On marriage

[Miretar]

I have been playing Stardew since it came out but none of my characaters have ever married. Here’s why:

At the beginning of the game 20 years elapse between your grandfather’s death and taking possession of the farm. Calculating from the death of either mine or my husband’s grandparents that would put my character’s age between 39-51.

Let’s discuss Sebastian, Maru, Abigail and Sam. Aside from being too young for my character they wind up as huge disappointments. First Sebastian and Sam confide their dreams to my character, as they might to a sympathetic older adult. Both want to leave Pelican Town, which I think is great. A few birthday gifts later, they’re willing to throw their dreams out the window and go live on a farm they’ve never visited. This makes me want to scream.

Maru is clearly bound for greater things beyond Pelican Town and it would be wrong to hold her back.

Abigail is a slacker, supposedly going to school but never studying. Then she invites my character to her room at night. I may have gone to school in the 70’s but still.

Haley clearly should go off too and become a super model.

Penny-nice but not much personality there.

Emily possibly a stalker type. When I walked into her house and into the dream sequence and her her say “Septimius’ and my destinies are intertwined,” my character’s first urge was to call a realtor, put the farm on the market and disappear into the night. I see Emily in an upmarket coastal city running either a New Age shop or a hand made clothing boutique.

That leaves only 4 choices. Shane, Harvey, Elliot and Leah. All of who are nice, but whom my character doesn’t want to marry.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I have been playing Stardew since it came out but none of my characaters have ever married. Here’s why:

At the beginning of the game 20 years elapse between your grandfather’s death and taking possession of the farm. Calculating from the death of either mine or my husband’s grandparents that would put my character’s age between 39-51.

It's XX years and while that can be interpreted as 20 in Roman numerals, many interpret it as <random number> of years. So they play the game as an RPG. Play the role you want to.

Let’s discuss Sebastian, Maru, Abigail and Sam. Aside from being too young for my character they wind up as huge disappointments. First Sebastian and Sam confide their dreams to my character, as they might to a sympathetic older adult. Both want to leave Pelican Town, which I think is great. A few birthday gifts later, they’re willing to throw their dreams out the window and go live on a farm they’ve never visited. This makes me want to scream.

Maru is clearly bound for greater things beyond Pelican Town and it would be wrong to hold her back.

Abigail is a slacker, supposedly going to school but never studying. Then she invites my character to her room at night. I may have gone to school in the 70’s but still.

Haley clearly should go off too and become a super model.

Penny-nice but not much personality there.

Emily possibly a stalker type. When I walked into her house and into the dream sequence and her her say “Septimius’ and my destinies are intertwined,” my character’s first urge was to call a realtor, put the farm on the market and disappear into the night. I see Emily in an upmarket coastal city running either a New Age shop or a hand made clothing boutique.

Many people have this reaction to Emily buuuutttt..... Junimos. Wizard. Goblin. Flying Serpents. Krobus. Galaxy Sword. Flying Skulls. Dinosaurs. Obelisks. Return Sceptre. Totems. Slimes.

And Fish that wear Hats.

Emily is the only Villager truly in tune with this insane place.

That leaves only 4 choices. Shane, Harvey, Elliot and Leah. All of who are nice, but whom my character doesn’t want to marry.

All of the dateable Villagers are a pretty blank slate and are stand-ins for a few different archetypes. Many are also quite young and while some may have life goals, they can seem simplistic. So especially as an older gamer they lack the complexity of a full personality and I think that's just running into the realities of game design. Having been made by one younger person and needing to get the game out the door in a working fashion means that complex character arcs for 10 (later 12) people plus the rest of the Villagers is something that simply didn't happen. I've mentioned many times in the past that reading the Dev Blog from start to finish is VERY informative when it comes to designing a game. Frankly that's the gold on this site, the insight into the time and efffort it takes to design a labor of love from scratch.

