If you like playing farming or life simulation games like Stardew Valley, that often have RPG elements in them, here is a list of top 20 alternatives that you’ll love.
Stardew Valley is a game that combines farming simulation and role-playing elements. Its major emphasis is on leading a daily life as a farmer with all of its challenges and fun.
In Stardew Valley, you are playing as a character who has inherited a piece of land in an area called Stardew Valley.
You are left with a few tools and some money to manage the land and turn it into a profitable farm. In this game, there are many challenges to complete on a daily basis.
Our List Of Games Like Stardew Valley
As with any RPG game, Stardew Valley also allows you to explore the dungeons and caves.
You also have to fight dangerous monsters along the way to find some hidden treasures that you can use in your farming business.
If you like this type of games, there are lots of alternatives that you can play. Here are top 20 alternatives to Stardew Valley:
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns offers the same gameplay as the rest of the Story of Seasons series, which give you the freedom to manage your farm as you live your daily life.
In this game, you can grow various crops, socialize with many villagers, and build a romantic relationship with any girl you like.
The unique thing that is added to this particular title is that you can visit three different towns. Not only that, you can also get some Super Mario costumes to be used in the game.
Each town in Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns has their own advantages and specialties for your farm.
As your farm is located at the center of the three towns, you will need to go to different towns to add different things to your farm, including crops, animals, items, and so on.
You are free to lead the farm life as you want it to be. Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is available for Nintendo 3DS.
Official website: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/story-of-seasons-trio-of-towns-3ds/
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Animal Crossing series has been known by Nintendo fans to be the game that allows you to roam the town and live in whatever way you want.
It simulates the real-life interactions, and there are many activities that you can do in it.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the installment that brings various new features compared to the previous title in the series, making it one of the best Animal Crossing titles to play.
For instance, you can be the mayor of the town, which gives you the authority to manage and lead the town to the direction of your choice.
In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, you are playing as a villager that has a new life in a new town.
In this town, you can do whatever you want, including cooking, interacting with other characters, farming, and performing various other activities.
It has Amiibo support, and you can also play online with other players all around the world. It simulates the regular daily life, and it is perfect to be played to relax your mind. It is available for the Nintendo 3DS.
Official website: https://www.animal-crossing.com/newleaf/
Moonlighter – Games Like Stardew Valley
Moonlighter is the perfect combination of adventure, fantasy RPG, and life simulation genres mixed into one charming video game presentation.
It was released in 2018 for Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. In Moonlighter, you are playing as a character who wants to be a great hero.
He is living in a village called Rynoka, where mysterios gates that lead to different realms are located nearby.
In Moonlighter, you will play as the main character throughout his daily life as a common villager, as well as adventurer at night.
In the day time, you can manage your daily business as usual in the village, while meeting with other villagers, craft new weapons and armors, and enchant your equipment.
At night, however, you can begin your secret adventure by opening the mysterious gates that lead to other worlds, fight monsters, and loot the treasures.
This is the kind of life that will lead you to become a great hero.
Official website: http://moonlighterthegame.com/
World’s Dawn
World’s Dawn is a relaxing life simulation game similar to Stardew Valley that offers relaxing music, visuals, and life simulation gameplay.
It is set in the village by the sea where you can live your daily life there, doing various activities such as raising livestock, growing crops, building friendships with other villagers, mining, fishing, participating in festivals, and so on.
The village life is simulated very well in this game.
World’s Dawn was released in 2016 for the Windows platform. The simple graphics that it offers make this game worth to play, especially when you need some time to relax.
The village is designed to be dynamic, meaning that it will change according to the season that you experience.
Farming is a big part of the game, with various charming characters to meet around the village as you spend your time there.
Official website: https://worldsdawn.waywardprophet.com/
Rune Factory 4
Rune Factory 4 offers a fantasy role-playing game combined with various life and farming simulation elements to create a unique gameplay.
In Rune Factory 4, you will be able to do various things, such as fighting monsters, exploring dungeons, farming, and getting married.
It gives you the freedom to explore the world that is made to be more expansive than the previous titles.
Rune Factory 4 was released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS, but in 2019, a Switch version called Rune Factory 4 Special is planned to be released.
There are lots of beautiful cutscenes that you can see in this game as you progress through the story.
For the Switch version, you can choose a new difficulty mode, as well as play new episodes under a new mode called the Newlywed Mode.
Official website: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/rune-factory-4-special-switch/
My Time At Portia
My Time At Portia is an enchanting game full of wonderful sceneries, characters, and creativity.
In this game, you are living in a place called Portia, where your father’s workshop is left unattended there.
Your job is to give this workshop a new life and start building your prosperity with it.
In My Time At Portia, you have to get creative in trying to rebuild the workshop and manage your own farm.
You can customize many things in the game, including house, items, furniture, and more.
You can also befriend the villagers to build a good reputation for your workshop and become a part of Portia’s community.
You can level up your skills by exploring dark caves and defeat the monsters lurking there.
