Ridgeside Village, or RSV, is a fan-made Game Mod by Rafseazz, first published in 2020, that acts as an unofficial expansion pack for Stardew Valley. This mod adds to the game the neighbouring town of Ridgeside Village, located in the mountains northwest of Pelican Town, which has become directly accessible from the latter thanks to a recently-built cable car.
This mod adds over 50 new characters, including 22 new potential love interests, new crops, fish, forageables, locations, new quests and a new main quest storyline to solve a mystery that might threaten the entire valley...
This unofficial expansion can be downloaded here
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There are also a couple of official add-ons made and released by the mod creators:
- An add-on pack requiring the "NPC Adventures" mod, which allows the player character to recruit some characters as companions while exploring, and also expands the lore of the mod, was made and released by Rafseazz.
- A Seasonal Outfits add-on, which gives the characters different outfits appropriate for the season, thus averting the Exposed to the Elements instances of the base game, in addition to costumes for them to use during the Spirit's Eve holiday and the Flower Dance.
Ridgeside Village provides examples of:
- All Work vs. All Play: Ian and Sean have this dynamic. Ian brutally overworks himself, whereas Sean likes to goof off whenever possible.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Because installing this mod can cause the number of characters at the beginning of the game to jump to more than 50, there's a config option on the mod for "easy introductions", which if selected, you only need to introduce yourself to the base game characters to complete that quest.
- Several new quests from Ridgeside Village require providing items that are hard to come by in a newly started game, like Starfruit; fortunately, there's no time limit to complete those.
- The mod includes an implementation of NPC locations in the game map for the new areas, which helps for the sheer amount of new characters and the time it'll take to learn their NPC Scheduling; it can be disabled by the player if they want to.
- Having certain relics in the inventory will prevent certain monsters from spawning in Ridge Forest, which becomes tremendously useful when trying to catch the fish (including the legendary one) that spawn there.
- Art Evolution: The designs of some characters have changed drastically between releases, some examples: Jeric, Kenneth, Ian, Ysabelle, Maddie, and Flor.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Offering a Foxbloom to Raeriyala will make all crops at the Farm to instantly mature and be ready for harvest, the problem is that even under optimal conditions (see That One Side Quest) you can only get a maximum of one per month.
- Barred from the Afterlife: Implied Trope, it is mentioned that with the corruption of the Spirit Realm many spirits of dead people have become lost and thus susceptible of corruption by the forces of darkness. Once the Spirit Realm is cleansed, several spirits thank the Farmer for giving them a chance of finally "finding peace in Yoba's embrace".
- Beef Gate: Ridge Forest becomes accessible once the Farmer gets an iron axe, but the monsters there are stronger than the ones in Skull Cavern, so it might not be a good idea to enter it very early in the game.
- Big Fancy House: The "Purple Mansion" in which the Amethyne family lives, it even has an indoor pool.
- Black Comedy Burst: On the cable car station there's a warning sign that says to secure your horse on the cable car, because they don't want another "Pegasus" incident.
- Bland-Name Product: Kiarra was browsing a social media site called Pinstagram (portmanteau of Pinterest and Instagram) for wallpaper ideas during Anton's 6-heart event.
- Broken Bridge:
- At first the path to Ridge Forest is blocked by a large fallen tree log, which requires an iron axe to remove.
- The entrance to Ridge Falls is blocked by a magical mist, completing the Colored Crystals Quest is necessary to remove it.
- There's a giant boulder blocking the path to the Summit Farm, which will only be removed once the Farmer saves the Spirit Realm.
- The Cameo:
- If the East Scarp mod is installed, some of its characters will make appearances in some of the Ridgeside Village NPCs heart events.
- Mia from the "Always Raining in the Valley" add-on for East Scarp appears in the photo located in the second floor of the Log Cabin Hotel.
- Canon Welding: This mod has a lot of references to Rafseazz' previous mini-expansion mod, Lunna Astray in Stardew Valley, establishing the latter's canonicity to RSV:
- In one cutscene, Belinda mentions Salvador and Esmeralda by name.
- Raeriyala also mentions the village of Umuwi in some of her dialogue.
- Daia mentions in her introduction that she just returned from a mission in Umuwi.
- The Amethyne's manor's pantry has items that are said to come from Umuwi.
- Lenny mentions in one of her heart events that she once was in a romantic relationship with someone heavily implied to be Esmeralda.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Pierre and Caroline are revealed to be this in this mod according to Bert, since he mentions remembering playing together with them as kids. There's even an old tree near the cable car station that has the initials "P & C" carved on it.
