Trying to find games like Staxel? Try these 100 great games that are similar to Staxel, but stand out in their own awesome ways. This is a comprehensive list of best games like Staxel that have been tried, tested and recommended. And like the best games in the genre, Staxel lets you share farming responsibilities or become neighbors with real-life friends online. Available on: PC, Xbox One, PS4.
A comprehensive guide to befriending the villagers in Staxel and unlocking their Friendship quests (with minimal spoilers).
Other Staxel Guides:- Achievement Guide.
- Cheats and Console Commands.
- How to Increase the Island Size.
- Bobblehead Easter Egg Guide.
- Some Quick Tips and Tricks.
What's in a Friendship?
In place of a traditional 'main path” story, Staxel offers up most of its lore and quests in the form of mini-storylines as your Friendship with various villagers develops. Although it can sometimes feel like there’s not enough hours in the day after tending the crops, feeding your animals, and foraging for that elusive Rhinoceros Beetle, setting aside a little time to chat and deliver gifts for villagers each day can add a colorful new dimension your Staxel experience!
Importantly, both the town and its villagers’ personalities will also grow as your Friendships progress. Over time you'll gain new residents, new shops, broader dialogue and interactions with villagers, and unlock additional gameplay to keep you entertained in the downtime between farming seasons.
This guide is intended to act as a roadmap to give you an idea of where and how to find all the key unlocks and story quests, without spoiling any of the major details for your playthrough. If you prefer to jump into new games completely blind, you should consider returning to this guide once you've had some time to explore things for yourself.
Befriending Each Villager
Some of the content in this section, such as quest titles or favorite gifts, may be considered light spoilers. To avoid giving away anything major, we’ve broken it into two visual guides:
- Main Residents covers all the villagers you have a chance of starting with in your initial town. The mayor, Maximilian, will contact you about inviting the others after you’ve settled into your farm.
- Surprise Arrivals [Spoilers] have special conditions for when they’ll appear, although you can eventually have all of them on your island. It’s recommended to wait until each one shows up before you read about them in the second visual guide.
While some residents (like Maximilian) will always be available in your town, the starting selection of other residents and the layout of all the buildings will change with every new playthrough.
Main Residents
Click to enlarge...
Surprise Arrivals [Spoilers]
Generic Friendship Boosts
In addition to the Friendship progress from chatting and sharing gifts with villagers, there are a few other ways you can influence their opinion of you. This section will provide a quick summary of where to find (or avoid) each one during your playthroughs.
Daily Rumor Quests
When running your errands in town, you'll sometimes stumble across a lost item or hear a special request from a villager. While these quests tend to be very simple, they provide a substantial (and often totally free) boost to Friendship if you complete them before nightfall of that same day.
If you’re looking for more information on them, you can always visit Rowan in the Tavern and ask about 'Any rumors?” in conversation. If any of these quests are active for the day, he’ll point you toward exactly the right villager(s) to find for them.
Rumor quests come in three flavors:
- ‘Return to Owner’ ones require you to find a missing item on the ground, such as a lost Sock or Bunnyphone. Returning it will give a small boost to Friendship with that villager.
- ‘Parcel Delivery’ tasks ask you to shuttle a small delivery from one villager to another and give a moderate Friendship boost with both. Simple, right?
- ‘Interested Item’ requests ask you to procure a specific item, which is usually chosen from their favorite gifts list. You will get a much larger than usual Friendship boost from it, which doesn’t count toward the daily cap. But remember: Talk to them to deliver the item, rather than gifting it!
- Any villager can have a rumor quest, but you won’t miss out on any storyline content if you decide to give them a pass in your playthrough. There's also no penalty if you miss the deadline after starting one, other than not receiving the Friendship boost.
(Don’t Do) Stuff They Hate
As you’re rushing about each day, it’s possible to have the occasional 'accident' that can harm your reputation with a villager. The damage from these is always reversible, but you might have to bear through a few nasty remarks in the process.
Angering villagers can happen in a few ways:
- Stealing their Petals will quickly irritate any shop owner, even if they can’t pin it on you specifically. Be careful when clicking around the cash registers in their stores so you don’t accidentally sneak a few coins out of it, or they may be hard to chat with for a few days afterward.
- Purloining their Possessions is often taken in stride by villagers, but if you take too much of their stuff it can cross the line into angering them. Until you return or pay for some of the missing items, they’ll refuse to go to work and may leave the town entirely.
- Giving Terrible Gifts doesn’t win hearts, but most villagers will still appreciate the gesture. However, a few villagers have specific items they really dislike and will try to refuse them if offered as a gift. If you insist on handing one over, you’ll lose some Friendship progress.
