Gaming doesn’t always have to be super intensive, and great relaxing titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley really prove this point. Both of these games are incredibly popular, just as much as they’re addictive, and in both games the player gets to see their land evolve into something unique.
Players who are really weighing their options between these games might not know which one devote themselves to. While it’s totally possibly to juggle both games at the same time, there are a few pros and cons to consider on both sides.
Updated December 17th, 2020 by Anastasia Maillot: The year 2020 was immensely successful for simulation games, and Nintendo Switch became one of the most popular consoles thanks to Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ release. These games have been a necessity for many in extremely trying times. Those who are still trying to decide which game to invest in, there’s a few other considerations to take into account as new content has appeared for Animal Crossing in particular. The price tags of the two games are vastly different, but even then they’re two entirely unique games that will cater to different audiences.
16 Animal Crossing: Visit Anyone’s Island
One of Animal Crossing’s greatest strengths has been the ability to build a solid community of players throughout the past months. The main reason is the amount of interaction players can have with one another by visiting just about anyone’s island.
This not only allows friends to meet each other at a time where meeting in person would be difficult, but also creates a whole market for Animal Crossing item trading. Sites like Nookazon have become insanely popular thanks to this ability to travel around through Dodo Airlines.
15 Stardew Valley: Available On Switch And PC
Stardew Valley’s strength against Animal Crossing is probably its versatility. Its main release was on PC, which allows players to install modded content like texture packs and even new story content that will introduce brand-new events.
That being said, it also exists on Switch and almost every mobile device out there. It’s a game that’s easily accessible and cheap, despite having an immense amount of content within. As a bonus, it also runs great on any low-end PC as well. Meanwhile, Animal Crossing is only available for Nintendo Switch owners.
14 Animal Crossing: Custom Designs
Adding to the massive community of trading in Animal Crossing is also the community of custom designs. This feature in the game allows players to change the texture of a wide variety of items in the game, including objects and clothing. The process can be tedious and difficult at first, but well worth the effort.
Even custom paths can be created, which has revolutionized terraforming and island customization for players. Plus, if players aren’t confident in their ability to make cool designs, they can simply use someone else’s code to add their designs into their game. Sky’s the limit when it comes to the possibilities here.
13 Stardew Valley: Create LAN Worlds
One aspect that’s lacking in Animal Crossing is the existence of any co-op gameplay. Co-op is possible for people playing on the same Nintendo Switch, but there’s no official way to play co-op at the same time on the same island from two different devices.
Stardew Valley is the opposite. Creating a full on LAN world is entirely possible and up to four players can live on the same farm and even have their respective finances separated. This makes playing together from afar possible, no device-sharing needed.
12 Animal Crossing: Newer Graphics
Graphics will always be more of a preference than an actual advantage or disadvantage for a game, but it’s still worth a consideration. Animal Crossing’s graphics are obviously much more advanced than those of Stardew Valley, and it’s mainly where it’s high price tag stems from as well.
The game looks smooth and the details are gorgeous. On the other hand, Stardew Valley’s textures are more of a blast from the past, inspired by retro games. While there’s a market for them, players looking for something new and fresh will prefer Animal Crossing’s 3D world over Stardew Valley’s 2D top-down view.
11 Stardew Valley: Long Term Goals
Quests aside, Stardew Valley does have a better “storyline” and set up than Animal Crossing. There are real stakes in the game which can drive the player to enjoy the game for much longer than something like Animal Crossing, which is mostly about chilling on paradise island and watering flowers.
In Stardew Valley, the point is to make grandpa proud by ensuring his farm is in a proper state when he returns on the third year of the game to check up on the player. Moreover, there’s the matter of Joja Corporation trying to take over the town, which poses serious questions and concerns for the player. These long-term goals are largely absent in Animal Crossing.
10 Animal Crossing: Terraforming
No matter what map players choose at the beginning of the game, eventually they’ll be able to unlock a terraforming app on their phone. This allows them to shape the island they live on just the way they want, by creating cliffs, rivers, paths and even waterfalls.
