“Step into Rural Life: A VR experience of playing Across the Valley, Dongsup, and Stardew Valley”

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to play rural healing games like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley in VR? I had such thoughts at the time when Animal Crossing was in full swing, and I still dream about it. Imagine getting out of the forest of buildings and apartments, growing your own crops and raising livestock, going through dungeons, and interacting with other characters in a scenic place.

Today, I played Across The Valley, a game depicting rural life on my own virtual world farm, one step closer to this dream. This game is a new game released on April 6th and can be played on PC and PS VR2.

You have to grow a farm from nothing

Across the Valley does not have a separate title screen, but the signboard at the farm entrance is configured like a title screen. The game’s options window is docked in front of the entrance to this farm, and if you want to edit your options during gameplay, you’ll have to come directly here. When you enter the farm entrance, it is divided into a total of six areas: the center of the farm, the house, the field, the chicken coop, the barn, and the cart.

Across the Valley is not a way to freely walk or teleport to where you want, but you can only go to a designated location in the game itself. For example, to move to a field or the entrance of a farm with an option window, push the direction key on the right joystick and place the line on the area where you can move, and small blue circles indicating possible places float like fog. At this time, if you select the point pointed to, it will move to that place.

Similar to buildings (house, chicken coop, barn), if you press the right joystick direction key and touch the line, the building will change to the same color as the line, and select it in that state to move. Detailed movement inside a building or area can also be done by pushing the direction keys on the right joystick and selecting the round circles that appear. Once you’ve moved from place to place, you can turn or move around to change direction and move around. Therefore, it is recommended to play in a place with free space when playing the game.

When you first start Across the Valley, you can see the inside of the farm filled with fields and barns, but when you wake up after falling asleep like a long dream, everything is reset with a welcome message from a blue parrot. Looking around the farm, there is nothing but a shovel and a single barley seed in the field, and the chicken coop and barn are completely locked.

Afterwards, each time you complete the missions on the calendar-type worksheet attached to the wall inside the house, you can get farm tools, livestock, fields, carts, and more. So whenever you feel like you have nothing to do, you should check this timesheet right away.

Crop Seeds can be purchased after obtaining a cart as a mission reward in the Worksheet. If you go out of the house and go to the wagon area, you can purchase seeds from the booklet placed in front of the wagon. Seeds also cannot be purchased from the beginning, and are opened step by step through missions on the worksheet. The book contains not only seeds, but also livestock feed.

Carts are used to store and sell harvested crops. You can sell items by taking items from the harvest box located next to the cart and placing them on top of the cart. Harvesting can be taken out one by one from the Harvest Box by default, but you can also take out the Harvest Box in groups of 10 by pulling the lever labeled X10 on the left side of the Harvest Box.

As you progress through the missions on the timesheet, a calendar-type order sheet will appear right next to the timesheet. Collecting the crops listed on this order sheet will give you more money than selling the harvest to the cart, making it a good way to make up for any shortfall. As a result of my experience, Across the Valley is generally difficult to raise money, so the key point of the early strategy is to keep checking this order table and collect the crops used there.

A central table located inside the house shows a miniature farm, where you can purchase fields or livestock and upgrade the house. In the lower left corner of this table, you can see how much money you currently have. If you move the joystick to the desired location, an icon that can be purchased there will appear. If you cannot purchase it, it will be displayed as max, but if you can buy it, it will be displayed as a price. If you select the price icon with the joystick, the purchase is completed if you have the corresponding amount.

Plowing, planting, watering, weeding…

If you have completed the worksheet missions in order, you can see a toolbox with a shovel and plow hanging on the left side of the field entrance, and a watering can and basket under the seed shelf on the right side. Pick up the Seed Basket and move it to an empty cleared field to sow seeds by hand. The number of seedlings depends on how evenly the seeds are sown in the field. After sowing the seeds, you need to manage them once a day according to the condition. The grass, water drop, and basket-shaped icons are status windows, so you need to take appropriate actions.

The shovel is used to remove by-products such as stones and weeds from the field or to remove planted seedlings before sowing seeds. The plow is used to remove weeds in the field when the grass-shaped icon appears, and you can only use it as much as the green gauge at the front of the plow. Weeds are difficult to distinguish from sprouts at first, but unlike crops, they do not change their appearance, so once you know them, you won’t get confused. However, it often overlaps the sprout, so if the plow is not handled carefully, the sprout of the seedling next to it may die. A tip is to delicately scrape only the areas where there are weeds.

The watering can is used when the water icon appears, and the basket is used when the basket icon appears. It is used for watering and harvesting. Harvests are collected one by one in the basket, and once all are collected, they are automatically moved to the Harvest Box.

Happy farm life with livestock

There are a total of 4 types of livestock (chicken, sheep, cow, and pig) that can be raised in Across the Valley. Livestock must be given feed, water and love every day, and other animals, except for chickens, must also be cleaned of droppings. Each animal’s status can be checked in the status window floating above its head. If the icon shown in the status window is inactive, it is not satisfied yet.

For feed, take the feed directly from the feed box and put it in the feed container, and water can be filled with a watering can or well pump. Animals other than chickens can fill each water and feed trough up to 10 times. Love is met by petting animals, and excreta disappears by scooping them up with a shovel attached to the pillar in the center of the barn and blowing them into the air.

Chickens lay eggs one by one when they become adults, and sheep can shear their wool at regular intervals. Cows can milk milk, and pigs seem to have nothing to do, but they use their sense of smell to find truffles together. In fact, in Europe, pigs are often used to find buried truffles.

A few days spent on a virtual farm, feeling like back home

These days, you can easily find content about returning to farming life in various media. I would like to recommend Across the Valley first to those who dream or are curious about farming. Of course, there will be a big difference from real-life farming life, but every time I access Across the Valley after work every day, I felt like I was on a weekend farm. Sowing seeds, pulling weeds, collecting eggs, petting sheep, milking milk, and cleaning up pig pens was a very valuable and healing time.

However, the biggest problem with this game is that there is no content other than managing crops and livestock with constant repetition. The reason why Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and Farm Story, which I mentioned earlier, are well-received is that you can not only grow your own farm, but also meet various characters to see stories and events, go on adventures, cook yourself, and make tools. Because life is possible. Across the Valley doesn’t have this part at all, and the longer you play, the less interesting it gets.

However, I don’t think it’s too bad if you approach it as a healing game where everything happens slowly and step by step in a relaxed setting without any purpose or event. It is enough to know what joy is when you sow seeds yourself, see sprouts grow, and harvest delicious harvests one by one. Why don’t you take a break from everyday life and go to your own farm in the virtual world?