When one first hears the genre ‘farming sim’ they may think of a stereotypical red barn, chickens, and the like. In actuality, this genre has been expanded upon to provide a wide variety of playthrough experiences.
Chances are, there’s a unique farming sim out there for any kind of player.
Farming games are the perfect way to wind down and relax after a busy day. Usually, they involve setting foot into another world filled with cute creatures, alluring recipes, new friends, and far more to explore.
If you’re in for an adventure, pick up your Nintendo Switch and head to the Eshop to check out these top 10 farming titles.
10. Cozy Grove
Cozy Grove - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Travel to the barren island of Cozy Grove, spirit scout, and bring life back into color! Customize your Spirit Scout, and explore the island to befriend the spirits that lurk around… through helping them uncover their past, the game’s beauty will unfold in front of you.
Cozy Grove combines exploration, building, crafting, and maintaining relationships into a lovable experience that only requires a small amount of time out of your day to maintain. It's unique aspect? The dynamic environment! Through gameplay, the art style flourishes and truly works to pull a player into the world.
Cook delicious recipes with the resources you put together, and find various exciting ways to make money! You can use the in-game currency to buy more character customizations, and to buy goods from the charming neighborhood fox Mr.Kit!
My favorite aspect of this game is befriending the spirit bears. Each bear has a unique story to tell you, and their own special skills that come with that! I won’t spoil too much… but some of them include a cook, a mailbear, and a sea captain!
They all have their own personalities that you can get to know more by completing quests for them, and when you do, voila! Gorgeous, lush wildlife comes back to the island!
There is lots more for you to uncover, and sitting at a comfortable price of $14.99 on the eshop, Cozy Grove is sure to bring a smile to your face when you need it most.
(PS. There’s also an expansion you can download if you’d like additional gameplay content later on!)
9. Ooblets
Ooblets - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Ooblets is one of the quirkier titles on this list, but if you’re into silliness, magical creatures, and unique playstyles, make your way to the world of Oob to become a dance battling master!
Ooblets is a farming game in which you grow crops and little creatures called ooblets, which is where this game gets its title.
Customize your character however you’d like as you develop your farm, and use the in-game currency, gummies, that you earn through gameplay to get more customization options. You can also use gummies to purchase seeds for your crops and to decorate your home.
As you explore badgetown, you can make and develop friendships with all of the townsfolk by doing quests for them.
There is lots of trash destroying the town! Your task is to clean things up and figure out what is really going on. Where the heck is that trash coming from?! Farm, dance, explore, and piece together the puzzle.
A little more about the ooblets? These little guys love to dance, and you can participate in battles with them while you explore! Each ooblet has 3 different rarities for you to collect.
Gather seeds for the different kinds of ooblets you want to collect, and keep an eye out for gleamies, the rarest form of them all! This game’s colorful graphics and fun language genuinely pulls players to another world, one they can hide in for a while and enjoy.
8. Wylde Flowers
Wylde Flowers | Coming to Nintendo Switch & Steam in 2022 — Full Trailer
Wylde flowers is special for its narrative driven story and the way it inspires you to keep playing.
You play as Tara, a young woman who has just gone through a difficult break up. Her grandmother is sick, and though she is only tasked with helping her grandma run her farm, Tara ends up finding a true home.
Not only are you a farmer in this game, but you are also a witch! At night you can cast spells and do witchy activities, while during the day you can tend to and expand your farm. When you farm, you can use magic to help you!
Did your crops die? There’s a potion for that.
While crops are one way to farm, you can also care for a variety of animals! Each season, there is a chance to breed uniquely colored animals with distinct features.
Your overall goal? Farm to your heart's content, develop your magic, and piece together the mystery of Fairhaven.The more you learn about your past, about the town, the more there is to explore and cultivate.
Not many farming games embrace linear storytelling, but Wylde Flowers adds to this by providing fully voice acted characters that react as the story progresses.After a heaping load of content updates, this title has become a well-rounded, captivating experience with multiple ways to play even after the main story is complete.
Help Tara embrace her true identity and find comfort in chosen family in this charming game.
