Stardew Valley has accomplished something most developers could only dream of, this game is officially available on every type of platform. It made the leap from computers to consoles and now our phones as of October 24th 2018. For now this release just for iOS but there is high hopes that it will also be making its way to android devices soon. That being said, there are both upsides and downsides to the mobile format.

Not like other mobile ports

Mobile versions of games have a bad rap for being crummy ports, but I was confident enough in the developer to risk pre-ordering the game. Concernedape is the one man machine who created the original game and has continued to add fantastic content for free since then. He has gotten help with doing additions like porting it to consoles and adding multiplayer to the game, but he is someone who is very involved in his own game even years after the initial release. I had full confidence that he wouldn’t allow the game to turn into the pay to play format that most mobile games have and it absolutely isn’t. You pay the low price of 7.99$ USD once and you gain access to the full experience.

That is a big pro on its own as the game is easily worth more in terms of gameplay value. The game offers farming, fishing, mining, fighting and foraging. On top of that it has stories behind every NPC character and there are 12 marriage candidates to pursue. On the PC version alone I have played over 100 hours and I have already been entranced enough by the mobile version to sink over five hours into that. So it is easy to get your money’s worth out of the game.

Portability vs battery power

In truth in the PC version the only thing I felt was missing was the ability to pick up the game and take it with me everywhere. Having it on mobile makes it so you can sneak in your gaming fix anywhere you go and its possible to do that completely offline. I particularly appreciated having it on a long car ride as it made the experience fly by a lot faster. It also makes it easier to share with others since its just a matter of passing your device over to a friend to show it off rather than dragging them back to your house. The downside of that portability is that of course phones can die fairly quickly when playing games. I will say however that the game seemed moderate when it came to energy sucking compared to apps like Netflix or Youtube that do streaming. I would be curious if it would remain as energy efficient if they ever added multiplayer to mobile. At this point the mobile version of Stardew Valley is only the single player experience but currently the pro of the portability of the app is more than worth any con with regards battery drainage in my opinion.

Changes to mechanics

The mechanics in the game were definitely tweaked to fit the mobile market. For most movement you now are simply a click away from an action. This can both be great and annoying at the same time at points.

Pro: It makes farming really simple. You can be very precise when it comes to hoeing, watering, planting and harvesting plants.

Con: If you click on the cash and not the blueish display case your character will go behind the cash and get uncomfortably close to Pierre. Needing this level of precision also applies to Willy and other vendors.

Pro: it can make travelling to people and locations very easy. You click where you want to go and your character automatically goes there rather than you having to finger drag your character everywhere.

Con: Fighting in the mines is either better or worse depending on how you like to play. The auto fight button will automatically fight the enemies for you but it takes power away from the player. You can have auto fight off, but you are more likely to take damage as your movement and fighting are linked. Its my least favorite part of the game now and use to be my favorite. So its a big con.

Pro: As if to make up for the fact fighting now sucks, fishing now feels great! I avoided fishing on PC because mouse clicks seemed frustratingly imprecise and instead got all of my fish for bundles from the travelling merchant. Having it on mobile makes it a lot better, you are still clicking but it feels like you are more in control of it.

The level of control the mobile game provides ultimately more of a pro than a con in most situations. Particularly when you are getting rid of the junk that is all over your farm when you first start out. The necessary equipment such as the pickaxe, the axe, the scythe, will automatically be switched to what is needed for the object you are trying to get rid of. It was something I never knew I wanted until I got my hands on mobile and felt how seamless the playing experience was with the automatic switch.

Overall I am very pleased with my purchase and am looking forward to experiencing the game all over again. If you have never played Stardew Valley before I would happily recommend both the mobile and PC version. I love that the mobile version is pushing me to enjoy different portions of the game and I love the original game for all it had to offer. If you want more details on what the original game offers I’d recommend checking out my very first review on Tasta here. If you know and love Stardew Valley already, I would still recommend picking this up even with some of its drawbacks.