Kitaria Fables (Switch)
A fantastic tribute to Fantasy Life that nails the kind of grindy combat that many people love, Kitaria Fables is genuinely sweet and impressively well-made for a three-person team in under three years. If Fantasy Life is a Wagyu beef steak, Kitaria Fables is a really, REALLY good burger, so if you're jonesing for a tasty action-farming-adventure, Kitaria Fables has you covered.
Garden Story (Switch eShop)
Games are often about escapism, and Garden Story offers yet another way to lose yourself in the virtual world: the hero protagonist is a grape, burdened with great purpose. Garden Story may lure you in with its Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley-like aesthetic, but this game about community and saving the world turns out to be an RPG in farm sim's clothing.
Rune Factory 5 (Switch)
Do you like RPGs or farm sims? If you answered yes to either or both, then you’re sure to find something you’ll love in Rune Factory 5. The relaxing pace, RPG elements, and charming aesthetic make this a compelling experience, but issues with poor performance, disappointing visuals, and sometimes clunky gameplay hold Rune Factory 5 back from greatness. If 3D visuals aren’t a dealbreaker for you, we’d recommend you pick up Rune Factory 4 Special first, as it’s cheaper and oddly feels more modern in some respects. Despite flawed execution, we’d still give Rune Factory 5 a recommendation — if its precise and unique genre blend really clicks with you, you'll forgive many a flaw. Just know that it doesn’t truly excel in any area.
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Wytchwood (Switch eShop)
Wytchwood is a crafting game, through and through — and a good one. It smartly puts its focus purely on the act of gathering materials to create a wide range of objects, with little else to distract from the core crafting mechanic. Trying to locate specific items can at times feel exhausting and drags down the pacing of the game, and the gorgeous visuals are unfortunately hampered by a slight frame rate jitter. Ultimately though, Wytchwood is a relaxing and addictive jaunt into the world of crafting.
Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition (Switch eShop)
Upon hearing the title of Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition you might be forgiven for imagining a dozy, snoozy farm simulator that bears a striking resemblance to Stardew Valley with some Dragon Quest Slimes and a first-person perspective thrown in. If that’s you, well you’re only half right, or maybe a quarter right. Slime Rancher is a tricky game to pin in a single box; it’s part Stardew, part Subnautica, and when you come across what few enemies there are, part DOOM Eternal. All right, we might be slightly overdoing it with that last one as all shooting is done to either feed things or lightly douse them in water, but we’re standing by it.
Moonlighter (Switch)
Remember Recettear, the game that replaced Harvest Moon's farming guff with running a shop? That mantle has been taken up by Moonlighter, a recent RPG roguelite that combines dungeon crawling with the art of shopkeepery. It hits a sweet spot somewhere between satisfying swordplay and nitty-gritty economic sim, although some players may feel it gets ‘grindy’ after a while in its mechanics. Nonetheless, Digital Sun Games has produced a lush work it can be proud of; one that even touches on our humanity in an optimistic way.
Spiritfarer (Switch eShop)
It's not exactly rare for a game to be about delivering folks to their deaths – usually via high-calibre ammunition – but it's certainly something new to see a game about ensuring a peaceful, fulfilling end of life. That's what Spiritfarer is, and it's certainly a unique thing; an instantly striking, benignly haunting little gem that's more subtle than you'd expect for a title with such big ideas.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (Switch)
While not by any means the best Story of Seasons game on the market, Pioneers of Olive Town is promising and disappointing in equal measure. A bevy of patches fixed up a lot of the issues we had in our review, so we're comfortable recommending this one to anyone who's already exhausted some of the higher-scoring offerings on this list, but don't expect a game that's up to the quality of Friends of Mineral Town!
Comments (47)
Animal Crossing and Rune Factory 4 are definitely the picks of the bunch for me. Stardew Valley's pretty good but I don't love it quite as much as everyone else seems to.
Had Rune Factory 4 not been on this list I might have had to resort to extreme measures.
But hey, it was there, so it's all fine!
Graveyard Keeper is grossly ignored by this site. My only issue with it is SO MUCH ***** TO DO AT ANY MOMENT!
I enjoyed Forager but I don't feel it should be on this list as it's quite arcadey and not at all like a "life sim" once you're done...you're done. Fantastic game still.
Might give Doraemon a go after other sites rated it so highly, I cant say Friends of Mineral Town has aged well after the recent version, just seemed so limited compared to Stardew.
@hadrian as much as I like graveyard keeper I got to a point in it where I am just too busy and have to basically stop running my graveyard to get resources for like hours on end. When you have to start pulling slabs of ore at a time it gets a bit tedious.
Stuff in the game is also so freaking expensive, like the seller license and upgrades to your status. I'm 40 hours in and feel like I have another 100 to even have most of the stuff unlocked.
At this rate, Animal Crossing New Horizons is my Best Sim game so far but due to my very high hype with this game, i gave it score 99/100.
Btw, i want to ask about My Time at Portia. Which version should i consider by all seriousness ?(Switch or PS4). I heard the Switch version still have issues even with the latest update compared with PS4 version.
Considering I enjoyed New Horizons less than New Leaf, Doraemon: Story of Seasons might be the best sim game on Switch.
Peanutbuttergamer would like to know your location
Animal crossing has consumed my life.
I had an anxiety dream that I couldn't pull my slingshot out quick enough to pop a balloon.
I see an insect and my first response, in my head, is go for my net.
Plantera is such a nice little idle game, I really hope they bring the sequel to Switch too, once that comes out.
I have been thinking of getting Doraemon a while now. I think i'll give it a go. Sounds fun, also i never played any of rune factory games. It gets good reviews everywhere but part 5 is coming out soon so i'm thinking of maybe holding out for that.
