Top 5 Suggestions for Stardew Valley Switch Lovers

by

Stardew Valley is an indie farming simulation RPG that was released on PC in February 2016 and then ported for everything but Nintendo…until today. As of October 5, 2017, you can now download it off the Nintendo Switch eShop, and for just $14.99. In Stardew Valley “Switch” (it’s the same game), you just inherited your grandpa’s huge yet messy farm plot in a place called – you guessed it – Stardew Valley, as well as his dirty, worn-out tools and some pocket change (thanks a lot, Gramps). So you leave your cushy office job to live the life of a farmer, but there’s way, way more than just tending to your farm and making bank; you find yourself mining and crafting, flirting with the locals to get married, even fighting monsters such as mummies and things called “Shadow Shamans.” It’s totally up to you and the possibilities are near endless.

This game is a great entry into the world of farming sims and Stardew Valley may just leave you wanting to till other fertile fields on your Nintendo consoles; here are a list of the top 5 not-to-be-missed series for beginning farmhands!

Harvest Moon

The original farming simulator by Natsume! Stardew Valley’s creators were actually inspired by the Harvest Moon series. It all started in 1997 with Harvest Moon for the SNES but the series took an unfortunate downward spiral after Magical Melody dropped for the GameCube in 2006. Have no fear though, I’m here to point you in the right direction when it comes to which Harvest Moon titles to give a shot:

  • Harvest Moon 64 (1999, Nintendo 64)
  • Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (2003, Game Boy Advance, 2015, Wii U)
  • Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (2003, GameCube)
  • Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (2006, GameCube, 2009, Wii)

These games offer you a great combination of farming, customization and role-playing. And if you’re looking for an updated version, check out Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning on the Nintendo 3DS (2012). It’s pretty decent for a modern Harvest Moon. But whatever you do, do NOT bother with Harvest Moon: Light of Hope which came out this past summer (2017) for the Nintendo Switch. It’s dreadful.

Story of Seasons

The Story of Seasons series is the continuation of the Harvest Moon series under a different name due to getting acquired by Marvelous Inc. (formerly Natsume) and then localized by their American publishing brand XSEED Games. It’s a good thing the games are still being brought to the West, because both existing titles, Story of Seasons (2015) and Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns (2017), for the Nintendo 3DS are a joy to play. This series is basically a prettier-looking, smoother (though less traditional) Harvest Moon experience, which is similar to Stardew Valley, with the ultimate goal of working with your fellow farmers to make your town famous.

And if you like Story of Seasons, get hyped because XSEED Games announced they are big fans of the Nintendo Switch and will be developing their upcoming games for it.

Fantasy Life

Now, if you’ve taken a liking to the combat side of Stardew Valley more than the farming side, then do I have a game for you: Fantasy Life (2014) by Level-5 on the Nintendo 3DS. You choose from one of twelve “Lifes” (classes): Alchemist, Angler, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Cook, Hunter, Magician, Mercenary, Miner, Paladin, Tailor or Woodcutter, and then set out on a quest to either save the kingdom or just build a successful life for yourself, or both. The combat, crafting, exploring, customization, building, etc. are all simple and fun. Similarly to Stardew Valley, the choice is yours every step of the way and don’t worry, you can change your Life whenever (as long as you’re not in the middle of a quest!)

P.S. Fantasy Life Online, the sequel, is coming soon.

Rune Factory

Marvelous, Natsume and XSEED Games are behind the Rune Factory series, described by one of the producers as the “Harvest Moon where you wield a sword.” It all started with Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (yes, it’s actually called that) in 2007 on the Nintendo 3DS. You farm it up, craft it up and build up relationships with the other villagers as you do in Stardew Valley but the game mainly focuses on the action part – delving through dungeons and fighting anything that looks at you the wrong way. And instead of purchasing livestock you befriend monsters in dungeons. Cool, right?

If you’re intrigued, all the titles are good but Rune Factory 4 (2013) on the Nintendo 3DS is the newest and is a total banger. Unfortunately it is currently unknown whether the series will ever see additional development.