Recommended Quest Order
As mentioned in the introduction, Staxel doesn't follow a single 'main story' for most of its content. Instead of trying to prescribe one for you, the following recommendations are mainly aimed at helping you unlock all the major game content early in your playthrough (preferably before Winter 1st).
These will need to be completed each time you start a new playthrough.
Year 1 Quests:
- Obtain a Farm Registration Letter from Farm Fan
- Talk with Max for 'Fixing up the Barn”
- Meet Riah for 'Let Them Eat Fish”
- Reach Liked with Leif for 'Postage & Handling”
- Meet Vorlen for 'Dawn at the Museum”
- Meet Cirahna for 'Maybe Sorbet?”
- Reach Liked with Cirahna for 'Bring in a Fungi”
- Build houses for the non-starter residents, as Max sends you Postboxes in the mail
Once you've made it through this list, you’re free to explore the remaining Friendship quests in any order you like without missing out on gated content! For first-time players, there's usually more than enough of those available to last you well into Year 3+.
Recommended for You:
- All Staxel Guides!
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gaming
There is a type of player who isn’t necessarily drawn to entertainment that features stories of action, adventure and high stakes. It’s one of the reasons why slice-of-life anime and literary books are so popular. Sometimes people want to slip into the lives of someone else without being burdened with a swashbuckling adventure.
Games like Harvest Moon offer players a low stakes story while still managing to keep them immersed in gameplay. It’s little wonder Harvest Moon has gone on to cultivate legions of fans since it’s release in 1996. While not the first game of its kind, it is considered genre defining by fans of games that feature calming, low-stakes and ambiatic gameplay. Luckily for these kinds of gamers, there is a wealth of games that can scratch that particular itch.
1. Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is two parts Harvest Moon and one part Legend of Zelda. While Harvest Moon is laid back, Stardew Valley adds some stakes, requiring players to survive in a wilderness while carving out a life for themselves and others. Much like Harvest Moon, farming still takes center stage but is sometimes punctuated with combat against the creatures of the game’s wilderness. Overall, however, it’s clear developers tore a few pages from Harvest Moon’s playbook.
2. Story of Seasons
Craving a Harvest Moon game but with better graphics and an added element of character customization? Look no further than Story of Seasons. Originally released for the Nintendo 3DS a version for the Nintendo Switch is forthcoming and if you don’t want to wait you can play another version of the game that features characters from the anime Doraemon. Both Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons tasks players with managing a farm and cultivating a community but Story of Seasons allows for a bit more wiggle room and player choice.
3. Summer in Mara
What started as a Kickstarter quickly grew into one of the most anticipated games for the Nintendo Switch. Summer in Mara takes the concept of Harvest Moon but puts it on a tropical island, throws in a dash of richly animated cutscenes and features a cast of interesting characters. On top of the usual farming players fish and explore the depths of the ocean, which gives the game an element of verticality.
4. Farm for Your Life
It says it all in the title. Farm for your Life is a pc game that heavily emphasizes farming, sometimes to the detriment of other elements. However, players familiar with Harvest Moon should have no problems picking this up, at least at the start of the game. At some point it’s revealed that the game’s universe is in the midst of a zombie apocalypse and one of the tasks includes fighting off the undead.The way the game goes about revealing this is quite clever. It’s a bit different from Harvest Moon but a welcome addition to the genre.
5. Ooblets
Ooblets is perhaps the strangest game on this list. It combines gameplay elements from Harvest Moon, Pokemon and Pikmin in an interesting, if not whimsical, title. While farming is an integral part of the game, the vegetables, once harvested, turn into tiny creatures that follow the player around and participate in battles. However, this is no Pokemon rip-off. Although your characters are able to level up, the battle system is not as in-depth as the one found in Pokemon. That’s largely because battles are a small aspect of the game. Customizing your farm, as well as dance parties, take center stage. However, Harvest Moon elements like upgrading your living space and caring for your crops/creatures are also key parts of the gameplay. Ooblets may not be as grounded as Harvest Moon but fans of the latter will enjoy it all the same.
6. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
A game that puts the stakes back in farming simulators. Sakuna combines realistic farming mechanics with not-so-realistic battle mechanics. Throughout the game the player must fight monsters who drop items that help make farming easier.
One would imagine the juxtaposition of farming and combat aspects make it look like two different games stitched together but somehow it works. There is no mistaking the fact the farming and combat parts occupy the same in-game universe.
While Sakuna is definitely a departure from Harvest Moon, much of the spirit is still there. Building your rice farm in Sakuna is as rewarding as building a Harvest Moon farm, particularly in the latter parts of the game when the difficulty becomes unrelenting.
