How long does it take to "complete" Stardew Valley?
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Terdin
Local Legend
The Summit scene after reaching Perfection visit marks the current definite end to new story content. However, a while after you reach Ginger Island, you might find yourself getting bored. At some point there, you might find yourself just doing stuff to earn money. Past that you need your own motivations to keep playing.
Mango Choo-choo
Farmer
pursuit of perfection ruins the experience of your game
Nonak
Local Legend
Not for everyone... I often have it as a goal without rushing or stressing about it, its just when I have nothing to do I go "might as well complete this monster slayer goal, need it for perfection anyway" and then there's only a couple things left, why not push a bit. It's really just about what you enjoy doing and how you want to play.
WanderingWendaline
Farmer
It depends more on your play style and personal preferences I think. I have hundreds of hours in the game and I haven't gotten bored of it yet, but that might be partly because I progress more slowly and jump to different save files for different goals, so I've only unlocked late game content like... 3 or 4 times? Sometimes I also avoid certain story aspects for a while so I have more to do later.
Rahnee
Farmer
Personally I think it'd take quite a while to completely exhaust my interest, just because it's so open-ended and there are many different ways to tackle certain things. For example, I typically don't use a lot of animals, only 1 or 2 of the critical ones and that's all, but I'm recently playing a save in a Meadowlands farm wherein I went the opposite way and have tons of animals (4 barns and 2 coops full and counting ... that may not sound like a lot to some but for me it's a LOT 
).
There's also remixed bundles to spice things up, different spouses to see heart events for, etc. I guess it depends on what it is about the game you enjoy (I once challenged myself to catch a very difficult fish with challenge bait ... but that didn't actually work out
).
I do run out of steam occasionally and put it down for a while, but then the interest will come back and I'll start it up again (maybe I'll be bold enough to try the beach farm at some point... seems challenging...)
).There's also remixed bundles to spice things up, different spouses to see heart events for, etc. I guess it depends on what it is about the game you enjoy (I once challenged myself to catch a very difficult fish with challenge bait ... but that didn't actually work out
).I do run out of steam occasionally and put it down for a while, but then the interest will come back and I'll start it up again (maybe I'll be bold enough to try the beach farm at some point... seems challenging...)
It's so addicting at the start that I just power through until Perfection, and then I abandon my farm shortly after.
Farmer Evie
Planter
I have never reached perfection or completed the community center or reached level 10 in every skill or... you get the point. But I enjoy starting new farms ALL THE TIME because I pick a different spouse, or I buy a Joja membership or I try to do crazy things (like not selling anything until community center is completed or romancing everyone). The great thing about Stardew is that perfection isn't required to be a 'good' player or to make it fun. You could just completely ignore the story and your journal and focus on filling your house with cats. Because that's definitely normal.
Kokopelli
Greenhorn
I want to be more like you Evie! I’m hard wired to achieve perfection. I have stopped some of my farms from the exhaustion of the perfection goal.
My first play through took 16 in game years for perfection because I didn’t know what to do. I spent the first five in game years on my own before consulting the wiki
Cuddlebug
Local Legend
Much the same with me, took me 20 in-game-years in my first save until perfection, much bc I had to learn how to play the game
NestorGB
Planter
I'm brewing on the idea of making a mushroom farm, were i am only allowed to sell mushrooms or their corresponding artisan produce. The protagonist would be Jack Morel, a teacher from Gotoro University. He moved to the valley to study the fungi of the Gemcoast. As years pass by, he slowly turns more and more into a shroom, (with Razzy's shrine of illusions) finally being a unrecognizable abomination, a so called "wereshroom" (like werewolf, just fungal, lol) and making A LOT of money through mushroom logs with mystic trees. I don't think he would marry anyone, maybe a gf or bf, like Leah maybe.
MyTime
Greenhorn
I got bored after Ginger Island and put the game down. I had no interest in chasing perfection and I wasn't interested in cooking or chasing shipping goals. A very long while later and very recently, I picked it back up. I ran around for a while and then decided to complete cooking. I got down to 2 missing recipes - one in Spring and one in Fall...while in Winter. I decided to look at other completion goals and realized that I was close to achievement after looking at stuff I had in inventory. Long before Fall 27 (Spirit's Eve), I finished everything for perfection except the Jack-o-lantern, so I used the time to organize/downsize storage bins, turn Cinder Island farm and Green House to 100% Ancient Fruit, build 2 deluxe sheds, move/add kegs to fill them, add a few more barrels for aging, and sync the harvesting times to minimize work. I also hatched a golden chicken. I put the game down yesterday in a good place for 1.7. I can't wait!