Harvest Moon is a popular multi-platform game series in which players accept the challenge of turning a derelict, crumbling farm into a thriving one. The first title in the series was published for Nintendo DS in 2007, and seven more followed.
The latest installment, Harvest Moon: One World came out in 2021, and though the graphics grow progressively more complex and realistic, Harvest Moon has always been a grindy farm-simulation game with puzzle elements.
If you loved the Harvest Moon series but want to expand your horizons, or if you’re looking for a similar game to play on a different platform, these titles are perfect for you.
Harvest Moon Features
 Release Date: | 9 August 1996 |
 Developer: | Marvelous |
 Publisher: | Marvelous & Xseed Games |
 Platforms: | Game Boy Game Boy Advance Game Boy Color Nintendo 3DS Nintendo 64 Nintendo DS GameCube Nintendo Switch Wii Windows PlayStation PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation Portable Xbox One Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
 Genre: | Social simulation Farming simulation Role-playing |
 Setting: | Farm |
 Game Modes: | MultiPlayer |
1. Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley, which was released in 2016, is another relaxing farm simulation game in which the player character takes over a farm that’s seen (much) better days with the goal of getting it back on its feet.
Stardew Valley was, in fact, blatantly inspired by the Harvest Moon series, and it shows throughout. Stardew Valley is, on the other hand, not an outright clone, and best of all, it’s available for nearly every imaginable platform, making it a great choice for Linux and Mac users.
Players get to choose what type of farm they will inherent right at the beginning of the game, and from there, they’ll have to contend with plenty of obstacles as they learn how to grow crops and look after farm animals.
With time, players make money and can add new buildings. The NPC quests Stardew Valley features make the game very enjoyable, and Stardew Valley’s procedurally-generated world allows for fishing, mining, and combat among many other possibilities.
Stardew Valley has sold over 20 million copies thus far, and its multiplayer mode makes it all the more addictive.
- Developer: ConcernedApe
- Publisher: ConcernedApe
- Release Date: February 2016
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
2. Dinkum
Harvest Moon fans who would like to keep playing around in the same genre, but who are also craving a brand new adventure, are almost guaranteed to love Dinkum — an Australian slang word that means something like “real”, or “authentic”, as well as a game just released in 2022.
Nearly everything you’ll do in Dinkum will be more than familiar, but this time you’ll be in the Outback. Why, yes!
That does mean you’ll have crocodiles, wombats, kangaroos, and other famous Aussie wildlife in your care, while also trying your best to maintain a thriving garden.
This 3D multiplayer farm simulation game is still in early access but already feels very polished.
- Developer: James Bendon
- Publisher: James Bendon
- Release Date: July 2022 (early access)
- Platform: Microsoft Windows (via Steam)
3. My Time at Portia
My Time at Portia is an interesting simulation and RPG game set in post-post-apocalypse world — long after the events that made the planet uninhabitable, people are once again beginning to emerge from underground shelters to begin rebuilding the world.
To be successful on their quests, players have to collect resources, learn new crafting recipes, and build up the new town.
If that sounds too quaint so far, don’t worry, because you’ll also have to fight wild creatures as you rebuild the world in this singleplayer game.
- Developer: Pathea Games
- Publisher: Team17, Nuverse
- Release Date: January 2019
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Android, iOS
4. Planet Zoo
Planet Zoo is a rather famous zoo simulation game in which players become zoo managers — which means you’ll have to do your very best to make your zoo a pleasant living environment for the 70+ animal species you’ll house there (and make sure they don’t devour each other), as well as commercially appealing to its human visitors.
Planet Zoo’s gameplay can be considered very realistic, as both the animals and humans behave a lot like they do in real life.
As a bonus, Planet Zoo offers stunning graphics, and those players who don’t feel like playing the game seriously can goof around and do plenty of bizarre things as well.
The only downside is that Planet Zoo is a singleplayer game, so you can’t share the fun with your friends.
