Summary
The farming sim genre has exploded in popularity within recent years, gaining an incredible amount of traction as the perfect game to play when people need to unwind after a hard day at work or excessively grind over for months at a time. Even themore obscure titlesin this genre grow their own followings fast - this is a style of game that just appeals to those who love to explore and slowly build up progress over a long period of time.
But when looking at thisgenre as a whole, one thing that stands out is its coziness. Its content, soothing atmosphere, taking things one step at a time, enjoying the little things in life, farming whatever item one’s chosen romance NPC likes best, that kind of thing. This might be the rule among farming sims, but these difficult games prove there are more than a few exceptions to it.
1Serin Fate
An Indie Love Letter To Farming Sims And RPGs
On its Steam page,Serin Fateimmediately warns players that this game is deceptively difficult and that death will be a frequent part of the title. “Deceptively” is the right word, considering how lovingly crafted and cozy-looking the graphics are. There’s alovely autumn aestheticto the world and its design is very focused on a kind of classic, 90s high fantasy style. Players will spend their time doing many wizardly things - farms are good not just for food but potion brewing, and training familiars is an essential part of the overall experience.
Monsters are fearsome, and the game doesn’t hold the players' hand much at all, leading to a difficult but incredibly satisfying indie title that could use some more love. This is definitely a title for those interested in games with the energy ofStardew Valleybut more of a fantasy bent, such asSun Haven.
Slime Rancher 2essentially iterates on what was already an amazing farming sim and creature collector title -Slime Rancher. There are a host ofnew, rare slimesto catch and study, and the game expands on its predecessor in many ways. This game provides the same cathartic joy and satisfaction as its predecessor but doesn’t shy away from upping the stakes and adding new dimensions to the setting, making for an incredibly engaging exploration and narrative experience.
Feral slimes and the sinister Tarr are more aggressive than ever, with a special option allowing them to deal even more damage to the player and posing an even greater threat, an oddly cutesy menace in this game that’s usually focused on gooey goodness and jubilant, bouncing, adorable slimes.
Story of Seasonsis an interesting title with a novel premise for a farming sim. Players are tasked with taking on much more variety and playing more economically than in other, slower-paced farming sims, as the name of the game is economic revitalization - the player is running this farm to entice vendors to settle in the local town. The higher quality and more exotic the player’s goods, the more they’ll bring in vendors, who also have their unique goods for trade.
This game has quite a difficult and high standard to meet for crafting high-quality goods, and players can expect - despite the economically minded gameplay - to be without a ton of fun money for a long while. For a game that can challenge playerswithout utilizing combat,Story of Seasonsis hard to pass up.
Asci-fi fantasy wonderfrom Square Enix,Harvestellais an often overlooked farming simulator that gets all the fundamentals down perfectly. Plenty of side content in the form of side quests and NPC affection quests to handle, a robust system of farming and funneling the harvested goods directly into shipping, or turning them into either artisan goods that are more expensive or food for the players to use in dungeons.
These dungeons that make up the bulk of gameplay, however, are where the difficulty lies. Enemies get very hard to defeat in later sections, and their elemental resistances and weaknesses mean players are constantly engaged in a game of scissors-paper-rock with the enemies. It’s challenging but rewarding, and the difficult boss fights only exemplify this feeling further.
5Harvest Moon DS: Sunshine Islands
A Notoriously Hard DS Farming Sim
Sunshine Islandsis one of the more expansive games intheHarvest Moonseries, and building on an idyllic, varied collection of islands is an incredibly satisfying experience for both veterans and new players coming to this particular genre for the first time.
However, a finicky weather system can kill crops that don’t get enough sunlight, get too much sunlight, or don’t get enough water. Collecting the required 100 sun stones to restore all the islands, and doing so while trying to turn a profit with the frankly cutthroat prices of goods, is a very challenging experience even among seasonedHarvest Moonfans.