Understanding those real world restrictions, I approach the game as an RPG and I play the role of the farmer of about her late 20's who has some personal issues stemming from her previous lines of work. And I take the game from there into different directions.

And your concerns are why I started (OK and mostly stopped-started-stopped LOL) writing about the game because it's incomplete that way. I wanted to allow the characters to be more than just the archetypal templates that they are because of IRL restrictions.

And frankly RPGing is just fun! Make it what you want! And yeah if your Farmer is in their 40s, well there's Harvey! He's supposed to be a great husband and still keeps his business and hobbies. But if they're all understandably too simple then at least you can invite Krobus to be your roomie to get that last Stardrop!

 

[REtroGeekery]

It's XX years and while that can be interpreted as 20 in Roman numerals, many interpret it as <random number> of years. So they play the game as an RPG. Play the role you want to.

I have always interpreted the "XX" as "an indeterminable number of years in the double digits". Honestly, it never even occured to me to try to read them as roman numerals since roman numerals aren't used elsewhere in the game.
Since the farmer was a small child -so young that grandpa's ghost isn't even sure his grandchild would remember him, so probably eight or under- you can choose to age your farmer anywhere from eighteen to sixty, although higher ages can be tricky as you need to account for Lewis and Evelyn remarking on how long they knew your grandfather. Of course, most characters in the game don't age so I guess you could work that into your story.
You can even make the farmer half Tamaranian or a blue humanoid human-alien hybrid that doesn't age by human standards.
The game leaves most of your farmer's backstory (and all of their lige goals) for you to fill in.

That's probably why Harvey, Eliott, Shane, Emily, and Leiah read as 'older' singles while Sebastian, Sam, Alex, Haley, Abigail, and Penny read as 'younger' singles.

You can also remain single (some of my farmers have) with an optional roommate if you just want the daily interaction and/or opportunity for that extra Stardrop. The game doesn't really bix you in with that kind of thing.

 

[Jayamos]

As others have suggested, I use headcanon to make the dating work for me.

My farmer is typically half my age or less (I mean there is no way Current Me could handle a life that strenuous—I’d be in bed for a week after every Spring 1). Talking about dreams doesn’t imply to me that they see me as older, just that they want to get acquainted; I just met someone IRL who’s middle aged and mentioned a possible career shift, which comes to about the same thing.

I imagine ways the “younger” characters could be educated/mature beyond what dialogue suggests (e.g. Maru could be home while she’s looking for a suitable post-doc and via her or her father’s connections is able to work out a remote position exploring Stardew Valley’s exceedingly unusual environment once she realizes the farmer is The One). Or their stated dreams might not truly match their deepest desires (e.g. Sam loves music but doesn’t actually want the life of a touring musician). I like the way the blank slate quality Lew mentioned allows for my own creativity to unfurl.

Which is another way of saying IRL I wouldn’t date any of them either, but I sure enjoy playacting to my own script.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

handle a life that strenuous—I’d be in bed for a week after every Spring 1

Laughed at this and it's so true, I'm not even old and there's no way I'm rocking 4 hour nights after days of heavy labour

Chugging that Triple shot espresso every morning though....

 

[Benhimself]

It's worth noting Sebastian mentions "if I had gone to college" in one dialogue option so he's at LEAST college age. And at least in my opinion it's a pretty easy assumption that his close friends are close enough to that age category as well.

Also I don't feel anyone really gives up their dreams by marrying the farmer. Like, Maru still works on her engineering projects while living on the farm. Sebastian's dream wasn't really to go to Zuzu city specifically, it's to escape his stepfather's house find a place where he belongs, which you can easily give him! Sam finds professional success as a musical artist if you marry him! Harvey conquers his fears! Alex.... okay, he 100% gives up on his dreams, but he also grows significantly as a person when you romance him, to the point where I personally can't feel bad about it.

 

[MogBeoulve]

Alex.... okay, he 100% gives up on his dreams, but he also grows significantly as a person when you romance him, to the point where I personally can't feel bad about it.

