In the intro I say I’m talking about games with low review scores. I meant to say low amount of reviews but I misspoke I should also clarify on my comments on RPGMaker. It can definitely be used for really good games and the “it’s for babies first game” was more of a hyperbole than saying it can’t do a good game (still not a good way to describe it though). But I did misrepresent it in making it seem like the game was bad because it was made in RPG Maker, I just meant more like RPG Maker can be very limited so it’s harder to get something great with it

As an RPGMaker enthusiast, I have to point out that Harvest Island's UI is pretty heavily customized, lol. Like not that the default UI looks fantastic or anything but it's at least readable.

I think its a little unfair to call rpg maker "not a real game engine". Your critiques of the game itself are totally fair, but I've played some incredibly great games made in rpg maker and some trash. Some of the greatest games of all time in the past were made with more restrictions than rpg maker.

There are really good games made in RPG Maker. The issue is using the base tile sets etc and not doing something creative with it. OneShot was made with RPG Maker MV and it’s an incredible experience.

The part when you said "go out and play it maybe you will like it. I didnt but im not you" was so great and more reviewers need to take that mindset. So much of the internet acts like their take is absolute and if they dont like it noone can like it

RPG maker is like Unity, It's an easily accessible engine, and easy to use, so a lot of people make their first game on it, flooding stores with cheap junk It however doesn't mean the engines are bad, great games have been made with them

A lot of weird financial decisions on some of these games. Song of the Prairie's poor translation worries me when they've already committed English voice acting to it - I can't be hopeful they have any interest in fixing it up if they'd have to redo a bunch of voice over. Harvest Island is also interesting because I recall getting a lot of KZfaq ads for it a few years ago - the frantic insecurity is probably because that developer sunk money into promoting it (which, considering the UI, was probably a bad idea). The last game looks pretty rad, though I hope the movement is less clunky than it looks in the video. Overall, this video was fun! I'd love to see more unnoticed games, regardless of quality. I also appreciate how you make sure to say "this isn't for me" instead of "this sucks", it's clear you have a lot of respect for all the developers.

0:00: Intro 0:42: 01. Cheaphaven 🦎 3:10: 02. Song Of The Prairie ♠ 7:01: 03. Bit Orchard: Animal Valley 🍎 10:23: 04. Tuttle: Star Flower Harvest 💮 12:54: 05. Harvest Island 🧭 21:01: 06. Goo Berries 🤖 23:48: 07. Farm For Your Life 🧟‍♂ 26:09: 08. Moondrop 🌕 30:01: Outro

the way i instantly clocked that one game as an RPGmaker title when i saw the save file screen. my 100s of videos watched in my teen years on weird little horror titles made in the engine werent totally a waste. almost aspirational in a way, that they chose such an ill fitting genre (farmsim) for the engine and tried to make it work but you know what they say about square pegs and round holes.

That lizard run animation 😂😂😂

honestly, I'm sold on the lizard one! thanks for a suggestion

Please don't dunk on RPG Maker, you can do incredible things with it. This game is just poor on its own

in stars and time was made with rpg maker and its pretty good. it has overwhelming positive reviews and came out around the same time as harvest island

song of the prairie looks so much like a genshin clone with zepeto avatars 😭

Older farming games could be fairly complex actually. That orchard game seems to be taking inspiration from GB Harvest moon? Which was very simple but that was an outlier on the older harvest moon games.

I enjoy Iron pinapples souls like series, I think I would love if you were able to make a series for this (or maybe just a couple more!). I don't think I could be bothered with bit orchid, it's okay if the game wants you to figure out some stuff on your own but normally there is an insentive to do so...

I would enjoy more of these videos, series pls! 😊

I’ve read a ton of bad machine translated Chinese novels so I’ll probably do fine mentally translating the bad English into something legible for song of the prairie lol

I love finding indie games, I don't care if somethings a little rough around the edges if they've got really unique ideas and/or a lot of personality. I'd love to see you do another one of these if you're up to it!

Def agree that the zombie one should be revisited in some way! That sounds like an interesting concept minus the restaurant management stuff. And i would for sure love to see more of this! When so many farming games are coming out all the time im sure a lot fall through the cracks.

Cool idea! I'd love more videos like this :) Oh and also, there's a lot of really good and cool games made with rpg maker, it just isn't the right game engine for every type of game. So in case of harvest island i think the problem was solely with the dev, they made a terrible choice of game engine for the type of game they wanted to make and they're probably very inexperienced

Mistfall is interesting. I like the idea of a non-violent, non-frustrating roguelike game, and mixing roguelike with farming seems like an interesting way to do that. I had a game idea where I was going to do that myself, but I realized as I was building it that I just couldn't make the roguelike aspect any fun.

