Summary
The developer ofStardew Valley, Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, has answered the frequent question of how Mr. Qi’s name is pronounced. Due to the spelling and the mysterious nature of the character, it’s been a point of debate amongStardew Valleyfans, but now there’s an official answer.
Stardew Valley’sMr. Qi is a character that is extremely mysterious.Not much is known about him, as players aren’t able to develop a relationship with him like other NPCs, yet he still seems to know a lot about the player’s actions. While Barone didn’t give away all of the character’s secrets, he did answer one common query.
During a chat on theTigerBelly podcast, Bobby Lee expressedcuriosity about Mr. Qiwith Eric Barone, who was the guest at the time. While trying to talk about the character, Lee stumbled over the name somewhat, and asked what the official pronunciation was. Barone responded that he’d never revealed this before, but that Mr. Qi’s name isn’t pronounced “Ki,” “Chee,” or “Q,” as many players have speculated. Instead, it’s actually pronounced “Kwee.” However, Barone added that he doesn’t care how players choose to pronounce his name, but that’s the official way he’d thought of it.
ConcernedApe Teases Another Mr. Qi Answer
After clearing up the answer to how the character’s name is pronounced, Lee asked Barone why themysteriousStardew ValleyNPClooks the way that he does. Barone responded that Mr. Qi sort of gives an answer on this, as he states in the game that he was born as an ordinary child, but decided he wanted to become extraordinary. Barone thinks that’s when the character ended up developing blue skin, but he didn’t say anything further on the matter.
In theStardew Valleycommunity, players have been pleased to learn the answer to this long-standing question, but many have also expressed surprise at the official pronunciation. Several have said that they hate the official pronunciation, or that it makes no sense, given the way that it’s written. However, in addition to saying that players can pronounce it as they like, Barone did add that he expected players would hate the official answer, so it seems he correctly gauged how his game’s audience would react.
With that question out of the way, there are still a number ofStardew Valleymysteries and game hints that have left players wondering about what goes unspoken. For example, it’s heavily implied thatAbigail’s father isn’t Pierre, and there have been some interesting discoveries in the game’s files, like Linus having a much younger appearance in some of his unused sprites. Whether these curiosities will ever be answered is something only ConcernedApe knows.
