Pretty much the title. What games do you love and what makes them not stardew valley stand out ( be it gameplay quirks, storyline, minigames… ) ?
I just finished Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin.
Its one of the best farming games I’ve ever played, but it’s also like… a real ass simulation game. You don’t get to grow whatever you want, you will grow rice and you’ll either like it or leave. Kept your paddy’s water level too high? Mold. Didn’t get rid of pests? Disease. Didn’t keep enough water in on a hot day? Uh oh, water evaporated and now your rice is under watered. If the waters too cold it won’t absorb nutrients right.
It’s also 50 percent a action rpg platformer, but don’t think you can get around doing the bare minimum in the farming just to play it: your stats are directly reliant on how good you rice farm. No level grinding through combat.
I really enjoyed it but I’m still not sure who the target demographic for this game was. How big is the overlap between “traditional rice farmers” and “action rpg enjoyers”? At any rate, I high key reccomend it if you think you could be interested in rice farming whatsoever, because the story is great too.
With my track record at killing even cacti, I am going to suck at this game. It does sound interesting, though (and “great story” is enough to make me face the rice farming).
It definitely sounds unique, which is exactly was I was hoping for when I made the post! Thank you!
I just started back up one that I rarely see talked about: Ever Oasis. Does it do everything perfect? No, but it’s a cute little handheld game where I get to help an adorable water spirit save adorable seedlings and owl people. There’s characters to befriend and take on quests too! It offers a lot, but cause it was on the 3ds I don’t think too many people have played it.
Outside of that, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is my nostalgia favorite so I am hopeful about the remake.
I haven’t finished it yet but i absolutely love Harvestella. It’s barely a farming sim, more like a Final Fantasy game with farming elements inside it, but I really really enjoyed it.
My favorite of all time is Rune Factory 4. God the amount of time I spent on that game is obscene lmao. I dunno what really makes it unique that I love it so much, maybe the bigger focus on dungeon crawling to go with the farming, but yeah, huge huge fan. Also Forte was so cute.
I didn’t like RF5 nearly as much, but I bought it twice (Switch and PC) because it’s a miracle it even came out and I wanted to support that. For those who don’t know, Neverland Co., the company that developed Rune Factory (and Lufia!) went bankrupt after Rune Factory 4. But then Marvelous hired most of the people on that team, which led to Rune Factory 4 Special, then Rune Factory 5, and now Rune Factory 6 and a spin-off that just got announced! Those sorts of comeback stories make me very happy. I’m really hoping these next two games allow them to refine their 3D engine.
So that’s why RF5 is so janky? Don’t get me wrong i’m playing it right now and deeply enjoying it, especially getting to see Doug and Margaret kicking around town again, but I have so many issues with this game lol.
The camera lags when you rotate 360 degrees around your character, sometimes the rocks that spawn on your field will be totally invisible until you save and reset, preventing you from tilling certain areas. I’m having some weird lighting issues too but that doesn’t bother me really.
On the bright side, they give you a lot of farming room quite fast if you play through the dungeons, and they finally made it possible to be a lesbian! How cruel fate is that allowed me to not get married to Margaret in RF4… For the record, I ended up with Vishnal.