This definitely isn’t the case in Stardew Valley. The map the player chooses is the map they’ll be stuck with, and they’ll have to make it work with the land they have.
9 Stardew Valley: Better Quests
Every day in Stardew Valley, one special quest appears on the notice board of Pelican Town. On top of that, the game also offers long-term goals which can take a while to accomplish, so there’s pretty much always something to do and strive for.
The issue with Animal Crossing, however, is that daily quests, which would be the Nook Miles+ tasks, are very simple and repetitive and don’t necessarily bring anything significant to the game. After reaching 5 stars, it’s a bit of a wait for new content.
8 Animal Crossing: Paced With Real World
Players who remember Tamagotchis and miss that sort of dynamic play style will definitely appreciate the real-time evolution of the Animal Crossing island. The island changes a little bit every day in real time, which makes it easy to include the game into one’s own routine. It’s kind of like tending a plant.
Stardew Valley, however, is a real time drain. Since days last for about 15 minutes if the player never pauses, it can get addictive quickly to play “just one more day” before getting back to productive things.
7 Stardew Valley: Actual Farms
The cool thing about Stardew Valley and perhaps its main strength comes from all the possible things the player can do on their farms. Whatever they want to grow, they absolutely can. They can also set up various animal farms, tree farms and then turn their products into artisanal goods.
In Animal Crossing, there aren’t exactly farms. Flowers and bushes can be planted, but most of the money is made from catching things or making DIY objects.
6 Animal Crossing: More Villagers
Here’s the crazy thing about Animal Crossing: it has over 300 unique villager characters. This is an huge amount of creatures, all individually designed with their personalities and interests. It just goes to show much there is to explore.
Stardew Valley only has the same villagers over and over again. There’s no way to meet different villagers or send people away if the player doesn’t like them. After hours of playtime, it can get pretty boring.
5 Stardew Valley: Deeper Relationships
Although Stardew Valley definitely has fewer villagers, the connection that can be created with them is so much deeper and interesting. Villagers can become best friends and even spouses in the long-term, and can be moved in. Eventually, the player will start a family with any of the bachelors and bachelorettes, too.
This type of depth just doesn’t exist in Animal Crossing. For one thing, romantic love is pretty much nonexistent, which makes sense since the villagers are animals. Also, even friendships tend to feel a bit superficial without any depth to the characters.
4 Animal Crossing: Daily Novelties
Since Animal Crossing is based on real time, the island has something unique and cool going on every single day. Certain NPCs will visit the town once a week or once a month to sell some special wares, which gives players an incentive to get online every day for a few minutes.
In Stardew Valley, there are definitely routines and schedules in place as well, but they’re not as complex and drastic as in Animal Crossing. There might be new harvestable plants in the wild or new objects in the mines, but it doesn’t feel quite as rewarding.
3 Stardew Valley: Faster Gameplay
If casual gaming doesn’t sound like a plan, Stardew Valley is definitely the better game to go for. This is because it can be played nonstop while still progressing the so-called storyline. Days can be skipped easily by simply going back to bed and sleeping the time away.
In Animal Crossing, however, there’s a reason why many people cheat through time travel. The game’s slower pace can make some people impatient for new things or for exciting events to take place.
2 Animal Crossing: More Updates
Purely in terms of new content, Animal Crossing is the winner. Many of its events are seasonal and through frequent patching and free new content, the game keeps evolving quickly and making things so much more interesting for players to get back into.
Stardew Valley is an indie game, however. With the development team of one person, there’s bound to be some slowness in how things are made. It’s definitely not for those who hunger for new experiences.
1 Stardew Valley: Combat And RPG Features
The main feature that sets Stardew Valley completely apart from Animal Crossing is of course its RPG elements and combat system. The mines are an excellent place for some fun grinding and a nice throwback to old adventure RPG games with a retro look.
Animal Crossing obviously doesn’t have combat. The most amount of excitement a player can experience will probably come from catching a tarantula or a scorpion.
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