If you're a fan of cozy games, then Stardew Valley needs no introduction. This adorable farming sim made waves when it launched in February 2016, loading us onto a bus headed to Pelican Town to take control of a dilapidated farm begging for a touch of love. As your work starts to pay off and the farm flourishes and grows, you'll also spend your days gathering resources, earning money, and getting to know the charming townspeople who call this place home.
Like most similar simulation titles, Stardew Valley sees you foster relationships with the residents of your new small town. The game launched ten years ago with ten bachelors and bachelorettes, with plenty of fans spending the first few months falling in love with all the hot new things around them. Since then, like all other parts of Stardew Valley, the number of eligible singles has continued to expand.
Stardew Valley Marriage Candidates Fan Focus
Eight months after launch, creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone released Stardew Valley version 1.1, which, among other things, added two new marriage candidates: blue-haired barmaid Emily and disgruntled JojaMart employee Shane.
My partner underestimated Bootcamp Stardew Valley
Honey, it's a nice game, I swear!
Both characters were in the game at launch, but only as potential friends, not lovers you could marry or date, and their implementation was decided by polls that ConcernedApe ran on Twitter. Four male and four female options were offered for the new singles, and the game duly implemented two winners. Almost 30,000 votes were cast between the two and both polls were overwhelming.
Shane received 48.2 percent of the votes cast in the Bachelor poll, while Emily's lead in winning the Bachelor poll was even larger at 59.1 percent. But even after the announcement of the race, six characters remained on the loose, and fans have not yet moved away from the idea that one day they could also lean on them. Desert store owner Sandy was an easy silver medalist, elderly rancher Marnie almost had a say in her romance with Mayor Lewis, and town drunk Pam was generally on the list of fan favorites.
The talking wizard Junimo, the outcast Linus and the blacksmith Clint also appeared in the men's poll, and although the split was more generous to everyone, the result was still clear. Wizard took a decisive second place with 29.7 percent of the vote, Linus and his 15.7 percent took third place, and Clint was dead on with a pitiful 6.4 percent.
This means that out of more than 14,300 people, not even a thousand people wanted to marry Clint.
ConcernedApe teased that something was brewing a few weeks before the tenth anniversary stream earlier this week, and eyebrows around Pelican Town suddenly raised hopes for new romance possibilities. Fans have used the time since that announcement was made to wildly speculate, so to speak, about whose heart we'll be fighting for next.
The aforementioned polls were voted on in the early days of Stardew Valley's life and decided by day one fans. Now, ten years on, it's been announced that the long-teased other marriage candidates would rather predictably be pro-choice Sandy and…Clint, the bachelor that almost no one asked about.
After ten years, can Clint's romance make me like him?
The Blacksmith of Pelican Town has been in the game since long before it was released, and he's always been sweating over his forge to help keep your tools in top condition or break a geode or two. As a seller, his shop is incredibly helpful and I visit often, but I've had other issues with Clint for a very long time.
My beef is with his hyper-fixation with Emily; that the man never missed an opportunity to be incredibly, unrepentantly creepy about his crush on her. I understand that not everyone is charismatic enough to effortlessly make conversation with a person they like, but as someone who grew up with Clint's type or two myself, I find his weirdness around Emily absolutely not endearing.
It's weird when you romance Emily alone – he congratulates you in a way that's completely insincere – and it's weird when you don't – he hides in the bushes outside her house during one of his heartbreaks. He doesn't seem to win your heart, and he doesn't give you a reason to want his.
If I find that creepy letter in his house, when we get married, we'll have words. Hell, he should at least crack my geodes for free, if you know what I'm saying…
Emily will accept an invitation from him later in his heart sequence if you're not wooing her yourself, so maybe she's not totally against the idea. And each of the romance options in Pelican Town has someone who is considered their opposite, another eligible single, who she spends time with and can at times appear to have feelings for in some way.
But it was typically Emily and Shane who entered the romantic fray together in version 1.1. It's no surprise that we've seen them paired up since then, while Clint has seemed to deserve his outcast status more and more with each interview. Will the game change to now pit Emily with Clint as Clint's romance arc unfolds?
ConcernedApe will at least have to update the Saloon scenes if they catch you dating all the women or all the men in town at once, so while he's poking around in the files, what else is he going to update? Barone was deliberately vague about the v1.7 update in the anniversary stream, only confirming that the update is in the works and includes the ability to date Sandy and/or Clint, so only time will tell. Will Clint move to the barstools at the Saloon? Will Emily visit the blacksmith shop? Will they get together for the Flower Dance?
Even if I end up not wanting to date Clint just because of the plot (literally), I'm not totally thrilled. Besides, with feelings as deep as Clint's, how will I ever feel like anything other than a consolation prize if we end up together? I know the jukebox at the Stardrop Saloon lets you change the music in the bar for the night, but I wonder if it will let me play “Jolene” by Dolly Parton…
- Released
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February 26, 2016
- ESRB
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E for everyone (fantasies of violence, mild blood, mild expressions, simulated gambling, alcohol and tobacco use)
- Developers
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ConcernedApe
- Publishers
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ConcernedApe
- Engine
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Proprietary
- Multiplayer
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Local multiplayer, online multiplayer
- Cross-platform play
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Stardew Valley does not currently support crossplay between different consoles and PC