Terraria

Last but not least, Terraria. This 2D sandbox developed by Re-Logic came out of nowhere in 2011 on PC and made serious waves before hitting the Nintendo 3DS in 2015, then the Wii U in 2016. It’s like the lovechild of Minecraft and Metroid. You start off in a freshly generated world with basic tools and then go crazy. There’s caves with minerals to extract, materials to build an empire out of, vendors to attract and fill your empire with, different biomes to explore and awesome equipment and insane weapons to craft or find and then use to demolish loads of monsters (including bosses) coming your way. It takes the endless possibilities of Stardew Valley and kind of multiplies it by infinity for countless hours of fun.

And if you’re too busy with Stardew Valley Switch or the other great games in this list, there’s no harm in waiting it out because 505 Games (the publisher) announced in February 2017 that Terraria is coming to the Nintendo Switch real soon.

So, back to playing some more Stardew Valley Switch? Or, will you be taking a swing (with your sickle, because farming) at one of the great titles on this list?

Supporters

Nick F

Smearg

Foil Island

Conglome NERD

alcremie sundae

Radiant Blutle

Zachery

Dragoniteo

Austin John Plays

Help support our work by becoming a Patron on Patreon! Swadloon Platoon members and above will be added to our site supporters list!

852 thoughts on “Top 5 Suggestions for Stardew Valley Switch Lovers”

  1. Alight i need some help with Stardew Valley
    I have no idea what i should be focusing on
    i barely have any gold and my crops aren’t selling very much
    i try fishing and that’s meager change
    i’m just trying to figure out where and what everything is and does but i’m struggling to not waste energy on stupid stuff

    its very frustrating since i barely have anything and its nearly the end of the first month

    Reply

    • Buy a lot of seeds, cauliflower is the best paying one but takes 12 days so don’t plant those after the 15th of spring (you will lose all crops in summer). Make sure you have a small field full of crops all the time, don’t buy anything else in the beginning. On some days just water them, and go out foraging (picking up crops), building the community center, and level up fishing. Be sure to gather some wood and repair the bridge on the beach. Just use up your energy cutting down trees right before you go to sleep. Don’t take animals at first because they cost a lot of hay and need care, work for the silo first. When nothing really to do, just go into the mines, although those are better in winter (not a lot of crops to harvest).

      First thing to buy once you have over 4K of money is the bigger backpack, it is really needed to advance a lot faster.

      Reply

      • ok i think i just wasted a sh*t load on the caliuflower after the 15th and i already fixed that bridge and got the bigger backpack
        i just don’t like not knowing how to do things or have a routine
        i think i’m just going to fish and buy seeds and just keep scraping until i figure out how to get the silo

        Reply

    • First off, you have plenty of time so don’t worry. A lot of people reset after learning everything or they just spend their first year fucking around.

      No rush

      I’d focus on getting materials so you can build sprinklers to somewhat automate your farm so you can spend less time on the farm. If you want more money, go into the mines. That’s something you can do basically any day you want and you always end up with rocks you will need for crafting and gems you can sell for cash

      Reply

    • What I would definitely suggest is trying to get the greenhouse from the community center so you can grow crops during winter. What you need to do is complete the spring foraging bundle, which is really easy. Just donate a dandelion, a wild horseradish, a daffodil, and a leek. And then you’ll open the option to get the greenhouse. Then donate a parsnip, a potato, a greenbeen, and a cauliflower and bam you got the greenhouse. Be careful because you can only grown those 4 crops during the spring so you won’t be able to get the greenhouse until next spring if you wait too long

      Reply

  4. Using Great Force in Superstar Saga is so much fun, I don’t think I ever tried it out in the past. It doubles damage, both given and taken, meaning battles are more challenging. I definitely recommend using it if you’ve played the game to death like I have.

    Reply

  5. I completed my Wonderlocke run with 3 Pokemon left, it was quite challenging but a lot of fun! I’m gonna do another one soon to improve 🙂

    Reply

  7. I’m gonna be pretty pissed if the apricorn balls aren’t widely available in USUM. How crazy would it be though if, by help of the ultra wormholes, we could travel to certain parts of each region in the post game? Like we could take one to Azalea town for apricorn balls, Hoenn battle frontier, etc.

