Stardew Valley on Switch – Fun, With Bugs
Stardew Valley for the Nintendo Switch was a highly anticipated release for a lot of folks in the Switch community. Even though I have a copy for the PC, I’m really loving my little Switch, and like the idea of a portable Stardew.
Stardew makes a great port to the Switch, and I’ve had a lot of fun re-learning the game after having put it down for a number of months. I’m trying out different relationships, a bit wiser about how to approach things, like collecting for the community center, and actually learning how to fish this time around.
But there are a few things that you should be aware of if you’re looking at picking up Stardew on the Switch, at least in comparison to the PC version.
Developed for PC
The PC version of Stardew came first, and is the much more flexible version of the game. Part of the appeal, and why it gained a lot of traction with the community, is that Stardew is very moddable.
For example, I modded my cat to be a Siamese, my horse to be grey, and my pigs to be cuter. I also found the fishing game impossible to play on the PC, so I modded fishing to be a lot easier. Obviously, this isn’t an option for the Switch version of Stardew… so I’m actually having to learn how to fish.
Some things, like fishing, do feel easier with the controller. But there are times, such as when moving through menus, and moments when you have to control a cursor with a Switch joystick, that you really feel the PC roots poking through. It’s not game breaking, but a little jarring. Looking at the bug list, seems like there might be a bug around this.
Finally, the longer loading and saving times. If you’ve played the PC version, then the longer save and load times on the Switch are much more apparent. Again, not game breaking, but paired with one of the bugs I’m going to talk about, it gets a bit frustrating.
Bugs to Contend With
I’ve played up until Fall of the first year, and ran into to major bugs pretty early on. One of them is just annoying, but the other is actually a game stopper. Note: the dev is aware of the bugs, has acknowledged them, and hopefully we’ll see a patch soon.
Crackling Sound Bug
From time to time, for no apparent reason, the game’s sound starts to crackle.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this puts a wrinkle my chill gaming session. Sound is a very important element in all games I play… and no one seems to know what causes it. It comes and goes at random.
The only way players have found to fix the sound bug is to completely exit and re-launch the game. This causes more frustration because:
- The long loading times I mentioned above… every time you launch the game, you have to wait for it to load through several screens and your save file
- You can’t just save the game at random — if you don’t want to lose that day’s progress, you have to listen to the crackling all Stardew day until you sleep and save that night
I’ve often had to restart the game two or three times in a play session to get rid of this issue. It keeps coming back.
Save Crash Bug
This leads to another, more severe bug — the save crash bug. Sometimes, when you go to sleep on the Switch version, the game throws an error and closes on you. This means that you lost everything you did that whole day, and you have to go back and replay it.
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to corrupt the save file. But if you had a lot accomplished in a day and the game crashes before saving, it can get frustrating real fast.
I’ve had this happen to me twice. From what I’m reading, this is a complex inventory issue.
Again, the team is aware of the issues, and working on a patch. So, hang in there if you’re struggling with Stardew bugs like I am. Help is on the way!
