REQ-a-REC

[Kikki]

I bet THAT'S not clear!

Well, okay, it's 'request a recommendation'.

I've always meant to do a thread like this before, but unless I've forgotten, I don't think I ever did, so...if anybody is looking for a new game to play, I'm hoping a thread like this can come in handy. Very few people want to start a new thread just to say that they've been craving a new cute and wholesome first-person-shooter but have already tried all the ones they know of. Please don't say 'what do you think I should play next?' and just leave it at that...it's against the forum rules to begin with, so don't do that. That's too much like asking others to do all your thinking for you. Nope! You have to start off with your own thinking...have some parameters. For example...

Let's say I'm really craving a new game of exploration (which I always am). That's something, but it's a bit too little to go on...that's making other people do all the work in figuring out what I want. So I might write something like this:

• Looking for:
  Summary: A great game of exploration
  Preferred genres/categories: fantasy, JRPG, open-world enjoyed but not essential as long as the exploration is good-to-great.
  Other desired features: I always want story-driven with great characters...but if the exploration is top-tier, even those things can be lived without. Colourful/pretty world, 'outdoorsy'...filled with trees and flowers and hills and things like that, as opposed to pipes and hatches and levers and buttons. I prefer longer games to shorter ones...I'm an old-hand with games that take a minimum of 80 hours to get through. Ugly, depressing, dark games and industrial settings are probably non-negotiable and will ruin any fun I get out of even great exploration. Probably. But if the exploration really is absolutely fantastic, will consider even an ugly game outside of my other requirements.
  Examples of games I love that fit my qualifications: Xenoblade Chronicles X, Breath of the Wild. To a lesser extent, other Xenoblade games.
  Consoles: Switch, PS4, Wii U, 3DS, Steam-PC (via Steamdeck)

You can choose your own format, of course...no need to copy what I put there...but stating what you're looking for...what it HAS to have versus what it'd just be nice if it had, and what it CAN'T have, if there is anything...those things are necessary in your request for a recommendation if you want to narrow things down to get the best recommendations possible. Of course, being TOO specific may narrow your pool of recommendations down more than you'd like!

You can also put more in if your requirements are really loose...like if you just want to find ANY new game that'll suit you.

Hopefully this is obvious, but this is without responsibility to anyone who leaves a rec...if you decide to try a game they recommend and don't like it, that's still on you...you're still the one who has to look into the game to figure out if it's for you or not. This is just about getting some names of games to look into, that you may not have come across yourself. So even if you don't feel like you know the requester that well, feel free to drop a recommendation based on their request anyway! Newcomers shouldn't feel like they can't provide input as well.

No one has to answer the one I left as an example, though; I've asked for that before and I'm pretty sure I've already been suggested just about every game of exploration that exists within my possible likes/dislikes. Why are there so freakishly few games where world exploration is one of the primary features??? (O XCX, how I love thee...)

[Bluie]

This is toughie, Kiki, because I have games to recommend because they fit your tastes, but they're being dragged down by things you don't like or you've tried them already and they weren't your cup of tea. The entirety of the free trial of FFXIV is soloable now minus the Trials which are big boss fights with 8 real people. They are working on making them soloable too, but the AI isn't quite ready yet. I can completely understand not wanting to play games with others when you just want to be alone, but FFXIV really ticks every other box for you with a colorful word with great characters and a loooong story to enjoy at your own pace.

I'd recommend both Genshin Impact and Immortals Fenyx Rising because they're the biggest BoTW 'copies' out there, but you weren't a fan of the former and the latter you dropped IIRC? I understand both, Genshin is grindy at it's core and you gotta really enjoy it to commit and I didn't like Fenyx myself due it's odd story telling and the over abundance of puzzles.

Part of me wants to recommend the new « Harvest Goddess » of War duology because it again ticks a lot of your boxes, but I'm not sure how well you'd do with the gore, especially with how brutal Kratos can be. Animated gore doesn't phase me, but it does bother others, so I get that too.

