I've been playing this game quite a bit lately and i noticed a few things that make my hypothesize that Stardew valley is a Fallout prequel. Granted my evidence is a little thin, but it is still there. Here's what i got so far, 1. Kent – He is a war veteran who saw action against a group called the Gotoro empire. During a war both sides will often assign nicknames to the enemies of their nation, Germans are called Jerries, Japanese were called Tojos, etc. The Chinese could have been labelled the Gotoros. Also we have no information about what has happened to Japan, however it would be a tempting target for the Chinese to either conquer or absorb since it has good ports and would provide a good launch point for attacks against both Alaska and Hawaii. We have it well established that there was heavy fighting in Alaska. If they built P.O.W. camps in Japan they would probably feed them the local cuisine due to relative abundance. This would explain why he hates both seaweed soup and sashimi. 2. Resources – There are no personally owned vehicles used in the game, everyone either uses the bus or walks. There are a few but they never move. The only road never has any cars on it and goods are moved primarily by train. Everyone who travels to or from the valley who mentions their transport mode always says they took the bus. During the opening scene you are even shown arriving by bus. This is consistent with a world running short of resources and conserving what they have left as the situation is fallout 4 is described. 3. Monsters and mutant fish – Radioactive waste disposal is a huge problem even before the war and any cave or mine would probably be a tempting site. Unscrupulous disposal companies could stash the stuff in the mine causing creatures in the mines to begin to mutate. The cave crab is aggressive and armored and could be considered an ancestor of the Mirelurk and the insects flying back and forth could be ancestors of the bloodbugs. In addition, the duggies burrow under ground and burst out to ambush their prey, a tactic also favored by molerates. The mutant carp was also turned into a monstrosity by strange waters, they could have been turned strange by illegally dumped radioactive waste. 4. Jojamart – In fallout 4 There are the remains of unscrupulous corporations around Boston that seem to operate like Joja corporation. The company is active in stardew valley and seems willing to engage in sketchy business practices. This could include dumping waste illegally in stardew valley, after all who would notice them hauling waste into this isolated location and dumping it underground, granted the jojamart disc is a problem. So what does everyone think?
Nobody called Germany the "Jerry Empire" and nobody called Britain the "Tommy Empire", nobody called France the "3rd Republic of Frog" nobody called America 'The United States of Yankee"
It is no more similar to pre-fall Fallout than any other distopian society of fiction, which is a very broad genre. Evil corporation is a common theme in dystopian societies, from the Alien movies to the Avatar movie (the one with the blue aliens that 'totally isn't Dances With Wolves'). It is in the same genre, but there are no specifics linking it to the Fallout 'verse. Corporate pollution is another extremely common topic among the genre. tl;dr: No. It is not a direct reference to the pre-Fall Fallout series, however it is in the same genre of fiction.
Actually that's not quite true, I am a member of the American Legion and so know several WW II vets, they refer to the empire of Japan as the Tojo Empire frequently. And while they don't call it the empire of Jerry, they do call it Jerryland sometimes. the 3rd republic of frog made me laugh so thanks for that. Evil corporations are common, animal mutations are not. I recognize no direct links, but there seem to be a few indirect ones like Kent's aversion to Asian cuisine due to it being fed to him in a prison camp. Also i assume TL DR means too long didn't read so how do you refute my arguments if you don't know what they are?
Animal mutation arising from pollution, especially radioactive pollution, is a staple of the genre. Hell, half the b-rated horror flicks were things like 'radioactive killer guppy'. Hell, Blinky the Three-Eyed Fish from the Simpsons episodes. It's not that I didn't bother reading, it's that I didn't feel the points were worth refuting since there is such an enormous body of evidence against it. The Fallout series is set in a Pulp Fiction Dystopian setting that has then undergone a nuclear apocalypse, taking many of these tropes to heart when making parts of the game. However, the fact that these pieces also show up in other works of fiction is not indicative of causality. Look up the principle of Causation vs Correlation please.
I'm well familiar with with the fallacy of correlation does not equal causation fallacy, but correlations do indicate a potential causation, I'm not saying that it is, i'm saying it's possible. By the way, I love me some B rated horror flicks.
Not the same company that made both. Can't be a prequel. Also, the 'is this a _____' meme comes to mind with the title.
I don't think so, there's also magic in Stardew Valley in the form of the wizard, witch and the junimos. Yes, you could hand wave "radiation" at that but it would be odd for nobody to be talking about it. Also there's no God, but there is Yoba and there was a 1000 year war between the dwarves and the shadow people. If you want to play the game as a prequel to Fallout more power to you. But any similarities are coincidental, though I wouldn't rule out some light inspiration.
Very hard to see why. This was CA's first game. I remember him graduating from UW-Tacoma and publishing it, and that's why I bought it: he was an alumnus of mine. As far as I'm concerned, Stardew Valley was (is) a work of art. That may seem odd to say, given its apparent simplicity, but CA achieved something more than just a game, here. It's a world, with worlds within worlds and strong messaging. How CA saw the world comes through very clearly in this game, and I am frankly startled by his maturity at that age. I sort of picture him as a young man with this persistent vision that he made real, and can't imagine there having been other objectives in his mind at that time. Also, Fallout was published in 1997, while CA began working on Stardew Valley in 2011. Where was he in 1997? I don't know, but quite possibly high school.
I doubt it, the inspiration for Stardew Valley is the Harvest Moon series. There may be some similarity to Fallout 4, but it's most likely more accidental than anything. Truth be told, you can find similarities between a game and some other game if you are looking for it.