- Confession Triggers Consummation: While this was present in the 10 heart events of some of the potential love interests of the base game, it is much less ambiguous that sex happened with the new romanceable characters of this mod at the end of their 10 heart events.
- Cute Ghost Girl: There's the ghost of a girl that appears on rainy days at Ridge Forest near the abandoned tree house, interacting with her is necessary to get one of the relics necessary to open the path to the Ridge Falls.
- Dance of Romance:
- This mod adds wedding and anniversary reception events once the Log Cabin Hotel has been expanded, in which by the end of them the Farmer and their spouse dance together.
- At the end of Zayne's 8 heart event he'll ask the Farmer (or Irene) to dance with him. Accepting will unlock him as a romance option.
- Ysabelle's 14 heart event involves Richard setting one of these up for Ysabelle and the farmer in the hotel's ballroom, noting that it's been one of Ysabelle's fantasies since she was little.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Cult of the Lady with the Red Tail is a nebulous looking organization, it's mentioned that both the Adventurer's Guild and the Wizard Rasmodius see them with suspicion because of their use of dark magic and assassination methods; however they are dedicated to protect the village from dark forces, and are the guardians and servants of the Spirit of the Mountain, Raeriyala, who is the protector of Stardew Valley.
- Department of Redundancy Department: "Welcome to Ridgeside Village: A village at the side of the ridge!" According to Lenny, the slogan is still a work in progress.
- Disc-One Nuke:
- Unlocking Undreya early in the game can be enormously useful if you know the places where she usually hides (or alternatively, use a mod that shows the villagers' locations on the map of the base game areas), since she can give diamonds or gold bars as rewards for finding her.
- Several of the new weapons obtainable in the hidden mystic falls are Game Breaking level powerful, and while they require maxing out the friendship level of certain villagers, some are rather easy to raise their friendship level.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The first time the Farmer enters Ridgeside Village, a cutscene will play in which Lenny gives them a introductory tour of it, during which you can see many important characters going around their businesses in the background.
- Earth Drift: Variation of this, early versions of this mod made references to elements introduced by other popular mods, namely Stardew Valley Expanded (like refering to Rasmodius as "Magnus" and referring to him as the guardian of the valley); later releases either removed these or heavily downplayed them, making the mod stand on its own.
- Elsewhere Fic: The mod and its story are mostly focused on the new Ridgeside area, although Ridgeside villagers will frequently travel down to Pelican Town and attend the town's festivals if the mod is configured for them to do so.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Lenny often refers to Lewis as Lewlew, much to the latter's chagrin.
- Expy: Raeriyala is one for the Harvest Goddess from Story of Seasons, in that she is a local deity who can bless the Farmer when they make offerings to her. Interestingly this was missing from the base game which was heavily inspired by the latter videogame.
- Funny Background Event: At the new wedding reception event, during the Farmer's dance with their spouse, Marnie can be seen leering at Lewis.
- Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Due to him living alone with his little brother, Yuuma, Shiro will reject a marriage proposal during the first year, saying that he doesn't want Yuuma to be alone. It's not until year 2 when their mother Naomi returns to the village that the Farmer will be able to marry him.
- Similarly, Kiarra will reject a marriage proposal if the player chose the Joja route, since she is a staunch anti-corporate activist.
- It's only possible to adopt children with Sean, due to him being Transgender.
- Guide Dang It!: How to meet Undreya, considering that there are virtually zero hints to how to do it.note
- Half-Human Hybrid:
- If a female Farmer has children with Jio, they will be half-elven kids.
- Since it's heavily hinted that Alissa's mother is a mermaid (in fact Raeriyala outright confirms this is the case), that would make her half-mermaid, and by extension any children a male Farmer would have with her would be quarter-mermaid.
- Heroic Lineage:
- The Farmer is revealed to have one in this mod, specifically from their grandmother who is told she had a deep connection with Spirit of the Mountain, and sacrificed herself to save the Spirit Realm the first time many years ago.
- Corine's mother is revealed to be a high-ranking general of the Cult of the Lady with the Red Tail.
- Hidden Elf Village: The elven Kingdom of Verde is a literal example of this; it's revealed that Undreya was abducted from there, and Jio was born there before being given to the Cult. In Jio's 14 heart event, it's revealed that it exists in a mirror dimension with no traces of modern technology, and Jio manages to open a portal to that world through the Spirit Realm and gets to see his birth village from afar for the first time.
- Interspecies Romance:
- Jio, the elf, is one of the possible love interests.
