Does your kid talk nonstop about farming, mining, and foraging? Do they excuse themselves from dinner to tend to their chickens? If so, you might have a Stardew Valley player on your hands. But is Stardew Valley appropriate for kids?
Let’s get into why it’s a good pick for your child and what parents need to know about the game.
Stardew Valley is rated for kids ages 10+, according to the ESRB and Common Sense Media.
Older kids (and adults) can also enjoy Stardew Valley, which is often called a comfort game due to its slower-paced gameplay.
The language built into Stardew Valley is mild, but does include put-downs like “idiot” and swear-adjacent words like “damn.”
Users can join a multiplayer game, which can expose them to mature language from other players, who can make custom signs and send messages to each other.
So, the language in Stardew Valley is only as mature as your child and their friends decide to make it.
There are no explicit sex scenes in Stardew Valley, but there is some mature content parents should know about:
These will likely go over the heads of younger children, but older or more precocious kids could easily turn the game into a dating simulator.
There’s a case to be made for a safe outlet for roleplaying adult romantic relationships, but parents should be aware of this possibility.
As for nudity, the most your child will see is the occasional topless man or a woman in a bikini.
The violence in Stardew Valley is cartoonish and not graphic. Aside from the rare argument that leads to one player punching another, players don’t fight against each other or human non-player characters (NPCs). Instead, they battle non-human creatures.
The only weapons are swords and tools, not guns. When monsters die, they just disappear.
Every kid has a different threshold for what frightens them, but Stardew Valley isn’t scary by most standards. Because the graphics are rendered in a pixelated 2D style, the monsters are unlikely to be scary even for younger children.
There’s substance use (and abuse) in Stardew Valley.
A player can have their avatar drink, and some of the NPCs drink to excess, including one character whose entire story revolves around his alcoholism. To be fair, the negative impact drinking has on his life is made clear. There are also NPCs who smoke tobacco.
In addition to depictions of alcoholism, the game also touches on suicide.
The alcoholic NPC is open about his depression and sometimes lies on the edge of a cliff, begging players to give him a reason not to roll to his death below. It’s pretty heavy stuff, but the upside is the character also asks around about getting help for his depression.
Parents might want to use it as an opening for discussing mental health with their child.
No, Stardew Valley doesn’t have in-game parental controls. However, you can use the parental control settings on the platform your child plays, most of which allow you to set time limits and content filters.
Stardew Valley is available on desktop, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. Here’s our guide to Nintendo Switch parental controls.
It’s common for kids to search for videos and fan content about the media they consume, including YouTube playthroughs and fan forums on Reddit. You can also use a monitoring app like BrightCanary to keep track of your child’s activity on their iPhone or iPad, including what they search on Google and YouTube.
The representation in Stardew Valley is a mixed bag.
The game only allows for two genders when selecting an avatar, and there are no varied body types aside from one slender avatar. Gender presentation and roles aren’t fixed; female avatars can grow beards, and same-sex marriages are allowed.
The majority of the villagers are white and able-bodied. One character is in a wheelchair, but his attitude toward his disability and ableist treatment from other NPCs are controversial. Players are given the option of calling out the ableism, but oddly, the game mechanics steer them away from this option.
It’s possible to play Stardew Valley remotely with others, but only in co-op mode. An invite code is needed to join someone’s game — there aren’t public games like in Roblox.
The only way your child could encounter strangers in the game is if they’re invited by a friend who also invites other people your child doesn’t know.
Stardew Valley is a safe, fairly tame game that’s appropriate for most kids over 10. It includes some mature themes such as alcoholism and suicide, and there are a decent amount of sexual innuendos, depending on what your child chooses to focus on in the game.
Parents will want to keep an eye on how their child plays Stardew Valley and consider using the mature themes as conversation starters. Check out our guide to other kid-friendly video games.