I think the best place to pick up these obscure little games is in Itch bundles. The other day I remembered I bought the bundle for racial justice years ago, and decided to look through the contents besides the big ones like Celeste and Night in the Woods and found Verdant Skies. The actual farming and story is pretty rudimentary (and it's kinda ugly imo) but there's an interesting cast with some surprisingly compelling character writing at points. Farming sims are so common these days but there's something about how the Harvest Moon format naturally enables people to create a community for the player to interact with that can really make or break these games. It's why I didn't click with My Time At Portia, even though it has more content - the cast is overstuffed with flat characters, and only one or two of them have actual storylines.

Listening to the description of farm for your life (Missing a chapter btw), I can't help but think of overcooked 2, which has modes that are pretty much exactly this. Run a restaurant, feed zombies to keep them from breaking in, it's just missing the actual farming part, which it seems like ffyl did anyway. Always like more content on lesser known games, but I'll comment on the comparison to ironpineapple's content: A lot of the appeal there is about watching those live reactions to the first few minutes of the games. Part of that is because souls-likes are pretty heavily based on just gamefeel, so he can give some impressions the moment he takes his first few steps and does the first dodge roll, then go along as he figures things out and understands how it fits together. That's something that's way harder to do in farming games, because they usually start with a sizeable tutorial which often isn't too entertaining to watch, and then take a few days to get a feel for, which is also tough to sell. Could manage it, but it'd be a lot of editing game footage to get those initial impressions. Another big point is the breadth and consistency of the genre. There's a lot of soulslikes, and some pretty clear criteria for what's soulslike and what's stretching it. Farming games, much less so. Sure there's criteria, but the games vary so widely there's often just no real common ground to compare on. And finally, while I love the positivity, a good chunk of the fun of those videos is seeing some of the worst the market has to offer, cash grabs, student projects, intentionally bad games, and so on. The issue with farming games is that almost always, the highest reasonable criticism is "Yeah it's not for me, but someone probably loves it." And that positivity means a lot more when directed at something like a student project where they tried hard. I feel like the formula might be a lot more successful with survival crafting games. They're popular, there's tons of almost never played ones, the label often includes farming games, there's clear ideas of what one is, the first few moments are usually interesting enough to watch and have commonalities (Punch a tree to get wood, like lizzer game), and there's a wide variety of quality and intents behind the games, so room to insert some stinkers. Subbed either way, looking forward to more.

I love farming sims and Song of the Prarie is one of my favorites by far. I think I've got about 60 hours in it so far. I agree about the translation being rough sometimes. But I also play a lot of visual novels, so I think I'm used to having to deal with poor translations at times. I'm surprised you didn't bring up one of the unique features tho. I don't remember the name of the mechanic but it's where you go into their mind and you have figure out what's going on with them and how to help. You not only get to learn each NPCs story, you can get clothing and accessories from it to. I think SotP is a gem that just needs a little more polish. Loved the video, always happy to learn about other farming games I haven't tried yet.

When you mentioned rogue-like I immediately had to check if you've ever played Moonlighter- it's not a farming sim, but rather a business management and it's got the same kind of vibe as Moondrop, imo. As someone whose not a big rogue-like game player, it was still really fun and rewarding and now I'd love to see your opinion on it! I know they just put out an update (or it's updating soon, my memory is pretty poor) so it's definitely got active development and players even though I haven't seem a whole lot of people talk about it. It's a few years old, which may be the reason, but I still think it's really fun!

The cheaphaven lizard on the thumbnail made me click on this video, absolutely a gem of a game its so cute! glad i 100%'d it also, OML TUTTLE!! i love this game SO much, it instantly became one of my favorite games of all time

Would love more vids like this across various genres! especially cozy games!

Haircut looks great bro

Bro. God tier farming rogue like: Atomicrops. Look it up

I spent $2 on Animal Valley and it was worth it to me lol.

There are too many farming games that don't involve dragons. In fact I am not aware of any farming games that involve dragons.

i would love a sequel to this video! i like getting in depth recommendations like this

i loveeee videos like this!! you should def continue, with not just farming games, but any genre youre interested in!

I really enjoyed this video! There are so many indie farming-adjacent games nowadays that it can be hard to find more info about them before purchasing, and I appreciate the in-depth look you gave to each of the titles here

I hope this goes viral, this seems like a great idea for a video!

Already huge respect for putting the mic on a stand

14:28 “Babies first try at making a game not a 30 hour experience” Some games made in rpg maker: -omori -one shot -to the moon -lisa the painful The engine can be very in depth if you want it to be, just like literally any other game engine (not that you consider rpg maker a “real one”). Just because some rpg maker games arent great doesnt mean the entire engine is bad. Also, the menu is pretty custom in that game and it would take some skill and knowledge to execute it (its not good by any means, it looks horrible to use tbh but just pointing that out). Its just a tired point of “rpg maker game bad” like ya the game looks bad, but thats not because of the engine.