As I'm mostly blanking, I have a few other recommendations that may or may not be your thing, but they tick a few boxes:

Final Fantasy XI - Completely soloable and playable on Steam Deck. Long game, big world, well known characters, decent story

Pokemon Scarlet&Violet - Big open world, mostly character driven story, interesting story

Forspoken - No idea if you have a PS5, but it's coming out on PC as well, so most likely Steam Deck support will follow. Demo is available now if you want to try it out.

Dragon Quest Treasures - While it's not another Builders, it looks to be a really fun and colorful journey

Ghost of Tsushima - Open world, good story, great sidestory + characters, fun exploration, you can make the game easy and turn off the blood.

Sable - Open world exploration in a pretty world.

----

As for recommendations for me, I really don't know. I'm fairly content right now as I keep up with gaming news and organize everything into 'day one', 'buy later', or completely disregard as I know I won't like/buy it. I'll come back here later if I ever need a recommendation.

[Kikki]

Thanks, Bluie! While my example was a real example of a game I want, I wasn't expecting any answers because I know I've already gone through the gamut, lol, with me being the same type as you...quite aware of the gaming world and its new releases/etc. (Less now that I've deleted Twitter, but just following Gematsu and Nintendo Everything and occasionally seeing Josh or Eowna videos on YT seems to keep me relatively up-to-date.)

Hmm, HMM. FFXIV, I've thought about it a few times. I reeeeeeally feel tense at the thought of interacting with strangers in a game, lol. I am very slow in reaction time, and I don't catch on to new mechanics quickly...anyone relying on me for anything would no doubt get irritated quite quickly with the teammate who's so unskilled that they appear to have some kind of brain damage (technically I DO, lol, but I'm not sure how much of my slow reaction time I can blame on that. A little, but not enough! My entire family has at least somewhat slow physical reactions, I just happen to be the very slowest of the slow.) I assume you can't skip these 'Trials'.

I liked Genshin Impact reasonably well, though I don't remember the story as very exciting (I was only in...uh...Monstat region or something like that, I was in at the beginning and then left within 2-3 weeks) but I hate gacha with a fiery passion, which is why I deleted the game from my PS4. I just don't need a game making me feel unlucky in life. Life itself is pretty decent at that by itself, lol. I also don't approve of it as a business practise and don't want to support it. I'm willing to put a game's worth of money into whatever 'free' game I enjoy is offering and cut things off at that, but gacha/lootboxes really burn my boots. I don't buy lottery tickets and I won't pay for gacha. That's just something that goes down to my atoms, lol. I don't mind using free in-game stuff but I NEVER get anything top-tier, I used everything I had (for free and for the starter package I paid for) on wishes and never got anything worthwhile, so I'd definitely have to pay money...and I won't, not beyond an initial purchase at whatever level I figure is suitable to support the game. Exploration was not bad in it, though. I did drop Fenyx over half-way through. The narrative voice was a bit annoying and TOO. MANY. PUZZLES! Exploration in it was not as good, either, iirc.

I don't have a PS5 and it's looking like I may never get one since there are no longer any games exclusive to it that I care about (that I know of, at this point...new releases of Tales and Trails are now both available to me on consoles I already have.)

I'm very bad with gore. (It's not just gross...it makes me think about pain, lol. I have high physical pain empathy, it seems.) It makes my skin crawl and my forehead get all wrinkly. I can stand it if it's absurdly stylized so that it's essentially not even gore any more...like if what comes out is basically a neon pink paint splotch.

I'm going to play games with Baby Cuz this afternoon so I suspect I may get to play a little Scar/Vi (she got Violet, which means I'd have to be a grown-up and get Scarlet if I did get the game, to support her no doubt wanting the version exclusive Pokemon...I don't want Scarlet, I hate dinosaurs! Caveman-chic is not my thing, either.) Well, it's not out of the running anyway. Arceus is also on my wishlist for consideration, still.

