Masterpost of Farming Simulation Games that aren't HM/SoS/RF

[JustABeautifulGuy]

The new Fantasy Life will add farming aspect to it.


This game looks really fun and I’m really excited to try it out.

[greensara]

It looks like it will be a lot of fun like the original. Almost got some Animal Crossing vibes from the trailer, but that's probably just me. I am looking forward to the farming!

[Kikki]

I think we all knew that 'farmer' was going to be one of the two new mystery 'lives', right? I may not have liked Stardew Valley very much, personally, but thank you again, Eric Barone, for inspiring this HUGE waft of indie game devs that's so big it even moved the major developers. You sure changed the face of the gaming industry! I don't like everything about the change, but at least it created a HUGE upsurge in farming games and other 'cozy' games.

They still have one new Life to show us, on top of the 12 in the first game and the new one of Farmer that just got revealed. I figure it'll be another that capitalizes on some other current trend in gaming. I figure it's either 'builder' or 'rancher', as a way to introduce landscaping/building or monster taming to the game. I think Rancher or Tamer is more likely since each Life enables you to acquire things in one way or another...crops, wood, gems, cooked dishes, etc...and Rancher would let you get animal products.

Just guessing, though, obviously. Since they're still claiming it is a 2023 release, I hope we get a date soon (Sept 21-24) or I won't believe that it hasn't been delayed. Perhaps they'll also show off the second previously-unknown Life then, too.

EDIT: Actually, I just noticed that in the 'First Trailer' that was just released (why are they calling the THIRD trailer the 'First Trailer'??), the MC is wearing a safari hat and the typical matching outfit that basically adds up to 'explorer/adventurer'. Could that be the other life? Not sure what the point of that one would be.

But...I also saw the MC wearing a sailor uniform, which wasn't in the last game. Perhaps these outfits aren't Life related, just customizing...

[iLoveSprites75]

Not sure if anyone here has tried Sprout Valley, I got it for less than 5 bucks on the eshop today. It's super cute, but ... somewhat unplayable. In doing some Google searching trying to figure out how to do x y or z, I found others stating they were having similar experiences with the odd control scheme and lack of much of anything. I did also happen to find the Kickstarter page, which seemed to imply that there would be bug fixes and other things the dev wanted to add, so I would guess we may see similar (albeit slower?) updates Stardew Valley style, potentially? I'd love to see the game actually be playable considering how cute it is. I'm only on day 2, but so far, this game doesn't have too much going for it in the way of gameplay.

[greensara]

I haven't tried it on Switch, but I tried the Steam demo of Sprout Valley. It was okay, but yeah a little wonky to figure things out. Thought maybe that was just me. It reminded me a lot of Bit Orchard, which I enjoyed. Bit Orchard is a lot simpler though.

[Bluie]

Hooookay. List has been fully updated. I went through all the upcoming releases and reorganized as needed and I went through Steam and added any games that applied that I could find. Steam has reorganized how it shows its upcoming games to the point that I can no longer see literally everything in the category, which is super annoying. It basically used to be a multipage system, but now it operates under a 'show more' button that eventually stops loading new games after pressing the button too many times. Super freaking annoying, but I did find lots of new games that were added into the upcoming section that are either predicted for 2024 or beyond.

Also, shout out to Cher who's blog on the main page helped me find a few more titles I've missed. This is really becoming overwhelming, so I appreciate you being able to find all these games I would have otherwise missed. I don't intend to go into full edit mode here again until probably early 2024.

Probably the most notable upcoming game that has an official release date is the long anticipated Memory Trees : forget me not . We had a thread about it aaaages ago (literal years) and it seems to be finally releasing on Feb 15, 2024, but uhhh, we'll see about that. The devs have been radio silent outside of drawing risqué fanart and the scope of their game still sounds a little too big for what their promising. But, we'll see how it goes, I guess. I don't have too much faith in it personally.

[Ninety]

You're a legend Bluie

[Bluie]

More of a local village cryptid, but thank you, doing my best lol.

[Terranigma Freak]

PuffPals: Island Skies looks very interesting. Like a crossover between Animal Crossing and SOS.

[Bluie]

Hiya. Had motivation to update the list. I haven't combed through Steam to find any new games to add yet, but anything in the upcoming section that's been released is now sorted accordingly. I also culled a lot of dead games and there's a handful with solid release dates in the upcoming section.

Another day I'll look for new games, but for now, I slep.

