The plot is simple. You inherit your grandfather’s farm in Stardew Valley, and you must learn to manage it. Gameplay is about cultivating fields, trading, buying new equipment, and progressing as a farmer.The title won a cult following by combining simple RPG mechanics with a charming social sim within a farming simulator. Its legacy is undeniable, and games like Stardew Valley are not easy to come by.Perhaps you’re looking for similar alternatives after playing the classic over and over. We’re here to help you: we’ve chosen the top 12 games like Stardew Valley.Across our options, you’ll find games for different platforms (console, PC, and mobile), ranging in style, tone, and mechanics.
Selecting Games Like Stardew Valley
Our first step to selecting games like Stardew Valley was identifying its core elements. Our selections won’t be step-by-step copies; instead, they may feature a mix of the following ingredients:
Classic RPG feels: Stardew Valley’s main ingredient is the role-playing simulation with old-school graphics. Sandbox building: Stardew Valley allows you to freely use your resources to build and customize a farm. Character progression system: Stardew Valley allows you to level up in five areas to unlock skills, map areas, and craft recipes. Combat and exploration: there’s a vast cave to explore, where you fight monsters and gather resources. Relaxing mini-games: extra playtime experiences allow you to cook, fish, and hang around with NPC friends. Social simulation: Stardew Valley allows you to interact with neighbors, make friendships, romance NPCs, get married, visit stores, and more. Co-op: you can invite up to three players to your valley to grow the farm online. Plot: aside from managing your father’s farm, you can also help repair Stardew Valley and protect it from the greedy Joja Mart corporation (or do the opposite).
Most importantly, Stardew Valley is an indie title with a unique and charming personality. No other title cna properly replicate it, as each studio has its mark. So, ultimately, choose the alternative that appeals to you the most.
Top 12 Games Like Stardew Valley
Terraria
Terraria is an old-school sandbox action-adventure game. You explore a massive cave, dig deeper, and combat enemy beasts for loot. Then, you use the loot to craft gear, machines, and aesthetics. It’s a simple and relaxing gameplay loop that allows you to improve your character properly.Back on the surface, you can use the resources to build your house or fortress and build homes for other NPCs. The game grants you the freedom to decide what to make, but its 2D graphics might limit your imagination.Lastly, Terraria has multiplayer game modes that allow you to play online with or against other players. By default, Terraria is a co-op game, so you’ be building, exploring, and improving your gear with your friends.That means Terraria gives us several elements from Stardew Valley. We’ve got old-school graphics, combat, exploration, sandbox building, and character progression systems.
My Time at Portia
My Time at Portia is like playing Stardew Valley with gorgeous 3D graphics. Its cute and cartoonish art style takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli movies.Here, you can restore a workshop to its former glory by doing commissions, growing crops, befriending NPCs, raising animals, and customizing your area freely.Portia, the town, is full of friendly and charming NPCs. You can make friends, complete tasks, go on dates, exchange gifts, and romance someone.There’s also a greater plot. You play in a post-apocalyptic world where resources are scarce. Dangerous monsters lurk in dungeons you need to explore for resources and quests. As you do so, you’ll gather resources for better resources, as well as upgrade your character.
Moonlighter
Moonlighter mixes action RPG with rogue-lite mechanics on its core plot. The story follows Will, a good-hearted shopkeeper who dreams of becoming a hero. Such a setting can absolutely fill the void left by Stardew Valley, as it brings a self-fulfilling gameplay loop with just a tiny bit of humor and drama.So, during the day, Will tends to a store or, better said, you manage the store. Then, he transforms into a powerful hero to combat monsters in 2.5D old-school graphics at night. That’s where the plot rears its head: Will is exploring a portal to another dimension that accidentally opened in his hometown.It means playtime balances business simulator and combat adventure. You can invest the currency you earn in the store for gear, diving deeper into dungeons rewards selling interesting wares. So, both gameplay loops are necessary to progress.Lastly, the game is charming and has tons of personality. These elements don’t deter the sheer size of the game. There’re about 100 dungeons, nine companions, resource management, trading, upgrading the shop, a complex combat system, friendly NPCs, helping NPCs with their businesses, crafting, loot, and more.
Sun Haven
Sun Haven is also a farming sim with old-school graphics. Its unique twist is its high fantasy setting, which presents itself by allowing you to pick one of the available seven races.Gameplay is about farming, socializing, cooking, fishing, gathering resources, and adventures. You also follow an RPG-style quest, progress your character, and defeat a final boss. Similarly, there’re NPCs you can befriend and romance.The plot happens in Sun Haven, a medieval town. You’re there to restore, upgrade, and customize a farm and other shops in the city. You level up and advance through the questline as you help bring back the city to live.Then, the main quest takes you to various towns and locations to fight evil enemies. You can do it with magic, swords, ranged weapons, and more (there’re over 100 skill options in the tree). The ultimate goal is revitalizing Sun Haven, and you can do it alone or with up to 8 people playing co-op.
