Farm, Fight, and, er, Fish: The Life Sims Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Farm, Fight, and, er, Fish: The Life Sims Megathread

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

a7m2 posted:

RF4 is a good game but it's not a good farming game

I...don't follow what this means because you can totally go hard into soil quality and crop optimization in RF4 even if most people talk about the social and RPG aspects.

# ? Jan 10, 2024 22:40

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 13:48

a7m2: Jul 9, 2012

mycot posted:

I...don't follow what this means because you can totally go hard into soil quality and crop optimization in RF4 even if most people talk about the social and RPG aspects.

It's been too long since I played it so I don't know why but I distinctly remember the farming not being particularly fun.

# ? Jan 10, 2024 22:42

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

it has some of the most indepth farming in the genre. its nowhere near the level of stuff the crafting system has going underneath the hood but its cooler than what you typically get so i am surprised to hear that.

# ? Jan 10, 2024 22:43

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

I get what they're saying the mechanical depth is there, but of the things you can do in the game it is pretty far down the list of things I find enjoyable. Only combat is lower I'd think.

# ? Jan 10, 2024 22:49

TTBF: Sep 14, 2005

Megazver posted:

I am sorry!!!!1

As someone who clicked this thread thinking it would lead me to more games like Princess Maker, I'm thankful you brought it up.

# ? Jan 10, 2024 23:47

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

they just haven't came up again lately 😔

i should do a few more runs in volcano princess sometime

# ? Jan 10, 2024 23:52

Fun Times!: Dec 26, 2010

a7m2 posted:

RF4 is a good game but it's not a good farming game

I would apply this quote to Sandrock, but in RF4 the crops stack above your head as you pick them and reach up real high, and the stack wobbles as you run, so I'd say it's a drat good farming game.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 00:21

xeria: Jul 26, 2004; Ruh roh...

Jinnigan posted:

has anyone ever made a stardew valley clone... in SPACE!?

Verdant Skies is the only one I�m aware of that�s at least in that ballpark!

# ? Jan 11, 2024 00:25

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Gaius Marius posted:

I get what they're saying the mechanical depth is there, but of the things you can do in the game it is pretty far down the list of things I find enjoyable. Only combat is lower I'd think.

RF4 combat is pretty good though? There's a wide variety of weapons to use, the dash is great for dodging and movement, there are a number of weapon skills (and you can use any weapon's skills with any weapon), magic spells, and there's equipment that modifies your movement, your attacks, and a lot of other things. Plus you can tame monsters and bosses, you can ride and directly control a large percentage of them, and you can bring them with you to fight. You can even bring NPCs along and equip them.

The farming's not bad either - the soil can be leveled up, there are fertilizers and things that can be applied to the soil, the tools can be upgraded, new crops unlock regularly and are drip fed to the player, the crops can be leveled up, crops are inputs into cooking and chemistry (and sometimes even equipment), and so on and so forth.

The story of the game gives you good direction on where to go, and the requests you get every day also give you good direction on what to focus on, so your sandbox experience is gently guided.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 02:39

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Dirk the Average posted:

new crops unlock regularly and are drip fed to the player

getting hard walled by the Spring Crystal Flower quest being before the other 3 even though you can't get the flowers in spring year 1 because the bridge doesn't exist yet makes me mad every time

even though that's my own fault for being knowledgeable enough to get to the crystal seeds by summer 5th year 1, it still feels really bad

that is my one substantial complaint about rune factory 4 (well, ok, maybe also Raven not selling Rune Prana materials until you've cleared the entire thing, but that just makes you farm enemies as intended to upgrade your gear, so really I guess it's fine)

# ? Jan 11, 2024 03:02

The Lone Badger: Sep 24, 2007

Long Live the Princess in s a non-chill Princess Maker / stat-raising game. Your major goal is just to survive.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 07:11

FrickenMoron: May 6, 2009; Good game!

