A friend of mine gifted me Verdant Skies on Steam and I was intrigued when I was told it had Stardew Valley vibes, but in space. In Verdant Skies you are a new colonist on a planet called Viridis Primus. The first thing is to create your character and you can play as a male or female. The character design is great, offering a variety of options with outfits, hair color, body types, and skin tone. I spent a bit of time trying to decide, but eventually I came up with a character that I really liked.
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| Creating my character. |
You do get to meet with a few of the colonists who are already there like your boss Jade. I do like the fact that you get a quick biography of the person when you meet them for the first time because it gives you a general idea of who they are, what they like, and what they don't like. I also appreciated the fact that if you play as a male or female character you have 12 romance options in the game and if you wish you can romance more than one of them. Some characters will want a one on one relationship with your character while others are accepting of you dating more than one person. Having conversations with the other colonists and getting to know them gives you a better idea of what they're like and the hearts under their name will increase or decrease depending on how you choose to respond. I genuinely loved the diversity of the characters in Verdant Skies and finding out that one of the main characters is a trans woman absolutely made my day because representation matters. Not only that, she was in a position where she was in charge, everyone treated her with kindness and respect, and the more I got to know her, I saw the wonderful person she was and how she had gotten to where she was by being her true self. It was a beautiful thing that happened organically in the story and made me love Verdant Skies just a little more. It doesn't just stop there however, there are characters that are non binary as well. It showed how much thought and care went into making this game.
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| Getting to know about Jade in her quick biography. |
Of course there is farming in the game. You are trying to build a colony on this planet after all and you will need food for all those colonists. This is where your character comes in. If you have played Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, you know what that entails. You start out with practically nothing. You are given some seeds to plant in the fields and you have to water them and tend them every day. When you get your first harvest you get a small reward for it, but you must keep farming to get that food for everyone.
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| Tending the crops and doing my part to help the colony. |
Speaking of food, you do have to eat to keep your energy up. If you are low on energy your character will start to move lethargically and things will get blurry. You can eat food that you forage or you can make food in the kitchen of your house with the food you have found from foraging. When you eat, this boosts your energy so you can continue working and exploring the planet.
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| Make food in your kitchen and eat to keep your energy up. |
There is fishing in the game and yes, you can cook and eat the fish. Fishing takes a little bit of finesse because you are spear fishing and you have to line up the throw just right in order to get a fish. Once you get the hang of it though, fishing is pretty easy and there are some mini quests you have to do for one of the colonists who is studying the different types of fish. There is one for studying plants also.
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| Doing a little fishing. |
You have to make money of course in Verdant Skies and that is where the shipping bin comes in. Items you have foraged, crops you have harvested, and building materials can be put in the shipping bin and you get money. You are essentially building your home and your colony around you. The nice thing about Verdant Skies is that while it is a very relaxing game, it also encourages you to keep going with a myriad of tasks to do. Which colonist will come to the planet next? Can you build a town square for everyone? Can you splice some seeds together to make a better potato? These are just some of the tasks and I found I wanted to keep playing because I was enjoying the game and I wanted to see what I could do next.
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| Shipping things and making that money! |
There is also a ton of technology in Verdant Skies. You have colonists who are engineers that can help you build these things. There are even ways to clone animals like space cows. That's right, there are space cows. They are bright pink, fluffy, and adorable. There are so many possibilities with the technology in the game and it was fun trying to see what I could come up with. Overall, Verdant Skies has been incredibly enjoyable for me. It has the chill vibes that I love while being a creative and thoughtful experience with the diversity of the characters and a world that is fun to explore. It is a great game and I haven't stopped playing because it is that good. Thanks for reading, see you at the next adventure!
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| Living my best space colonist life. |
*Verdant Skies is available on Steam
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