I love this concept, i would love to see more. Thank you!!🍓

I love these types of videos from you

I played Bit Orchard: Animal Valley, and yeah, it kind of got old quick. I did meet the ghost NPC and get some more area opened but I never played to the point of meeting other NPCs or unlocking the town. It was just...eh. Glad I got it on sale (played it on the Switch btw). Also, those other games you scrolled through weren't from the developers of Bit Orchard, but the _publisher_ , Red Deer Games. They do have a decent selection overall, but YMMV. Edit: I've also seen Farm For Your Life on the Switch, but it didn't appeal to me so I never got it.

Great format! ❤

good. is inspiring see people giving a chance to small games that may be hidden gems, or if are crap, at least get more feedback with constructive advices and reviews. ya know, a game dev can not improve their game is people only comment " This game is worst than an hemorroid while you sit in a leather chair in the summer"

You’re a cool dude. Love the way you edit the videos.

Anyone looking for another fun farming game I have loved my time playing Ooblets. It has card fight mechanics with creature capture and farming.

That first game looks so mellow, I love it

i love that youre honest about your feelings!!

The series of games by Freebird games all used RPG Maker, and they implemented mechanics which aren't commonly seen in the engine, they were also developed by one person, so using RPG Maker isn't nessacerily an excuse for poor ui design, it may just be due to inexperience with game development in general, as it comes across as being very amateur in terms of the game's design in general, as even games like Hyper Light Drifter use Gamemaker, which is incredibly rudimentary compared to godot etc.

If they add more stuff to that gooberries game id totally check it out it looks super interesting

hi!! first time watcher--- i really enjoyed this video and would love to see you do more on small games like this!!

Great vid

Idk why you had to make a weird tangent about RPGmaker Tho? It comes off as insulting to devs that use it with the baby comment. It's a tool like any other and great for those that work with the program and within its limitations. Off, Yume nikki, and Oneshot are some games made in rpgmaker that were pretty popular and loved

Song of the prairie reminds me of my time at portia, very cute style

10:20 i played sprout valley ( demo ) for a little and it seems like a fun game

the first one really reminds me of dinkum!

Honestly, at the beginning of the section for Farm for you Life I thought the gameplay loop was going to be that you lure the zombies into the restaurant and feed them and that's how you keep the place safe. honestly kinda disappointed...

1. Great video. Hope to see more like this. 2. I immediately thought you were Michael Bohn and subsequently was very confused.

Its weird that you describe a "rougelike" specifically by a feature which makes it cease to be a rougelike.That being progress after death outside of a better understanding of the game (mind, just the mechanics, you wont know how the world looks because that was so random it could be straight up impossible if no path generated in a way that you could use with available materials) That would turn it into a rougelite. Not that there is anything wrong with either. Regarding Rouge Legacy btw, obviously you play as descendent, not ancestor, how would your ancestors have had access to wealth you will in the future have earned? ;)

Why is your inflection so unique

I’ve never heard of these, how did you know? 😭

6:27 Maybe it's meant to say "Actually, just now I was thinking about how kind you are and then suddenly, you appeared. Speak of the devil."

You're wrong about rpg maker though. It's not just baby's first game engine, it's just tools. Plenty of devs have made world-class games with rpg maker. Look at undertale.

I would buy the lizard one just to see his walk

Oh weird that second game looks like it is using the same engine as Dragon Nest

Maggie with the cameo

Look I love farming games, I love them, and I love a lot of the creativity and blending with other genres that a lot of them do… I feel like there’s so much potential there, but it’s a shame that most of them don’t go outside the box very much…

For the last game, one game did it in my opinion much better, it is Atomic corps. It is rouge like farming game that is hard fast passed farming shooter rouglike with a lot of plants, guns, characters bosses etc..

I want a Morrowind Farm Game with Argonians and Khajiit as Farm Tools😆

I disagree about the RPG Maker thing I've seen lots of game made with it that is amazing with it.

Awesome

yes, please add gambling to this game that is obviously for kids 💀

I think you’d really like Atomicrops :)

This video would be much better without the sudden insults thrown towards devs who use RPGmakers?? It's an engine like any other engine, you can code whatever you want into it and just disregard the templates provided. Good video, except for that segment.

Are the clothes still gender-locked in song of the prairie?

markiplier at home:

K y n s e e d

Goobers :)

0:46 this is all I aspire to be in life, that is the face of pure happiness (or shrooms) also that harvest moon reference at 2:35 got me dying

hey you are a good youtuber

I like these types of videos, but you should give credit to IronPinapple. Hes a beast and deserves recognition. I do like your content though, keep it up!

thanks. whatever. you know the comment

pro tip: if a part of your script has you saying "wHat Im TRyiNg tO sAy iS" uh. cut it out?????? cut that out of the vid. meadering worthless rambling irrelevant tangents are ALL idiotic, unfunny, cliche, and really f@%king annoying

I love song of the Prairie, but you did mention a few games I had never heard of so kudos.