World’s Dawn shares many similarities with Stardew Valley. For starters, it’s set in a seaside village with a cutesy aesthetic and plenty of social interaction with its adorable inhabitants. The emphasis of gameplay, too, is also centered around farming, in which you’ll have to tend to your crops, raise livestock, go fishing, hunting, and mine for resources.
World’s Dawn is very much a non-linear experience; a life simulation game where it is left to the player as to whether they want to spend time micromanaging their farm, hunting, or attempting to court townsfolk in romantic engagements. There are over thirty different NPCs you can speak with throughout the game, which means there’s loads of different story-arcs and possible relationships to foster.
Because the game is made using the RPG Maker engine, World’s Dawn’s aesthetic isn’t quite as unique and vibrant as Stardew Valley. But for those interested in a farming sim with plenty of activities and NPCs to interact with, it’s well worth playing.
Story of Seasons is the latest title in the Harvest Moon series on which Stardew Valley is heavily inspired by. And while Stardew Valley might have surpassed its source material in many ways, A Story of Seasons is still an excellent game in its own right. The plot certainly isn’t as strong as Stardew, but it does offer an impressively deep level of customization. Players freely move their whole farm setup – fields, barns, paddies, etc – and swap things out quickly and intuitively without running the risk of losing any contents. This extends to the entire township, too, including decorating a monthly festival space with flowers and building new shops for villagers to occupy. And in comparison to the frustratingly limited character customization options in previous Harvest Moon games, Story of Seasons has more complexity to it.
Players start as a young, inexperienced farmer with virtually nothing to their name. Slowly but surely you’ll build your homestead by growing crops, taking care of animals, and trading with merchants. Your meager plot of land eventually becomes a bustling and successful business, though expect to invest a significant amount of time in the game before this occurs. It takes many years of in-game time performing your daily chores like milking the cows, watering your crops, and maintaining the land. A big new addition to gameplay is the ability to trade with neighboring farmers, adding a bit more depth to the economy of growing and selling crops.
