maker and tabletop game player
which, on paper, sounds a bit like a
self-insert fanfiction character. Andy
is a middle-aged religious farmer
with a gruff attitude and obligatory
overalls. They’re archetypes that feel
a lot more now than Stardew’s
original characters, who could be
from any decade in the last 50 years.
They may be extra colourful
(literally, in Sophia’s case) but SVE’s
creator has taken great pains to make
them belong in the valley. You’d
probably struggle to pick them out as
modded if you were playing Stardew
for the first time.
As another of the vaguely
university-aged residents, Victor is
friends with Sam, Sebastian and
Abigail. I find him hanging out
around the billiards table in the
Stardrop Saloon on Friday evenings
with the rest of the gang. Andy
attends Sunday worship at the Yoba
shrine inside Pierre’s store along with
George. All of Stardew Valley
Expanded’s new characters attend
festivals just like the other locals.
Whereas bigger RPGs make it
hard to hide a modded character –
lack of voice acting is an easy tell – in
Stardew it’s easy for SVE’s characters
to blend in. Each new villager’s
sprites and dialogue portraits fit in
with the base game, and the writing
is true to the original style. It reads
like skilful fanfiction, which it is in a
way, with dedicated attention paid to
the original lore.
As just one example, I make my
usual rounds talking with all the new
NPCs to see their dialogue during the
spring. The Egg Festival is
approaching, at which my farmer and
a few other NPCs will compete in an
egg hunting minigame around town.
Not once but twice I’m called out for
participating because it would be
unfair to the two actual children.
Sure, I’m a grown-ass adult. It had
occurred to me before that it’s a bit
odd for Abigail and I to compete with
small kids in an egg hunt. The day
before the festival Andy scowls and
tells me to do the right thing and let
the kids win. At the festival itself,
Victor suggests that we shouldn’t
participate at all. Dang, how are you
going to just ruin me like that? I don’t
want to give away too many other
neat little surprises, but it’s just one
of many ways that SVE shakes up
Stardew’s original story.
Stardew Valley Expanded also
fleshes out existing characters.
Marlon the Adventure Guild’s leader
has moved the guild’s location to the
south end of town and has a new
schedule of his own instead of being
confined to the building. Morris, the
corporate croney running the local
JojaMart, even gets an expanded role.
He’s still a bit smarmy, but the events
I’ve seen so far point towards SVE’screatoranglingforsomeredemption
for the store manager. He may be
shady enough to wave Jojamart
coupons right outside Pierre’s store,
but it’s possible Morris is just a guy
holding down the best career he can
manage, suffering under the thumb
of corporate expectations.NEW VIEWS
It’s not just SVE’s new characters that
deserve exploring. The mod has also
built on all of Stardew Valley’s maps
and introduced plenty of new ones as
well. In SVE, I’m not the only farmer
in town. There are other
professionals like Andy, Sophia, and
Sandy, but almost all of the locals
have a garden plot with a few veggies
too. At one point in the spring, I
wander into town and get pulled into
a dialogue event where Leah showsoff the community garden plot that
several folks use.
As with the characters, the way
SVE slightly alters existing maps
shows a great understanding of
conveniences that players want, but
with an execution that keeps the mod
feeling like it belongs. More than
once, I stumble upon a new shortcut
between areas that before would
have forced me to walk around.
The beach south of Pelican town
used to end on the western bank.
Now, Sophia’s winery connects the
western edge of the beach with the
forest south of my farm. Up north,
SVE removes a few fence posts
making it possible to walk from the
bus stop to the path connecting my
farm to Robin’s workshop.
Both are small inconveniences
that vanilla Stardew Valley solves
with warp totem items that I can
craft and use to travel directly to
those locations. I prefer SVE’s tidier
solution though. There’s already not
enough time in Stardew’s day to do all
the chores I make for myself, so
turning the map into a set of
connections cuts out the backtracking
that previously ate at me.
That’s not the only plan
FlashShifter has for Stardew Valley
Expanded’s future. It currently has
new areas, houses, events, and
characters but there’s still more to
come. There’s a whole list on SVE’s
Nexus Mods page. Down the line
FlashShifter is hoping to add more
towns, even more characters,
festivals, music, dungeons, and more.
With the amount of detail that
mod creator FlashShifter has already
dedicated to building around
Stardew’s existing lore, I can’t wait to
see what they choose to do when
adding Grampleton, which is
referenced in vanilla Stardew but
never actually seen. I’m also hoping
to see more of that Morris
redemption story that I feel must be
in the works.
Stardew Valley Expanded is a near
perfect example of an expansion
mod. Its clear love of the original
game shines through in all of the
details it picks up to expand upon
and it slips in almost seamlessly to
create a larger game than before
without stealing the spotlight.
What I find telling is that at the
end of each Stardew day, I still found
myself doing all the things I would
normally do: planting crops, rushing
to complete the Community Centre,
running around giving gifts to my
favourite NPCs and so on. With SVE
installed, I get the treat of new
surprises from a game I’ve already
put so many hours into.REMAPPINGKEY FindyourwayaroundSVE’s map
1
EMERALD FARM
Susan’s mountain farm
is stuck behind a landslide
until summer.2
OLIVIA’S HOUSE
Olivia’s house is the
biggest on the block.3
ADVENTURER’S GUILD
Marlon’s Guild has a
new spot right in town.4
FAIRHAVEN FARM
Andy’s small farm is
close to the forest where
he forages.5
BLUE MOON VINYARD
Sophia’s vinyard
connects the beach and
the forest.6
TOWN EAST
East of town is an
unused small farm plot.2635142MAJORMODS,ANALYSED
MOD SPOTLIGHT
THEY’RE
ARCHETYPES
THAT FEEL A LOT MORE
NOW THAN STARDEW’S
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS