One character has an abusive ex. They only show up if you choose to romance this character, and there is no physical abuse shown (their abuse involves emotional manipulation).
Shane is shown to have an alcohol addiction, though upon going through his story route he will recover. Additionally, while not stated to be a full on addiction, Sebastian can be found smoking cigarettes, and a line of dialogue with his mother hints at him using marijuana.
One non-player character is an alcoholic who turns out to have clinical depression. If the Player puts a lot of effort into befriending him, he will eventually agree to go to counselling, and will slowly get better.
Another minor character starts off the game as an unemployed alcohol abuser. Direct intervention can lead to her choosing to seek solace from religion, although this does not cure her. Through a *very* unrelated series of events, the Player ends up landing her a job, which somewhat affects her drinking.
Your livestock can be killed by wild animals if you lock them out of the barns/coops and leave them out during nighttime. While sleeping, you'll hear an animal cry, and the next morning one of your animals will be gone and the rest of your animals will be frightened. However, this is very easily avoidable, and even if you end up shutting your animals outside for the night, it is not guaranteed that they will be attacked by wild animals.
One of the characters keeps his dog in deplorable condition. It's huddled in the back of a cardboard box with only its eyes visible and no water or enrichment. A rusted sign painted "DOG" is in front of its fenced area, which is terribly small. Later in an update, it became possible to do side quests to upgrade the dog's living conditions, such as replacing the soggy box with a proper doghouse and adding a bowl of water beside its existing food dish, but the fenced area still remains. (This could be chocked up to size-disproportionate art style, though.)
There is no gaurantee your livestock rabbit will be harmed, but it can happen if the rabbit is locked outside the coop all night. If an animal, rabbit included, is locked out, it may disappear due to predators.
During the Spirit's Eve festival (the equivalent of Halloween), huge spider decorations are present in the Haunted Maze. However, they are stationary and don't move.
If you go at the bottom of the mine, they're wrapped around the pillars.
Ginger island: you have to dig up snake skeletons and a snake is drawn in the ui for completing the said skeleton (professor snail interaction). Then the skeleton is displayed in professor snail's museum.
Skull cavern level 100: lots of moving snakes standing out of basket and your character has to drink snake juice/serum. The skull cavern also has "serpents" but these (unlike the others snakes) look more like dragons than snakes.
Some art and furniture in the game also depict snakes.
Eels can be fished in the sea and in the mines or volcano. When you take the submarine, moving eels can be seen in the background.
(Never reached 100% completion so I might have missed some)
Some of the enemies in the mine, sewer, and Skull Cavern are bugs, and there is a bugs-head sword you can earn if you destroy enough of them. ALL of the enemies in the sewer dungeon are bugs. Bug meat is a resource, and occasionally colorful butterflies can be seen if you shake a tree in summer.
There are also spider sculptures in the maze at Spirit's Eve. Abigail is afraid of them and refuses to go past them in the maze.
During Elliot's ten heart cutscene, he suddenly kisses your character without asking, and your character starts shaking. While he does stop and apologise if you tell him he made you uncomfortable, and the scene can only be triggered if you are already dating him, it still may be upsetting for some players.
You can be hit with fire attacks, which inflicts you with the "Burnt" debuff. The debuff just affects stats rather than damaging, and your character can recover quickly from it.
Your character can slash and stab enemies by using a variety of swords and daggers. Dagger weapons in particular have a stabbing motion associated with them. There is never any blood or gore, however. Defeated enemies just vanish.
Alex talks about his mother who died in several cut scenes. The player's grandfather died and left the player the farm in their will. The spirit of the grandfather appears in a cut scene.
(SPOILERS)
If you choose to sacrifice your children to the Shrine of Selfishness (which is completely voluntary), there are multiple events that occur that imply the children became possessed.
You don't see anyone vomit but in one of Shane's heart events he is seen passed out and covered in vomit (it's green and has little chunks in it) also when you go into Pam's house there's some green vomit on the couch.
Only if the player wills it. They can date any, all or none of the numerous male and female marriage candidates. If the player dates everyone, there is a cut scene where they are confronted for cheating.