I still haven't gotten a feel for the gameplay of DQTreasures, nor the scope of the world or the depth of exploration. Will be waiting to find out what that's like.

I'll have a peek at Forspoken!

You can turn off blood in Ghost of Tsushima? HMM! I don't like people-murderin', but...I'll have another look at it.

I know absolutely nothing about FFXI, will have a peek at that as well

I am also unfamiliar with Sable, will look into it.

Thanks for all the time you put into that, Bluie

EDIT: OH wait...that one. What is it? Witcher, on Switch? That's violent, right? And Skyrim has beheadings and stuff, I think. I know I've looked at games like this and figured I wouldn't be able to hack 'em. (Kind of literally?)

[Mikodesu]

Couple warnings about a few of the mentions...

Hopefully the current delay works this out, but Forspoken is supposed to have a LOT of performance issues that will make it difficult to play on anything but top tier hardware.

The new « Harvest Goddess » of War (mostly 2018) has an incredible story (and excellent combat, I've heard), but I would not recommend it for exploration. The world is designed for two things: funneling the player into combat scenarios, and the 'continuous shot camera' deal they decided on. It may LOOK open world, but there are a number of points where you're standing next to a chest high wall that any character in the game could get over, but you're not allowed. Just cause.

Witcher games have very interesting stories (and good exploration for 3), but they have another central uh...theme? All 3 have « Chicken Hugging » scenes scattered throughout. Couldn't tell you which one is easiest to avoid, just that Geralt has a hobby of sleeping around.

Skyrim could still be an exploration game to recommend...WITH mods. It's too much of a mess without any fixes, especially since BotW copied the better parts of it, and left the rest in the dust. (Reminds me that I haven't seen anything in a long time about how the huge modder projects remaking earlier Elder Scrolls games are going...)


The only other untouched category of exploration games that maaaay be worth looking into would be "survival-exploration". That's still a pretty big category, but it does involve things like hunger and thirst meters, and I don't know how many of those can be turned off. Some devs (like Subnautica) are nice enough not to care, but others are very particular about keeping them on... A lot of survival games are pretty ugly, though. :/ I'll have to think on what ones aren't.

And I forgot! I don't need any recommendations, cause I have way too much to play at this point, but a thread like this is always nice to come back to and reference later.

[Kikki]

Thanks Mikodesu; will keep those things in mind

I have ARK on my list...apparently it's actually good now, even on Switch...and at least it's outdoorsy, but it has dinosaurs and ugly people, and tension-making survival mechanics...those things decrease my happy meter. I still have Astroneer and No Man's Sky on my list, though...they don't look too stressy and NMS looks decent on exploration (while Astroneer looks less stressy and more...cute...and possibly a bit less about technicalities.) I haven't looked much into other survival games yet due to their generally stressy nature. Jumpscares are unforgivable, lol...they ruin my day. (I can't remember which game I took off my list for that...uhm...possibly...shoot, this brain; it is le suck! Wilds? Outer Wilds? Or Outer Rim or something. Or maybe Wild something, lol. But...Outer Wilds sounds kind of right, except I think I might be mashing two different game titles together rather than getting the one I mean correct. I'll have to go Google that title after this and see what games pop up!)

I really should go back to Horizon Zero Dawn. I got it for free on PS4 during their 2020 pandemic 'play at home' promotion, iirc, and I played a bit, and it wasn't bad...it just didn't have very compelling characters, so I didn't get sucked into the narrative and ended up putting it down and then never picking it back up again. The world was pretty enough! My bro-in-law loves that game.

EDIT: Got busy texting sister...two puppies just born in the last half hour, after doggy being in labour a whole day! But anyway, Outer Wilds appears to be the correct name of the game I was trying to recall.

