Playing Stardew Valley for the First Time in 2025
I am playing Stardew Valley right now for the very first time in 2025. I see this game came out in 2016, and it is one I have been wanting to try for a long time. So we are starting from the beginning, and I am giving you my first-time impressions of this game. I am trying it out in real time and giving you my real-time, unedited, raw, authentic — let me say something else like real — my real impressions of exactly how this game plays. That way you can see whether you would like it or not. My goal in sharing this is simple: if you have thought about playing Stardew Valley, you get to see what the opening actually feels like, and if you played it years ago and want some nostalgia, you can remember your own first play and enjoy that with me.
Now, you might be thinking, "Oh my God, why is your face so big?" Well, the one thing I want you to remember is my face. I always hate how small people's face cams are. I'm like, make your face bigger! I don't care about seeing twenty-two percent more of the screen — make your face big.
The Slowest Opening I've Ever Sat Through
All right, so I read the beginning — and I am not playing this on Game Pass right now, by the way. "There will come a day when you feel crushed by the burden of modern life." Is this just going really slow, or is it just me? Come on with it. "And your bright spirit will fade before growing emptiness." Can I just click something? So my grandfather is dying and giving me a farm, right? Just get to the point. "When I pass, my boy, you'll be ready for this gift." I'm ready for something! It had been two minutes and I hadn't done anything but click.
Twenty years later — I'm imagining that means we're doing our maneuvers — oh look, it's a cubicle, dude. It has been two minutes and I have literally not gotten to do anything with a farm yet. I guess they're setting it up. And look, there's a skeleton down at the desk. By two minutes and thirty seconds I'm reading the letter: "Dear Jerry Banfield, if you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life — real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belonged. I've enclosed the deed to that place, my pride and joy: JB Farm. It's located in Stardew Valley, on the southern coast. It's the perfect place to start your new life. This was my most precious gift of all, and now it's yours."
Why would you have waited twenty years to open this? Seriously — why did I wait twenty years to open this envelope? And what did the farm do for those twenty years? It just sat there? I picture the grandfather up there waiting all that time for his grandson to finally claim the farmland — I wonder if Lewis is even still alive after all that.
All right, can I go to my farm now? It had been three and a half minutes and we hadn't gotten to any gameplay. I guess some games need to set things up and put you in the environment. Me, I'm like: just get me into the action, you know what I'm saying? Then somebody watching told me, "Jerry, maybe you need to learn to have a little more foreplay. Warm it up a little bit." All right, you're right. More foreplay does make it sweeter, right? A little more warm-up, not just getting straight in there.
Meeting Robin, Mayor Lewis, and JB Farm
"Hello, you must be Jerry Banfield. I'm Robin, the local carpenter. Mayor Lewis sent me here to fetch you and show you the way to your new home. He's there right now, tidying things up for your arrival." Oh — I can actually skip this. Nice. "The farm's right over here, if you'll follow me." Sure, I will follow you. And yeah, I shut the music off. I don't really care about having random background music playing.
So this is JB Farm. My character literally just jumped up and down and then sprayed water — oh no, what kind of water was that? And now my head is too big on the screen, so let me turn my face cam off for a minute. "What's the matter? Sure, it's a bit overgrown, but there's some soil underneath that mess. With a little dedication, you'll have it cleaned up." At least they do offer a skip on the dialog. "And here we are, your new home."
Who is this dude in my house? I guess somebody needed to take care of it. Lewis — this is the guy I'm supposed to say hi to, right? "Welcome! I'm Lewis, mayor of Pelican Town. Everyone's been asking about you. It's not every day someone new moves in. It's a big deal!" All right, Pelican Town. And honestly, I found myself wondering if this is how I'm going to spend my future — on some little farm town. I really like the idea of having a little farm town. Really, really cozy. "It's a good house. Very rustic." Five minutes in, and this is so slow getting started. "Crusty might be a little more apt, though." Makes me think of apt people. "Don't listen to her, Jerry — she's just trying to make you dissatisfied so you can buy one of her house upgrades." Dude, I'm just trying to get some rest. The townspeople would appreciate it if I get some rest and then explore, OK. Oh my goodness, so much dialog to begin. For what looks like a strategy game, I don't usually expect this much dialog. Then it saves — oh good, we don't have to do that again. Wait, I have to walk all the way over here? Sure, why don't we go to sleep for the night. Somebody said this reminds them of Zelda on Nintendo — I know, it does.
Putting the TV in the Fireplace
All right, I'm out of my bed. Am I supposed to use this ax to open a package? I'll be having no packages. What about this thing? I'm trying to open this package — can I water the package? No. Oh yeah, I watered the package. It's a decorative bowl. Oh, so you can move stuff around in here. OK. Wait — it just put the table in the fireplace. No, I don't want to put the table in the fireplace! Get the fireplace out of the table. What the hell? What? It just put the TV in there too. Oh no. I thought I went in there. Oh, so you can just stick a window wherever you want one? Here's the table back. All right — I thought I put the cup back on it.
People keep telling me this game is fun, and honestly? I don't know if I've had any fun yet. But I do hope to show you games that end up being fun for you. Next I'm trying to go to the mailbox and click the mail. You see me clicking it. I left-clicked it. Yeah, I need a tutorial again — what did that do? I hit enter, I hit right click, I left-clicked it. All right, now what do I do? Click this button: an introduction quest. "It would be a nice gesture to introduce yourself around town." So I've got to run and walk around meeting people. And you know, maybe I don't want to swear like crazy while I'm playing Stardew Valley, because this seems like a kids' game, isn't it? Although maybe I'm making it worse by saying that.
My First Impressions at the Nine-Minute Mark
Nine minutes in, and I haven't done one thing yet in this game. Not one thing in this whole game. Nine minutes! I listened to a couple of people talk. I haven't built anything. I managed to stick the TV and the table in my inventory. So I have to say, my honest first impression nine minutes into this game is that I'm about to pass out. But here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to keep playing this a good while longer on my livestream, the same place where I played five strategy games on Xbox Game Pass for the first time. You can catch this first play and all my other gaming videos on my Games playlist. For now, that wraps up my initial ten-minute first impressions of Stardew Valley.