7. Disney Dreamlight Valley
Disney Dreamlight Valley - Gameplay Overview Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Dreamlight Valley was a magical place, home to a plethora of Disney characters we know and love… that is- until The Forgetting began.
Dark thorns have grown all over the valley, scattering memories and leaving the characters to retreat to the castle. Play as yourself to save them and bring the valley back to its natural stage of magic, light, and prosperity.
Meet various Disney characters all across the valley, and complete tasks for them to progress in the world! Who knows- you may end up making the most unlikely friends(after all, there are several villains you run into as you play).
Merlin, the great wizard from the film The Sword in the Stone, is the one to help you start the epic journey. Like other titles- you get your own home to decorate and expand, land to farm, tools, and a customizable character up to your design.
This game is so lovable for its nostalgia factor. These characters are familiar to so many of us, and Dreamlight Valley brings them back to life and makes them come alive through interactive gameplay.
Save the valley, cook with Remy the rat, and turn your house into a home in Disney’s Dreamlight Valley.
6. Rune Factory 5
Rune Factory 5 - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch
This game is a strong title that blends fighting RPG games with farming simulators seamlessly.In Rune Factory 5, you become a ranger for SEED, a peacekeeping organization in the town of Rigbarth.
Choose from a male or female playable character and jump into action! Protect the town while keeping the monsters at bay(all while maintaining your farm and building relationships with the townspeople, of course).
The combat in the game is relatively simple, but there are combos you can master depending on the weapons you choose. You can also upgrade your weapons to inflict status on enemies.
Master magic in the form of rune abilities to enhance your weapons and cast effective spells. There are various kinds of magic to make use of in the game, from healing magic, all the way to powerful damage. Also, you have the option to bring companions with you into battles! Either trained monsters, or characters you meet in the town!
With easy to pick up mechanics and otherworldly concepts, the fighting in this game is great for a player who may not normally pick up a fighting game by choice. The cute creatures and stunning characters are a plus.
In your spare time, enjoy the peace of town life by fishing, crafting, farming, cooking, and romancing characters! There are contests you can participate in, as well as seasonal events to look forward to.
Have fun raising livestock and growing enormous crops! Use a sickle to level up your seeds to increase your harvest, and learn to farm in various weather conditions.
This is a game one could write multiple articles about, packed with content and unique gameplay aspects to explore. What are you waiting for? Take a look at Rune Factory 5!
5. Slime Rancher
Slime Rancher - Official Launch Trailer
By far one of my favorite farming games of all time, Slime Rancher takes farming to another world- literally.
You play as Beatrix Lebeau, a woman who ventures out into the far, far range to begin her life as a Slime Rancher. Learn more about her character through the mail you receive from an old friend!
…What is a slime rancher? Only one of the greatest farmers out there! Slimes are cute creatures with adorable faces who, after eating, produce little gems called plorts. Plorts are worth a pretty penny, and you can harvest them and sell them on the plort market to make lots of money.
Find your slimes by heading out onto the range and sucking them up in your vacpack! Bring them back to your farm and corral them. All that's left to do after that? Keep them fed and happy! You can do so by farming different fruits and vegetables you discover on your adventures.
As you uncover different biomes, find different slimes, and upgrade your farm… you can find little yellow holograms all over the map. If you go up to them, you just might learn a bit about the farmers that came before you.
If there is one game you pick up from this list, Slime Rancher would be an incredible choice.
4. Harvestella
HARVESTELLA - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Harvestella is not unlike Rune Factory 5 in that it combines sword swinging and shovel digging into one game.
Quietus is a dark disaster that arrives whenever the seasons change. When it comes, it is unsafe for people to go outside, as plants wither and die. Your character (customizable, by the way), awakens in this world at the height of one of these events.
Explore three vibrant towns and an elaborate exterior world to learn more about this event to uncover the truth behind what is happening. Make allies to help you along your way, each of them with their own combat abilities to help you when you set out.
While fighting, you can effortlessly switch between ‘jobs’, or combat classes. This allows you to utilize different fighting styles in one battle, which can make for some epic combat!
