Nikki is a shockingly competent hoyo-like (so Breath of the Wild but MUCH clunkier) hiding a gacha game about making an insane number of pulls to build an outfit while you play dress-up. Also, the overall metaplot among the franchise is Evangelion levels of batshit insane. But, at its core, it is still a ridiculously predatory gacha game.

There is a ridiculous amount you can do without spending a single cent and if you have strong self control it is worth looking into but… if you have strong self control and no addictive personality/genetic traits a bump of coke every so often is fun? And there are MUCH better games out there to spend your time on.

And it looks like the Stardew side is just letting IN call itself “cozy”?

But yeah. At this point I think most people can probably find a farm/town sim that is a better match to their specific interests than Stardew, but Stardew Valley is still basically “Harvest Moon but actually good” and pretty much revitalized the entire genre singlehandedly. It is very much the jack of all trades in that it does everything really well but doesn’t excel at any one thing. Also the background plot is shockingly dark but most people will never pay enough attention to realize that.

Oh, and many of the romanceable NPCs are very much coded as underage so nobody tell Chris Hansen. Again, it is one of those things you only pick up on if you actually listen to their dialogue and think through what kinds of jobs they had before being swept off their feet by the new farmer in town.