[Mikodesu]

ARK is apparently very good for base building, constructiony stuff, but it's all very...rustic. I remember watching Grandma Shirley play with some of the people in the community some years ago.

Riiight, I remember mentioning Outer Wilds at some point, maybe in another thread recommending exploration or open world games? It's one of the most incredible gaming experiences I wish I'd never spoiled for myself. The entire world, even going straight to the ending, is open from the beginning, a la Breath of the Wild. But what gets you there isn't anything resembling an RPG leveling system, it's 100% your knowledge. There's also a DLC for Outer Wilds that's supposed to be just as good as the base game.

There is a very, very minor element of 'spook' in the base game (saying more would be spoilers), so I wouldn't recommend it to somebody VERY sensitive to scares, but if you're willing to push through it's very worthwhile. MOST of the game is exploration, there are SOME puzzles, and there is SOME narrative to tie everything together. And that's all I'll say to keep spoils to an absolute minimum.

Oh! It's also on Switch now, though I have no idea how well it runs. (NEVER imagined it getting to Switch, since the whole thing calculates the rotations/revolutions of a planetary system in real time...) If anybody is thinking about picking it up on Switch, definitely check on that first.

[Bluie]

Snip

Unfortunately, the only way to 'skip' trials atm is via an over leveled player one-shoting the boss for you. I would be more than happy to help you if you needed it, but if you'd rather wait for the full solo update, that's totally fine. I help my FiL a lot because he has a lot of trouble keeping up with the current dungeons even with the NPC companions because his eyes are bad. He love crafting and gathering and really wants to unlock the Island Sanctuary (basically a farming sim within the game), but it's locked behind base Endwalker. Gonna be trying to blaze him through most of it next week.

With FFXI, I own it, but I haven't played it yet. It's another MMO, but they've fine tuned it to be completely soloable with NPC party members. My issue is it's only on PC (the mobile remaster got quietly canned, rip) and well, yeah. I need to get my hands on a Steam Deck lol. With Ghost, yep, you can turn off blood and you can silently kill with throwing weapons instead of samurai battling for most situations. There are a couple of unskipable battles where you have to fight normally, but put easy mode on and they're done asap.

I hope you find something you like! I think Miko covered everything else while I was away lol.

[Kikki]

Unfortunately, the only way to 'skip' trials atm is via an over leveled player one-shoting the boss for you. I would be more than happy to help you if you needed it, but if you'd rather wait for the full solo update, that's totally fine. I help my FiL a lot because he has a lot of trouble keeping up with the current dungeons even with the NPC companions because his eyes are bad. He love crafting and gathering and really wants to unlock the Island Sanctuary (basically a farming sim within the game), but it's locked behind base Endwalker. Gonna be trying to blaze him through most of it next week.

I assume you have to be on the same server for that. Right? In MMOs there are servers or 'worlds', and only people in the same one can play together...I think?

[Bluie]

There's actually the ability to travel to other data centers now so I could actually get to you regardless of where you are, unless you pick a foreign data center. You'd be automatically defaulted to a NA server due to your location, so as long as you're in Aether, Crystal, Dynamis, or Primal(I'm on this one), I can get to you.

Here's the infographic from the devs themselves:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodeston ... tertravel/

[Kikki]

Ah, okay; that doesn't seem to be how WoW servers worked, at least way back when I was playing it. I remember talking to one player who was telling me how they couldn't wait to 'go blue' (or possibly gold or whatever the colour the tabard was, aka: get their accolades and trappings from a certain quest line that I had JUST finished among the Dranei and was cringing in embarrassment over the standing applause from all the NPCs when this person happened across me, lol...I played as almost every race, in that game, I had about a dozen characters, lol...and she wanted me to join her guild and I said sure since I didn't really care either way at that point (I was fairly comfortable with WoW and had multiple moderate-level characters both in the Alliance and Horde, since I wanted to see ALL the content, not just what was available to the Alliance)...but then we discovered we weren't on the same server, so she couldn't invite me. Which confused me, cuz how we we chatting and existing together in the same game, yet unable to be in the same guild? I still don't get it. But probably every game's systems are at least a bit different.

