For the past few months Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been the biggest life simulation game in the world, but that doesn't mean players have forgotten about Stardew Valley. Since April, players have been living the island life and trying to relax with Tom Nook and their small selection of villagers. It's proven to be a great success for Nintendo and helped to sell thousands of Switch consoles.

That said, Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't perfect. There have been entire Animal Crossing events that players forgot about and there are mechanics in the game that players wish Nintendo would change in the upcoming updates to Animal Crossing.

Related: Animal Crossing NEEDS Multiple Player Account Support 

As some players have gotten tired of Animal Crossing, they've been turning to other life simulation games like Stardew Valley for their relaxing afternoons. Stardew Valley was made by one passionate developer and was a smash hit for a reason: the game oozes love, care and thoughtfulness in everything it does, and there are even some things that a first-party Nintendo game like Animal Crossing could learn from the indie game.

Animal Crossing's Time Passes Too Slowly Compared To Stardew Valley

Animal Crossing Time Travel

Since New Horizons came out, there has been an argument about whether time-travel is cheating in Animal Crossing. Whether players should be allowed to jump around in time to keep engaging with the game after their tasks are done for the day, or whether they should play something else until tomorrow, has been hotly debated. Skipping days is a common choice, especially for players who may not have time to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons every day, but time jumping involves going into the Switch system settings and tricking Animal Crossing into thinking it's a different day; it's not actually a real option for players within the game.

Stardew Valley has a much more lax approach to playtime than Animal Crossing does. Each in-game day within Stardew Valley is around a maximum of 13 real-life minutes, but at any point the player can go to bed and jump to the next day. If the player runs out of things they want to do on a certain day, they can simply jump to the next day without penalties or needing to jump into the system settings. Players can even wake up and go straight to sleep, essentially skipping a day if they are looking forward to a certain event.

The Stardew Valley approach is a much more friendly set up for players that can only engage with games in certain chunks of time. For example, if someone is only able to play on their weekends, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will only give them 2/7ths of the week's content without time-travel, but Stardew Valley will give the player as much time as they need.

Stardew Valley's Villagers Have Depth & Character

Hailey Happy gift Stardew Valley

Animal Crossing fans are absolutely crazy about certain villagers, to the point where Animal Crossing hackers create villages where players can get their favorite ones, but the villagers in Animal Crossing are rather shallow. Animal Crossing: New Horizons' villagers have one of eight personalities and one of six hobbies. This means that on an island with 10 residents, a player is guaranteed to have two villagers with the same core personality and dialogue. Some villagers have unique dialogue that is exclusive to them, but players can easily have 2 villagers on their island who are only separated by aesthetic.

Related: Why Animal Crossing & Stardew Valley Fans Should Play Spiritfarer

In contrast, Stardew Valley has 42 villagers in Pelican town that don't change between playthroughs. All of these villagers are dynamic members of the community with varied schedules, interpersonal relationships, and can become good friends with the player. Unlike Animal Crossing villagers, the citizens of Pelican town have varied opinions on the player that drastically change based on how you treat them. Additionally, the grand majority of characters in the game have important 'heart events', or unique cutscenes that trigger when the player reaches a certain level of friendship with them. This is how players learn the background and more about the complicated lives of the villagers of Pelican town.

Though 42 isn't quite the whopping 397 villagers that Animal Crossing has, there is still much more variety within those 42 villagers than within the 8 personalities of Animal Crossing, and the characters of Stardew Valley make an island with 3 'jocks' in Animal Crossing seem lazy.

Animal Crossing's Crafting System Is Bad

Crafting in is a new mechanic in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and overall it feels pretty clunky. Crafting multiples of an item takes forever, can only be done from crafting tables, and players can spend days shooting down balloons praying and hoping that one of them is going to have the recipe for a cutting board. In fact, Animal Crossing's crafting system is so player unfriendly that there is no duplication protection on balloons, meaning that the drop pool never gets smaller and the player never gets closer to figuring out an ironwood dresser.

Both the ironwood dresser and the cutting board were used as examples here intentionally, as they are both needed to craft the ironwood kitchenette, a recipe that is available for purchase as part of the Wildest Dreams DIY package. Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides players with a recipe early on in the game, but locks construction behind multiple levels of RNG, which frustrated players.

Related: What Makes Spiritfarer Different Than Stardew Valley

In Stardew Valley, crafting is instant and can be done anywhere in the world. If this was the only upgrade from Animal Crossing it would already be an infinitely more player-friendly, but the biggest difference between Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley is how the player earns recipes. In Stardew Valley, players unlock crafting recipes by leveling up the related skill. If a player does a lot of fishing, they will unlock crafting recipes that align with that playstyle. If a player spends their days farming, they will unlock sprinklers to help them save time watering.

What's Not to Love?

Stardew Valley Farm

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a much-beloved game for a reason. For many players it's a relaxing escape from the day-to-day grind, where they slow down and take in the island life. Stardew Valley has a huge following for a reason as well, and the single creator of Stardew Valley clearly put their heart and soul into the game, ensuring that it was the best experience that they could make for players. There are many people who will gladly sing the praises of each Animal Crossing mechanic mentioned here, but as it stands, there is still a thing or two that Animal Crossing: New Horizons can learn from the humble indie world of Pelican Town.

Next: Stardew Valley 2: What the Creator is Doing and When to Expect a Sequel