Stardew Valley on iOS is Far From Perfect, But It Will Likely Get Better
There was lots of hubbub this week when everyone learned that Stardew Valley, one of the most successful indie games ever, was making its way to mobile devices. In a time where Nintendo is putting out gacha games, other mobile devs are settling into sub-optimal monetization schemes to keep themselves profitable, and the right games are getting increasingly hard to find on mobile storefronts, hearing that ConcernedApe's acclaimed farming game felt like glimmer of hope for the platform.
After putting some time into Stardew Valley, I've come to the conclusion that's all it is: a glimmer. To be clear, the iOS release of Stardew totally seems like a great game that brings all the same farming stuff to do to your phone or tablet, but these days that's not really all it takes to make a great mobile game. In fact, the current state of Stardew Valley on iOS feels like a compromised experience, making it probably not worth picking up unless you simply want to support the premium games market on the App Store or want to wait until it gets more support. Here's why: