What Are The Best Games Like My Time In Portia?
My Time at Portia is a farming, building, and life simulator filled with heartwarming characters, countless exciting quests, and hours upon hours of gameplay.
My Time at Portia embodies all of the aspects that we have come to love about the farming simulator genre. Crafting your own weapons, growing your own food, making friends, going on exciting quests, and finding eternal love are all aspects of this genre that fans look for and appreciate. Something about living a small town life and going back to basics is just so calming and satisfying.
10. Stardew Valley
Jump into the famous farm adventure that is Stardew Valley!
Stardew Valley begins with your character on a bus ride to Pelican Town, the main area that the story takes place. You have inherited your late grandfather’s farm and are expected to take up an axe, hoe, and pickaxe and restore it to its former glory.
The main story revolves around two choices: repair the town recreation center, or help an evil corporation named “Joja” monopolize Pelican Town. Joja is out to take over Pelican Town and industrialize the farming culture. The future of the town is in your hands!
In the meantime, you’re free to explore all that Stardew Valley has to offer. Make new friends, go dungeon diving to find secret treasures and special ores, go fishing, and learn how to make your new farm prosper!
Engage in annual festivals to get closer to the townsfolk of Pelican Town. You can also buy or play games for rare items at festival booths.
Craft, farm, mine, and fish! The mechanics of Stardew Valley are easy to learn and streamlined. You will be playing for hours.
9.The Harvest Moon Series
The farming classic that stole gamer’s hearts and set the standard for what farm games should be!
Harvest Moon, also known as Story of Seasons in Japan, no matter which iteration out of its many that you may choose to play, embodies the charm of what a farming simulator truly should be. Harvest Moon begins with our protagonist arriving on his newly inherited farm, provided by his grandfather. He is tasked with restoring the farm to its former beauty and to maintain the health of crops and animals.
You are free to explore the beautiful town, inhabited by kind-hearted citizens who want to see you prosper. Raise cattle and chickens and profit from their resources like milk and eggs, bond with your horse and dog and reap the benefits, and raise a plethora of crops to become the most successful farm in town.
Harvest Moon is the grandfather of all farming simulators we know today. It planted the seed for what the basis of all farming games should look and perform like.
Harvest Moon has been remade into 27 different versions of the original story that so many fell in love with. Each title features its own unique characters and stories. Now that’s impressive!
8. Graveyard Keeper
Find yourself lost in an obscure world, mutilating dead bodies and become a skilled mortician to find your way home!
Graveyard Keeper begins with our protagonist known as The Keeper making his way home to his wife but is unexpectedly struck by a car on this dark, rainy night. He awakens in a dim, foggy limbo and is greeted by a mysterious hooded figure who tells him that to get home to his love, he must be the best graveyard keeper there is.
Again our character awakens in his bed in a mysterious house. Accompanied by a talking skull named Jerry, you must complete quests given to you by the townspeople to gain their trust and help to figure out why you’re here and how to get back home.
Become a skilled mortician and use the bodies for things that no good or ethical mortician would ever think of. Sell human meat for profit, farm a multitude of crops, complete satanic rituals, anything morally wrong that you can think of doing, you can do it in Graveyard Keeper.
Toss those useless corpses in the river. No one is stopping you.
Use the body parts of the dead and whatever you can scavenge and farm to set up a dark, foreboding dungeon for the evil ritual. You thought I was kidding about that, didn’t you?
7. YONDER: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Banish the Murk and unleash the old guardians to save Gemea!
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles begins with our protagonist sailing along stormy seas with his crew on an expedition to find Gemea, an island alleged to be home to a magical kingdom. After an unfortunately timed lightning strike, your boat crashes into an underground cave. You are spiritually contacted by Aerie, a god-like being who once protected Gemea.
She introduces you to your celestial compass which guides you wherever your destiny is meant to take you. She tells you that you must find and awaken her family of other powerful guardians. You then set forth on your adventure to save Gemea from a growing darkness known as the Murk. Farm, craft, explore, befriend villagers, and find sprites that help you grow your power. Sprites aid you in your quest to clear the Murk, find the guardians, and save the island.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles features breathtaking scenery with dynamic and emotional lighting.
Befriend adorable animals from all over the map. It’s always comforting to have a fuzzy friend follow you along!
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Join Link once again on a fantastic fantasy adventure through Hyrule like no other!
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild opens with our beloved Link emerging from a cave into Hyrule, though not as most may remember it. Link’s awakening follows the aftermath of an apocalyptic event. Link, like in the previous games, must venture out and save Hyrule and restore his memory of who Princess Zelda really was. As you delve into this rich, deep story, you slowly uncover the truth behind how and why Hyrule was left in pieces.
Though this title does not feature any farming elements, it is plentiful in combat, crafting, and exploration. One major element in the game that is unique on this list is the puzzle challenges frequently presented to you. They will have you going “hmm” for hours.
