Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame gets a surprising amount of hate, whether it’s because of how annoying it is to find all the legendary fish or because fishing minigames are a dime a dozen nowadays. But I’ve always loved it as a way to break up my farming hyperfixation, and it sounds like Eric Barone, the creator of Stardew Valley, is also backing this system.
“I like fishing minigames, and I like Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame,” Barone says. “I know it’s controversial, a lot of people hate it, but I think it’s fun.” This minigame can get really repetitive, and it’s pretty infuriating when you snag a fish that ends up doing a gymnastics routine worthy of a gold medal at the Olympics to escape your clutches. But it’s nothing a fibreglass or iridium rod and some elbow grease can’t help.
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That said, with a simple bamboo pole, fishing in Stardew Valley can be quite difficult, especially if it’s your first time trying to impress Willy. “My regret with the Stardew Valley fishing minigame is that I think it starts out too hard,” Barone continues. “I think there should have been a better curve, so it starts out easy and then it gets a little harder. Because you’re catching more difficult fish. But the way I did it, you start out with this tiny little bar, and it’s like, ‘Ah, I should have started with the bar a little bit bigger. ‘ But I still think the fishing game is good overall.”
But for those of you who never watched River Monsters or simply don’t want to get put through the wringer the first couple of times you fish in Stardew Valley, there is a secret tip that Barone says will help somewhat.
“I know a lot of people really hate it, so I tried to mitigate it a little bit by adding the training rod, which a lot of people don’t know about,” Barone says. “You can buy it for like five gold at Willy’s shop, and it makes the fishing a lot easier. Although you can only catch fish below a certain tier and quality. But it’s good for training. You can level up, and then when you switch to the regular rod, your bar will be a lot bigger.”
The training rod is a good way to avoid a trial by fire, making Stardew Valley’s fishing a lot more approachable. But I still think the mechanics for fishing in Stardew are perfect. However, that’s no surprise, considering its humble origins.
“Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame—I think I’ve said this before in interviews—but it was actually inspired by Donkey Kong Country, Tropical Freeze,” Barone says. “You’re flying on the barrel, and it’s like you press one button to go up, and then you release it, and you go down. I thought that these controls were fun. There’s a lot of depth to a Donkey Kong level like this with just one button. And I was like, maybe I can turn that into a fishing minigame.”
Sometimes the best ideas really do come from someone pointing at something and going, “I like this, it’s cool, I’m going to incorporate it into my work.” In that sense, Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame has come full circle with Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame, for better or worse, as it’s gone on to inspire a whole lot of new fishing minigames while also raising Lauren’s blood pressure.
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