Highlights

  • Stardew Valley has a great selection of marriage candidates, but adding more love interests would be a fun expansion for the game.
  • Players have expressed interest in new dateable characters, such as the Wizard Rasmodius, who currently only has one heart event.
  • The game could benefit from more diversity and representation in its romantic options, including more people of color and trans characters.

Stardew Valley's love interests are great as they are, but more wouldn't hurt. The game has a wonderful selection of marriage candidates, but it's never too late to add more to the roster. While mods can do this too, it would be fun to see in-game expansions as well. Stardew Valley tends to focus on romantic tropes and then flesh them out as real people when it comes to creating love interests, and this would be a good chance to either add new ones or make existing NPCs dateable.

With the current NPCs available, some of the most popular requests for new dateables include the Wizard Rasmodius. His appeal as a mysterious and magical individual won over many Stardew Valley players as they increase hearts with the man. That said, the only heart event he has is at four, in which players unlock The Shrine of Illusions and can change their appearance. If he had more heart events, players may be encouraged to marry the mystical man and find out more about the Valley's history.

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Potential Ideas for Stardew Valley Romance Options

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A Call For Diversity

Utilizing the knowledge that Stardew Valley uses tropes and fleshes them out, there are a lot of great tropes of romance and generally types of characters that could be popular among the fandom. Two big things Stardew Valley is missing when it comes to its NPCs are people of color and trans characters. It can be argued that there are LGBTQ+ characters in the Valley since everyone is romanceable even if you choose the same sex as them.

A fun non-binary dating option could be someone who explores fashion subcultures. A lot of trans people tend to explore their fashion tastes, so adding someone, potentially from the city, to the Valley's Pelican Town for players to date could be a good idea. It would be neat to have some of their heart events discuss trans struggles and talk more about fashion subcultures and niches they enjoy.

Another fun trope given the magic spirits and Junimos that Stardew Valley could introduce is a chill sort of guy who casually speaks to the animals and Junimos. Someone who doesn't understand the big deal about talking with animals would be a humorous inclusion in the game. It would be nice to have his heart events also let players get closer to the animals, magic, or Junimos and unlock something similar to how Shane unlocks blue chickens in Stardew Valley.

Speaking of Shane from Stardew Valley, having a female character who focuses on mental illness and baggage would also be an interesting inclusion. Though Shane is a wonderful representation of someone with depression, many players complain that even though he says he'll quit drinking, his room once players marry him includes a pile of beer cans on the floor. Doing another character with a struggle would give the developer a shot to hopefully do things a little differently when it comes to mental health and the promise to get better.

Stardew Match-Ups

While adding more romantic options to the game would be fun, it's also important to note that these characters would have to be paired up together for events like the Flower Dance from Stardew Valley. However, with the proposed concepts here, it would be very easy to match this up. The Wizard and one who can talk to Junimos would be a good pair-up. Any theoretical options are still on the table, and any new romantic additions to the game that add to its diversity and representation would be greatly appreciated.