Every eatable character is canonically pansexual but everyone is okay with it and no one ever “comes out” in a traditional sense by announcing their sexuality, having their sexuality outed, etc and the townies act the same regardless of your gender and the gender of your partner
Some cutscenes take place in the clinic, which looks just like a small hospital. Additionally, if you lose all your health in the Skull Cavern, you will wake up in the clinic and be told that you have had an emergency surgery.
[SPOILERS]
there is a heart event where Shane is seen drunk at the side of a cliff and talks about he wishes he was not alive and another heart event where he talks about how he won't make it past a certain age
A Character is near an attempt and has a conversation with the player about how they want to die of suicide.
Avoidable - only occurs by walking to forest area (the one near Marnie’s home, not the secret woods) on a rainy day IF *spoilers*
You have 6+ hearts with Shane.
Potentially. There are repetitive animal noises (can be toggled off in options), gulping and chewing sounds when eating (mods exist to remove these), and various enemy creatures make screeching noises.
no, but someone contemplates it in pretty realistic detail, and as someone who suffers from suicidal ideation, it did trigger me to the point where i had to take sedative medication to calm down and not hurt myself.
Clint goes to the saloon every night and is heavily implied to be watching Emily, which she never personally makes any mention of.
Mr. Qi keeps tabs on you from afar, which is unknown to the farmer until he tells you.
There are multiple cutscenes where the farmer/player is watching other characters without their knowledge.
No, but it is possible to get rid of children through a specific ritual that must be unlocked in game; the children aren't killed, merely transformed into birds.
If you are in a heterosexual marriage, you (or your wife, if you are the husband) can get pregnant if you agree to have children, and eventually give birth. This birth happens entirely off-screen at nighttime, with a text box informing you that you (or your wife) gave birth.
Your livestock also have a chance of giving birth, but just like your own children, this only happens at night and offscreen.
There's a goblin, which are sometimes interpreted as antisemitic caricatures, but he's a very minor character you might never meet in some playthroughs, and aside from having a large nose and being green he doesn't embody any antisemitic stereotypes. Otherwise, the main religion in Stardew Valley is a fictional one and Judaism is never mentioned.
Dating/marriage can be a large part of the game. However it's up to the player. They don't HAVE to marry or romance anyone. You can also have a platonic roommate by asking Krobus to live with you. All choices are equally viable.
While no character is ever deliberately misgendered, there are only two gender options during character creation at the beginning of the game, and the only pronounce available for the player character are he or she.
One character is in a wheelchair, and during a cut scene another character pushes him out of the way, thinking she's being kind and helping him get his mail.
Yes, but it is a fictional religion specific to the game. There is a deity named Yoba whose symbol is shown throughout the game. There is also a church-like area where a few characters go on Sunday. Krobus on Friday takes a vow of silence to show religious devotion. In certain dialogue options, Shane will mention that he is an atheist.
Your character can get married and have up to two kids, and your farm animals can get pregnant, but nothing sexual is explicitly mentioned, and nothing is shown.
The two closest things are where you can retrieve the mayor's lucky purple shorts" which turn out to be in a woman's bedroom, and an optional cutscene where you find a shopkeeper's "secret stash," though it's undisclosed what that stash might actually be. (I thought it was money or some kind of innocent guilty pleasure, like hidden snacks or a book, when I first encountered it.)
It seems Alex's mom was. The details are a little sparse and mostly come from cut scenes with Alex, but it's stated his mom got sick and then died. The exact illness isn't revealed.
Some of the interactions with Shane, especially dialogue options, can have an existential element. There is mention of Shane not having a "plan" for his life, as well as him feeling worthless. Topics including suicide/death and religion are also discussed.
not exactly, but the christmas-themed second winter holiday, the feast of the winter star, has you exchange gifts by assigning the player as the secret santa for a random npc (they arent called secret santa though), and another npc is chosen at random to give you a gift, which might ruin the idea that santa is the one who brings your gifts
there are no cars but it is possible to get hit by a train if the player purposefully stands in front of it. it is not possible to die but the player will take some damage and if their health is low enough this could trigger the hospital cutscene