With how intense and fast-paced the gaming landscape is today, there’s something to be said about games that let you take a break from saving the world to grow a few turnips.
While many traditionalJRPGsare known for their epic storylines, dramatic boss fights, and colorful party members with ridiculous hair, more and more games in the genre have been adding calming life-sim elements to the mix, including farming.
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Even if you’ve never successfully grown anything in your life, the methodical process of planting, watering, harvesting, and repeating in a virtual space is incredibly appealing. Nothing says “relaxing” like vicariously living the life of a simple farmer in a video game.
This list highlights the best JRPGs that replace swords with watering cans and shields with gardening gloves. From countryside fields to magical gardens, these games give you the chance to embrace your inner farmer without having to sacrifice that signature charm the JRPG genre is known for.
10Dragon Quest Builders 2
Seeds, Scarecrows, and Story-Driven Farming
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Dragon Quest Builders 2 isthe perfect game for players of all ages, especially those who love farming. This game blends traditional JRPG elements with in-depth farming mechanics and sandbox creativity, making it a great choice for anyone addicted to building virtual farms.
This block-building JRPG lets you play as a young Builder, who, in this world, is one of the few people capable of crafting and creating.
After washing up on a mysterious shore, you and an amnesiac named Malroth are tasked with rebuilding the world in the wake of destruction caused by the Children of Hargon, an anti-building cult determined to snuff out creation itself.
While a lot of the gameplay revolves around building stuff and saving the world, farming becomes a major mechanic pretty early on, once you reach the island of Furrowfield.
On this island, you have to help a struggling village by tilling soil, planting crops, constructing irrigation systems, you name it. You can even harvest the crops later on and use them in cooking delicious recipes you’ll find along the way.
9Ova Magica
Skinny Frog, ClaudiaTheDev
Release Date
July 23rd, 2024
PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC
JRPG Farming Sim
As a self-described combination of Stardew Valley and Pokémon, this game has pretty much anything you could ever want in a life-sim. Ova Magica is a cozy crafting sim that blends the creature collecting genre with farming, making it an easy first choice among farm-sim lovers.
In this game, you play as a young entrepreneur who’s inherited a sizable plot of land in a quaint little place called Clover Town. Soon after moving in, your life quickly becomes entangled in the care and training of adorable, Pokémon-like creatures called blobs.
These little creatures aren’t just for battling (though there is plenty of that); they’re also your most trusted partners in farming, crafting, and helping your new community to thrive.
Farming is a major part of your day-to-day life in this game; you’ll plant a variety of useful crops, water them, harvest them, upgrade your tools, and unlock even better farming features over time.
Your blobs will also assist you in tending your farm, so no matter how big your homestead grows, the workload never gets overwhelming.
8Harvestella
Pre-Apocalyptic Farming
Harvestella
When you think of JRPG farming sims,Harvestellais never too far out of mind. While it’s far from the most popular game in the genre, you’re able to’t deny that it blends modern graphics with JRPG farm-life in ways you won’t find anywhere else.
As you’re likely already aware, Harvestella is Square Enix’s take on the classic farming sim, and true to form, it brings a lot more drama to the table than your average crop-growing sim.
In Harvestella, you awaken in a small village with no memories, only to discover that the world is being ravaged by a mysterious and deadly fifth season known as the Quietus; a deadly phenomenon that withers crops and forces everyone indoors.
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Despite its apocalyptic premise, farming plays a central role in Harvestella’s gameplay loop. You’ll have to plant and water a variety of crops, raise farm animals, and use the fruits of your labor to cook hearty meals, craft important upgrades, or sell to the villagers for profit.
Unlike some JRPGs, farming isn’t just a peaceful distraction here; it’s the axis upon which your entire story turns.
7Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
A Cozy, Crop-Growing Classic
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Many of us grew up playing the Harvest Moon games, so it’s no surprise that their remakes are some of the most popular JRPG farm games out there.
Friends of Mineral Town is a remake ofthe beloved 2003 GBA classic, fully reimagined with 3D visuals, smoother mechanics, and more customizable storylines, though it still delivers the same cozy farming core that made it iconic in the first place.
In this game, you arrive in Mineral Town after inheriting your grandfather’s farm and, in true farm-sim fashion, are immediately tasked with restoring it to its former glory.
This farming is front and center in this game; you’ll plant seasonal crops, water them daily, upgrade your farming tools, care for livestock, and gradually turn your late grandfather’s legacy into something anyone would be proud of.
The loop may seem simple, but it’s also incredibly addictive; you’ll look up from your computer screen after playing for an hour or two, only to discover that it’s 3 days later and you haven’t slept a wink. Trust me, you don’t want to load this one up unless you’ve got at least a week of free time ahead of you.
