Thanks to it being included on my PS Premium subscription (and PS Extra, I believe), I am finally giving Graveyard Keeper a go. I heard about the game on the Vidjagame Apocalypse podcast a few years back, and I forgot all about it, but I am hooked now. I LOVED Stardew Valley, and I am falling for this game very much in the same way. It scratches all the right itches and the visual style is great. If anyone is wanting a game that plays with the same mechanics as Stardew, I highly recommend you give this one a shot; especially if you have PS Extra/Premium.

I agree, graveyard keeper has some stardew valley feel to it, also on the other hand it has this great mix of 👻 spooky/creepy storyline and normalcy + theme, aesthetic, and gameplay.

The talking skull reminds me of undertale too. 💀😄

EDIT: I'll have to disagree with your title though, hehe.

This and stardew valley have different themes after all.

Besides, on PC both Graveyard Keeper and Stardew Valley have mods which can add to the experience. Sadly, graveyard keeper has only a handful of mods compared to stardew valley's hundreds, which breathes more life into the game. 😁

It's a good game but surface level aside I think they're aiming at very different things.

I mostly liked graveyard keeper but for one thing, and that was everything took to long to do, and progress towards the bigger goals of the game was so small per step that I lost a lot of patience with it. And the ending, at least at the time I played it a few years ago, was not satisfying.

But if you like the loop, it is pretty alright.

I found My Time At Portia to be the Stardew-like that I enjoyed the most. Probably due to its DarkCloud vibes.

@tartyron: I will look into My Time At Portia. Sounds interesting

I played Graveyard Keeper for a while, and I really enjoyed my time with it. I liked how things took a little more time, and I liked the upgrade system a lot more than Stardew Valley.

I still prefer Stardew though. It could be my 200+ hours in the series, or the many late nights of co-op with friends, but I just like the charm of the game a bit more. While Graveyard Keeper has a good, dark style, it gets a bit grading after a few hours of the brown, moot landscape, not like Stardew Valley where you walk out your front door and an explosion of colors from different crops hit you (as long as it's not winter) every time.

I played Graveyard Keeper on Game Pass a while ago, and really enjoyed it! I played it for quite some time, but I do agree that things do feel kinda drawn out in that game. I actually prefer the gameplay of farming organs (though, there's plenty of other stuff - including farming, if you want) to farming proper. There was an interesting push/pull in decision making with each corpse. I wish there had been more of them lol. I didn't finish the game, though (I have finished Stardew, which is the only one of these games I've actually completed, I think) I do remember being intrigued about where the game was going. Just.. man.. these games are long and slow lol.

I personally bounced off of My Time at Portia, which felt more aimless to me. I maybe just never hit the right point, but while I enjoyed pieces of it, after a couple days of playing it (and many hours), I decided I was done waiting for it to go anywhere and get fun. That's probably harsh, but iono. I have a generally negative view of that game overall, even though I can recall specific parts of the game that I thought were 'good'.

We've got "Haunted Chocolatier" on the horizon to eclipse the Greatest Calm Game of All Time, no need to jump the gun.

Good to know this is included, though, it looks delightful and I'm in the market!

I played it when it first came out on Xbox and its pretty fun! I have no experience with Stardew but def enjoyed Graveyard Keeper

@dungeonalchemis: I mean, if you liked Graveyard Keeper, you really should try Stardew. I know the hype is a lot to live up to, but if you like the loop, plus some decent relationship stuff and sentiment so sweet it'll give you tooth decay. I've played a lot of the 'stardew/harvest moon-likes' and stardew remains my favorite. And you can get it for a song these days.

Plus CuriousApe keeps updating it with massive swaths of new, free content. There's a whole tropical island to explore, every spouse now makes you a special gift when you get them to 12-hearts, and there are new characters to find.

And, just to emphasize because 2022: ALL OF IT FREE TO DOWNLOAD.

Just a small clarification: CuriousApe is no longer adding to Stardew and hasn't for quite some time. He considers it "done". However, if you're playing on PC, you can still access just an utter CRAPTON of great mods that truly can make it your forever game if you like the loop.

If you're into * Keeper games, Core Keeper seems to be the magical blend of Terraria & Stardew that I needed. The npcs are simple though and the only romance options are the ones you make with other players in coop.

@sethmode: SORRY! I realize where the confusion is, I added "because it's 2022" to emphasize how "free DLC" feels like such a thing of the past, but Stardew has had an absolute metric ton of it over the course of its life, and ALL of it is free, not to imply that it was STILL ongoing.

But yes, they've moved on to "Haunted Chocolatier," which I will be moving on to buying day 1.

@geirr: The most intriguing romance option of them all.

Played the hell out of Rune Factory 4 on Switch this year and it is far and away my favorite of these types of games.

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I've seen mods for Graveyard Keeper that mostly messes with the time/scale balance, since like you said it's quite slow. there are mods that speed it up and try not to make it such a drag. 😅

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I'm also hyped for haunted chocolatier, and yes. the community will keep stardew valley going and going with what is basically, "free DLC made by community" 💖

but for the bigger overhaul mods, some Patreon donations here and there can be justified in my opinion. 😎

I love most farming/crafting sim games and this one was interesting (and kept me playing) in its own way for these reasons:

- The crafting gave an "old-timey" feel of making stuff with the anvil or the saw (lol, though unrealistically of course). As in, most of the time I needed to devote time to actually crafting or else the final product couldn't be made.

- Anything being produced has to physically be delivered to the customer (or middleman in the case of the Merchant). It gave the game an interesting feel when I could supply my bar with alcohol in anticipation of special events via the DLC.

- Making my graveyard "classy" by constantly exhuming bodies in favor of "nicer corpses" and pushing the "ugly bodies" to the columbariums.

I put on a podcast and zoned out as tasks are constant and the work is never done. A plus and a minus for whenever I inevitably get bored of it.

I mean , I'd say that My Time at Portia is "a Better Stardew Valley," but I'm saying that based on my experience with Portia.

Graveyard keeper is absolutely goat!