Why are there so many Stardew Valley “Ripoffs”?
Every time a new farming game with social simulator mechanics comes out, the comparisons are inevitable. Just another Stardew Valley clone. Is this true, or are people just fed up with farming games? What could be causing this vitriol towards the genre? Let’s take a look at these games a little closer!
Sections:
0:00 – Intro
0:26 – The Stardew Valley Killer
1:10 – What about Harvest Moon?
1:55 – What is a Farming Game?
3:52 – Neighbor-vanias
5:50 – What should be Different?
8:30 – The True Ripoffs
11:37 – The Farming Game Avalanche
13:11 – Every Game is Someone’s Favorite Game
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https://djcutman.bandcamp.com/album/stardew-chill
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48 Comments
less than a minute ago im guessing there's a lot of stardew valley games because they are relaxing and people enjoy turning off their brain while gaming and also developers want a slice of the stardew pie and they view making farming games as easy i hope i am correct in this prediction
edit; okay my prediction was COMPLETELY wrong!! this video was not what i thought it'd be and i am embarrassed for commenting this now with how the video actually was but this has changed my outlook on what i view as a "generic farming game" / "omg such cool not generic farming game". neighborvania is such a cool word aswell?? like my god i want this word to become widely used,,
that ending tie in to pokemon was also an amazing parallel omg
Bro Fields of Mistria is to Stardew what Stardew is to Harvest Moon. I love both games!
I will not hear a word against SV. Currently playing the expanded version for the first time. Your vids have been invaluable Salamence. Ta.
Neighborvania gotta be the worst word I’ve ever heard.
Lmao that thumbnail is gonna grab so many rage bait viewers
Stardew set a standard but other farming games still rock too!!
some of the ripoffs are cute though
Really not a fan of the name 'neighborvania' not only do I not like 'metroidvania' as a 'genre' name, but a derivative of it is even worse.
Fields of Mistria will always be goated
I’ll finish the video, but this conversation just feels like a rehash or rediscovery of older conversations. We used to call every shooter “Doom clones” and we used to call every MOBA “Dota Clones” before we developed the names and nuances for the genre. I think people just forget that genres are forged by reinterpretations and remixes of what came before it.
All genres have the prototype, the archetype, and then the stereotype, and that’s a sign of good health.
New gaming vocabulary has been added to my lexicon, Neighborvania, thank you Salmence
Yo Sal, what’s up brotha
Helo from Australia!
I feel like while there are some clear rip offs but things like Fields of Mystria and Moonstone Island each bring something new, adding to what stardew valley added to Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons. I consider ripoffs things that directly copy but don't add to the game they are trying to imitate.
I'm so saddened that people call Stardew the standard of farming games when Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons did it first.
Where does Rimworld sit in this spectrum?
How about Stardew Valley makers actually come out with update for switch PS5..etc..
and then I’ll stop playing the other games. How about that?
As someone who has loved cozy farming sims ever since I was a child, I love the fact that there are so many new ones coming out! Pardon my language but who gives a crap if not all of them are as „good“ as the ones hailed to be the best in the genre. As long as they are unique in some ways they can still be enjoyable. I dont like all this nitpicky comparing that the gaming community does to farming sims. Edit: I also firmly believe saying Stardew Valley is the blueprint is false. If not for the harvest moon series, stardew valley wouldnt exist as it was a huge inspiration. Game devs only picked up on it because of the huge hype it (deservedly) got at the time and how people seemed to be more open to the genre, but its not the number 1 just for that. That feels wrong imo.
Bro cooked on this one THAT'S MY STREAMER
There is only one.
Honestly while I do love both games, as a longtime Harvest moon/SOS fan who's had to deal with Stardew fans dismissing all new releases from the series as "ripoffs" (including the remake of AWL, a game which originally released in 2003), watching Stardew fans freak over people praising Fields of Mistria has been great schadenfreude. Like damn there's a group of fans of a new game who are unfairly dismissing an earlier series you really love? That sucks, I can't imagine what that's like.
I'm wait for Puffpals : Island Skies at most
Good video!
