Best PS5 Games Like Stardew Valley

Summary

• Farming Simulator 25 is meticulously crafted and features fun vehicle controls.
• Character count: 72
• Hokko Life offers cute aesthetics, engaging gameplay, and exploration with NPCs.
• Character count: 69
• Slime Rancher is a unique farming sim with slimes instead of traditional livestock.
• Character count: 71

It’s almost impossible to lavish Stardew Valley with enough praise. Almost a decade after its release, it’s still considered a must-play and maintains a large active player base, with little wonder why. Upon release, the pixel art life simulator quickly revealed its surprisingly deep gameplay, world, and even some well-hidden lore.

Unsurprisingly, the magic that Stardew Valley captured has led to its share of imitators, as well as some genuinely inspired competitors. For PS5 players looking for that signature blend of coziness, farming, and just a dash of adventure and combat, there are plenty of other fish in the town pond. We’ve gathered some of the best available for the PS5 here, ranked by their PlayStation player ratings.

10

Farming Simulator 25

PlayStation Player Ratings: 3.26

These days, there is seemingly a simulator game for everything. Lucky for fans of Stardew Valley’s farming gameplay, there is a simulator for just that, too. Not only is Farming Simulator 25 all farming, but it is also meticulously crafted to include every detail of farming, from the ground up to an entire supply chain.

Perhaps the best aspect of Farming Simulator 25 lies in its vehicle controls. Driving the assorted machinery around to reap, process, and transport crops is fun and rewarding, something at the heart of all good sims.

9

Hokko Life

PlayStation Player Ratings: 3.57

Its impressively cute and charming aesthetic ensures that Hokko Life is the type of life sim that will attract an audience no matter what. Luckily, it is also a fun, addicting game that will keep players going for hours if for no other reason than to assemble the perfect outfit for their darling avatar.

Hokko Life allocates the bulk of its gameplay to exploration in order to complete daily requests and help locals with ever-randomized tasks, and the formula works thanks to a cute menagerie of NPCs around town. There is also a city that players can visit in order to interact with other players and share their creations in furniture, which helps it feel nice and connected.

8

Everdream Valley

PlayStation Player Ratings: 3.64

There is no doubt that Everdream Valley is geared towards younger players, but that should not deter players of any age from skipping it if they’re in search of simple, relaxing, colorful farming. Even better, the game balances its more conventional gameplay with dream sequences that are almost guaranteed to make players laugh.

Adding to the surreal charm is the cast of NPCs that include both the human townsfolk and the wild animals throughout, who will send players on a range of quests. The results lead to a farm that is visually-pleasing and absolutely packed with mini-games to keep things engaging.

7

Sugardew Island

PlayStation Player Ratings: 3.67

As its name suggests, Sugardew Island is openly seeking that Stardew Valley style and adding a saccharine, kid-friendly twist. It further adds a simple but effective story based around conservation and restoring native animals to their rightful habitats.

One fun part of the Sugardew Island gameplay loop is that, after players plant and harvest crops like an average farm sim, they also mind their own shop, personally selling their own crops, as well. If the simple cycle of plant, tend, harvest, and sell appeals to any player, Sugardew Island is a worthy consideration.

6

Potion Permit

PlayStation Player Ratings: 4.19

Potion Permit is only partially a life sim, relying heavily on RPG adventuring for its core gameplay. What life sim portions it has, however, are refreshingly unique, being set in a makeshift hospital instead of a farm. Thanks to its artful pixel graphics and sprites, even the adventure elements of Potion Permit feel cozy and relaxing, as well.

Players will still explore and forage for ingredients with which to craft better and better gear, as usual, but any monsters to be fought are few and weak, mainly keeping foraging from becoming monotonous. Most of the thrill will come from the minigames back at the hospital, thanks to its surprisingly empathetic NPCs.

5

DORAEMON STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of the Great Kingdom

PlayStation Player Ratings: 4.19

In general, every game in the Story of Seasons franchise bears some resemblance to Stardew Valley, but DORAEMON STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of the Great Kingdom is the best for PS5 players. Its east-meets-west art style helps it stand out from related sims, making every chapter in the game feel like a short film or scene from a Hayao Miyazaki movie.

True to its more cinematic nature, the game is very story-heavy, although it mainly stays light and comedic. This helps the characters all feel important and relatable, helping to make the farming, gathering, and crafting feel genuinely meaningful.

4

Cozy Grove

PlayStation Player Ratings: 4.25

Among the many relaxing homestead-building games, Cozy Grove stands out for its unique art style and supernatural world-building. Like in Stardew Valley, Cozy Grove starts players out alone and with essentially nothing, encouraging them to build their settlement around them as they gather resources and eventually produce their own.

Unique to Cozy Grove, however, is the ghost-based mechanism in which players expand their property. It’s only through helping a series of spirits with their unfinished business in life that players unlock new townsfolk and new utilities like fishing and baking. As if that weren’t unique enough, most of the NPC ghosts that players meet take the form of large, cubic bears.

3

Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos

PlayStation Player Ratings: 4.40

The Harvest Moon franchise actually predates Stardew Valley by around 20 years, with its first entry released for the SNES in 1996. It’s become a staple of the genre, setting the tone for generations of peaceful ranching sims set in whimsical, childlike worlds.

Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos is set in a green open world that encourages exploration, even allowing players to relocate their farm wherever seems most fruitful or picturesque. Combined with a pleasant cast of characters and a fun mythological story, the game is one of the more adventure-based farm sims.

2

Coral Island

PlayStation Player Ratings: 4.47

Coral Island is relatively new, launching for the PS5 at the end of 2023. Suitable for a game so fresh, it’s loaded with fun, new takes on traditional concepts and promises to add even more in the coming months or years.

Coral Island shares a lot of its core DNA with Stardew Valley: players alternate between building up their farm crops for income and resources, chatting up village locals to build relationships, and embarking on mini-adventures through enemy-laden mines. To set itself apart, Coral Island is tropical and vibrant, and the cast of characters are infectiously charming representations of all walks of life.

1

Slime Rancher

PlayStation Player Ratings: 4.53

Slime Rancher is certainly an oddball in the cutesy farming sim genre, as it trades traditional livestock such as cows, chicken, and pigs for little bouncing balls of slime. As players might expect, slimes don’t produce the usual milk or eggs but rather plorts, exotic gemstones used as the game’s basic building blocks.

Other than that, Slime Rancher follows some familiar paths for the genre. Collecting slimes becomes farming slimes, which becomes upgrading the ranch, equipping players with what they need to access better areas and better slimes.