I've played a lot of Stardew Valley, and I've greatly enjoyed my time on my farm and interacting with the citizens of Pelican Town. However, because I've had such a great experience with the game, I've found it difficult to enjoy certain other cozy games as much. This even includes the first cozy game I ever played, which now holds much less appeal for me, even with all of my nostalgia for it. While Stardew Valley hasn't completely eclipsed my love for other games in the genre, I am now weighing my decision to play them against continuing my farm.

The games I find least impacted by this effect are games that are unconventionally cozy. For instance, I find the Persona series very cozy, because subsequent playthroughs make it easy to minimize time in dungeons and focus on the life-sim and story elements. Because they're so drastically different from Stardew Valley, I'm still able to enjoy both. In contrast, the more similar a cozy game is to Stardew Valley, the harder time I have getting into it again, which is the case for my first cozy game: Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Introduced Me To Cozy Games

Harvest Moon: Wonderful Life Was My First Relaxing Video Game

Back before the original games in the series were rebranded as Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life for the Nintendo GameCube was the first cozy game I ever played. Technically, I had played The Sims before Harvest Moon, but as anyone who has played the first Sims game knows, it isn't all that cozy. Also, the destructive potential of the game always tempted my young distractible self to do things like light my house on fire when I got bored.

At the time, the idea of a game where all I had to do was manage a farm felt very novel to me. It was far from the first farm simulator, and not even the first Harvest Moon game, but it was the first one I was aware of. I was so used to violence and fast-paced action in my video games that it felt refreshing to play something that I didn't have to pay full attention to, but still provided enough tasks to keep me occupied.

At the time, I also didn't have easy internet access, so I wasn't tempted to look up how to optimize the fun out of my farm. I ended up running it however I felt, and I found the game's freedom and low-stakes to be very relaxing. After playing Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, I paid more attention to games like it that I could use as a way to relax when I didn't want a very challenging play session. I ended up getting into the Animal Crossing series, later Sims games, and much later on, Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley Improved Upon Harvest Moon In Several Ways

Stardew Valley Improved Harvest Moon's Basic Gameplay And Added New Features

Ironically, given that Stardew Valley would eventually make it hard for me to play Harvest Moon, it was my love for the latter that made me pick up the former in the first place. The game had started to get some positive buzz, and I found its pixel art charming and nostalgic (even if it's not how my first farm-sim game had looked). I think it also helped that the combat reminded me of old-school Zelda, essentially layering my fondness for two very different games on top of each other in one cute package.

As I started playing Stardew Valley, I immediately began to see how the game had improved upon Harvest Moon. The most apparent from the start was the game's UI, which is an area where Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life feels very dated. It was nice to be able to just go to Pierre's General Store and buy most of what I needed from the menu, instead of every purchase being stretched out into a full conversation. I also appreciated that the game just directly showed me how much energy I had left, instead of keeping it obscured behind vague gestures.

I also love how Stardew Valley looks a lot more than Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Well-done pixel art has a timeless quality to it that 3D animation doesn't necessarily share. Games from the N64 and GameCube era look a lot more dated to me than some SNES games because of their boxy 3D models and often blurry textures. While looks aren't everything in a game, when it comes to a cozy game, I prefer one with a more pleasant aesthetic.

I also found the townsfolk in Stardew Valley to be more interesting. There are a lot of NPCs in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that just mill about and spout the same lines of dialogue repeatedly. In contrast, each resident of Pelican Town has their own distinct personality, likes, and a story that you can progress by getting to know them better. Stardew Valley also has a much wider range of romance options. While I don't really take full advantage of that and simply romance Leah every time, it's still nice knowing I have 12 people to choose from.

Going Back To Harvest Moon Is Difficult After Stardew's Improvements

I Prefer Stardew Valley In Basically Every Regard

A lot of times, I'm able to revisit my old favorite games and still appreciate them. That's because a lot of older games still do certain things better than similar modern games. I still play Persona 4 Golden frequently despite it feeling dated compared to Persona 5, because I prefer the story and characters. I often revisit older Zelda games like Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess because I miss their styles of dungeons. There's more for me in those older games than just nostalgia. There are also tangible aspects to them that I prefer to their modern counterparts.

It is a very different case with Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. I can't really think of anything I prefer in Harvest Moon to Stardew Valley, so even my nostalgia alone isn't enough of a reason for me to play it. I've seen that Story of Seaons: A Wonderful Life addresses some of my complaints, but I still can't bring myself to pick it up when I already have Stardew Valley.