games

One thing I would note is that Stardew Valley is either a management game or a cozy game depending on how you want to play it. There's no wrong answer, but it can change your perception of the gameplay.

When I first played it, I saw it as a management game where I needed to optimize things to a certain degree. Needed to save enough cash to buy the right seeds at the start of each season, to make sure I got the right number of crop turnovers in a season, to collect all the seasonal stuff for the community center asap so I didn't have to wait a year for that season to come back around, etc. If you like that sort of thing, it's pretty well-balanced for it.

However, only much later did I realize, or have pointed out to me, that Stardew Valley doesn't force you to do anything in any specific order or pace. It can be played at whatever speed you want, with no real failure state except in context of your own goals. If you aren't concerned about optimizing progression, you can play it like a cozy game. You can let the seasons come and go, plant whatever crops you feel like, raise animals or don't, hand out gifts to the townsfolk and see what happens, and so on. Some things are rare, and some events only trigger on certain days or under specific conditions, but nothing is permanently missable on any given playthrough. If you miss something, you'll get another chance the same time next game year, if not sooner.

Point being, it's fun to play for min/maxing or finding interesting ways to put points on the board, but you can also just screw around. I think it's good to keep that in mind even if you like the pressure of optimization. A "mistake" isn't going to ruin your run, it'll just be a setback that you can come back from. If the game gets frustrating, it's likely because you're putting pressure on yourself to achieve a specific goal.

The wiki is great, and very useful for when you're stuck on something, but I'd just jump in and start playing before you go to deep into the wiki.

Stardew is great, you'll enjoy it.