Summary
Stardew Valleywas one of those indie titles that really took the world by storm, proving there’s plenty of room for quality sales outside the bloated AAA landscape. It’s been almost a decade since the game’s launch, and it’s still going strong with a dedicated community that invests hundreds of hours into the farming RPG.
Given the runaway success and modest complexity of the design, the farming sim genre has taken on a life of its own in game development withno shortage of successors, competitors and genre innovators.SteamandSwitchhave become the go-to homes for the majority of these releases, thanks to their respective indie support, but there is still a good helping of offerings for more traditional home consoles like theXbox Series. Consider thesegreat Xbox Series alternatives to Stardew Valley.
Mineko’s Night Marketis the most divisive entry on this list, receiving middling reviews from some outlets, but for avid fans of the life sim genre, the game has plenty of charm and character to carry it through — and a few little twists that force decision-making.
Players will have to manage their time to move efficiently through the story, as Mineko’s actions are limited for each week. That said, there’s no real punishment for failure, so it does add to the slow methodical pacing the game was criticized for.
The most disparate to the coreStardew Valleyexperience on the list, but that’s because there is so much going on inMedieval Dynasty. Players start with literally nothing and have to build their village from scratch, piece by piece. Eventually, more townsfolk will move in who can be assigned tasks to speed up the resource gathering and construction loop.
There’s also survival elements where players will have to be mindful of food supply, weather, andovermining to avoid fatalities. There are plenty of systems to learn, offering great depth but ultimately feeling a bit like a jack of all trades.
Potion Permitmixes up the formula, pun intended, by putting players in the shoes of an apothecarist attempting to reinstall a belief in modern medicine in a town that has turned against the practice. It’s a novel setup that adapts gameplay to diagnosing patients, requiring players to collect the ingredients to brew a cure through familiar resource gathering and mini-games.
The protagonist is gated by an energy meter that limits the amount of resources that can be gathered each day. Players will also have to be wary of combat encounters that further drain energy and health, leading to an enticing risk-reward loop of gathering ingredients.
TheHarvest Moonseries was undoubtedly an inspiration forStardew Valley,but the mantle has well and truly passed with the series struggling in more recent years.Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Lifeattempts to recapture some of the classic magic with a remake of a beloved entry.
The focus is much more on life development, with the game spanning 30 in-game years, where players will get married, have kids, and raise the next generation. It provides some interesting twists as thetown and villagers change and growwith each passing year.
My Time at Sandrockis another town constructing life sim with a wealth of content. The game has three main parallel plot lines, allowing for an ever-present stream of new narrative events without any of them feeling overwrought thanks to the constant rotation.
What’s more, events have areal impact on gameplay in some clever waysthat make use of the settings, affecting the price and availability of certain resources and developing more like a living, breathing world than many of its contemporaries.
The hook ofSlime Rancher 2is the titular slimes that serve as livestock for the player to raise in order to extract valuable resources and upgrade their ranch. There are a lot fewer relationships with NPCs, but the slimes supplant that absence with adorable and chaotic character of their own.
The core loop consists of exploring the world for new exotic slimes to raise and crossbreed as well asgathering the necessary resources to house and sustain them. There’s an undercurrent of Pokemon-like addiction of wanting to capture and discover the best combinations of slimes that givesSlime Rancher 2an identity aside from other life sims.
Coral Islandis an easy recommendation forStardew Valleyfans because the design pays an effective homage to the indie classic. The game basically aspires to create a more detailed and evocatively animated version of the indie hit, and it largely succeeds.
The 3D graphics are more accessible to a wider audience, and the island setting adds a more picturesque backdrop. The world is richly filled with a supporting cast ofwell-written and romancable NPCsrealized in an art style reminiscent of modernDisneymovies.
Like the other top recommendations on this list,Roots of Pachaexcels by making interesting use of its unique setting. Players are incorporated into an ancient clan and are immediately thrust into a chosen role within the clan that will give thema specific perk to one aspect of farming.
The way NPCs adopt their own roles and share lineage helps realize the world. There’s also an emphasis on connecting with nature rather than exploiting it, enticing the local wildlife to enhance your prosperity with the use of a flute that will eventually lead to personal upgrades like the ability to use a mount.