Okay, well...it's free, and I was able to make enough space to download it, so I figured...why not at least enter the game world and have a look around? I should be able to a bit of that before having to decide if I'm going to need to inflict my inept self on others. It's apparently going to take TEN HOURS to DL all 60GB, but I think the PS4 will continue to download even if I turn it off...not sure, but I'll have to let it try.

Starting next year we should have our internet upgraded by one level (we're at the very lowest, so low the package doesn't even exist as an option any more with our provider...my sister doesn't believe in any extra frills, lol, but she'll be working from home a lot more in 2023, so she's finally agreed that an upgrade was suitable. I'd add extra on the rent, ya know, sis! I think I need to suggest another increase this year. She won't increase my part of the rent otherwise, lol.)

I'm confused by what my PS4 is downloading, though. It's not the same name or icon for what I chose in the shop. I chose 'Final Fantasy XIV online FREE TRIAL' and clicked it...it says it has A Realm Reborn and Heavensward included in it...and yet the icon downloading claims to be for ENDWALKER, with 'Final Fantasy XIV' written in small under that, and a different icon than the free trial icon. (one had a spiky metal helmet on it and the other has a...planet or something round). But it didn't ask for money, so whatever I'm downloading is free, anyway, lol. I think. Maybe that's just an updated icon or something...perhaps what you first download for FFXIV is actually the same no matter what. I dunno!

EDIT: Twelve hours later, and I have an FFXIV character. I had NO IDEA what I was doing, and it was very confusing. A one-time password, and I have to BUY some kind of device to get one? Ugh...but eventually figured out that I could just ignore that and continue on, though that option was not stated on-screen. This game appears to be set-up for keyboard and/or mouse use, though the controller's working...okay, I guess. Anyway, had no idea if there was any character bonus or class advantage or anything. Meant to be a...dusk something. But I ended up being a Wildwood one instead somehow...did my looking through skin tones change it? These fellas look like their faces will break if they smile, but I find that kind of entertaining. Have no idea what deity should watch over me or what birthdate I should have, so I chose ones I liked the names of or symbols for, lol. Also had to look up classes. I don't like distance attacks but the internet tells me archer is easy and good for soloing, so...fine. (I really am an up-close damage-dealer who tends to forget about defence, but...well, the internet told me I should be a white mage or an archer, and I don't wanna heal, so I said okay. Was VERY relieved the game didn't force me into that terrible hat, though! It was only a nightmare, WHEW. But waking from the nightmare...it turned out that I escaped the bycocket, but the extra-large Musketeer boots were REAL.

I at least got myself to the starter area and completed the first quest, and picked up the next one (that presumably familiarizes me with how my class works or other such basics.) Also figured out how to open the menu, select things, and log out, lol. I'm not fast at this stuff! The overload of information in a new game...I wish there was some way to avoid it, it's always soul-crushing at first...but I guess it can't be avoided in big, detailed games.

[Bluie]

It should be fine with the whole icon thing? You're essentially downloading the whole game, but will only have access to the free trial content until you hit the story wall (which is base Heavensward iirc). If you end up wanting more then you can buy the rest of it. The icon reflects the most recent expansion regardless of what version you're playing. There's a few more limitations in the free trial but they're nothing too much you have to worry about.

[greensara]

I am curious if anyone has any town/base building game recommendations. I'm not talking about Sim City or Sid Meier's type games though. I'm more referencing ones that have you build or rebuild the "town" and recruit citizens that actually do something. Some examples would be: DQB 2, Grow: Song of the Evertree, and Ni No Kuni 2. I have Littlewood wishlisted, as I am sure it would fit the bill, but I am not sure of any others that aren't just on PC or a different system than what I have. I mostly play on Nintendo Switch, but I also have a Wii and a 3ds. Thanks!

