Lauren Morton
Ten years on, there are almost too many games like Stardew Valley out here. Let’s be real: There are a lot of mid ones hiding among the darlings and it can be tough to tell which are which when so many look cute. After playing enough farm sims to become picky about my preferences, I bounce off farmlife sims with clunky controls and usually recommend ones with excellent characters. With the number of hours you can sink into just one of these games, you only really need to find a few that you really love, so let me tell you about my personal favorites.
The newest farm sim launch I’d been anticipating is the Animal Crossing-like vampire village Moonlight Peaks. You won’t see it on this list because, unfortunately, I found it disappointing despite being very playable. You can read my Moonlight Peaks review for more but, basically, I don’t think its cute theme makes up for some really bland character writing.
The best games like Stardew Valley
Fields of Mistria
Why: The level of heart and detail in the character dialogue is unmatched.
Fields of Mistria
❤️ Romance: Yes
⚔️ Combat: Yes
🤝 Co-op: No
After two years of early access and an imminent 1.0 launch, Fields of Mistria has become my absolute favorite in the post-Stardew farm sim scene. It solves so many of my little farm simming gripes with little quality-of-life touches and just feels like it was made with a deep love of the genre.
Mistria commits so hard to the ’90s anime and Game Boy Advance aesthetic with pastel colors and a bunch of loveable cuties wearing capes and shoulder pads. I can’t stress enough that it’s got so much substance underneath that anime trope crust, though. Yes March is a textbook tsundere and Juniper is a witch who says “OH HO HO” with that arrogant hand pose when she laughs, but it leaves room for characters who defy stereotypes too. Mistria has so much detailed, character-building dialogue that I truly love getting to know its characters and their quirks.
Roots of Pacha
Why: It’s the best exactly-like-Stardew thing out there.
Roots of Pacha review (88%): “It delights in genre staples while tuning the formula just enough to create something engaging and fresh”
Roots of Pacha
❤️ Romance: Yes
⚔️ Combat: No
🤝 Co-op: Yes (4-player)
Roots of Pacha is by far the closest thing to just playing more Stardew Valley, only set in the stone age. It’s got a very similar pixel art style, character types, and soundtrack, but unlike so many things chasing Stardew’s coattails, Pacha doesn’t suffer for the comparison. It’s just downright solidly good with lots of little extras like a fun musical minigame to tame animals and a tech tree for unlocking farm inventions that your community members come up with. This is the one that I managed to get my group of friends to play together for several weeks despite never doing co-op Stardew together.
Coral Island
Why: It’s one of the biggest farm sims around.
Coral Island
❤️ Romance: Yes
⚔️ Combat: Yes
🤝 Co-op: Yes (4-player)
Coral Island has 30 dateable characters. That’s wild, when the standard in this genre is more like a dozen. Plus there’s all the other characters on Coral Island who are equally personable and unique. After a year of early access and several post-launch updates with massive feature lists, Coral Island become one of the biggest farm sims around. It’s now got multiplayer, a (toggleable) jealousy system if you’re neglecting your spouse for other datable characters, and even more big updates on the way. I came to this one later than most, but honestly I’m glad I’m seeing it after it’s been jam-packed with goodies.
Moonstone Island
Why: Creature-catching will always be catnip to me.
Moonstone Island
❤️ Romance: Yes
⚔️ Combat: Yes (turn-based)
🤝 Co-op: No
Moonstone Island leans closer to a crafting sim than a life sim, so some of the community and social elements like dating are shallower than other Stardew-like games. I cannot deny that adding creature-catching to a genre I already like is pretty much always a winner, though. Moonstone brings my favorite bits of base-building and procedural generated world exploring into a cute farming and crafting experience the way that almost no other post-Stardew life sims do. It flips the usual farm sim priorities on its head by making my creatures the focus instead of my rows of crops.
Kynseed
Why: The world feels so enticingly creepy and interesting.
Kynseed review (89%): “A hearty stew made from elements of Fable, Stardew Valley and Crusader Kings.”
Kynseed
❤️ Romance: Yes
⚔️ Combat: Yes
🤝 Co-op: No
Kynseed is an odd one, in general and also, admittedly, as a pick for this list. It’s built on creepy fairytales with an almost overwhelmingly dense pixel art style. Having roots in the older Fable games means that its characters are more like simulated little pawns in your world and don’t really have that Stardew-style depth of character. It has gotten more Stardew-like with all of its years of updates though, adding in more house customization and other personal bits. Playing through family generations means you can sink a lot of hours into this one. I’m always fascinated by the crusty old RPG feeling of exploring its world and chasing down quest hints between coming home to farm. I just think it’s very niche and neat and I’ll never shut up about how its super tactile cooking minigame is amazing.
Staff Picks
I may be the tender of this list, but I’m just one of many farm sim lovers at PC Gamer, so here are the latest favorites from my fellows.
Readers’ choice
Upcoming games like Stardew Valley
Read the full article here