[Kikki]

Hiya. Had motivation to update the list. I haven't combed through Steam to find any new games to add yet, but anything in the upcoming section that's been released is now sorted accordingly. I also culled a lot of dead games and there's a handful with solid release dates in the upcoming section.

Another day I'll look for new games, but for now, I slep.

Thanks Bluie The number of 'cozy' games that in some way have farming in them is so huge now (and last year) that it must be borderline impossible to keep track of them all, unless you had a staff of half a dozen or so combing assigned sections of the internet for you, lol.

Perhaps you'll have to eliminate a category or two and narrow it down to games where farming plays a significant part, rather than any game that has a hint of farming in it? We were desperate enough for farming games up until about two years ago that even those 'faint whiff of farming' games had to count, but now we're spoiled for choice.

Though too many games tack farming on meaninglessly, just to be able to add 'farming' to their tags...there STILL are very few games where the farming plays an important and well-thought-out part of the game. Even among popular ones. Farming in Fae Farm, for example (since FF was very popular) was entirely beside the point. It had nothing to do with the storyline at all. Extremely unsatisfying if the farming is truly the part you care about in a farming sim.

Farming games are now a dime-a-dozen on the indie scene, and yet, I'm as unsatisfied as ever when it comes to games with meaningful farming elements. I want to save the world (or at least the town!) with my nature skillz. I want that connection to nature to be a big deal in the game, whether it's by saving the environment or even just the economy (like in ANB) to revitalize the area.

[Bluie]

Sigh

I just don't even know any more. I've gotten used to just slapping anything with tacked on farming (or where it's either optional or not the normal farming formula) in the 'other' section and leaving it at that. It may benefit to just add a section like 'has farming but isn't the focus' or something. That would require a lot of organizing though, and I'm still a little mentally pooped atm. I'll definitely consider it once I have a little more rest in me.

[Kikki]

Sigh

I just don't even know any more. I've gotten used to just slapping anything with tacked on farming (or where it's either optional or not the normal farming formula) in the 'other' section and leaving it at that. It may benefit to just add a section like 'has farming but isn't the focus' or something. That would require a lot of organizing though, and I'm still a little mentally pooped atm. I'll definitely consider it once I have a little more rest in me.

My suggestion was meant to create LESS work, not more, by just leaving out any games that aren't really farming games, basically eliminating the whole last (biggest) section before 'upcoming farming games'. I was thinking that there'd be not even half the number of games left over, to keep track of.

But I guess it can't work that way, now that I think about it a little differently. It's true that the list would be WAY smaller that way, but games won't have a 'nominal farming' tag, or a 'we just added farming because it's the craze right now' in the descriptive section. It'd probably take actually playing a game before we'd know for sure if the farming really is a significant part or not. So it'd actually be way more work rather than less, since there's no immediately obvious way to tell which games fit.

Sorry; the suggestion was meant to remove work, not add it, by shrinking the list you have to maintain. A smaller list would be easier to update, but I didn't think of how it'd actually be more work to create, so just pretend I didn't say it.

[Shan O 123]

I’m not sure if this is on the list but

Something you guys might like if you play steam games

[Thomaster]

I'm sooo excited for Fields of Mistria to come out! That's coming from someone who doesn't even like Stardew Valley! I've been playing the demo a LOT more than I'd like to admit... I'll definitely be there day one. I'm not sure what's so addicting about it for me compared to Stardew. I think I prefer its sound design and character design. I mean, the characters look really pretty! And it's in a 90s anime style, which I thoroughly enjoy! I've always wished to see a farming game in that sort of style, and now it's finally happening, eeee!! For real you guys have no idea how excited I am.

I'm not particularly interested in any of the bachelors though. I saw the heart by the dragon guy... if he's a marriage candidate, that might just be crazy enough for me to try. That must be like, this game's equivalent to marrying Gorgon (or whatever his name was) in Natsume's Harvest Moon: Light of Hope... except in an actually serviceable game. (No offense to those who like Light of Hope though, I just didn't think it was all that great) Anyways, it's no Story of Seasons for me but it sure is close!

I can't wait to play the full game, I think it'll be coming at a pretty good price point too. Anyways, sorry for dropping the huge wall of text on you guys. I simply had to express my excitement! I didn't have the time to read if anyone has posted about this game in the thread already... Or rather the patience because I was so excited. But yeah!! Looks like it's gonna be awesome!