[Kikki]

I am curious if anyone has any town/base building game recommendations. I'm not talking about Sim City or Sid Meier's type games though. I'm more referencing ones that have you build or rebuild the "town" and recruit citizens that actually do something. Some examples would be: DQB 2, Grow: Song of the Evertree, and Ni No Kuni 2. I have Littlewood wishlisted, as I am sure it would fit the bill, but I am not sure of any others that aren't just on PC or a different system than what I have. I mostly play on Nintendo Switch, but I also have a Wii and a 3ds. Thanks!

Alright...had to think about this for a while, because you probably already know all the ones I know. I've scoured the internet many times for that genre, myself. There isn't all that much. I assume in addition to DQB2 you've already played DQB1 (also very good...less building options and no Malroth, but on the other side, the story itself is better, imo.)

I'm reduced to naming things that are KIND OF building games. Nothing comes to mind as an out-and-out building game other than survival sims and city-builder sims, like Sim City/etc, except what you've mentioned. Of all the Bokumono games, ANB has the best town-building, imo, since you get to do all the placement not just in your farm but also across the whole village, which I personally LOVED about it. (Though it's exactly what some people hated. But hey, I wanna build everything, so they made that game for ME, I guess. :D )

I'm confusing myself. I'm going to just put a list here, even if the town-building in it is a bit flimsy.

• Ever Oasis: If you're on Fogu, there's a good chance you already know about this 3DS game. You can't design the houses your self but it is a painfully cute little game and lots of bright, rich colour. Gameplay loop is repetitive but you do have to place lots of little houses and shops and upgrade and maintain them.
• Animal Crossing: Any of them, but New Horizons the most, obviously, thanks to the terraforming and farming and increased home decor and landscaping.
• Breath of the Wild: Specifically Tarrey Town. BARELY counts, imo, since it's not like you can place or customize everything. Basically you just provide a huge amount of lumber and find the residents.
• Xenoblade Chronicles (the first one, on Wii, Wii U, 3DS or Switch): This is in the same camp as BotW. You're SLIGHTLY more involved, but you don't actually get to place or decorate anything. But you do build Colony 6 back up from basically rubble.
• Disney Dreamlight Valley: You don't get to choose building appearance, but you can place everything wherever you want, from the houses to the trees and shrubs and flowers and all. This game will be F2P in 2023 sometime...better to wait on it if at all unsure, imo. It's a bit chuggy since it's Early Access right now, though it's better than it was.
• Spiritfarer: Well, this one's a bit odd. You build a little town on a boat...originally Charon's ferry of the dead. Each section has a predetermined appearance, but you can place them wherever you want, and you can place multiple of anything other than specific resident houses, and you can upgrade their interiors to increase their happiness. There are shops and farms and etc to build and place, too, and you can cook and solve problems for your residents, which you have to find on your own. So even though not marketed as a town-builder, it pretty much is. Not sure if it's in a way that'd satisfy or not.
• Garden Story: You can fix up the towns and improve some things, but it's not a town-builder in a primary sense. I can't really remember it that well, either! Pretty sure the town-building was minor.
• Egglia Rebirth: You are building a town, but that's not quite the primary gameplay, though it is a continually-present aspect of the game. It's mainly a very cute, colourful fantasy outdoorsy dungeon-crawler where you grind for materials (and to find characters while progressing the story) and each one you find goes back to your town and you'll need to build a house for them. You can upgrade various of the buildings, and you can decorate your own. (I've never done that, though...didn't get far enough to feel like I had the materials to spare on non-essentials.) I know you can give decor to the residents, but I don't know if you can decorate their houses in any way or if you can upgrade them or not. I think you can, since so far all of my residents are just in tents. You place their houses, but just by choosing one of the available, pre-determined placement plots.
• Legend of Mana:I THINK Egglia is an almost direct ripoff of LoM, but I'm not sure, since I haven't played LoM. Still, if so, that means LoM probably has town-building options, too?
• Hokko Life: ACNH clone, except not on a real time clock, and you literally design your own furniture piece by piece (or you can use the designs that other players have uploaded). Like, you could make a triangular 3-legged table, if you wanted, or a puffy polka-dot couch or...whatever you want with all the shapes and tools available.
• Terraria: This one is huge, but I don't actually own it! It's many years old, and yet in the last year they did another ENORMOUS update. It has legions of fans, kind of like Minecraft in terms of devoted followers. (Not that big.) I find it very hard to describe, best to have a look at it if you don't already know it.
• Junk Planet: This is a Terraria clone that I actually DO own. It was horribly localized...I don't know if it got an update in the years since it was released, but to start at least, the directions were almost incomprensible. I eventually managed to figure it out, though. Still, if this type of game interests you, probably better to go with Terraria itself.
• TOWNSMEN: A Kingdom Rebuilt: I did play this, but I can't remember the balance of gameplay. You get quests but I don't remember it having much of a story or recurring characters. It's a town-builder a bit more like Sim City, but a bit cuter/more cartoony. It does lean into the management type of sim, though, more than a life or story type of sim.

