Board 8 > RATE THE GAME - #20 - Stardew Valley

(+) Yeah! (+)

Persona 4 misses the top 5 by .001

• Rate the game on a 0-to-10 scale, with up to one decimal place (like 8.8)
• If you change your rating, delete your previous post
• No alt-account shenanigans
• The topic is open for ratings until I close it
• Feel free to post suggestions for future games to rate
• If you want to rate a previous game you missed, make it very clear in your post
• If there are multiple versions of the same game, rate your favorite
• Dont be a dick

The leaderboard:
#1 - Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9.67 (9)
#2 - Resident Evil 4 - 9.31 (38)
#3 - Disco Elysium - 9.25 (22)
#4 - Silent Hill 2 - 9.13 (16)
#5 - Outer Wilds - 8.98 (23)
#6 - Persona 4 - 8.98 (33)
#7 - Bloodborne - 8.92 (32)
#8 - Hades - 8.86 (33)
#9 - Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.77 (28)
#10 - Metal Gear Solid 3 - 8.73 (36)
#11 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 8.72 (35)
#12 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.71 (31)
#13 - Cyberpunk 2077 - 8.64 (13)
#14 - Celeste - 8.6 (29)
#15 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate - 8.57 (36)
#16 - Spelunky - 8.16 (18)
#17 - Super Mario Bros - 7.93 (40)
#18 - The Last of Us - 7.81 (29)
#19 - Pokemon Sword / Shield - 6.59 (15)

GAME #20 - Stardew Valley
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f04c1354.jpg

Bonus question: what's a game you would bet on getting 20+ ratings, but a last-place score?

8

8.5

Fun game that scratched an itch. I don't think it necessarily does anything exceptional, but it's competent at pretty much everything it attempts.

Bonus question: Hm... Paper Mario Sticker Star, maybe? Dunno how high the playrate on that is here.

7.5

Been a lot of updates since I've played, but I don't imagine they'd change my vote.

notdave posted...

Bonus question: what's a game you would bet on getting 20+ ratings, but a last-place score?

Maybe something like Mass Effect Andromeda?

8.5

Bonus: Overwatch 2

6.5

Bonus: High playrate but hated games? Super Mario Sunshine? Assassin's Creed Unity? Dragon Age 2? No Man's Sky before the rework? Spore?

This is actually kinda hard

My best guess might be Sonic Adventure 1? I don't know that there are any good options, though. I think Sunshine is the only one of the ones mentioned that would break 20, but I still feel like that'd score above a 7.

Maybe Sonic 2006 or Metroid Other M.

7.5

It's interesting in it's own right, but by the time you reach the beginning of year 3, it feels like you've done most of everything the game offers.

Still, it's worth a look if you haven't played it already.

notdave posted...

Bonus question: what's a game you would bet on getting 20+ ratings, but a last-place score?

Nominate Chrono Cross

rwlh posted...

Nominate Chrono Cross

have I missed something over the years?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6f843597.jpg

Oh weird. I always thought people hated it.

rescinds nomination

notdave posted...

Bonus question: what's a game you would bet on getting 20+ ratings, but a last-place score?

Donkey Kong 64?

9

Persona 4 - 9.6

Wonderful setting and characterisation (setting aside Teddie), much more compelling dungeons than P3 and much less fat. An OST with relentless bops. So many little touches that enhance the motifs (the 'TV effect' when you go through the TV and enter battles is a particularly great touch). I think the social commentary is very sharp.

I actually wrote the entry for Persona 4 for B8's top 10 list.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/top10/2153-the-top-10-games-of-all-time-according-to-gamefaqs-contests

Yet to play Stardew Valley.

Edit: High playrate, low score? Wii Sports.

3

9

Amazing game to keep coming back to, but the updates have made it too big for its own good, and the character writing could've used improvement from when I last played it. Still phenomenal as a way to pass the time as of a few years ago, though. Just the right amount of brain required.

Haven't played but...

notdave posted...

Bonus question: what's a game you would bet on getting 20+ ratings, but a last-place score?

The Lost Levels maybe?

9

6

8

Great game, but it is missing some of the idiosyncrasies that made a game like Harvest Moon: a Wonderful Life special

Persona 4: 8.5

9 - though it's been a few major updates since I've played it.

~~~

Given the above, I would also like to rate Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at an 8.5.

MZero posted...

3

Dang, and I was worried about being an outlier on some of these.

5

8.5

Honestly about as good a game this scale made by one person can be.

A few more would be nice

4/10

I really wanted to like this game because of how much I like the Harvest Moon series, but I just couldn't get into it. You move so slow in this game even when running making traveling back and forth to town every day feel not worth the effort, there's no music which was disappointing since listening to cheerful tunes and looking forward to how they change throughout the year is one of my favorite parts of HM games, and I just didn't like the townspeople because their character portraits were so ugly (I know that's shallow, but you can't underestimate how much a good character design can make an NPC likeable). I gave it a good shot, but the game never managed to "hook" me because of small things like that.

I felt like mods would solve some of those issues I had, and a friend had told me they were going to gift me a copy on Steam for Christmas so I looked up a bunch of ones I thought would be good and was looking forward to giving it another go, but then my friend like forgot or something. Womp.

there's no music?

Are you talking about the same game, Kirby? You run at least as fast as Harvest Moon and I literally just went to a live concert of the Stardew Valley soundtrack.

Here, let me help you out: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKDOdCjxOjzIFucHobwJpSK4-vAVXST90

There's 3 songs each for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

azuarc posted...

Dang, and I was worried about being an outlier on some of these.

FFD gives like everything a 3

Hey

I've only given two games below a 4 and they deserved it

the average of FFD's ratings is 7.14 across nineteen games

That sounds right. I'm a bit more stingy with my top end, most games get around a 7 for me (which is still good, 5 is the actual midpoint for me).

Grand_Kirby posted...

there's no music which was disappointing since listening to cheerful tunes and looking forward to how they change throughout the year is one of my favorite parts of HM games

As azuarc says there is a whole OST. Stardew's seasonal music is really nice, exactly what you describe you'd want here!

I was also put off by the artstyle of the character portraits before playing, but I got used to them pretty quickly. The same thing held me off of trying Undertale for a while, heh.

FFDragon posted...

That sounds right. I'm a bit more stingy with my top end, most games get around a 7 for me (which is still good, 5 is the actual midpoint for me).

I score everything on a 100 scale (so conversion is easy here), and my average benchmark is a 50, too. One thing about these ratings systems is that everyone measures that spectrum differently. Ultimately, it's less about what score FFD gave a game in a vacuum and more about what score he gave a game in relation to other games.

15-18 I gave three 10s!

9.

I didn't like it the first time I tried it. It felt cheap and slow, so it didn't really capture my attention. This was another one of those games where it took playing another, similar game before I realized how good it was. I bought it on PC, played through it, and had a great time.