My Time At Portia was released in 2019 and is available for PC and consoles.
Official website: https://www.team17.com/games/my-time-at-portia/
Fantasy Life – Games Like Stardew Valley
Fantasy Life is all about living in a fantasy world of Reveria, consisting of cities, mountains, and plains, where you need to complete various tasks given by the villagers around you.
There is a main storyline for this game, but you are free to choose which tasks to complete first.
Many tasks are trivial and involve performing regular daily activities.
You will get points or rewards after completing each task.
You can choose between one of twelve classes at the start of the game.
In this game, aside from completing the main quests, you will live a daily life among the villagers and interact with them daily.
You can level up by fighting monsters and completing various quests in this game, and it gives you the freedom to explore the world and live the life the way you want.
It is available for Nintendo 3DS.
Official website: http://fantasylife.nintendo.com/
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles will take you into the wonderful open world of Gemea, a world with eight distinct environments that you can explore freely.
In this game, you will be able to adore the beauty of the land of Gemea, while doing various leisure activities in it.
However, there is one big task that you need to complete.
As you spend your daily life in Gemea, you need to prevent the sinister power known as Murk from taking hold of the land.
In order to do that, you will need to use Sprites to combat the Murk and restore the beauty of the world.
In Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles, you can do various things such as farming, tame the wildlife, socialize with the locals, and craft your own equipment.
There are also various professions that you can master in this game. It is avaialble for PS4, Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Download Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/580200/Yonder_The_Cloud_Catcher_Chronicles/
Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale
Just like the title suggests, Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale presents a tale about an item shop, where you play the characters that are charged with the management of an item shop.
The protagonists of this game are Recette, a girl who was given an item shop to manage in order to pay back the loan left by her father, and Tear, her loyal companion that will help her along the way.
In Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, the gameplay revolves mostly around the management of your item shop, while you are fulfilling the storyline of the game.
It also offers various other activities, such as dungeon explorations, interior design customization, stock management, and so on.
There are Survival Mode and Endless Mode that you can play after completing the game. It is available for Windows.
Download Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale from Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/70400/Recettear_An_Item_Shops_Tale/
Farm For Your Life
Farm For Your Life is a game that offers a combination of farming simulation, survival, tower defense, and time management.
In this game, your world is struck by a terrible storm that caused destructions everywhere.
Your task is to ensure the survival of your community by building a place worth living in the age of apocalypse.
In this game, you will not only need to build and manage your farm, but you will also need to protect your village from undead attacks.
The farming part of the game allows you to grow various crops, such as fruits and vegetables.
You can also raise animals, build strong towers, build mazes, customize your characters, and more.
There is also a story mode to complete in this game.
Download Farm For Your Life on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/266390/Farm_for_your_Life/
Harvest Moon: Light Of Hope Special Edition
Harvest Moon was the game that started the popularization of farming simulation RPG genre back in 1997.
Today, the series has produced various titles that basically retain the same kind of gameplay, with various improvements in terms of graphics quality, added features, and the variations of world settings and story elements.
Harvest Moon: Light Of Hope Special Edition is the latest installment in the series, with the Special Edition being the ultimate version of the Light Of Hope title.
In this game, you can find and collect materials that you can use to rebuild the town and restore the lighthouse that you have.
You can also befriend the villagers, get married, grow crops, manage your farm, and complete various requests from the villagers.
This game is available for PC, PS4, Switch, and mobile platforms.
Download Harvest Moon: Light Of Hope Special Edition on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/585900/Harvest_Moon_Light_of_Hope_Special_Edition/
Wild Season – Games Like Stardew Valley
Wild Season is a farming life simulation similar to Stardew Valley that emphasizes the daily living and activities that you do as a new farmer.
Coming from a big city, you decided to change your luck by buying a farm land in a village.
But, unfortunately, heavy storms making it difficult for you to reach the farm area that you have purchased.
Now, you are stranded in an unknown town with strange townspeople.
On this strange town, you need to begin your new life as a farmer, despite being surrounded by strange people around you.
In Wild Season, you can manage your farm, grow crops, raise animals, interact with the people around you, and do various other things.
You can also find your true love.
Download Wild Season on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/328220/Wild_Season/
Voodoo Garden
Voodoo Garden offers a farming simulation gameplay with a different twist.
Setting in a swamp area, you will manage a little hut there.
Just like with Stardew Valley, you can plant various trees, grow fruits, vegetables, and gather around the spirits to give you gold and power to create many voodoo supplies.
In this game, you can also catch wild animals that roam around the swamp, as well as raise some cute pets to go along your little hut management.
You can build your swamp area and turn it into an enchanting garden full of magic by producing various occult accessories.
Download Voodoo Garden on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/502770/Voodoo_Garden/
Diaries Of A Spaceport Janitor
How does it feel to have a job as a janitor of a spaceport? In Diaries Of A Spaceport Janitor, you will be able to experience the daily life of a spaceport janitor.
