^{(shout-out to Jedi Master J. for gifting this game to me)}

story time: I was utterly obsessed with Harvest Moon when I was younger. it was one of the games I played on my brothers' Nintendo 64 a lot as a kid, and then when I got older I had the DS version and was so addicted to it that my parents had to take my DS away from me sometimes just to get me to sleep and eat.

so after seeing Stardew Valley touted by multiple sites and people whose opinions I generally trust as being "like Harvest Moon but better", my interest was piqued and I needed to try it for myself.

4 hours in and so far it's lived up to the hype. it really is a lot like Harvest Moon without being a direct ripoff, and does a lot of things even better than Harvest Moon did. I've been taking it slow since I'm working through a couple other games at the moment (including a visual novel that seemingly never ends; I've logged 23 hours on the first route alone and there's still no end in sight) but I think it's safe to say that once I really get into it, there will be very little sleeping or eating in my future. and if that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is.