Three Farming games, $20, what sets this one apart?

[Death by coughs]

I'm trying to decide what game to get, and wanted to know if anyone has played any of these others (listed below) and what their suggestions / compairisons would be?

Garden Paws
https://store.steampowered.com/app/840010/Garden_Paws/

Staxel
https://store.steampowered.com/app/405710/Staxel/

My Time At Portia
https://store.steampowered.com/app/666140/My_Time_At_Portia/

Thanks!

[Erin the Angry]

Well. Portia is about building stuff rather than farming. You CAN grow crops and raise animals in your workshop property but the main focus is on building things to enchance the town and your workshop as well as the occasional dive into ruins to fight monsters and gather stuff either for missions or for yourself. I have not played those other 2 games but I have played quite a few building and farming games and portia has it's own spin on it. It's kind of like if you took the harvest moon formula and applied it to world building instead of improving your farm.

[Death by coughs]

Originally posted by Erin the Angry:

Well. Portia is about building stuff rather than farming. You CAN grow crops and raise animals in your workshop property but the main focus is on building things to enchance the town and your workshop as well as the occasional dive into ruins to fight monsters and gather stuff either for missions or for yourself. I have not played those other 2 games but I have played quite a few building and farming games and portia has it's own spin on it. It's kind of like if you took the harvest moon formula and applied it to world building instead of improving your farm.

Ah ok, nice. Good to know it's focus is more on that and not farming so i wouldn't go into this expecting something it's not.

[SexyGandalf17]

I can only agree with what #Erin the Angry said, although I havent played Staxel yet ( its on my wishlist tho :p ) I found this super fun farming game called "Farm Together", where you build up your farm decorate it however you want and its online multiplayer, so you can pop to other farms and make friends, or people can visit you and you can help eachother out.

I was just thinking because Portia isnt multiplayer at all, youll be playing 100% solo, while with Farm Together it would be your choice (you can also switch settings to play solo only).
I also think with Staxel its kind of a mix between AI Characters and online multiplayer so maybe that would be a good choice if you wanted something in the middle.

But like i said since I havent played it yet i cant cleary recommend it.
Hope you can decide for something that brings you lots of joy and fun though whatver itll be in the end :3

Added: just checked out Garden Paws, damn it sounds super cute and good too xD
Jeez i think my comment isnt as helping you with your decission as I hoped for, excuse me.

[worstcase11]

I played Garden Paws as well so I can compare at least those two games.

Garden Paws
- character stamnia improves by adding buildings to town
- character customizeable
- has a limited Multiplayer (max 4 players?) - which I haven't tested yet.
- all characters are cute animals
- gameplay is mostly resources gathering by scavenging, farming, lumberjacking and very limited mining and fishing
- one daily quest and extra story quest - no time limits
- no romance options
- no interaction with NPCs aside quests or shopping
- tons of different costumes visible on the avatar
- so far limited furniture items (more are planned but players voted for other stuff to include first)
- most actions cost energy which is atm hard to recover without sleeping till the next day.
- flying with a kite or swimming possible
- currently very stable game with very few bugs

My Time at Portia
- level up and skillpoint system, character stats improve by equipment, furniture placement and level up.
- character customizeable
- no Multiplayer planned for now (possible DLC was discussed might be implemented after full release.)
- human characters, human NPCs and a few animal NPCs
- gameplay is mostly resources gathering by hunting, mining, scavenging, dungeon crawling farming, lumberjacking and fishing.
- one daily quest but 4 quest to choose from, additional story and side quests, daily quests and some story & side quests have time limits.
- several romanceable characters, same gender marriage possible, some spouses help with tasks in the workshop
- befriending NPCs is possible and gives different advatages like lower prices in shops, rare items, rare item recepies, pets moving in or workshop helper as well as activation of more character sidequests.
- few costume choices, clothing doubles as armor and can only be equipped by reaching necessary character level.
- wide range of different furniture, wallpapers, carpets, artifacts and ornaments to embellish the house, placed furniture gives stat boosts
- most actions cost energy, which can be recovered various ways
- no swimming but several riding animals, flying with a jetpack so far only while mining update for flying machine is planned.
- occasional bugs

Both games are still in early access but have a very supportive staff that reacts to questions and bug reports and suggestions very fast.

What is great about both games is, that the story quests have direct impact - you can see what your presence has changed since your arrival in form of new buildings and town developement.