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
Stardew Valley is a heartwarming tale against corporate greed. This pick is darker, delivering a depressing story about a sentient trash incinerator in space. Still, we chose it because of how it balances work sim, social sim, and RPG elements.You’re on a spaceport in a world where robots are last-class citizens. You play as the “Janitor,” who dreams of leaving the planet to find a new, better life. The setting delivers a mad, confusing, and addictive gameplay experience.To achieve the goals, you need a familiar routine. You spend your days cleaning up trash, buying food to stay alive, testing your luck at lotteries, and completing your daily tasks as a Janitor.As the developers say, it’s an anti-adventure game. It’s a routine to find the way out carefully. And there’s one: you can join an exciting main heroic quest line that deals against curses, rituals, and other whispers.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Add Zelda and Stardew Valley into a blender, and Yonder is what you get. It uses the Nintendo series’s world-building and map design with the gameplay loop of the classic RPG. Simply put, the result is a pleasure.Yonder allows you to journey across a vast open world. You can collect supplies, combat against magical creatures, and see how the seasons change. Moreover, a key day/night cycle offers schedules for certain activities.And the activities are plentiful. You can fish, farm, customize your character, master professions (chef, tailor, carpenter, and more), craft, trade, befriend NPCs and creatures, etc. You’re the hero, Gemea, and your goal is to help the locals defeat the Sprites creatures.Overall, we picked the game because of its claiming and charming atmosphere. Also, the game blends its setting with light social sim, RPG, and resource management systems.
Satisfactory
Satisfactory blends exploration and combat to an open-world first-person factory building game. You can play alone or co-op with another friend.This title is about building a multi-store factor, or, better said, several multi-store factories. Ideally, you can automate your conveyor belts to produce supplies and make the supplies reach your other factories. The goal is to minimize human labor to keep expanding on the planet.You can freely expand your operations on the alien planet, but you need resources. Because you need help, you also have to explore the planet for valuables. You need to equip proper safety gear to protect yourself on your expeditions. Only then you can harvest the natural resources available.Bear in mind this is an Early Access game, so whatever I’m saying could change in the future.
Voodoo Garden
Voodoo Garden works like a simplified Stardew Valley game…with a pinch of dark magic.In essence, it’s an easy and relaxing farming simulator. You’re to grow an exotic garden with ingredients you harvest. Then, you gather your crops for voodoo potion ingredients. These potions can grant you powers to improve your yields or currency to buy equipment and resources.All of this happens within a relaxing atmosphere and hand-style drawings. Then, the gameplay revolves around point-and-click mechanics, ideal for casual playtime.Overall, you plant trees, herbs, and shrubs to grow leaves, mushrooms, and fruits. You can also harvest your plants and catch wild animals for potion ingredients. It’s a fun and captivating experience for those craving the Stardew Valley personality.
Farm Together
While Stardew Valley is about restoring a small farm and a town, Farm Together is about making money. Similarly, you can customize your farm, build your house, and decorate everything.So, this is an industrial farming sim with an overwhelming range of crops and livestock. The only limit you’ve got is how much currency you have to spend on resources. Naturally, you can get it back by trading the goods you produce.Another key feature is how you can hire employees to work on your farm. Even other players can help you out of generosity. That said, the game runs in real-time, so you may become obsessed with the time you need for each type of crop.The vicious cycle of growing an industrial farm also has some chilling moments. See, as it’s in real-time, your farm advances even where you’re not playing, and you can leave your employees and even other players to do the job.
Farming Simulator 22
Suppose you’re looking for pure farming experience. In that case, you could try Farming Simulator 22, the latest game in the sim series. This is a simple title. You play as a modern farmer and manage a multitude of mechanics and interfaces for the tasks.The game works on various different maps with vastly different landscapes. It also includes over 400 real-life machines and about 100 real-life agricultural brands so you can build your farming empire.In particular, you have a build mode to fully customize your farm. You also drive trucks and use other machinery to cultivate, grow, and reap fruits and vegetables. Lastly, you can go around the town to sell the goodies in stores and buy equipment and resources.Lastly, the game adds a multiplayer feature with a crossover mechanic. You can play with up to 16 players on new-gen consoles to grow and manage a farm together.
Gas Station Simulator
Gas Station Simulator is the ultimate business sim you can play on PC. It’s not a charming title, though, as its aim is for a realistic experience with graphics and mechanics.The game revolves around renewing, expanding, upgrading, and running a gas station. You’re at the side of a highway, in the middle of a desert. Here, you have freedom on how you want to approach your business and, as usual, “restore it to its former glory.”Naturally, you can repair, sell, or throw away old equipment. Then you can buy new equipment and wares and tend your customers for money. The services go beyond just serving fuel, as you can expand your station to attract more customers. Similarly, you can customize the place, but you have to unlock most options by progressing the game.Overall, it’s a relaxing game about expanding a business, attracting customers, and serving the people. It requires you to micromanage and micromanage many aspects of the gas station. So, this is not an old-school RPG mixing sim elements: we just picked it for its stellar business simulator experience.
The Sims 4
We’re closing the list with The Sims 4, the last entry of the ultimate social simulation game.Before we go on, we have a big disclosure: we recommend the base game as it is; it’s perfectly fun. However, stay away from the shameful amount of EA-branded DLCs. Still, the Sims 4 is one of the all-time Windows best-sellers, with over 36 million copies sold worldwide.If you’re familiar with the series, you know what to expect. You customize a character, buy a house in the neighborhood, and live your life. That includes customizing and expanding your home, pursuing a career, growing in your job, befriending other NPCs, romancing potential partners, and having sons and daughters.Moreover, you have to micromanage your Sim’s stats. These are hunger, sleep, bathroom, social needs, fun, and more. There’s too much to do and, if you get bored, you can create another character and buy another house or plot in the neighborhood.