- Belinda, the leader of the Lady with the Red Tail cult, is the Spirit of Mountains, Raeriyala's, lover.
- It is heavily hinted that Alissa's mother, Malaya, is (or was) a mermaid, and that the reason she and her husband have been away for so long is to find a way to give her permanent legs; how they managed to have their daughter before that is never explained.
- Late Character Syndrome: Variation with Jio and Daia; although Jio is introduced pretty early on and Daia after going to Ridge Forest at least once, they don't become romanceable characters until pretty much finishing the mod's main storyline, at which time the game is most likely to be pretty much over and you're already married to someone else unless you know beforehand that they will be romance options and specifically intend to romance one of them.
- Leitmotif: All the new romanceable characters have their own musical love theme.
- Lost Lenore: Several of the new characters have suffered a lot from the loss of their partner:
- Pika's wife, Leilani, passed away sometime before the start of the game; it's shown that he still has their Mermaid Pendant in his bedroom and he speaks to it every morning, which concerns his son Keahi.
- Richard frequently mentions his late wife, Angelika, saying how she gave him the idea to build his hotel, and still holds tightly to her memory.
- Ezekiel frequently mentions that he misses his wife Helen (who passed away when their daughter Corine was very young) very much. It turns out that Helen is actually alive but can't reveal herself to them yet.
- Match Maker Quest: Befriending Anton or Paula will give option to the player to make them hook up with each other, or unlock either of them as a romance option for the player character.
- Moment Killer:
- In Maddie's 6 heart event, the Farmer accidentally starts caressing her cheek, but the moment is interrupted by Trinnie falling from a tree.
- In Daia's 14 heart event she and the Farmer are having a romantic moment at the farm, which gets interrupted by Bliss appearing between them.
- Mythology Gag: At the Amethyne Mansion's pantry, clicking on some of the items reveals that they're from "East Scarp" and "Umuwi"; "Umuwi" is a location introduced in Rafseazz's previous mini-expansion mod, Lunna Astray in Stardew Valley, and East Scarp is the name of another popular expansion mod for Stardew Valley.
- Never Found the Body: The memorial gravestone for Pegasus, the horse who had an unfortunate accident at the cable car, mentions that only his saddle was found.
- New Year Has Come: This mod introduces the "Ember of Resolution" festival, which takes place on Winter 28; villagers from both Pelican Town and Ridgeside Village gather to wish each other well for the new year, culminating with lighting the resolution's bonfire.
- Ninja: The members of the Cult of the Lady with the Red Tail are this; they use scarves to identify themselves, use katanas and kunais as weapons, and vanish using Smoke Out techniques.
- No Full Name Given: Averted with the majority of the Ridgeside villagers, as most of them have family names (for example: Bert, Olga, Trinnie, Kimpoi, Malaya and Alissa are surnamed Liden, and Pika and Keahi's last name is Akina). But played straight with other villagers like Lenny, since she's Mayor Lewis' sister whose family name is never revealed in the original game.
- Noodle Incident: In Mr. Aguar's 4 heart event, he and the Wizard Rasmodius are having a drink and reminiscing on old times together, Mr. Aguar says "A magician never reveals his secrets. You know that better than I do." to which Rasmodius replies "That was only one time, and it was decades ago!"
- Not So Extinct: In the original game there were references that elves once existed but they're now extinct, in this mod it turns out that there are still elves around.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Jeric sells seeds at a cheaper price than Pierre, but he has a limited amount of them in stock to avoid players from exploiting this.
- O.C. Stand-in: The Farmer's grandmother (who in the base game only appears in a picture over the fireplace in the opening cutscene) is a posthumous version of this: She is described as having been fiery and adventurous in her youth, been The Chosen One of Raeriyala, and sacrificing herself to save the Spirit Realm many years ago.
- Old Money: The Amethyne family, one of the oldest and wealthiest of Stardew Valley; they have a long history of developing and influencing the region.
- Our Elves Are Different: Not much was known about elves in the original game in which they're described as "nimble and skilled craftsmen"; in this mod they are shown to have pointy ears, longer lifespan than humans, and affinity for magic.
- Pair the Spares: If the player makes the choice during their respective 8 heart events of not to unlocking Anton and Paula as romantic options, they will hook up with each other in the end, same with Zayne and Irene, and also for Bryle and Faye if a certain choice is made on Faye's 6 heart event.
- Parental Abandonment: Like in the base game, this is a theme:
- Alissa has been living with her relatives since she was very little, since her parents, Kimpoi and Malaya, left and started travelling through the world for some reason. Subverted Trope in that they return in the summer of year 1.
