From the Harvest Moon launch back in 1996 for the Super Nintendo, all the way to the legend-dairy Stardew Valley that took off in 2016, farming video games have always been a way for people to kill time. I think what makes these types of games so charming is all the simple tasks you take up and the world created for your little farm where you can get cows, chickens, a whole lot of turnips, and even marry the marriage candidate of your dreams. As a college student, sometimes I forget to take breaks that don’t involve eating unhealthy snacks or browsing through social media. It’s nice to remember that there’s a few affordable video games out there still that can make my day a lot brighter. It’s honestly surprising to me that not a lot of people dive into these genres, so here are a few that you should try out.
1. Harvest Moon: Light of Hope
(Photo courtesy of Natsume)
A cross platform game that’s available for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, app store, and Google Play Store. Light of Hope is one of the newest Harvest Moon games after the entire Natsume and XSeed debate and although it sometimes feels like it’s lacking, you can’t deny it has the same dream structure. You’re still after becoming the best rancher you can be, going through weird tasks to help out your neighbors, and eventually getting married and having kids to live your happily ever after.
2. Story of Seasons
(Photo courtesy of Fogu)
Story of Seasons is Harvest Moon, just under a different name. It has the incredible cutscenes, all the chances to cook all these weird meals, the subtle mention of a fictitious religion with the iconic Harvest Goddess (actually it’s just a smaller HG named Dessie who’s silly and adorable), and of course, the impossible to complete storyline that will make you oddly addicted as you cook up 15,000 dishes and make 600 pieces of clothes to ship. Thankfully, it comes with an easy mode that I never feel guilty about selecting. Story of Seasons simply has that charm that has been in early Harvest Moon games and lacked until it’s release.
3. World’s Dawn
(Courtesy of the World’s Dawn Wikia)
Always compared to Stardew Valley, it’s kind of hard to appreciate what a fun little game World’s Dawn is. It’s available on Steam, and it goes on sale every once in a while, sometimes only being $3. The town that your character lives in is beautiful and there are a lot of different characters to meet in the village, also giving you a chance to romance any of marriage candidates (World’s Dawn said, “Gay rights!”) to get married. Something that makes World’s Dawn stand out is the mini-games they add to festivals and the addicting game of LockBall. The storyline of somehow being the chosen one that can see these weird spirits have been done a million times, but the way this game does it is incredibly moving in its own way with its multiple rich storylines. This game doesn’t offer that many hours of gameplay, but it does offer a distraction from all the hubbub of the real world.
4. Rune Factory 4
(Photo courtesy of Nintendo)
In my personal opinion, one of the best games in the farming genre that has ever been released for the 3DS. Although it’s not exactly new and it’s not just farming and has a lot of fantasy and fighting, you can’t deny that this game will make you want to forget the fact that you have an essay due in three days. The intense story arcs, the unique characters with their individual voice actors, and the farming and romancing systems are literally a few of the hundreds of things that make RF4 such a stunning game. You will get attached to the characters, you might even sob your eyes out like I did, and you will wonder why there hasn’t been a Rune Factory 5. RF4 is one of those games that you never forget about and don’t feel bad about restarting a new a file every time you pick it up again.
5. Stardew Valley
(Photo courtesy of stardewvalley)
No farming video game list is complete these days without the mention of Stardew Valley, whether it’s on the list or not. Developed by a single person, Eric Barone, Stardew Valley offers endless upon endless hours of content that each player can make unique for themselves. You don’t have to be the good guy and help out your small community. You can decide to support big business instead. You don’t have to farm and keep twenty chickens and goats, you can do nothing but fish all day if you even manage to learn how to fish. Besides all the different turns your character’s story can take, you can not forget the meaningful cutscenes between characters and watching them develop as you become friends with them and do strange favors for some quick cash. You don’t even have to get married (you can literally date all twelve marriage candidates at the same time), but it’s nice to know that same-sex marriage is also available in this game, giving you a chance to marry whichever character you want to make your little-pixelated self a little more complete.
This list is nowhere near as long as it should be, especially with farming RPGs on the rise, but these are a few that I personally enjoy and know other people will, too. So depending on whether you can carry a 3DS to class or you want to pull up your laptop during gaps in between classes, any of these games will be fun for you. Farming video games are one of those things that are slept on because they seem boring, but their interesting story lines and great characters will leave you hooked on the genre.