My favorite thing I learned about Rune Factory 4 recently is that your child has dialog lines for every single story dungeon, even the first one that is almost impossible to do because the requirements for marriage are story progression for pretty much everyone except Vishnal.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 08:24

skeleton warrior: Nov 12, 2016

The Lone Badger posted:

Long Live the Princess in s a non-chill Princess Maker / stat-raising game. Your major goal is just to survive.

I kind of disagree. Long Live The Queen looks like a Princess Maker type, but it�s much more of a puzzle game. LLTQ has one path through it, and all of the choices are about trial-and-erroring the solution to this week�s crisis. PM-likes are much more about deciding what kind of person you want to raise/be, and finding your way forward through open choices.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 18:44

A Sometimes Food: Dec 8, 2010

FrickenMoron posted:

My favorite thing I learned about Rune Factory 4 recently is that your child has dialog lines for every single story dungeon, even the first one that is almost impossible to do because the requirements for marriage are story progression for pretty much everyone except Vishnal.

It's not to the same level but Mason, a character in Sandrock who leaves after the third or fourth main mission has lines for you getting married, having kids or getting divorced.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 18:50

Fun Times!: Dec 26, 2010

Devs know that some players don't care about story, they just wanna gently caress.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 19:35

MarcusSA: Sep 23, 2007

Fun Times! posted:

Devs know that some players don't care about story, they just wanna gently caress.

Just like real life.

# ? Jan 11, 2024 19:35

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

is OP still around, if someone does a post about stat raisers could we add it to the reserved post in the thread since those get talk about in this thread too sometimes

# ? Jan 12, 2024 19:34

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

Either way, I�d be interested in an effort post about those kinds of games. Teenage Exocolonist was great.

# ? Jan 12, 2024 19:38

Private Speech: Mar 30, 2011; I HAVE EVEN MORE WORTHLESS BEANIE BABIES IN MY COLLECTION THAN I HAVE WORTHLESS POSTS IN THE BEANIE BABY THREAD YET I STILL HAVE THE TEMERITY TO CRITICIZE OTHERS' COLLECTIONS

IF YOU SEE ME TALKING ABOUT BEANIE BABIES, PLEASE TELL ME TO

EAT. SHIT.

Volcano Princess is a pretty decent PM-like.

# ? Jan 12, 2024 20:29

buglord: Jul 31, 2010; Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!; Buglord

Man. Even though Sandrock is mechanically more enjoyable than Stardew, the charm factor is lacking. Not entirely sure if it�s because the pixel art of the latter allows imagination to come into play more. That, and since nothing is voice acted, you can kinda make characters sound like whatever you imagine in your head.

Sandrock always feels a little goofy and awkward, and not in the charming way. Charm was a lot of the reason I put up with Stardews monotony, because I was into a lot more of the characters. Anyone else feel similar or am I just being a dumb weirdo about it?

# ? Jan 12, 2024 22:09

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

buglord posted:

Man. Even though Sandrock is mechanically more enjoyable than Stardew, the charm factor is lacking. Not entirely sure if it’s because the pixel art of the latter allows imagination to come into play more. That, and since nothing is voice acted, you can kinda make characters sound like whatever you imagine in your head.

Sandrock always feels a little goofy and awkward, and not in the charming way. Charm was a lot of the reason I put up with Stardews monotony, because I was into a lot more of the characters. Anyone else feel similar or am I just being a dumb weirdo about it?

It took a while to grow on me but Sandrock has a lot of heart and most of the characters are interesting and charming in their way. Just takes a few tens of hours to get there, and once missions start giving characters time to shine it does get great.

# ? Jan 12, 2024 22:13

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

buglord posted:

Man. Even though Sandrock is mechanically more enjoyable than Stardew, the charm factor is lacking. Not entirely sure if it’s because the pixel art of the latter allows imagination to come into play more. That, and since nothing is voice acted, you can kinda make characters sound like whatever you imagine in your head.