7. Stranded Sails
Harvest Moon fans who also happen to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean will almost certainly take a liking to Stranded Sails. Another game that takes place on an island, the player is stranded and has to farm to survive. Exploration is also a key gameplay element as the player must also befriend individuals throughout the island and set up a camp to accommodate them. Unlike Harvest Moon, combat is present in parts of the game, although it isn’t as in-depth as some of the other titles on this list. Instead farming and crafting and building up your relationships are the primary focus. With enough time, those characters will become members of your crew.
8. Staxel
Staxel looks like a Minecraft farming mod. Despite its appearance, however, the game has features found in Harvest Moon, like farming and community building and it allows players to invite other players with tasks. Because of the Minecraft aspect, players are able to construct truly amazing personal living spaces.
9. Farm Folks
Another game that takes cues from Harvest Moon’s laidback gameplay. In Farm Folks, players can do whatever they want, whether that entails farming, livestock raising or cutting down pesky trees. As the player progresses through the game they meet the inhabitants of the island and unlock memories. As each memory is unlocked, the story is slowly revealed to players, which is an interesting addition to the farming and crafting genre.
10. World's Dawn
The art style of World’s Dawn lends itself to the game’s tone. The game is just as laid back as harvest moon and features a somewhat familiar, although diminished, farming mechanic.The game emphasizes relationships the the player builds with the game’s characters. The player’s primary goal isn’t necessarily to have the biggest and best farm but to revive the town that serves as the game’s locale. Rife with mini-games to keep things fresh, Worlds Dawn is an interesting take on the classic genre.
11. Shepherd's Crossing
There was a time when Shepherd’s Crossing was as large as Harvest Moon but, for whatever reason, it fell by the wayside. While the game doesn’t feature farming as heavily as Harvest Moon, it does require players to build a village until it becomes self-sufficient. To do this, the player is required to cooperate with other villages by creating and trading products. The game gives players a crash-course in very basic economics without beating them over the head with it. Overall, it’s a solid game that deserves to be on this list.
12. Funky Barn
A game as silly as its name, Funky Barn is another game that gives players a lesson in economics by having them run a barn. Released exclusively on the Wii-U, Funky Barn recreates many of the features found in Harvest Moon and other farming simulators while adding new ones. For example, players are able to assign certain tasks to strange machines. The machines can water crops and sell eggs, which gives the farm a measure of autonomy. The game also features seasons which have an impact on the way the game is played. This is in addition to certain hurdles the player has to periodically contend with as they build up their farms, which include things like alien invasions and other wacky circumstances.
13. Verdant Skies
Games Like Staxel
Verdant Skies takes the elements of Harvest Moon and turns them into an RPG. The player takes the role of a colonist working to establish a town in the midst of a wilderness. To do so, hunting, foraging and farming are your primary tools. If the game’s tasks get to be too burdensome, players can invite three others to help lighten the load.
The game’s graphics are reminiscent of old-school Harvest Moon, which is probably what the developers were shooting for. Longtime fans of Harvest Moon will enjoy the nostalgic look, while newcomers will enjoy the updated gameplay and story.
14. Farming Simulator
Although farming is Harvest Moon’s primary task, it isn’t as in-depth as Farming Simulator. In this game you are tasked with managing a medium-sized farm, though, depending on how you play the game, farms could grow to being just shy of industrial-sized. Developers went through great lengths getting the machines to look as realistic as possible and it shows in the final product. Real life farmers probably would have some difficulty finding errors in the design of the machinery the game features, though they might take issue with the ease of which some of the tasks are completed. After all, sowing an entire field probably requires a bit more labor than pushing a few buttons.
The simulator offers a crash-course in how best to operate a successful farm. In both Harvest Moon and Farming Simulator, successful players are meticulous, though Farming Simulator might require an extra level of care.
15. The Sims
Another game on this list that manages to overshadow Harvest Moon’s popularity. For years The Sims has been a favorite among players for several different reasons. The game allows players to simulate lives that mirror their own. That coupled with a healthy modder community has made this game a powerhouse in the genre.
Most recently, Sims developers have released the Eco Lifestyle expansion, which only makes the game more like Harvest Moon. In the Eco Lifestyle expansion, players are given the chance to make their homes, and eventually communities, more eco friendly with sustainable architecture and community gardens, among other additions.
16. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
This one is a given. This is one of a small handful of games on this list that has managed to surpass the commercial success of Harvest Moon. These two franchises have always been compared to each other and for good reason. The mood and pacing of both games are near-identical and while Harvest Moon’s gameplay isn’t as aimless as Animal Crossing’s, both games have players tackling similar tasks.
Games Like Staxel On Ps4
Farming, trading and building are key components of both games but Harvest Moon features these elements as a means to an end. Also, the other significant difference between the two games is Animal Crossing’s emphasis on online multiplayer gameplay, in which several people can visit a person’s island. Frankly, there is no game on this list closer to Harvest Moon than Animal Crossing.
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