@Anti-Matter definitely go with the PS4 version on this one. It runs like rubbish on the Switch unfortunately. With that being said, it's a good enough game where I dropped 100+ hours into it on the Switch, but once I got the PS4 version, I ended up never looking back at the Switch port. Please note though, it does lag a bit on the PS4 as well though; but that may just be how the game is optimized universally and may behave the same way on PC.
Everybody is always ignoring the Doraemon game. Even though it might be one of the polished ones out there.
Glad that it is featured here. But I guess people tend to put it aside because they are not familiar with the Doraemon license. Which is barely an issue if you want to enjoy the game anyway.
Graveyard Digger (with the Zombie DLC) feels left out like a spoiled cadaver.
Stardew Valley is a masterpiece. And the fact the Concerned Ape is always updating and tweaking the game makes it the gift that keeps on giving.
Gotta keep those Animal Crossing clicks coming, right?
Ever herd of minecraft?
@Apportal lol I was thinking the same
Dark Souls is ky favorite family game 😎
As @Freddyfred said, Minecraft deserves to be on this list - Forager does not. Stardew renewed the farming genre after Harvest Moon imploded.
@tofarawaytimes No, i don't think so. I played the game all the way to the end. I ended up actually liking the game. However, the farming mechanics were too simple (although the animals were great) the frame rate drops were distracting. I am glad I played it, but i would not recommend it.
I love Animal Crossing.
I liked Stardew Valley as well.
Forager is on my backlog.
RF4 and Story of Seasons FoMT is on my wishlist
@PickledKong64 MY TURNIPS REACHED THE THIRD LEVEL OF THEIR GROWTH CYCLE!
@Anti-Matter I would go for PS4 unless you really want it portable. The graphics and performance would be improved on the PS4. I do have the switch version though, it is very playable just not as polished as the PC or PS4/Xbox version. Overall, I've logged quite a few hours into both, so I don't think you'll go wrong with either.
Forager was a fun little addiction for a few days but after I saw most of what it had to offer I haven’t looked back.
Stardew Valley for Life. Lost count of my playthroughs.
Graveyard keeper has so much promise and is definitely for the more hardcore sim players. You have to really work for success and it only comes in small bits but they are pretty satisfying. If it had the balance and polish of Stardew Valley it would be a real contender.
AC: New Horizons gets a thumbs up but couldn’t hold me for more than a month.
Uh,
Graveyard Keeper
Atomicrops
Minecraft
Forager is really fun.
Animal Crossing and Stardew own hundreds of hours of my life.
Stardew Valley is excellent! Been playing it way too much
No love for Fallout Shelter? Heh.
A lot of people knock SOS:FOMT either for its visuals or for not having enough to do, but I love it just as much as I loved the original. I bought it thinking it might have aged badly and would suffer by comparison with Stardew, but I haven't found that to be the case at all. I would recommend it to anyone who's into this genre.
Not to take anything away from Stardew, it's still one of the best games you can buy on the Switch IMO.
You're missing Farm Together, which is more polished than half the games on this list.
This is just my take, but it's weird that the list of farming games of all things has the most controversial picks.
@KonkeyDong64 @Wordbonder
Thanks for the quick review of My Time at Portia. 😀
I think i will choose the PS4 version.
@Heavyarms55
Psst...
I have surpassed your ACNH gameplay hours. 😉
Mine was more than 350 hours.
@Anti-Matter Forgive me, I had the small matter of moving overseas taking up my time. :/
Farming simulator i think is often the Marmite option. It's one of those games two thirds of people would drop never to pick up again, and the rest delve hours and hours into it trying to get the logistics right
I just adore Stardew Valley, it has a charm to it that immerses me so much in the game. Came to Animal Crossing late and not getting the same vibe - I am putting time into it but it feels like 'busy work' rather than creating a place for myself in a new community like Stardew did for me.
Stardew valley is at its rightful place at 1
Modded SV simply blows everything else out the water.
So many…. So, so many. Games and hours. 😊
I'm surprised to see Plantera mentioned at all, never mind on a "best of" list. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, but it is one of those games where you quickly run out of things to do besides grind for diminishing returns. I'd like Stardew Valley a lot more if it didn't force you to stop what you're doing every few minutes, though that probably goes for half this list. Moonlighter and of course Animal Crossing are awesome, though.
Sakuna is my perfect farm sim game because as much as I love sim games I wanna save the world/punch something in the face. I was hoping harvestella would have come in second but for my personal taste Sakunahime is truly a goddess.
Doraemon Story of Seasons is a delightful game.
Moonlighter and Spiritfarer are wonderful. They absolutely get my vote. Love those games.
Animal Crossing and Stardew are unequivocally wonderful games. This list makes me want to revisit Sakuna and Spiritfarer too which I never finished. Kitaria Fables is on my wishlist but I haven't had time for it yet.
@Yanina The Doraemon SoS is beautiful but waaaay too grindy, even for a farming game. The new one is said to have improved a lot on that front, so I might still get that.
Not typically my genre of games, but Moonlighter is an absolute gem of a game. I no longer collect games as I used to, and barely ever get a physical release after I got a digital one for super cheap already, but Moonlighter was an exception. Recently bought a used copy, quite cheap, knowing it has all the inner-boxart and even a manual, the stuff that makes physical games nice to have. Got Blue Fire, Death's Door, and Darq as well then, all decently priced, and all with those "extra's" (small colour booklets inside the box), I guess they are extra's now. Those are the games I still enjoy simply "having", in some way. I guess "the collector inside me" didn't ever really die, I just got him under control.
My family has delved into Stardew Valley quite recently. It's a masterpiece! Totally immersive, oozing with character and charm. Time flies and you just don't feel it. Haven't had the slightest sensation of grinding so far because it flows so fine
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