When you’re not fighting, enjoy everyday life by growing fruits and vegetables. You can change those crops into crafting materials, or, choose to sell them. Take care of amazing mythical animals to receive eggs and milk to use in your cooking! Learn to cook appetizing recipes that will give you useful boosts on your quests.
Harvestella’s gothic graphics and dark storyline make it an interesting play. Grab this game if you’re in for a ride.
3. FaeFarm
Fae Farm - Pre-Order Trailer - Nintendo Switch
In the glorious world of Azoria, natural disasters are falling upon various parts of the land. This world needs a hero, a warrior… dive into FaeFarm to hide within the luscious light of magic as you farm, mine, fight, and romance characters!
Faefarm’s farming aspect is crucial to the gameplay, as you need to consistently eat meals in order to keep your energy levels high enough to do tasks. As well as an energy bar, you have a health bar, and stamina bar.
Crawl into the mines to gather precious minerals, fight creative foes, and meet some crucial characters that help drive the story forward. Learn spells that you can use to clean up the land, gather resources more quickly, and fight more effectively! You can refine the minerals you gather to upgrade your tools, or to sell them for a higher price.
You can also catch bugs and go fishing to fill your almanac with entries and convert them into useful resources.
As you wander the lands, you’ll meet a plethora of romanceable characters. Go on romance quests for them to unlock dates, and maybe even get married someday! Alongside romance quests, there are regular quests as well to keep you busy.
Decorate your home to increase your stats, and your farm to create an immersive aesthetic. This game’s uniqueness lies, I think, in the setting. A fairy world? That’s a farming sim? With fighting? AND characters to meet? Count me in.
Check out FaeFarm on the eshop for eight lengthy chapters of gameplay that will keep your eyes glued to your switch.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo Switch Trailer - Nintendo E3 2019
This title makes number two despite the fact that its farming aspect may not be the main focus, rather, a lovely aspect. One of the best selling titles on the Nintendo Switch to date, Animal Crossing: New Horizons stole the hearts of players everywhere at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
You play as yourself, customized to your liking, and it seems that you are on your way to a vacation island booked through Nook Inc! Meet Timmy and Tommy, the workers of the in-game shop, who will help you choose an island layout and name.
Once you make it to the island, you arrive with two other animal friends (different every playthrough) who will be the first villagers on this island! Tom Nook, the one who is sponsoring this whole endeavor, names you the “resident representative” and tasks you with making sure life on the island is fun for the residents.
Use your pole vault to get across rivers, and your ladder to get across cliffs! Eventually, you will be able to create stairs and bridges to make traversing your island easier. Gather resources with your wheel of tools and use those resources to craft decorations for both in your home, and all around!
Thanks to an update, farming is also available in the game! Before that update, you could only plant flowers and fruit trees. Now, cook to your heart's content and gather the ingredients yourself!
Meet a vast array of non-villager characters who are there to help you, and well over one hundred villagers with unique personalities who are ready to come live on your island.
Your goal is for you to decide. What do you wish to do with your time, with your island? Who do you wish to meet?
1. Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley - Trailer (Nintendo Switch)
Widely considered one of the best farming sims ever made, Stardew Valley is unlike any other when it comes to its farming and relationship building. There is what feels like endless content to sift through, which for the price point, is well worth it.
Escape city life and hide away at a new farm in Stardew Valley! Play as yourself and arrive in town with the goal of making your farm a successful venture. This involves growing crops, raising animals, fishing, mining for resources, and building relationships with the townspeople.
There are also optional goals, like completing the community center bundles, exploring the mysteries of the valley, and participating in various in-game events.
Players can befriend villagers by engaging in conversations, giving them gifts, and participating in community events.
Deepening these relationships unlocks personal storylines, shared recipes and helpful items.
Stardew Valley is known for its open-ended gameplay and the freedom it provides to its players. It offers a diverse range of activities, allowing players to try different paths based on their preferences. The game’s charming pixel art style, changing seasons affecting gameplay, and the emphasis on relationships and community make it pop in the farming simulation genre.
… and that's it for my list of top 10 farming games for the Nintendo Switch! No matter which of these titles you pick up, there are hours of fun and foliage headed your way.
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