Sanctuary Island to now wanting to try farming simulator

[PaulH]

Yikes! I cant edit subject title that is a nuisance I did mean Island Sanctuary pffft.

I personally quite enjoyed the Island Sanctuary and found the whole gathering, building, planting etc to have such great simplicity and be very enjoyable at the same time. I am now looking for a farming simulator to play and realise Island Sanctuary is basic compared to others out there.

So on YouTube i have had a look at Harvestella (out in Nov), Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Rune Factory but so much choice and no idea where to begin as I will end up installing a load and never playing.

So thought I would seek out some opinions:-

What is the best Farming simulator you have tried and why? (irrelevant to Island Sanctuary)?

Any farming simulator that is out there that has similar vibes to Island Sanctuary?

Thanks in advance

[Lisertan]

Farming Simulator of course. It's different, but clearly the best Farming Simulator Game out there. Sorce: I'm one of the Devs

[Espon]

I wasn't too impressed by Harvestella's demo... will have to wait and see what the full game is like.

Stardew Valley is a great game, highly recommended. It's basically like the old Harvest Moon games but with many additions and improvements.

I enjoyed Rune Factory 5. I have not played the PC version, but the Switch version suffers from poor framerate and random bugs. I have not played any other games in the series so I cannot comment on them but heard the 4th one is good.

I haven't played a Harvest Moon game in a while, but I remember having fun with them. Also, in case you don't know, don't confuse them with current Harvest Moon games (I heard those aren't that great). The series now goes by 'Story of Seasons' due to copyright reasons with localization.

[LianaThorne]

There's obviously the three main titans: Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. So if you want a good one to start with, any of them. Pick a meal, you're getting good food either way.

If you're a Disney fan, I'd recommend the new one that just came out called Disney Dreamlight Valley. It hits you in all the wholesome feels and actually incorporates a lot from Animal Crossing & Stardew Valley.

[Hafu]

Rune Factory 4 is the best one out there.

Nearly a decade on it still knocks all of it's competition out of the park completely through it's combination of fully fledged action jRPG with a life sim.

[Varilyon]

Highly recommend Stardew Valley. Either on PC (with modding-capability) or/and on the Switch (chill-time in Couch).
Its also really great as Multiplayer.