- Corine's mother passed away when she was very young, and her father, Ezekiel, was drafted to fight in the wars shortly after, so she had to be raised by Richard. Her father returned several years later a changed man. Later turns out that her mother, Helen, is alive and actually faked her death to undertake a very important mission.
- Shiro and Yuuma's parents, Naomi and Shoto, were forced to find jobs away from the village in order to afford for Shiro's treatment after his accident. Eventually Naomi returns to the village.
- Purple Is Powerful: The Amethyne family is strongly associated with the purple colour, their manor is known as "the Purple Mansion", their members dress in purple colours, and it's revealed in Zayne's 14 heart event a great part of their wealth comes from mining amethyst crystals for the jewellery division of their corporation.
- Renovating the Player Headquarters: After unlocking the Summit Farm, the Farmer can hire Ian and Sean to do several improvements to it, like renovating the interior and fixing the kitchen, building a deluxe-sized shed, adding a quarry area, implementing a "Climate Control" device that allows to grow any season crop, and installing an underground sprinkler system that will forgo the need of watering the crops by the player.
- Scarf of Asskicking: The ninja members of Cult of the Lady with the Red Tail wear red scarves to identify themselves. The Farmer can also purchase one of these in the Ninja House.
- Secret Shop:
- Lola opens up her backroom weapon shop to the Farmer upon reaching 8 hearts with her.
- The 3 Mystic Falls hidden at Ridge Forest are this, they take Spiritual Essence as currency and a 10 hearts level of friendship with certain villagers in order to be able to buy the unique weapon associated with them.
- Secret Other Family: During Maive's 8 heart event it's revealed that her eldest son, Zackary, fathered two children on an extra-marital affair; Despite this she acknowledges them as part of the family, but it's a source of tension for the rest of the family members.
- Ship Tease: Some villagers are shown to display a bit of this:
- Anton and Paula have a lot of Unresolved Sexual Tension, they're both very close and Paula evidently has feelings for him.
- Zayne and Irene, the latter has a crush on the former, who's the future head of the Amethyne family, Zayne is also very warm towards her and hints on having feelings for her as well.
- Bryle and Faye, they're shown at first that they can't stand each other and often bicker, but there are hints that Faye has a soft spot for him, and Bryle is implied that he does care for her.
- Shout-Out: Has its own page.
- Snow Means Death: The new Secret Notes introduced in the mod, telling the story of the first people settling in the valley and the founding of Pelican Town, narrate how the first winter was really unforgiving with many people dying and how a group split off to the mountains to find better conditions, eventually founding Ridgeside Village; the remaining people were eventually saved when a Stardrop fell from the sky.
- Spirit World: The Spirit Realm, the place where both nature and human spirits reside; its corruption by Gabriella threatens the entire valley.
- Sweetie Graffiti:
- There's a tree near the upper cable car station that has the initials "P & C" carved in it; the Farmer can comment "How romantic!".
- There's another tree near the water research facility that has "T & K" carved on it.
- Technicolor Fire: The source of the corruption in the Spirit Realm are the purple flames burning on the top of its hills; the Farmer has to extinguish them in order to cleanse it.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Corine and Ysabelle's friendship has this dynamic: Corine is strong-willed and later becomes a certified Action Girl, and Ysabelle is both fashionable and graceful.
- Treetop Town: The elven Kingdom of Verde is shown to be in a huge tree during Jio's 14 heart event.
- Underground Monkey: The new monsters encountered in Ridge Forest and the Spirit Realm are basically stronger reskins of monsters from the original game:
- Serpentine Beast - Shadow Brute.
- Corrupted Spirit - Ghost.
- Viperial - Pepper Rex.
- Wraith - Putrid Ghost.
- Serperial - Royal Serpent.
- Uptown Girl: Irene is a young woman who works as a cook for the Amethyne family, and she has a crush on Zayne, the young heir of Madame Maive Amethyne and the future head of the family. With the right choices by the player, they can end up together.
- Weather-Control Machine: After unlocking the Summit Farm, for 2 million gold and a hundred of spring, summer and fall wild seeds, you can have Ian and Sean to build a "Climate Control" device there that will allow to plant crops of any season all year round.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The backstory of Alissa's parents, Kimpoi and Malaya, is basically a re-telling of The Little Mermaid (even Raeriyala calls Malaya "Little Mermaid" when she meets her), with a twist of what would have happened afterwards if the Little Mermaid had succeeded in marrying her Prince.