- Developer: Frontier Developments
- Publisher: Frontier Developments
- Release Date: November 2019
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
5. Sapiens
Harvest Moon players in search of newly-released games with a broadly similar feel will have a blast with Sapiens, a game that was released in early access in July 2022.
You’ll be managing a farm here, too, but this world is prehistoric and you’ll be walking among mammoths and other giant creatures.
Starting from scratch, players are tasked with advancing as much as they can. Because Sapiens starts at the very dawn of human civilization, they’ll have millennia of progress to look forward to.
- Developer: Majic Jungle
- Publisher: Majic Jungle
- Release Date: July 2022
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
6. Keplerth
If you want to know what Keplerth, just released in May 2022, is like, imagine a crossover between Harvest Moon and No Man’s Sky with simple graphics and a top-down view that keeps the focus on the game.
This exciting sandbox game calls on gamers to survive on an alien planet packed full of hostiles as they farm, build, and advance to discover new skills and build more modern settlements. Keplerth has a multiplayer mode that allows you to play with friends.
- Developer: TARO
- Publisher: Camera Games
- Release Date: May 2022
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
7. Valheim
Valheim is a Viking-themed survival sandbox game in which players set out to prove they’re worthy of Valhalla, the Viking paradise.
This open-world game feels very different to Harvest Moon at first glance, as it’s largely an action game, with a multiplayer mode that allows for cooperative play as well as PvP.
Valheim also, however, requires players to engage in plenty of farming to secure a steady food supply.
The farming in Valheim is ultra-realistic and complex, as you’ll have to work out how to get the right tools and start your farm from the ground up.
Players who enjoy taming animals will have fun in Valheim, too. It’s the logical next step for Harvest Moon players who would like to branch out and explore new things.
Look forward to a procedurally-generated world with a whole host of biome options, fairly low-res 3D graphics that don’t require a beefy computer, and a challenging skill tree that will encourage you to progress and unlock new features.
- Developer: Iron Gate Studio
- Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing
- Release Date: February 2021
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Xbox One, Xbox X/S
8. Farming Simulator 22
Farming Simulator 22 will appeal to Harvest Moon players who wish the game had more realistic graphics. It’s the latest release in a whole series of Farming Simulator games, in which players can begin building giant and commercially-successful farms set in European and North American locations.
This involves growing crops, managing and breeding livestock, selling your products, and expanding endlessly.
Your old equipment will only take you so far, so Farming Simulator 22 will have to work hard to upgrade it.
The missions you receive depend on your previous choices, and Farming Simulator 22 offers endless hours of grinding and fun.
- Developer: GIANTS Software
- Publisher: GIANTS Software
- Release Date: November 2021
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch, Stadia
9. No Place Like Home
Another upcoming title, No Place Like Home is a farming and building simulator set in an Earth left behind by most.
For you, the player, there’s no place quite like home — so you set out to clean up the Earth and rebuild what your forebears have made an absolute mess of.
Your ultimate mission? Taking your world from rubble to utopia, relying on scavenged resources that you will reuse and recycle.
This 3D game, played from a third-person PoV, involves plenty of gardening and tending to livestock, but you’ll also have a massive open world to clean up and explore.
- Developer: Chicken Launcher
- Publisher: Awaken Realms
- Release Date: March 2022
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
10. Forager
Players who are looking for a very cute open-world survival game with exciting farming mechanics but also so much more should check Forager out.
You’ll be collecting resources, crafting tools, building shelters, solving puzzles, and exploring a vast world. Forager works even when you’re not playing, because it is, in a lot of ways, an idle game.
Harvest Moon players will likely find the farming, fishing, hunting, and cooking in Forager most appealing, but there’s lots more to do in this singleplayer game, too.
- Developer: HopFrog
- Publisher: Humble Bundle
- Release Date: April 2019
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS
11. The Sims 4
The Sims is easily the mother of all simulation games, and its latest title, The Sims 4, allows players to make endless decisions, just like they could in real life.