I was kind of surprised at Alex, but he really turned into a sweet house husband. His remarks are all centered around how much he loves life on the farm with you. I think he would love some kids to raise, so I'm going to pretend that the farmer who married him just needs a few years to get used to the idea, and eventually they will adopt some gremlins to raise. (The farmer on that file was a squire/knight in training, so I picked Alex for him to romance so they would have athletics in common. It was also a partial challenge since I had not done a lot of cooking before. Like I said, Alex really surprised me.)

 

[REtroGeekery]

It's worth noting Sebastian mentions "if I had gone to college" in one dialogue option so he's at LEAST college age. And at least in my opinion it's a pretty easy assumption that his close friends are close enough to that age category as well.

Additionally, Sebastian, Sam, and Maru each have full-time jobs. Maru had to get a nursing degree to have hers (and Sebastian makes remarks that suggest they're close in age if he and the farmer have two children). Alex works part time and mentions his past position on his high school gridball team. Abigail takes college classes online and Emily mentions her (presumably high school or undergrad) graduation celebration. Emily talks about how she's sure Haley will grow into a fine "young lady".
They definitely read as college age-range, with Alex, Hailey, and Maru being slightly younger than the other three 'younger' singles.

 

[LRangerR]

Far too much of the conversation here is aimed at how old they are and less of them as a person in general. From the discourse in this thread we can ascertain certain things, like they are all 18 min, but these are things I already assumed, I'm just surprised so many will dismiss certain characters based on a perceived presumption. It's okay to like who you like, just don't assign an arbitrary age to them that you assume is canon.

 

[LRangerR]

Also, from a game design perspective the ages were intentionally left ambiguous so as to appeal to a greater audience. You like what you like, right?

 

[Abyss]

I have been playing Stardew since it came out but none of my characaters have ever married. Here’s why:

At the beginning of the game 20 years elapse between your grandfather’s death and taking possession of the farm. Calculating from the death of either mine or my husband’s grandparents that would put my character’s age between 39-51.

Let’s discuss Sebastian, Maru, Abigail and Sam. Aside from being too young for my character they wind up as huge disappointments. First Sebastian and Sam confide their dreams to my character, as they might to a sympathetic older adult. Both want to leave Pelican Town, which I think is great. A few birthday gifts later, they’re willing to throw their dreams out the window and go live on a farm they’ve never visited. This makes me want to scream.

Maru is clearly bound for greater things beyond Pelican Town and it would be wrong to hold her back.

Abigail is a slacker, supposedly going to school but never studying. Then she invites my character to her room at night. I may have gone to school in the 70’s but still.

Haley clearly should go off too and become a super model.

Penny-nice but not much personality there.

Emily possibly a stalker type. When I walked into her house and into the dream sequence and her her say “Septimius’ and my destinies are intertwined,” my character’s first urge was to call a realtor, put the farm on the market and disappear into the night. I see Emily in an upmarket coastal city running either a New Age shop or a hand made clothing boutique.

That leaves only 4 choices. Shane, Harvey, Elliot and Leah. All of who are nice, but whom my character doesn’t want to marry.

This is technically true, but it doesn't specify how old the character is when the grandfather dies. Plus the letter says in the future. The XX clearly means double digit years, but it could be 12 years and the character was a teenager when our grandfather died. Meaning even if it is 20 years, the character could be literally any age. I did think at first the character was young because it says in the future. But nevertheless, it is still good reasoning.

 

[NotACat]

I've seen a video on YouTube that also mentioned how it is weird that these people throw away their dreams because they like someone. But I mean, would you like it if everyone you'd try to romance in this game just said: "Oi mate, I've got better things to do than spend the rest of me bloody life on your barmy farm. Get lost." From a design perspective, I think it just shows that these people aren't empty shells without any hopes and dreams. But yeah, I guess in real life people'd think twice before dropping out of college or something to spend the rest of their days on a farm with a person that goes out to fight slimes and steal from garbage cans for most of their day.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

Also note that everyone is an immortal timeless being, much like vampires. You can spend 100 years in game and they’ll all look the same and still be engaged in the same activities. So there’s little reason not to believe they’ve been doing that for the last 100 years.

