Games

It's the warm blend of its cozy art style, ambient audio, and the unparalleled soundtrack. You go through the grandpa intro and observe his strangely thin bed all over again. Then the Jojamart corporate hell scene. You open the letter and reading it even for the fifteenth time gives you an immediate sense of peace and relief, because you know you're going back to the valley. It's all good vibes from here.

The music fades away and you're greeted with a quiet scene in the mountains, watching a grumbly coach bus speed past the sign, and you're left with a moment between you and the countryside. There are a few trilling birds and one lands in the sign. You arrive at your stop and immediately that uplifting little song starts playing and Robin's cute-ass face appears, probably with wood shavings in her bangs, and she still has that voice you crafted for her in your head after all these years. The mayor will too. She's an old friend.

She ushers you away to your first long view of the farm. Now, you've already been here several times in the last decade, but that music. That warm, orangish pallete. That overgrown little cabin on that rugged patch of land. The music grooves on and right away you get butterflies in your stomach over the prospect of getting to be here everyday, cleaning it up and carving your own little life and operation. There is a sense of joy and freedom, and a million possibilities laying under that brush-strewn mess that used to be a field. It never fails to bring you right back and feel that magic again.

It's like the developer perfectly captured our most innocent human desires in a tiny bottle.

For sure. The pixel graphics and great soundtrack alone mean it will age beautifully, I can see myself playing it 20-30 years from now. Not to mention mods, Skyrim survived that long thanks to those and stardew's modding community is super active!