So far I'd say My Time at Portia feels more complete and balanced and allows for a more diverse gaming style.

[Fami]

I don't know about Garden Paws but I've played Staxel before and I'm not really happy with it as a "farming game".

What I really don't like about Staxel isn't easy to describe but I'll try.
I don't mind the graphics or play mechanics.
It's just the content is not "enough". The NPC dialogs (or NPC interactions) are not so well done compared to other games. It's not that there are bad, it's just compared...

Also building in your own house or for others is really cool. After some time it's repentive and get's boring. Also farming is nice but get's boring after a while and at some time, you won't do it anymore... it's just the "long time play" is not really there.

If there is "more stuff" to do, then it will be more interesting but at the moment...

It's more a creative and not a really a farming game.

I hope that helps you.

Edit: Similiar to Minecraft - Creative Mode

[Roly Poly Poro]

Never played Garden Paws, but i've played Staxel.
I can say that personally for me I prefer My Time at Portia by far.

For me, I 100% agree with Fami. There's not really enough STUFF there you keep you going for a long time. You can have fun for a while but after you've built a couple houses and you fall into a routine there isn't really anything /new/ to find or do. Everything is just already there for the most part.

My Time at Portia is very immersive and gives you very clear goals to pursue which motivate you to see what comes next. The map opens up nicely and there's enough content that even older content (read as: things you can build) doesn't really get OLD as much as it just becomes familiary. It's less "Oh god this again" and more "Oh okay that" since there's a good variety of things to make and it's kinda weird to make the same thing twice in a row as far as final products go.

[_Gustavo]

If you want a complete experience buy Portia and Stardew Valley, as stated above the focus on MtaP is to build tools and other things to help the people around town
I've been playing Portia since the first day of Early Access, but i don't known if they give us an option to put some tools inside the house now, it's really weird to have everything on your backyeard lol

Stardew is very similar to the classic Harvest Moon, grow crops, collect wood, rocks, upgrade your farm, and complete events around the village.

[Rei]

You're a builder in Portia and with a very detailed crafting system I've seen in a game.

I grew up with Bokujō Monogatari series, and till the Switch version is actually confirmed, this is the closest I'll get to it.

[worstcase11]

@Gustavo: No putting machines into the house - but it is possible to have a factory built and you can move almost all machines in there (recycler and reconstruction machine are the only exceptions as far as i know).

[Death by coughs]

I bought this one and am having fun with it. Thansk for the suggestions and replies!

[SenilBiffen]

Originally posted by FlyingHobo:

I bought this one and am having fun with it. Thansk for the suggestions and replies!

Good for you I like it much more than the other two.

[ZombieHunter]

I have Staxel and My Time at Porta and I prefer this. Both games are solid and both games will likely leave Early Access (we know My Time at Portia will) so that is not the issue.

Staxel feels a bit off in just about every way. You can go around and destroy the entire town with nary of whiff of the results of your actions from any NPC. The game feels very bland and is trying to be more cute than functional, IMHO. I just can't get into it. Something is missing. There is no 'hook' to keep me coming back.

My Time at Portia is a much more refined experience and has more direction in its gameplay. Plus I adore its art style and overall hometown type atmosphere. I will get further into it after release. I tend not to try to put too many hours into EA games b/c you never know when they will outright change or wipe saves, etc. I've been bit by that before. In my opinion EA games should not experience massive changes across multiple years b/c that just feels like a game that has no plan and keeps wandering about trying everything under the sun. My Time at Portia is not that type of game and is focused on helping people in the town, upgrading your own stuff, etc. It feels almost like Stardew Valley with less focus on farming. Hard to describe but overall it is a good game and I feel it is better than Staxel in just about every way.

I can't say enough how pleased I've been with the overall development process of this game. No excuses for why they change things a billion times (b/c they didn't have to) or why its taking 22 years to develop. Just progress and release.

Early Access done right.

[rincewind]

Staxel is still too green.
The interface is awful, they will change it, but for now is pretty annoying.
The journal and quest trackers are barely functional. Nothing like the pretty polished Portia UI.
The crafting is also quite cumbersome, but they have said that they're changing it in the next update.

And of course, in Portia you can have romance. You can't get that in Staxel, because the devs doesn't want it.

[Advendra]

Portia is not a just farming game. It is actually crafting game but crafting is just one part of the game.

[AaronDeng]

Should I say somesting?