In this game, you have a job of taking up the trash in a spaceport full of aliens.
You can explore the large spaceport area as you do your daily job, as well as go to various places around it to discover strange items.
It is about living the regular life of a janitor with various tasks to do every single day.
And while you do it, your ultimate goal is to finally be able to be free from your boring daily life at the spaceport and leave your planet forever.
Download Diaries Of A Spaceport Janitor on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/436500/Diaries_of_a_Spaceport_Janitor/
Graveyard Keeper
Graveyard Keeper is a game similar to Stardew Valley. But, instead of managing a farm, you will be required to manage a graveyard as a graveyard keeper.
Your daily routine will involve tending the graves, clear the boulders and trees that might overrun the cemetery area, tending the church, and making money from your grave-keeping activity.
In this game, you will meet various characters that will ask you to do various things.
Your daily life is not just limited to activities involving the cemetery, but you can also do various things, such as gathering resources, crafting items, create business alliances, and explore the dungeons.
Graveyard Keeper is available for Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Official website: https://www.graveyardkeeper.com/
Starbound – Games Like Stardew Valley
Starbound offers unending exploration for various planets in the universe, but the main focus is the building and management of your colony.
Stranded in a new unknown planet, you will need to survive and build your colony there as you repair your ship and gather resources necessary to keep yourself alive.
This game is similar to Stardew Valley, only the setting for this game takes place on an unknown planet.
As you farm the land in the planet where your colony belongs, you can go from one planet to another planet to mine for rare resources.
You can also become an intergalactic lord if you want to.
Starbound has lots of interesting things to discover, such as ancient temples, strange creatures, trees with eyes, super-modern city, and many more.
It is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
Official website: https://playstarbound.com/
Staxel
Staxel is about living the life as a villager and a farmer. With voxel-based graphics like Minecraft and the gameplay similar to Stardew Valley.
This is the game that offers you various exciting activities to experience the village life fully.
In Staxel, you need to nurture the farm that you have on a daily basis, while keeping good interactions with many villagers around you.
You can customize various aspects of this game, including your environments, houses, or modify your world just the way you want it to be.
Staxel also allows you to team up with your friends online so that you can work together to nurture your farm and share the results with other players.
Staxel is available for Windows.
Official website: https://playstaxel.com/
Slime Rancher
In Slime Rancher, although the gameplay is similar to other farming simulation games, it has its own unique style.
For instance, instead of offering the similar gameplay, with the similar camera perspective like Stardew Valley, you will play as the character in first person perspective.
However, the essence of the gameplay is the same. You are managing a ranch where you need to nurture every single day.
The only difference is that you are collecting and breeding slimes in a planet far away from Earth.
In this foreign planet, you will raise slimes so that they can produce “plorts” that you can sell later.
This is the way you make money. In Slime Rancher, you can upgrade your farm, equipment, vacuum, and the character itself.
This game is available for Windows, Linux, Mac, PS4, and Xbox One.
Official website: http://slimerancher.com/
RimWorld – Games Like Stardew Valley
RimWorld is a life simulation game that focuses on the future age where colonies are common among humans.
You will be required to manage your daily life as you build your colony and expand it.
In a planet far from your home planet, your spaceship needs to do an emergency landing, and you are required to build and sustain a new colony there.
There will be many stories that you will experience as you live your daily life in the colony.
There will be illnesses, wounds, diseases, and many other challenges for your colony.
Your job is is to maintain balance and keep the colony alive, as well as keep the inhabitants in a good mood.
RimWorld is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Official website: https://rimworldgame.com/
Gleaner Heights
Gleaner Heights is a game like Stardew Valley where it emphasizes the vibe and gameplay elements of classic farming simulation games.
The game itself is set similar to the 90s era. In Gleaner Heights, you will use your farming tools to build your farm to glory.
In so doing, you can be the richest person in town.
This game offers various activities, such as farming, tending animals, growing various crops, fishing, crafting items, and more.
You can also explore your town, making friends with the people living there, and probably build a romantic relationship with the girl of your choice.
The RPG element of this game also involves exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, and discovering the darkest secrets of the local townspeople.
It is available for PC and Xbox One.
Official website: https://www.gleanerheights.com/
Conclusion
If you like playing farming or life simulation games that often have RPG elements in it, such as Stardew Valley, these alternatives can give you various new experiences that make them worth playing.
Building and managing your farms or colonies, as well as fighting monsters and intruders can give you more experience in this type of games.
You can learn to grow various plants and crops, as well as taking care of various livestocks.
You will later need to make money from the things that you do in your farm. You can also communicate and socialize with the local community and even build romantic relationships with the girls.
There are various items to craft, various decorations to apply to your house, and various characters that you can choose.
So, if Stardew Valley is the game that you enjoy so much, you can start playing these alternatives to get even more enjoyment in your gameplay.
So, tell me which one of all these Games Like Stardew Valley, is your personal favorite and why?