Sandrock always feels a little goofy and awkward, and not in the charming way. Charm was a lot of the reason I put up with Stardews monotony, because I was into a lot more of the characters. Anyone else feel similar or am I just being a dumb weirdo about it?

Sorry, I think you're kind of crazy.

# ? Jan 12, 2024 22:15

someone awful.: Sep 7, 2007

what are the good raise-'em-ups? LLtQ is good if, as stated, more of a puzzle game. Princess Maker... can be a bit skeevy (especially in the older games) and has an extremely long run-time, but i still get a lot of enjoyment out of the series even so. Is Ciel Fledge any good? Volcano Princess seems super cute. I guess Chinese Parents/Growing Up kind of fall into this genre but they're also sort of a different thing; they're both okay games worth a couple playthroughs (but they're also basically the same game, so)

# ? Jan 12, 2024 22:22

Tenebrais: Sep 2, 2011

someone awful. posted:

what are the good raise-'em-ups? LLtQ is good if, as stated, more of a puzzle game. Princess Maker... can be a bit skeevy (especially in the older games) and has an extremely long run-time, but i still get a lot of enjoyment out of the series even so. Is Ciel Fledge any good? Volcano Princess seems super cute. I guess Chinese Parents/Growing Up kind of fall into this genre but they're also sort of a different thing; they're both okay games worth a couple playthroughs (but they're also basically the same game, so)

I guess it's redundant to say this since it's how the subject came up, but I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a good one for this. At least as long as you're into the sci-fi scenario and are cool with it being from the perspective of the child being raised rather than the parent raising them.

# ? Jan 12, 2024 22:35

TTBF: Sep 14, 2005

someone awful. posted:

what are the good raise-'em-ups? LLtQ is good if, as stated, more of a puzzle game. Princess Maker... can be a bit skeevy (especially in the older games) and has an extremely long run-time, but i still get a lot of enjoyment out of the series even so. Is Ciel Fledge any good? Volcano Princess seems super cute. I guess Chinese Parents/Growing Up kind of fall into this genre but they're also sort of a different thing; they're both okay games worth a couple playthroughs (but they're also basically the same game, so)

Volcano Princess is super cute and - as far as I can tell - doesn't get skeevy in any way which is an upgrade from some of the old PM games I'm used to (and which got me into the genre). I also like the roguelite elements where getting achievements lets you boost stats and such in future runs.

I don't know how Chinese Parents, Growing Up, or the latest Princess Makers are because something about more modern settings (and you do learn robotics in recent Princess Makers I'm told) for these games just don't sit right with me. I can't really put it into words why. But fantasy and sci-fi settings are a-ok in my book.

# ? Jan 13, 2024 00:41

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

would something like Magical Diary or Black Closet count

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:00

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

someone awful. posted:

what are the good raise-'em-ups? LLtQ is good if, as stated, more of a puzzle game. Princess Maker... can be a bit skeevy (especially in the older games) and has an extremely long run-time, but i still get a lot of enjoyment out of the series even so. Is Ciel Fledge any good? Volcano Princess seems super cute. I guess Chinese Parents/Growing Up kind of fall into this genre but they're also sort of a different thing; they're both okay games worth a couple playthroughs (but they're also basically the same game, so)

Not exactly raise-em-ups, but very similar time managementy games:

Academagia is old and janky, but it's a great wizard school time management game. The LP is great.

Magical Diary Horse Hall is a similar but less ambitious game. The developer, Hanako Games, released a newer version in 2020 with the Wolf Hall subtitle. All of their games I've tried have been about the same quality.

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:04

skeleton warrior: Nov 12, 2016

I wrote the below a while back. It�s missing Volcano Princess and Chinese Parents of games I�ve tried; I�ll try to write something on that tonight.

skeleton warrior posted:

Thank you for starting this thread, Arsenic!

As promised, I'm going to do a big post on my favorite type of Life Sim games: Growing Up games.