The combat system is smooth with a very soft learning curve. The environment and enemies all have plenty of variation to keep your gameplay from getting stale. In fact, for most of your time in Hyrule, you will be too busy staring in awe at the vast, varying landscapes that all have their own elemental charm and secrets to be found.
Although simplistic, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild features a mix of cell shading and dynamic lighting that come together to create stunning visuals that make you want to pause and breathe in the world.
I understand this game is great, but be sure to keep your clothes on! The NPC’s always have something interesting to say in this game and have a pretty impressive AI.
5. Rune Factory Series
Love Harvest Moon but want more monsters? Rune Factory will scratch that itch!
Rune Factory is game with a style akin to Harvest Moon. It is often subtitled as “A Fantasy Harvest Moon.” The games in the Rune Factory series begin the same as those in the Harvest Moon series where you character arrives in a new town and must befriend villagers and farm to progress.
Key differences in this title include the type of livestock you can raise and the dungeon elements. Instead of raising cows, chickens, and other realistic livestock, you raise monsters. The dungeon feature adds hours of extra play time and discovery. You can befriend every villager you see and even get married. Enjoy this title with hours of story and dialogue and live your best fantasy life.
Even the Nintendo DS versions of the Rune Factory series feature beautiful graphics and intricate towns that really please the eye.
Rune Factory boasts a charming anime-inspired art style. The cell shaded characters contrast nicely against the painted backgrounds.
4. Orange Season
If you enjoyed Stardew Valley, Orange Season has much to offer, plus its own unique features.
Orange Season is heavily inspired by its amazing predecessor, Stardew Valley. What sets this game apart from so many farming games like it, is the way in which your character receives their farm. For once, you are not riding on the back of your grandfather or dad for an inherited plot of land. Instead, your character buys his own.
The story begins with the main character purchasing his own plot of land as the first step to fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a successful farmer. He meets the Orange Town mayor at the local train station and is led to his new home. The town sheriff also pops in to say hello and initiate the tutorial.
Orange Season features many of the same ideals as the previous games on our list: raising livestock, farming, friendship, and world exploration. One unique aspect of Orange Season is that you can find and tame wild animals to live on your farm as well.
For a pixelated style, Orange Season is quite detailed and boasts an interesting, earthy color palette. It also include plenty of small, eye-catching details.
There’s plenty of plot to places your plants! The design of the farm gives you enough room to plant seeds without making the screen look crowded or over-saturated.
3. Minecraft
Jump into the long-time classic and build amazing homes, fight monsters in the night, and shape the world to your design!
Minecraft is a well-known classic that holds a place in the hearts of many long-time gamers. There is no story in Minecraft except for the ones you write for yourself. This is one of the most perfect crafting and role-playing games on the market.
You begin your journey with a blank inventory and only the clothes on your back. The only way to survive is to get moving and get mining! You can hunt, farm, build, fight, and explore a randomly-generated world with all kinds of climates and landscapes that you can find in real life.
Manipulate your environment in any way you can imagine! You can build your house in the sky, into a cliff face, underground, anywhere!
With time, patience, and skill, Minecraft players have built impressive structures. This truly seems like a castle fit for a square, pixelated king.
2. Staxel
If you love Minecraft, but want a game more focused on role-playing and township, jump into Staxel!
Staxel is heavily inspired by Minecraft, but with many of its own unique features and focuses more on farming than exploration and fighting and foraging for supplies. Begin by customizing your 3D pixel character. Once created you are introduced to a semi-fantasy world and discover that you have purchased an old abandoned farm within the town. You receive a tour of the town, which gives you a idea of where you’re living and the kinds of people you will befriend.
After introducing yourself to the townies, you are free to explore on your own.
Go shopping at the local supermarket, have a drink at the tavern, raise animals, and go fishing in your down time. Staxel also focuses more on relationships with NPCs. The stronger the relationship, the more benefits you reap, like money and resources.
Experience different weather patterns such as sun, snow, and rain! Better bring your umbrella if you’re going terraforming today.
The village is so quaint and cozy. Build houses for NPC’s and make the village look exactly the way you see fit.
1. Terraria
Discover big bosses, fight zombies, and dig, dig, DIG!
Terraria is the only title on our list that is developed in a 2D pixel art sidescroller format. You begin with only your basic tools and are free to set off mining, chopping trees, and running blindly into monster battles. Terraria has an exciting feature that involves a day and night cycle where by day you mine and build your shelter and by night you are bombarded with hoards of zombies and monsters, similar to Minecraft and 7 Days to Die.
One of the most interesting aspects of Terraria is that it is not all that it seems on the surface, both literally and figuratively. Once you choose to venture underground, you will find yourself in a complex system of caverns hiding secrets, monsters, ores, and new weapons.
Another interesting feature in this game is that the more structures you build, the more you attract NPCs to your settlement. These characters can provide you with special items.
Combat is streamlined and fluid for a 2D sidescroller format. If you enjoy hacking and slashing plenty of pixelated enemies and hilarious boss fights, then you should get digging.
The possibilities of how and where to build your base are endless.
Fight against terrifying bosses buried in the dark!
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