Players help their virtual characters live their best lives, or mess up enormously, through all of their seven stages of life.
While The Sims 4 definitely doesn’t focus on farming, Harvest Moon fans have an amazing variety of expansion packs to choose from, and the game’s Cottage Living add-on makes it possible for players to enjoy virtual farm life to the full.
This includes gardening and looking after livestock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z00mK3Pxc8w
We’d guess, however, that once you see what The Sims 4 (a singleplayer game) has to offer, you won’t just want to stick to farming, because there’s so much more to do!
- Developer: Maxis
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release Date: September 2014
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
12. Jurassic World Evolution 2
Jurassic World Evolution 2, the sequel to the popular Jurassic World Evolution 2, is usually categorized as a business simulation game.
In practice, however, it’s so much more. Players are on a mission to build and manage Jurassic Park, a prehistoric theme park (as if you didn’t know that already).
That means building the right enclosures, keeping the dinosaurs happy and healthy, and making sure they don’t kill each other. It also means doing research to tweak your animals’ genetic code.
Set in the US, Jurassic World Evolution 2 offers a variety of exciting biomes to build your theme park in, and you will also have to keep your paying guests happy.
Like Harvest Moon, Jurassic World Evolution 2 offers a world you can easily get lost in, but with an entirely different theme.
- Developer: Frontier Developments
- Publisher: Frontier Developments
- Release Date: November 2021
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S
13. Terraria
Terraria is an amazingly popular 2D sandbox action-adventure game that is most often compared to Minecraft.
First released in 2011, Terraria features procedurally-generated worlds that take players on an adventure of their own making.
You can explore, gather resources, craft and build, mine, and engage in combat — all while keeping a close eye on your health and mana.
Though Terraria has a very different play style than Harvest Moon, you may well discover that you enjoy this game just as much, and the game does have some farming mechanics to satisfy your urge to grow new things as you build your world up. Terraria has sold over 44 copies for a reason, after all.
If playing solo isn’t really your thing, Terraria offers a multiplayer mode as well.
- Developer: Re-Logic
- Publisher: 505 Games
- Release Date: May 2011
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
14. Graveyard Keeper
This Indie graveyard management simulation game might have a grim theme, but the fact that it was inspired by the Harvest Moon series as well as Stardew Valley absolutely shines through in the gameplay.
Graveyard Keeper deserves a spot on the list for that reason alone.
Players mysteriously come to own a graveyard in a medieval world after being run over by a car, and the run-down cemetery initially feels more like a backdrop for a horror game than a place where people might want to bury their relatives.
You’ll try to fix the graveyard up while also working to open a portal that brings you back to your own world, all while engaging in countless immersive NPC quests and progressing along the game’s complex skill tree.
Yes, as odd as it sounds, Graveyard Keeper does have farming, as well as fishing, smithing, and combat, among other options, and there’s little doubt that diehard Harvest Moon fans will quickly get into Graveyard Keeper.
- Developer: Lazy Bear Games
- Publisher: tinyBuild
- Release Date: August 2018
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
15. Farm for Your Life
Don’t Starve meets Harvest Moon in Farm for Your Life, a farm simulation game in which the player’s community was destroyed by a storm and subsequently invaded by zombies.
You’ll have no choice but to start again, and that means collecting resources, starting a farm from scratch, and making sure everyone has enough food as you manage a restaurant.
Defense is important, too, so you will be building structures to ensure that your food supply won’t be disrupted again in this 2013 singleplayer game.
- Developer: Hammer Labs
- Publisher: Hammer Labs
- Release Date: June 2013
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux
16. Stranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Stranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed Islands is a farming simulation game with an interesting story line. Players are shipwrecked pirates who are stranded on a remote and cursed island part of an archipelago chain.
What’s waiting for you there? Time will tell, but your gameplay is sure to involve lots of farming (you need to eat, after all) as well as cooking and exploring.