Alter Ego is probably the grand-daddy of all of them. Written in 1986, you take a person through their entire life, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style. Choices made alter your stats, your stats change which choices are available to you, and you get the thrill of living vicariously exactly the life you would have chosen, assuming that the game designer wrote those options into the game and you figure out the stat thresholds you need to hit to achieve it. The link in the title is to free version on the web; you can also buy it on Steam for $8.

But really, Princess Maker 2 is the classic that really defined the genre in the West and most Growing Up games structure themselves like. You are a heroic adventurer who has saved the world! We actually don't care about that, and your adventures and the skills and talents you used to save the world are never spoken of or relevant again. But! Because you saved the world, the Goddess of Light has decided that when she bequeaths her daughter to the world, you will be the one tasked to raise her.

So, essentially, a 10 year old girl is dropped on your doorstep and it's up to you to decide what skills she'll learn and stats she'll develop by scheduling classes and jobs for her. And you have to schedule jobs for her, because it turns out being the hero who saved the world pays jack poo poo and you can't even afford to feed her on your salary, so she has to earn her own keep. Classes and jobs increase some stats while reducing others (can't be Refined when you've spent the day mucking stables), so the core strategy is determining which stats you want to zero out first so that she no longer loses points there, and then moving her on to new jobs that zero out different stats. Along the way, you can send her off on JPRG adventures, where she does about as well as an 10 year old girl you've handed a wooden sword to does. You'll also have to manage her stress - if she doesn't have enough time off, she'll rebel and run away.

Once she turns 18, you get a review of what she's learned and find out what her eventual career will be and who she'll marry. Did you turn her into a Princess by making her a soft, delicate goddess of manners who married the Prince? Or did you turn her into a Princess by making her a cold, hard, buff Goddess of War who married the Devil and took the royal crown by force? Or did you gently caress up a lot and she ends up as a librarian in some podunk town, married to someone who isn't interesting or famous but makes her happy, like some kind of loser?

It's a weird, fun game but has some serious Japanese Otaku elements that you have to choose to ignore, like the fact that you can buy pills specifically to make her breasts bigger, or sexy clothes for her to wear, or that one of the jobs she can get at 16 is Sexy Dancer, or that you can maneuver her into marrying you when she turns 18 because that's somehow romantic in 90s anime style instead of creepy as gently caress. You can go through the whole game not engaging with any of those things and not lose out on anything, but they exist.

The linked version is to the latest translation and release of the game; it originally came out in the early 90s in Japan and only really got a fan port over to English-language versions, and was largely available only as . Despite that, it was pretty popular, and even has a great Let's Play put together by SynthButtrange (which shows the aforementioned Otaku stuff solely to mock it).

The game had sequels in Princess Maker 3, 4, and 5, but none of those got the fan port that 2 did, and so none of them were nearly as popular over here. The gameplay changes a lot between each game, and I can't comment on how good or fun any of them are.

Ciel Fledge: A Daughter Raising Simulator is probably the closest modern game, mechanics-wise, to Princess Maker 2, but it eschews the Japanese misogynistic weirdness of sexualizing your daughter and instead embraces the Japanese anime weirdness of living on a giant flying city-mecha because indestructible kaiju roam the lands below.

In the most recent battle with that kaiju, a 10 year old girl was found as a lone survivor. You aren't any world-saving hero this time around, but you're tasked with raising her and helping her cope with the trauma of being the lone survivor of her destroyed city, and the complete amnesia around her previous life.

Once again you have to schedule your daughter's activities, and once again you have to choose schoolwork and jobs because the government handed you a young girl to raise without doing anything about making sure you could afford it. This time, there's no downside to jobs and classes - they all give you stat bonuses and no stat losses - but you have to play a tile matching mini-game with each one and doing badly at the mini-game can mean doing badly in the class. Balance taking time off to reduce her stress with keeping her workload high so that she qualifies for better and better classes, and help her navigate friendships with a dozen other characters in town, and setting her up for success in the obvious eventually showdown with the Kaiju that destroyed everything she once had. And once that Kaiju is vanquished, what life does Ciel live? That all depends upon the skills she learned, the friends she made, and how many times you hosed up that stupid goddamned minigame.

