Video games let us live out our fantasies of the unimaginable. Dragons soaring in the skies, giants walking the Earth, and travelling to entirely different worlds in the farthest reaches of the universe. Or, maybe the biggest fantasy of all: homeownership.

Stardew Valley follows the Harvest Moon tradition of giving you a letter of inheritance for a farm in some rural village, away from the bustling city life and oppressive corporations. A free, one-way ticket to a quiet life, owning property, and living off the land.

But does this actually happen to anyone?

Any Grandparents With A Farm To Spare, Hit Me Up

Okay, obviously this does happen - it’s not a common occurrence - but inherited land and homes are not unheard of. Maybe it’s more likely in countries with larger farms, or at least not the patchwork territories of the UK, but for the majority of us, it remains a fantasy that we can only live out in our silly little games.

Even then, for most people, would you actually leave everything to go and farm in a new, quiet place? The prospect is exciting, but everyone you know, the life you have, that Starbucks you go to regularly - all of it will be gone. If you accept it, from then on out, it’s rising at 6 a.m. for a long day filled with manual labour, before having to socialise with the whole village just to avoid being that quiet stranger from outta town.

It’s an entirely different lifestyle that’s made fun in video game form, but we’ll probably never get the chance to try it out for real. I’d like to think I would give it a shot, given the chance - I mean, I’d even let a stray Tanuki put me in debt and drop me on an island somewhere in the Pacific.

Okay, maybe I wouldn’t do that one. Maybe.

There’s A Beautiful Fantasy In The Mundane

Both Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons feature elements of the supernatural: magic, the mystic, and literal gods, but that’s not what makes them so special. Stardew Valley has dominated as one of the most iconic cosy games for the last nine years, but it’s not because of the Wizard’s likeable personality.

Instead, it’s that letter. It’s that promise of a life better than our own. It’s that opportunity to start afresh that we’ll probably never get ourselves. That menial life of a quiet town, of land to work on, and the separation from everything that feels too much like what we all deal with every day. All we want is simplicity, and while we might never get that in real life, that’s what makes these games so special. The children yearn for the mines, but adults crave the fields.

Those opening scenes might be the most unrealistic part of Stardew Valley, but that’s what draws us in. That’s the fantasy.

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Stardew Valley

RPG Simulation Systems 9.5/10 Released February 26, 2016 ESRB E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco) Developer(s) ConcernedApe Publisher(s) ConcernedApe
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