As you level your skills up, you might also find out what’s really going on on these mysterious islands.
Stranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed Islands was designed to have the same relaxing and cozy feel as Harvest Moon, so there’s little doubt that you’ll have a blast.
- Developer: Alchemist Interactive
- Publisher: rokaplay, Maple Whispering Limited
- Release Date: October 2019
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
17. Staxel
Staxel is what Minecraft would be like if the famous voxel game had more advanced farming mechanics (not to mention many more crops and even insects), and though many have dismissed it as one of many rip-offs, there’s no doubt that this voxel game will appeal to Harvest Moon players.
Players will be building a thriving farm while exploring the wide open procedurally-generated world and having fun with friends, because Staxel is a relaxing cooperative multiplayer world in which combat doesn’t play a role and you’ll have exciting quests to go on instead.
- Developer: Plukit
- Publisher: Humble Games
- Release Date: April 2019
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux (via Steam)
18. Verdant Skies
Heavily inspired by Harvest Moon, Verdant Skies is an enjoyable RPG in which players take on the role of a colonist.
Setting a new community up is hard and complicated work, so you’ll have to forage, farm, fish, mine, and go on quests.
Thankfully, you will be able to call on companions to lighten the load as you explore the massive world and build something amazing in a casual environment.
If the newer titles in the Harvest Moon series simply don’t give you the same relaxing vibe anymore, Verdant Skies, released in 2018, will reward you with nostalgic graphics combined with modern game dynamics.
- Developer: Howling Moon Software
- Publisher: Howling Moon Software
- Release Date: February 2018
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux (via Steam)
19. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the fifth title in the amazingly successful Animal Crossing series, and Harvest Moon players looking for that same casual vibe should definitely give this real-time multiplayer social simulation game a shot.
In this particular installment, the player moves to a deserted island, starting only with bare essentials that include a tent.
From there, players explore and gather resources, working to create their dream home as they craft new items and expand their domain.
The two NPCs who also bought the getaway package that landed players on the remote island will be the main companions, and forging strong bonds with your neighbors is the way to ensure a good time in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Later on in the adventure, players can expand and move to new lands.
- Developer: Nintendo EPD
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release Date: March 2020
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
20. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is an open-world survival game played from a third-person PoV.
After the player character is left shipwrecked and forced to make the best of life on a mysterious island with magical qualities, much of the exploration focuses on gathering Sprites, magical creatures that might be able to clear the dark fog.
While Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is an adventure game, its relaxed pace as well as the farming and fishing mechanics make the title appealing to Harvest Moon players looking for a new challenge.
This singleplayer game features eight different biomes and a highly-customizable player character.
- Developer: Prideful Sloth
- Publisher: Prideful Sloth, Merge Games
- Release Date: July 2017
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch
21. World’s Dawn
World’s Dawn is a relaxed farming and life simulation game in which players try to breathe new life into a sleepy seaside village.
You will be farming, caring for animals, fishing, and mining as well as taking part in village festivals and interacting with the locals.
World’s Dawn is a good choice for Harvest Moon players who enjoy farming, but can get on board with a game that focuses on relationship building a little more heavily.
Expect cute graphics and hours of silly but rewarding fun in this classic-feeling game.
- Developer: Wayward Prophet
- Publisher: Wayward Prophet
- Release Date: January 2016
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
A Final Word
It would be an understatement to say that there’s no shortage of farm simulation games, but make no mistake — many will never be as popular as Harvest Moon, because many were clumsily designed by single developers and disappear into the ether almost as soon as they come out.
Players who are looking for a game like Harvest Moon that they’ll enjoy over the long haul should head straight for our top picks — Stardew Valley, Valheim, Farming Simulator 22, and The Sims 4. That doesn’t mean the other games on this list don’t have anything to offer, though! If novelty is what you’re after, any of these titles will scratch that itch.