It's a fun game, though much more grindy than Princess Maker 2 was, and suffers in that it was clearly released in episodes to keep Early Access buzz going, so there are a couple of big "oh no! cliffhanger moment!!!!" transitions that are more awkward than enjoyable, but over all, it's a very solid game if you're looking for something that lets you explore what it would be like to be a background character in a 1990s Giant Robot vs. Giant Monster anime.

Growing Up changes the format a bit, but is a great addition to the genre. Unlike the other Princess Maker 2-esque games here, it's not a fantasy or science fiction; the setting is America in the 1990s with all of the bright pastels, Rachel haircuts, and plaid skirt/doc martins combos you'd expect. Also, you're not guiding some poor kid who landed on your door to success - it's now your own life you're living, from birth up until graduating high school.

The gameplay mechanics are pretty straightforward- as with other games, you're spending limited slots and points on activities to represent classes and time off, developing your traits based on what you choose (study science to get smarter, or play with animals to become more empathetic). Learning new skills and mastering those skills give bonuses to those stats, so it's fine to be a jack of all trades or a very focused master of one, and exploring the town and building relationships with other characters can open new locations where you can learn new skills (find out about the club to learn music! Get a season pass to the galleria to learn about art!). Maneuver through life and awkward awkward teenage drama and romance and find out what life you could have lived and what your adult like will look like.

The other characters are probably this game's biggest selling point. There are a bunch of adults who are the same from game to game, and a dozen different characters your age who will grow up with you - but you'll only meet two or three of those kids each run, so there's a lot of replayability to learn about new people and their stories. The writing is great, and the music is outstanding - though it's very modern indie rather than appropriate to the '90s setting.

Finally for this huge post, there's I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, which came out only last week. It's - pun intended - stellar if you want a great "growing up" game. You are a young child in a hippie commune which is fleeing the devastated post-climate-change Earth for the promise of a new life on a planet discovered on the other side of a wormhole. While traveling through the wormhole, you stumble and hit your head, opening your mind to all of the various possibilities of your life that the universe has (and thus letting you skip events or completely short-circuit them on later playthroughs because your character knows what's going to happen!)

Like all of the other games, every time period you choose an activity to do which increases stats, hang out and give gifts to friends to increase relationships with them, and spend ten years growing up on another planet to find out what your destined job will be and what happens to all of your friends. A number of things make this game really stand out in comparison to the others, though.

First, the central game mechanic is a very well done card playing game - you draw cards from your deck, and have to figure out how to arrange them to make as many points as possible to hit the target numbers your activities require. Your deck starts out as a bunch of terrible crap, but you can earn new cards through life experiences and successes at activities- and some cards do better if you're focusing your development in a certain way; being good at everything is very hard to do.

Second, the other kids you're growing up with are not just well-written, but maleable- unlike the other games listed here where characters have a very set path and you're really just choosing whether you're close with them or not, in IWATE characters will change depending upon what you do, or what events befall the colony. Annie is a carefree girl who loves sports, but if you gently caress up and let her brother die (or don't even know that it's an option to not gently caress up!) she's change into a hardline xenophobe in trying to process her guilt and anger over it... and then, if you keep talking to her and choosing options about peace and living with the planet, you can pull her back from the brink and at least get her to break up with the fascist rear end in a top hat who is encouraging her.

IMO, it's the best of the games I've listed, though maybe that's because it's so fresh, but it's just the best written and has the best mechanics of the others from my playing of it.

Are there any I missed? Let me know!

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:05

Megazver: Jan 13, 2006

GOOD POAST.