    Reply

  10. I’ll forever be confused where the titles ‘Heart’ Gold and ‘Soul’ Silver come from

    especially because the games don’t have a heart or a soul

    Reply

        • Unfortunately there wasn’t much they could really do with the story to make it good without deviating from it being a remake. I will give you the level curve, that’s just unacceptable.

          Reply

          • They could be made dialogue changes and stuff that didn’t totally change the whole game? At least anything to give any character in that game decent characterisation at all would’ve helped a lot

          • I think the dialogue was fine enough, what they needed was for Team Rocket to have a cohesive plan, which isn’t something you could change in a remake. Why are they at the slowpoke well or terrorizing the kimono girls if they’re really trying to contact Giovanni…? You could maybe make the argument that “they’re no longer organized without Giovanni,” but I think that’s lazy. This is why Gen 2 is MASSIVELY overrated by the pokemon community, imo, especially the pokemon introduced. Take away the gen 4 evolutions for them and it’s basically a straight crap generation

        • The fact that they never changed the story in the past 3 remakes makes me really worried that they won’t change anything in DP’s story

          Reply

          • They Don’t Change the story, they append something to the end of it, Like the Sevii Islands and Delta Episode. and they did do minor changes in ORAS and completely redesigned the Admins.

          • Eh, I don’t really want the plot to be completely changed, just redo some things to make it work better like extra dialogue or something like that. But I can see them focusing on other things that need more focusing

            And since when did ports change the story? they’re just a game being available to play in another console iirc

    • The heart I can see “It will reveal itself before a pure-hearted trainer by shining its bright rainbow-colored wings” – Ho-oh dex

      And Soul maybe so it can be a counterpart? idk

      Or maybe it has something to do with Japanese mythology or religion like buddhism cuz the games legends have some sort of old Japanese vibes around them

      Reply

      • Yeah here and there, mostly Random Battle or AG. I had an Ice mono team back in the spring, I think it consisted of A-Sandlash, A-Ninetales, Avalugg, Walrein, Weavile, and Froslass.

        Reply

  13. I wanna write a letter

    ”Hey
    DC
    Casting Jared Leto wasn’t that good of an idea
    You know that
    Just do the right thing
    Cast Mark Hammil as the Joker
    An older Joker Maybe
    Maybe Leto’s Joker’s Father or Mentor
    You could do it
    He’d be amazing
    You could do it”

    Reply

  14. Fire Red and Leaf Green were so scared to be different from RGBY they literally didn’t give you the town map until after the 7th badge because that’s when they added the Sevii Islands and they could do something different

    Reply

  17. Gen 7.0 Livedex complete! (excluding OG Colour Magearna, Eternal Floette, and the last three SuMo Pikacaps)

    So excited to begin on the Gen 7.5 Livedex! It’ll probably be over in a flash but it’s the first time I can add new Pokémon to the livedex during a gen!

    Reply

  19. Update to my silver run:
    Sudowoodo 23
    Furret 25
    Flaaffy 28
    Togepi 23
    Croconaw 25
    Magmar 20

    Really getting frustrated with this team. I am missing a lot of coverage

    Reply

  21. I swear always the bad luck
    Ambipom’s Normal Gem Double hit misses Linnone and it gets to pull off its stupid gimmick of having Belly Drum and Extremespeed, sweeps half my team and I lose because even scarfed Emboar couldn’t outsped Jolteon

    Reply

  22. Ugh. I was bored so I decided to shiny hunt Grubbin through chaining, and I wasn’t paying attention and killed my anchor at 80. I’m gonna wipe my slate clean and try the Magikarp method so I can decide what I actually want later (probably Rowlet though).

    Reply

  23. Am I the only one who feels like they really missed the mark with Gladions character? He’s just kind of blah. The amount of attention given to him compared to Lillie is so small.

    Reply

  25. Also off topic but to went to the Sistine Chapel today and learned that Michaelangelo was a badass

    Everyone talks about the ceiling but he did this huge painting on the wall behind where the priest stands about Judgement Day and he drew two men holding eachother and kissing in heaven and he also painted his enemy who works for the church as a demon in hell who looks like a donkey

    He didn’t give a fuuuuck

    Reply

Leave a Comment