When comparing Don't Starve vs Stardew Valley, the Slant community recommends Stardew Valley for most people. In the question“What are the best indie games on Steam?” Stardew Valley is ranked 1st while Don't Starve is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose Stardew Valley is:
Stardew Valley is a very simple game where you're free to do anything and everything at your own pace. This includes building your farm, planting and harvesting crops, and exploring the world among many other things. It will feel enjoyable no matter how fast or slow you do it. This coupled with the colorful/pleasing art style and the great soundtrack makes it an extremely pleasing experience.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Uniquely atmospheric art style that gives a polished look that is difficult to match
Don't Starve has a very unique art style, using two dimensional or 2D characters and items in a 3D world gives a very interesting artsy feel to the game. The hand drawn look and feel to the graphics are a nice change of pace from ultra realistic games, but it doesnt take away from the suspense.
Pro Very active modding community with numerous mods available allows for a lot of replayability and customization
Using the Steam Workshop, Don't Starve has a very active modding community. With nearly 800 mods currently available, there are unlimited ways you can change your Don't Starve experience.
Pro Challenging arcade style game play, with permadeath mixed in makes for a tough to master game that is still fun to play over and over again
Don't Starve is a classic example of "Easy to play, tough to master". The game play is very easy to learn, in fact Don't Starve doesn't really tell you how to play, you just point and click. Some items will be clickable, exploration leads to discoveries, and discoveries lead to longer survival, but death and a new game are always right around the corner.
Pro Randomly generated worlds allows for content that continually stays fresh to the user
Don't Starve generates a completely new game world for every new game, and since you only get one life per game, you will be seeing a lot of different worlds. All of the lands and items will be totally new on every try.
Pro There's never a dull moment thanks to how new mechanics are introduced throughout the gameplay
As the game progresses, it offers more and more mechanics that require constant attention to function properly. It becomes a constant re-evaluation of risk and reward.
Pro Pleasantly twisted sense of humor makes for an entertaining environment and story
Random quips from characters, info, text and the world itself (such as the existence of werepigs) show glimpses of a dark sense of humor throughout.
Pro Easily customized thanks to being able to adjust difficulty on the fly
The game gives you a lot of world customization options. You can change the length of day, weather patterns, how much of each monster or resource spawns, etc. This effectively allows you to adjust how difficult you wish the game to be.
Pro Very fulfilling to play
Stardew Valley is a very simple game where you're free to do anything and everything at your own pace. This includes building your farm, planting and harvesting crops, and exploring the world among many other things. It will feel enjoyable no matter how fast or slow you do it. This coupled with the colorful/pleasing art style and the great soundtrack makes it an extremely pleasing experience.
Pro Great soundtrack
When you work on your farm, go fishing, explore or just walk around the town you'll be accompanied by a really nice soundtrack. It's sometimes upbeat, sometimes soothing, and sometimes even melancholic, with every track matching each location and season perfectly.
There's also a wide variety of instruments used, including a piano, accordion, banjo, synths, and many others. This allows you to listen to the soundtrack for hours without getting tired of it. Sometimes it's very hard to believe Stardew Valley and its soundtrack was produced by just one person.
Pro A great mix of genres
While Stardew Valley is primarily a farming simulator, it also has social interaction elements and combat elements.
The social interaction elements allow you to interact with people around the town. You can befriend them, get quests from them, hang out with them, and even find a significant other to go out with and eventually marry. It can be very addictive to max out your relationship with everyone.
The combat elements are introduced when you unlock the dungeon, allowing you to battle creatures such as slimes, golems, and even mummies. While the combat is pretty simple, having you just swing your weapon, it's very satisfying to whack away at enemies.
If farming ever starts feeling stale you can try either of these to mix it up, allowing you to keep the game fresh for a longer time.
Pro Great freedom in designing your farm
When creating your own farm you aren't just limited to plowing fields for planting crops. You can also dig wells, put down fences, and even build various structures such as barns or stables. This allows you to build a farm that firmly matches your goals and sense of aesthetics.
Cons
Con Constant restarts can be drawn out and boring
The beginning of a playthrough starts out pretty slow, which is exacerbated by the fact that the player will need to restart many many times as the game is a rouguelike, so permanent death is something that will be encountered often.
Con Can get really repetitive
Living on a farm is a lot of work, so you'll have to repeat the same tasks quite often. This includes tilling land, planting seeds, chopping trees, and many other farm related activities. While it's normally pretty fun and relaxing, it can get incredibly tedious during long play sessions, especially if you're just trying to progress.