I think I've run out, for now. I really couldn't think of much you probably don't already know! And many of these didn't satisfy me in the way that DQB2 did, or ANB, in a different way. I feel bad I couldn't come up with much when it's my favourite, too, but there just aren't a lot of satisfying town-builders out there outside of tycoon types or really formal layout types or survival types. Cute life-sim types with good characters or a good story are very, very rare.

I'm always up for another good town-building sandbox game, myself.

[Code_Name_Geek]

I am curious if anyone has any town/base building game recommendations. I'm not talking about Sim City or Sid Meier's type games though. I'm more referencing ones that have you build or rebuild the "town" and recruit citizens that actually do something. Some examples would be: DQB 2, Grow: Song of the Evertree, and Ni No Kuni 2. I have Littlewood wishlisted, as I am sure it would fit the bill, but I am not sure of any others that aren't just on PC or a different system than what I have. I mostly play on Nintendo Switch, but I also have a Wii and a 3ds. Thanks!

There's a Wii game called Little King's Story that might be worth looking into! You play as a king who must expand your village and make your subjects happy, and you go adventuring to gather materials for this. From what I understand, the adventuring works a little bit like Pikmin where you control your subjects out in the field in real-time. Also, Yasuhiro Wada was somewhat involved in the development, though possibly not in a huge role, and it even has a few references to Harvest Moon! Unfortunately I haven't played it yet, so I can't go in depth on the town building mechanics, but if anyone else here has played feel free to chime in! Here's a link to the trailer as well. (Apparently there was also a PC port, but I've heard it was mediocre and the Wii version is the better version.)

[Mikodesu]

I am curious if anyone has any town/base building game recommendations. I'm not talking about Sim City or Sid Meier's type games though. I'm more referencing ones that have you build or rebuild the "town" and recruit citizens that actually do something. Some examples would be: DQB 2, Grow: Song of the Evertree, and Ni No Kuni 2. I have Littlewood wishlisted, as I am sure it would fit the bill, but I am not sure of any others that aren't just on PC or a different system than what I have. I mostly play on Nintendo Switch, but I also have a Wii and a 3ds. Thanks!

I just remembered... What about MySims? I remember those games actually being pretty cute. A little clunky, but a nice Wii era "not quite Animal Crossing" game.

I can't remember the exact gameplay loop, but I think it was actually a lot like AC:NL. You're not the mayor, but you work for the mayor, bringing townsfolk in and building all kinds of things for them to beautify the town and make them happy. I can't remember if you build the buildings, but you DO build most if not all the furniture. For restaurants and flower shops and I can't even remember what else.