Pretty much the title. What games do you love and what makes them not stardew valley stand out ( be it gameplay quirks, storyline, minigames… ) ?

  • I just finished Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin.

    Its one of the best farming games I’ve ever played, but it’s also like… a real ass simulation game. You don’t get to grow whatever you want, you will grow rice and you’ll either like it or leave. Kept your paddy’s water level too high? Mold. Didn’t get rid of pests? Disease. Didn’t keep enough water in on a hot day? Uh oh, water evaporated and now your rice is under watered. If the waters too cold it won’t absorb nutrients right.

    It’s also 50 percent a action rpg platformer, but don’t think you can get around doing the bare minimum in the farming just to play it: your stats are directly reliant on how good you rice farm. No level grinding through combat.

    I really enjoyed it but I’m still not sure who the target demographic for this game was. How big is the overlap between “traditional rice farmers” and “action rpg enjoyers”? At any rate, I high key reccomend it if you think you could be interested in rice farming whatsoever, because the story is great too.

    • With my track record at killing even cacti, I am going to suck at this game. It does sound interesting, though (and “great story” is enough to make me face the rice farming).

      It definitely sounds unique, which is exactly was I was hoping for when I made the post! Thank you!

      • It’s a lot more forgiving than I make it sound, getting disease usually just means your stats go up less. Just for the love of god don’t leave it all to Tauemon, he’s wise beyond his years but he is not good at executing on that knowledge. I recommend holding off on looking up an optimal rice farming guide until you’re to the point where you can’t progress at all anymore, which for me was before the final boss.

        Also, there’s an easy difficulty for both farming and combat individually (and that you can select at any time), so if you’d rather focus on one or the other you can!