Stardew Valley Patch Improves Your Marriage

Death is not the end, croaked Bob Dylan on 1988's Down in the Groove. I'm not even sure that death is a possibility on the bright, friendly farms of Stardew Valley [official site] but there was an end-point of sorts. Marriage, rather than being the beginning of something wonderful, marked the end of independence, the full stop at the close of your spouse's individuality.

No longer! A patch earlier this week improves the behaviour of spouses, allowing them to leave the house independently to go for a walk or visit town, and providing each with a set of unique dialogue. There are other tweaks as well, including a fix to "the farm rampage". Boo! I don't know what that is but it did really need to be fixed?

The full patch notes are tiny so I'll reproduce them here:

Added unique dialogues for all spouses.
Spouses now leave the house on mondays.
Value of most animal products increased.
Holly is now poisonous.
Missing events problem shouldn't happen anymore.
Minor bug/grammar/graphics fixes.

I was still in spouse mode when I read the "Holly is now poisonous" line and thought that there was one particular marriage that was doomed to failure. It's all well and good retaining your unique dialogue and free range sensibilities after the wedding, Holly, but could you at least try to stop dripping lethal toxins from your maw?

But, no, that's holly the plant rather than a human called Holly.

Improvements to NPC scheduling are the thing most likely to suck me into Stardew Valley for a prolonged stay so this patch is most welcome. And more marriage improvements are incoming, apparently.

If I had more time, I'd have been planting and growing already though. Our review certainly made Stardew sound appealing.