The mod I chose to look at was the “Magic” mod for Stardew Valley (https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/2007). It was originally published in March of 2018 by spacechase0 and Pathoschild, and has since then been continuously updated and improved upon, with the most recent update coming just a couple months ago in January of 2022. The mod adds a full magic system to the game, with anything from combat spells, spells that help you move around, to spells that help you garden. It overlaps whats already in the game and provides new ways to interact with mechanics that already exist in the game.
When one loads into the game they are greeted by the same Stardew experience, in fact everything is essentially exactly the same, until they meet the wizard. At this point one is prompted to learn a spell from a selection of starting spells, a couple of which are clearly designed to be combat spells, such as fireball, and others which are clearly more utility focused. From there the spell system works much like the other skills one has in Stardew, where by using that skill, one gains experience in it. At each level up the player is able to select either the same spell to upgrade it or choose to learn new spells. These new spells can be found at altars hid around the map, generally each altar has a theme that fits its surroundings and the spells that can be learned there that also fit the theme.
For me, as someone who enjoyed the combat aspects of Stardew Valley, especially in the mine, this mod was an absolute huge addition to the game. It turned Stardew from more of a cozy game to more of a fantasy game, where my motivation shifted from fixing the community center and expanding my farm, to trying to advance spell levels to see what happened with stronger versions of the spells and what other spells did. One spell I found particularly interesting was the one that allowed the player to trade health for mana, the resource one had to spend to cast spells, it refueled gradually over time, but was very easy to deplete. It allowed me to juggle mana and health and find a nice balance between them. In the mine it became clear quickly that spells were the strongest method of dealing with the enemies and the feeling of power I got as a player casting my spells was so much stronger compared to traditional methods of dealing with them, sword or slingshot.
Reflecting on how my interactions with Stardew Valley changed after playing with mod, it left me wondering what type of mod it really was. On the surface it seems like it is simply additive to the base game. The mod removes no features of the original game, and only adds in new ones. However the nuance is in how these features impact the player experience. For me, the mod served to alter the core motivation that drives Stardew Valley players, it also distracted from some of the mechanics of the game and replaced them with new magic based mechanics. The way combat was performed had changed significantly and I no longer was interacting with the original combat methods. If I were a new player, I’m not sure I would have ever truly gotten to explore the fighting mechanics when the magic system was so readily available. In a similar vein, there were some spells that helped specifically with farming, like hoeing large swaths of land or watering equally large areas. This removes the relative tediousness of the early stages of Stardew Valley, before sprinklers, when the player has to hand water and hoe every part of the farm. While not necessarily a problem, it changes the way the player sees the farm, no longer are rainy days such massive blessing and no longer are sprinklers a high priority, the player is just able to bypass all of that. In the end, the mod remains relatively popular with over 20 thousand downloads, and while it may not designed for people who want to keep the pure Stardew Valley experience, it can certainly provide a fun new system for those who are trying to experience it in a new way.
