Now here's another genre I know precious little about.

For starters: What is a Life Sim? Like every other genre this is always debatable. I don't want to inhibit anyone, so I think it may be best to just accept all entries as suitable.

Do you play Life Sims? What kind? The more management focused or the job focused ones? Do you have any suggestions for a newbie like me?

I'd love to get into more Life Sims. I think they really have the potential to captivate me if I find the right one, but it just doesn't seem like there are that many of them out there.



My experience with the genre is very limited, the only ones I've played was:

- The Sims: I found it quite boring. I'm just not much into this style where it feels more like you are managing the circunstances and giving orders, instead of taking direct control of a character and playing through the tasks.

- Animal Crossing: New Lead on the 3DS: It might be alright, but the game is tied to the system's clock, giving you very little to do every day, expecting you to return and play just a little bit day by day. I'm the type to really focus on a game and play it a lot until I finish it, this means that with such small play sessions I'd just forget about the game altogether and gave my attention to someone else. I tried playing it several times but this always happens.

- Stardew Valley: Such a wonderful game. There's something about doing these tasks day after ingame day, with such a pleasant atmosphere and a quaintness to everything that is nothing short of soothing. Getting to know the people in the little town, each with their own little story, renovating the community center, growing the best vegetables you can to put in display in the upcoming Stardew Valley Fair. If anything it reminds me of old children's shows in that way.

- Fantasy Life on the 3DS: It has a tone very similar to Stardew Valley, but it's more focused on taking a variety of different jobs. You become a cook and want to make the biggest pot roast ever, but for that you need dragon meat; so you become a paladin to slay a dragon, but you don't have the legendary sword; so you become a blacksmith to make the legendary sword, but you don't have the metal; so you become a miner and go search for the ore, but your pickaxe isn't strong enough to break through the ore; so you become a carpenter to make the tools you need, but you don't have the wood required, so you become a woodcutter and look for the biggest tree in the forest. You're always switching from one job to another and meeting new weird people in each job.



I know Harvest Moon's name gets thrown around a lot, but I never played it. It's just not available in the systems I have with me right now, except perhaps the 3DS, but there's a whole mess going on with that on the fight over the rights of using the name and that Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons thing. I wouldn't even know which game in the series would be good to start with.

Of course, just because I wasn't a fan of The Sims, doesn't mean you can't go ahead and talk about games along the lines of Spore and SimAnt if you like them, or recommend them anyway if you think anyone should give them a shot.

I play A LOT of Sims 2 and Stardew Valley.

I'm a little vague on what exactly you mean by that genre title.

Do the SimCity games count? Terraria? Project Zomboid? Don't Starve? Banished? The Shelter games? This War of Mine? I've played all of them but I don't know if they fit your definition.

All of these deal with getting someone through day to day life albeit some with extraordinary circumstances throw in.

Have you really never heard of the Life Sim genre before?

Anyway, this is precisely the debate I wanted to avoid, but if pressed I'd say that Life Sims can be divided into a simulation of life in the biological sense (SimAnt, Shelter, Seamen, Spore), and a simulation of life focused on its social aspects (The Sims, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley). There may be some overlap with job simulators, Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley are farming similators as well after all. Games like Don't Starve and Project Zomboid may have day/night cycles but I would just classify them as survival games, and SimCity and Banished are city-building games.

But my point in avoiding this discussion is that if you want to talk about any of these games, and someone else wants to hear it, then I don't want to put a lid on it.

Jesus, I give up with you.

Don't worry, I'm leaving your precious thread, and I promise to avoid any others in the future.

...Because I said it's better for the thread that you should talk about whatever you want regardless if it applies strictly to how I define the topic, or whether or not it's a game that interests me personally?

Fucking really?

The rights issue is due to Marvelous self-publishing Bokujō Monogatari through XSeed. Natsume owns the name Harvest Moon and Marvelous developed the games. As for which to get, Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning is good. Story of Seasons is also good. I can't speak for Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns as I haven't played it yet.

How about Long Live the Queen or Redshirt? Both are available in GOG.

It's not a genre I avoid.
Ones I enjoy tend to be pretty few and far between though.
So far in this thread I haven't seen The Guild (available on GOG and Steam) or Princess Maker 2 (remake available on Steam) mentioned.
You could check those out to see if they might interest you.

All I'm saying is that I hope Citra's development continues because there's no way I'm gripping that ugly 240p device again. :b

Those games seem interesting. My biggest barrier of entry there is the price though. 3DS games rarely get discounts. Unfortunately, it looks like this type of game doesn't really come to PC. I was hoping it would so I wouldn't have to invest too much into taking a chance on any of them.