out designated day, and I was able to join in with the Switch 2 and the game running on the TV, which among other things meant I did not need to wear my glasses. I mentioned the mines being a problem as well, not being very bright on the Switch Lite screen, but that sort of glossed over the fact that I was completely unaware that the mines and exploring them and harvesting ore was a thing. And fighting things. Granted, mostly small things... though still deadly... but I had no idea that combat was a requirement. Then again, according to Steam, the last time I played the game was in early 2017, so it might not have been a thing back then. But my daughter has played a lot of the game in the last year, so was guiding me along. You don't get a sword until you get to the mines. There Marlon of the adventurer's guild meets you and you have your own little "It's dangerous to go alone, take this" moment as he hands you a rusty sword. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_marlonintro.jpg) Not quite the right line, but close Once we were in I ended up with a journal entry to get to level 40 we spend some time getting into the mines. Each level is relatively small, but the ladder down to the next level is often hidden. You have to break rocks to find it. Fortunately I had gone to Pierre's and had spent the money for the backpack upgrade. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_pierres.jpg) Pierre's in town Pierre is charging 2,000 gold for that upgrade, which feels pretty steep... and chicken coop is $4,000 and makes you money... but the irritation of dealing with constant inventory management choices... was not interesting game play to say the least. I'll have to save up for the next backpack upgrade. Pierre needs to make a living, I get it. But some of his prices make me want to get that Joja Mart membership. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_10kbackpackupgrade.jpg) See what no local competition does to prices We went in and fought our way down. You get an elevator stop every five levels down, so it is worth the effort to make it to that fifth level further on with each venture so you can pick up where you left off. (I try not to think to hard about the elevator thing. It is just a save point sort of convenience.) At 20 we were rewarded with a chest that coughed up a sword upgrade. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_steelsmallsword-1.jpg) A steel smallsword! I can discard my rusty sword! Things got a little dicey as we went further down, but we got in a rhythm of just scrambling to find the next ladder down and avoiding the mobs as best we could. That got us down to level 40 after a couple of day cycles, and I was able to go find Marlon and join the adventurers guild. The other thing I worked a bit on while we were together was fishing. I went off and did that while she reconfigured out farming plot. There is a right way and a wrong way apparently. The fishing mini-game was immediately frustrating to me, largely because it has something of an inverse progression when it gets easier as you advance. So when Willy hands you a bamboo pole and says "Good luck" you're at the steepest part of the slope to fishing mastery. Which I guess is true to real life... but this is a video game and being immediately bad at something and finding zero success does tend to put you off. Also, I started this on the Switch Lite and the cues for reeling in a fish were so small on that screen as to be effectively invisible to me. So I had previously fished for a bit and then just gave up. This is apparently such a known issue that the game will circle back on fishing, in the form of Willy landing on your doorstep one morning pointing out that you appear to have not done much fishing. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_willyfishingreminder.jpg) I couldn't help but notice... First, has he been spying on me? Second, it is 6am. While the fact that I wake up at that time is the most close to real life aspect of the game, and that fishermen tend to be early risers, it is still a bit weird that he is at your door waiting for you. Also, he is blocking you in so you have to speak with him. The game is pretty forceful when it feels you need to hear something. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_willyintheway.jpg) Willy on the spot at 6am After a few more boxes of text he ends up giving you [the training rod](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Training_Rod), a fishing pole for beginners that makes it easier to catch fish, but which limits you to common fish. This helped... though perhaps not as much as having the game on a screen bigger that the Switch Lite... or having a controller with the rumble feature so that, in addition to the tiny exclamation point and faint sound you get when a fish is hooked, you also get a small jolt from the controller. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_sunfishcaught.jpg) Sunfish caught, op success! However, I do want to gripe a bit about the fishing mechanic, if only because it makes me want to go put together a post ranking the various fishing mechanics in games. Stardew Valley favors the mini-game approach, where once a fish is hooked you need to press the Y button to keep a bar over the fish in the mini-game. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/sdv01_fishing.jpg) A fish on the line, time to play the game The fish icon moves up and down the vertical indicator and pressing the Y button moves the green segment, which you must keep the fish within, upwards, while letting go of the Y button causes it to move down. This is not the worst fishing mechanic in the world... I have some opinions about _Valheim's_ stamina based mechanic... but it does require the player to work on a fine touch, because it is very easy to over correct and get into a player induced oscillation scenario where the bar is going up and down like a piston in a combustion engine. This is similar to the fishing mechanic in _Palworld_ , which [I described some time back](https://tagn.wordpress.com/2025/08/22/palworld-fishing-and-breaking-the-law/), only _Palworld_ is on a horizontal axis. [](https://tagn.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/pw02_fishingmechanic.jpg) Catch dat fish! Holding the fish in the zone advances with tan bar to the right and once it fills up the full way you have caught the fish. Of course, failing to hold the fish in the zone causes the bar to drop and if it hits the bottom then the fish gets away. When you start out with the initial bamboo pole the green zone that you move is at its smallest, growing as you level up fishing or with better fishing poles which can also have bait and bobber enhancements, so all things equal catching the same specific fish grows much easier as you advance. I assume that there are more difficult fish out in the world to catch, ones that move more actively up and down the UI, but the higher the skills the easier it gets. Otherwise our co-op game has made it through spring to the first summer and things are much better on the Switch 2.