Players begin their adventure in Stardew Valley in a familiar position of inheriting a family member’s farm. After moving to the farm, the player character is tasked with clearing out the property to make room for crops, livestock, and more. Earning gold from running the farm, fishing, or exploring the mines lets the player further invest in their new home with additional farm buildings, house expansions, tool upgrades, and other helpful purchases.

In addition to leveling a number of character skills and running the farm, players can meet and interact with over 30 characters in the quaint village of Pelican Town. Tending to relationships offers the player new opportunities and unique interactions with the townspeople. Not to mention, the player character can court and marry single members of the community.

After upgrading tools or collecting materials, new location open up

After being released in February, the one-man development team Concerned Ape confirmed that Stardew Valley would come soon to consoles. Next week, the open-ended farming role-playing game will release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as noted on the game’s official website. In North America, PlayStation 4 players can begin their new country life on December 13. Stardew Valley will be available for purchase and play on December 14 for Xbox One.

Stardew Valley is often compared to the Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing franchises by players, with the developer citing those games as inspiration on the Xbox website. Running a successful farm, interacting with interesting townspeople, and classic RPG progression are all important parts of Stardew Valley, giving the player many options on how they choose to live the country life.

“While making a living is an important part of your new life, you’ll also want to make friends with the locals. As you get to know people, you’ll learn more about their personalities and stories. You can even get married and have kids!”

Although day-to-day farming is the cornerstone of the game, players will find themselves in combat with slimes, skeletons, and more in the mines and caverns. Farming, foraging, mining, fishing, and combat all feature 10 levels of skill that improve as they are leveled up. At levels five and 10, each skill line lets the player specialize in a unique way. Collecting artifacts for the museum, hunting down legendary fish, and attending local festivals are also major parts of the Stardew Valley experience. Earning in-game achievements for many of these activities unlock special, cosmetic hats sold by a mouse on the outside of town.

After accomplishing certain achievements, this mouse sells unique hats

Console players will soon be able to enjoy these features as well as many others like restoring the community center, interacting with a few magical forces, and visiting an establishment in the desert. With Stardew Valley releasing on consoles, many PS Vita owners are curious if the title will appear on the handheld system. On the PlayStation Blog, the developer of the game addressed the request personally.

“I can’t make any guarantees just yet, but I will say that I’m very, very interested in seeing a PS Vita version. It’s a very popular request, and I think it would be a great fit.”

Since its initial PC release, Stardew Valley players have welcomed one major update in October. The 1.1 update made more characters marriage candidates, introduced new farm buildings, launched new farm maps, and much more. New high-cost items were also included in the update, giving players more long-term goals for their in-game gold.

Another example of the zoom in/out option I'm working on. A little extreme, but fun! I think this is going to work. pic.twitter.com/1goRf22Jtv — ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) March 3, 2016

The future of the game is also mapped out by the developer on the official website. With 1.1 launched and the console release imminent, co-op multiplayer and localization are planned. Chucklefish, the renowned developer of Starbound, is now the publisher of Stardew Valley overseeing the localization of the game, its ports, and the technical aspects of the future multiplayer feature.

[Featured Image by Concerned Ape]