[Participating in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge]

There are games I hesitated over because of the price, only to buy them, start playing, and immediately think, “Why didn’t I get this sooner..”

These are games that only cost me a few tens of thousands of won, but somehow ended up showing dozens or even well over a hundred hours of playtime, with barely any extra money spent along the way. (Of course, there were also a few I liked so much that I ended up buying other packages too..)

So today, I picked 3 games that I personally feel gave me really great value for the money.

The kind of game where your whole day disappears while farming and mining

Stardew Valley(STAREW VALLEY) - (128 hours played)

The first game I want to recommend is “Stardew Valley.” (The non-sale price is 16,000 won)

It begins with the protagonist, worn out by city life, inheriting an old farm left behind by their grandfather and starting a new life in the countryside.

As I gathered crops and expanded the farm, I got to enjoy both the fun of a tycoon-style game and the fun of adventure through caves and all kinds of events.

I also liked how the future of the town changes depending on the player’s choices, and raising cute animals added another layer to it, so it also had a really healing vibe.

Personally, the most surprising part was.. that the town has various romanceable characters, and that you can give them gifts, help them out, and even get married..

When I first bought the game, I honestly thought the default portraits were really unattractive, but since you can change the portraits, it was possible to find ones I liked and swap them in, which made the NPCs feel almost like a dating sim cast.

I originally spent most of my time hunting down friendship-raising items because I was planning to write a Stardew Valley guide, and the funny part is that I ended up quitting before I ever tried the marriage system.. still, since different events happen as affection goes up, it’s worth noting that alongside life-sim content like farming, fishing, and exploration, it’s also a game with dating sim-style elements.

I’m putting this one first because it was fun enough that I once started it during exam season, couldn’t stop myself, and actually tanked an exam because of it.

You have to survive against nature and monsters!!

Don’t Starve Together(Don’t Starve Together) - 142 hours played

The second game I recommend is “Don’t Starve Together.” (The non-sale price is 15,500 won)

Don’t Starve Together throws different trials at you every season, so I’d describe it as a survival simulation game where you have to make it through those hardships.

Each season brings its own problems—food can spoil quickly or become hard to find, and monsters can even attack the place you’ve built up as your base—so it’s basically a game about surviving and holding out no matter what.

Personally, I played without mods at first, and I think it had its own appeal because it felt even more intense and hardcore than playing with mods. That said, I also feel like I’ve now become someone who can never go back to a world without mods.

I still reinstall it and play it from time to time when I’m bored, and because it’s great for killing time and still genuinely fun even when you come back to it after a while, I decided to include it as my second recommendation.

This game had me eating sushi three times in one week..

Dave The Diver(Dave The Diver) - 56 hours played

The last game I want to recommend is Dave The Diver(Dave The Diver). (The non-sale price is 24,000 won)

At first, it felt like an interesting challenge from Nexon, but I personally ended up enjoying it a lot, and more recently I’ve even been playing it after buying the DLC too.

I usually just play the base game, and unless I really love something, I don’t even bother looking at the DLC—so this is one of those rare games where even I ended up buying it.

Dave The Diver is built around the concept of catching fish during the day and running a sushi business at night, and while it’s definitely fun, I also think it’s a game with a really well-structured story.

During the day, you work through ocean-related quests, and at night you get to see a variety of storylines, like cooking battles presented as VIP events or serving dishes to characters dealing with their own situations, which I really liked.

In particular, when it came to the cooking battles, the ridiculous reactions got a lot of laughs out of me. Since each battle had its own different reaction, I eventually started looking forward to them and thinking, “When is the next cooking battle going to happen..”

It doesn’t have an overwhelmingly hardcore feel, and instead struck me as the kind of game that’s simply a great time to sit down and enjoy, so I wanted to mention it as my third pick.