I haven't watched the video yet, but I will say I think fields of mistria is an incredible game. It's just different enough from stardew to be enjoyable without straying too far from what I like about it
Appreciate this video Salmence, it was good and well thought out. Stardew Valley is the game that made me fall in love with the genre, and I for one am thrilled to see so many farming games coming out and being released. With DDV specifically, it was originally free to play, and then it became purchasable, and a lot of people didn't like that for obvious reasons. But yes I agree with you that for the most part, each farming game that comes out has something different and appeals to a certain type of gamer, and thats ok 🙂
"Neighbor-vania" the term is life sim XD
The creators of Harvest moon and Stardew Valley both deeply care about their works and how it affects players. ConcernedApe is updating because he sees we love this crap. Thank you for calling out all the farming misfits that attempted the money grab.(Animal Crossing) I love both series, but I don’t want to farm in every game, I have options for that.
I haven't watched the video yet, but I will say I think fields of mistria is an incredible game. It's just different enough from stardew to be enjoyable without straying too far from what I like about it
Harvest Moon 64 was my first game ever. I have hundred of hours poured into that game since childhood. I literally required my fiance to propose with a blue feather. That being said, I never thought Stardew was a Rip-Off, and using the term “neighborvania” perfectly describes why. It was just a new game that filled a harvest moon shaped hole in my heart. Since then, I’ve been loving coral island and I’m stoked to try fields of Mystria. The more the merrier!
HEY, Harvest Moon is my FAVORITE Stardew Valley ripoff
The name Neighborvania is fantastic. I sincerely hope it gets widely adopted.
Stardew Valley will always be my personal favourite farming simulator 🙂
Your timeline in the beginning was only empty because you left out the games that were released after the FIRST Harvest Moon. There are so many Harvest Moon and later renamed Story of Seasons games and they are still being released! You make it seem as if there was one Harvest Moon game, on Rune Factory and that's it. Which is not true.
Edit: Did you really call AWL remake a rip off? You know that the original came out way before SDV, right? And that Marvelous started way before to rerelease their older games? Like…SDV drew inspiration from the games you "called out". 😂
Just because the next remake was in a time somewhat near SDV's release, doesn't mean it is a rip off, especially when it is true to the original and the original came out before SDV.
You really should have done your research before that video. That was a hot mess and didn't do the genre justice.
It was just riding the wave Fields of Mistria caused.
NGL, the first game that came to my mind when Sal said the word "vania" was Undertale
I believe that Neighborvania can describe more than just farming games. There are a lot now games where main focus can be on any kind of stuff. Like alchemy, smithing, shop or restaurant ownership etc. And s lot of them can be united in the case that they are about doing it in some sort of society, being part of neighborhood so to say
Can someone please list all the games shown in the video pleaseee (not the ones that got hated on tho) Thank youuu~~
In the end, calling (the majority of) these games ripoffs is the re4l rip-off in the end
Can we get a list of every game you showed in this video in the comments or description? I'm interested in checking them out!
If anything for single player games, what could kill it is another game that most people would think of first. If someone ask me for a relaxing farming game, I think Stardew first. If asked for another I've played a Harvest Moon (one on the Switch can't remember the name), or Sun Haven. I still recommend other games too, but Stardew is first to mind.
If it wasn't for crash issues, I might have moved on from Stardew to Coral Island. Of all the follow-ups, it seems to have kept the stuff that works and expanded the stuff that CA probably couldn't have made on its own. It feels both bigger and broader, a natural evolution of a classic. But…the crashes.
any sandbox with grid is Minecraft ripoff
Awesome video
Literally just watched your youtuber hot takes and then this pops up… LOL
i'm glad u brought up modern harvest moon games lol farming sims are my special interest and it makes me so sad to see ppl fall for it
Lukewarm take, I'd still be playing SoS – Sunshine Isle if it got free updates making it better every so often. The best thing to ever happen to Stardew is that ConcernedApe never made a Stardew Valley 2.
Nice summary of the "problem", but I have to ask, what does Atelier Ryza have to do with it? That can hardly be likened with a neighbuorvania? And the Atelier series goes back as long as Harvest moon if I not misstaken.
A llitle bit sad that No Place Like Home didn´t appear
Stardew revitalized the farming Sim genre. It's not different than any other hit bringing a genre back into focus