They could have been time looped for an indefinite period, and without their age being stated you can thus assume any age you want. I have no qualms with romancing an 80 year old Abigail or 120 year old Alex personally, regardless of how they look or their current living arrangements. Plenty of 40+ year old folks live with their parents due to financial concerns.

Thus while I get where they’re coming from for those who feel their perceptions of the age of the NPC is a limiting factor, I don’t personally agree. And I think getting hung up on age and time is ignoring demonstrable evidence it doesn’t work that way in this universe, kids being a fine example.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Additionally, Sebastian, Sam, and Maru each have full-time jobs. Maru had to get a nursing degree to have hers (and Sebastian makes remarks that suggest they're close in age if he and the farmer have two children). Alex works part time and mentions his past position on his high school gridball team. Abigail takes college classes online and Emily mentions her (presumably high school or undergrad) graduation celebration. Emily talks about how she's sure Haley will grow into a fine "young lady".
They definitely read as college age-range, with Alex, Hailey, and Maru being slightly younger than the other three 'younger' singles.

This absolutely, it's intended that they're all around that 20-25 range with a couple (notably shane, elliot, harvey, leah, emily) being a bit older, maybe by 5 or 10 years

Elliot is obviously independent and has set up his more secluded life on the beach, he has at least the roots to a career down and doesn't have some of the more "childish" demeanor and aspirations the obviously younger candidates do.
Shane seems to have gone through quite a bit in his adult life so far, he has a goddaughter who's around 7 and generally people don't make teenagers into godparents so that gives some advancing of his age, I'd put it at a minimum 26-27?
Harvey obviously has a medical license and the education and training after that to operate his own clinic, something that would take a good 10 years (not to mention the time to actually move, set up the clinic, etc.). I would put a minimum on his age at around 28-29 from what the same steps would look like in my own country. That being said, the ferngill republic is in wartime and the way the medical education operates could be entirely different from our own world.
Leah had a whole life in the city before, she had a relationship and decently matured career and had some time to reflect on that life and choose another route. Her previous relationship seemed rather far in, at least from what we see and can extrapolate from her radical shift in lifestyle.
Emily is probably the youngest of these, she seems a bit more mature but that could just be from being an older sibling. Her relationship with Haley and the parents having gone travelling (seemingly putting trust in her to manage Haley) does make it seem like there's a 4-5 year age gap between the two (just from how people act with siblings and how I acted with my own, a 1-3 age gap results in a notably different relationship than 4-5+). Since Haley is datable, and I very much assume the sort of adulthood/ndependence in getting married age is similar to countries like my own in the real world, that puts Emily at a minimum of 23-25, younger than the others I wrote about but old enough that I wouldn't lump her with the young candidates.

That's my addition to the conversation, feel free to add onto it or come to your own conclusions as mine are in no way conslusive. I didn't give minimums for Elliot and Leah because that would be purely extrapolation rather than based in some sequential logic, if I had to put a minimum age on either I would say maybe 24 for Elliot (though he seems a fair bit older there just isn't much to back a guarantee), and Leah at 25-26 (enough time to have gone to art school potentially and even if not there would need to be some time for her to have a longer relationship and developed career in the city).

 

[Gardening Spirit]

Agree with everything you said @FilthyGorilla :) But I'm thinking Shane, Harvey and Leah were in their early thirties maybe. Not much older than you mentioned though.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Agree with everything you said @FilthyGorilla :) But I'm thinking Shane, Harvey and Leah were in their early thirties maybe. Not much older than you mentioned though.

Yeah mine were just minimums, I think there's a good chance they're a couple years older than that