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:15

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

someone awful. posted:

what are the good raise-'em-ups? LLtQ is good if, as stated, more of a puzzle game. Princess Maker... can be a bit skeevy (especially in the older games) and has an extremely long run-time, but i still get a lot of enjoyment out of the series even so. Is Ciel Fledge any good? Volcano Princess seems super cute. I guess Chinese Parents/Growing Up kind of fall into this genre but they're also sort of a different thing; they're both okay games worth a couple playthroughs (but they're also basically the same game, so)

its only really princess maker 5 that is super long

ciel fledge is interesting... neat ideas there but its incredibly long and gets dry relatively quickly

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:24

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

world according to girl is an interesting one, has a bit of a truman show thing where you are teacher populating a city with actors the kid growing up interacts with. very very poor translation. plays very differently from other stuff. its weird in places but like nowhere near the level of like, princess maker 2 creepiness.

probably not worth buying unless if you just want to see mechanical extermination in the genre and willing to look past a bad translation.

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:38

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

TTBF posted:

Volcano Princess is super cute and - as far as I can tell - doesn't get skeevy in any way which is an upgrade from some of the old PM games I'm used to (and which got me into the genre). I also like the roguelite elements where getting achievements lets you boost stats and such in future runs.

There is def some bits in Volcano Princess some people would find creepy. Wayyyy less iffy than old PM games though, yeah.

But yeah it and Exocolonist are probably the best ones for someone interested in the genre to check out. Volcano Princess is especially weird and wild. Like not only can your daughter end up in a lesbian relationship in the epilogue, but a lesbian poly one.

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:47

someone awful.: Sep 7, 2007

how much/how important is the deck building stuff in exocolonist? i see there's an option to disable it, which makes me a lot more open to trying it. i really don't like deck building stuff in games which is the main reason i haven't tried it yet

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:51

Tree Reformat: Apr 2, 2022; by Fluffdaddy

Yeah, that's kinda what's been turning me off Potionomics: the whole "much stricter deadline than Recettear!!!" combined with the sheer RNG from the card stuff is really much more stressful and unfun than I was hoping for.

also its been out for like a year and still has no endless mode, wtf

# ? Jan 13, 2024 01:57

Bremen: Jul 20, 2006; Our God..... is an awesome God

Tree Reformat posted:

Yeah, that's kinda what's been turning me off Potionomics: the whole "much stricter deadline than Recettear!!!" combined with the sheer RNG from the card stuff is really much more stressful and unfun than I was hoping for.

also its been out for like a year and still has no endless mode, wtf

Honestly, at least the way I played it the deck building aspect of Potionomics was pretty minor. Because of how it's structured it's usually not worth going more than a round or two and tossing every +interest card you draw in, then ending the negotiations quickly. And the difference between good RNG and bad isn't very much when it comes to the final price of a potion; IIRC some people liked to just use the vending machine for everything to say time.

# ? Jan 13, 2024 03:19

lunar detritus: May 6, 2009

someone awful. posted:

how much/how important is the deck building stuff in exocolonist? i see there's an option to disable it, which makes me a lot more open to trying it. i really don't like deck building stuff in games which is the main reason i haven't tried it yet

It's very easy and requires no thought besides choosing from time to time what cards you want to remove (and even that is optional). I'd keep it on for a first run mostly because of what the cards represent.

EDIT: Also, I wholeheartedly recommend Exocolonist. It kept me playing for 30 hours last year and while I got every "important" ending (3 or 4?), I think there are still things I haven't seen.

lunar detritus fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jan 13, 2024

# ? Jan 13, 2024 03:29

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

Snooze Cruise posted:

is OP still around, if someone does a post about stat raisers could we add it to the reserved post in the thread since those get talk about in this thread too sometimes

I'm still around! If the thread tells me what they want. I'll put it in.

Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Jan 13, 2024

# ? Jan 13, 2024 05:39