6Dragon Song Tavern: Cozy & Adventurous
Baby Dragon Babysitting
Etherous Games Limited
May 29th, 2025
Dragon Song Tavern is easily one of the coziest management sims on the market, and I’m not just saying that because you get to pet and tame mythical creatures. This game combines management with farming in a way that is truly addictive. You won’t want to leave your gaming chair for anything once you load this one up.
In Dragon Song Tavern, you play as a pair of adventurous siblings, Grace and Elio, who impulsively buy a seaside tavern in search of new life experiences.
Upon discovering that your new entrepreneurial venture comes with a baby dragon, however, you both decide to double down and work extra hard to care for the town and the baby dragon that resides in it.
The game combines farming, cooking, and tavern management withlight JRPG elementsthat’ll delight even the toughest of veteran gamers.
You can’t run a tavern with nothing to serve, so farming quickly becomes a central part of Dragon Song Tavern’s gameplay; you’ll need to grow herbs, vegetables, and fruits to create your magical menu, all while trying to care for an infant magical beast. No pressure!
5Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life
Grow Crops, Grow Old
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life
The Harvest Moon games captured the hearts of many back in the early 2000s, and their remakes, the Story of Seasons series, have managed to do the same all these years later.
A Wonderful Life serves asa full remake of the GameCube classic, with visual improvements and numerous quality-of-life upgrades to create a smooth-as-butter playing experience.
In A Wonderful Life, you step into the shoes of a new farmer in Forgotten Valley, tasked with restoring your father’s old farm to its former glory (because of course you are).
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In true life-sim fashion, you’ll get to grow crops, raise farm animals, improve your land, and even fall in love with one of the many eligible bachelors or bachelorettes in the quaint little town around you.
As you might expect,farming takes center stagehere. You’ll plant and grow seasonal crops, care for different livestock varieties, experiment with plant hybrids, and sell your wares at your very own market stall. You’ll also be able to fish, harvest wild resources, and combine ingredients in a variety of tasty recipes.
4Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Traveling Through Thyme
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a unique, casual JRPG that allows its players to live out 14 separate “lives”, each with their own careers, goals, milestones, and even families. Though there are agricultural aspects to a handful of lives, one in particular stands out: the Farmer life.
There are three different categories of lives in Fantasy Life i: Combat, Gathering, and Crafting. The game’s farming aspects largely dwell within the Gathering category, which consists of four different lives: the Angler, the Miner, the Woodcutter, and, of course, the Farmer.
Although each of the Gathering lives incorporates farming and agricultural aspects, the Farmer life encapsulates the genre best. As the Farmer, you’ll get to grow crops, harvest ingredients, and support your other Lives with the fruits of your labor.
3Rune Factory 4 Special
Sword in One Hand, Watering Can in the Other
Rune Factory 4 Special
Rune Factory 4 has been around for over a decade, but its remake, Rune Factory 4 Special, takes all the farm sim magic of the first game and makes it even better.
This 3DS remake brings the series' unique mix of farming, monster taming, and dungeon crawling to new heights, making it the perfect title for series veterans and newcomers alike.
In this game, you play as a mysterious hero who falls from the sky and lands on the back of a giant dragon (because of course you do). After your terrific entrance, you’re soon invited to live in this peculiar new region’s castle, and are appointed the land’s next ruler. Because why not.
You’ll get to begin your life anew by developing the surrounding town, exploring the local dungeons, and cultivating the land’s soil to bring it to agricultural greatness.
You’ll till the soil, grow seasonal crops, tame monsters to help with chores, and even upgrade your tools with materials you get from dungeons.
2Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Rice Farming for the Win (Literally)
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is one of the most unique hybrids in the genre. Half side-scrolling action JRPG, half rice farming sim, Sakuna is an excellent addition to the JRPG farm-sim genre. You play as Sakuna, a spoiled harvest goddess who’s been banished to a dangerous, demon-infested island to atone.
In order to survive, she’ll have to do something she’s never had to do before: work. That means taking out hordes of demons, reclaiming the land, and learning how to grow rice from scratch, all of which turn out to be equally challenging.
Unlike many farming sims, farming in Sakuna isn’t just a cozy side activity or a cash-collecting side-hustle; it’s a complex, almost meditative system that features real-world rice cultivation strategies and techniques.
You’ll plow the fields, plant seedlings by hand, control the water levels, monitor weather patterns, thresh and hull the grains, you name it.
One of the coolest parts about the rice farming in Sakuna is that the rice is actually the source of your power. That means the better you do in terms of harvest, the better you’ll fight, which means more demons defeated, more land retaken, and more progress towards reclaiming your lost honor in the eyes of the gods.
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1Tales of Seikyu
Shapeshift, Sow Seeds, and Seduce Yokai
Tales of Seikyu
If you’re a fan of Japanese folklore and JRPGs' tendency to throw yokai into the mix, then you’re going to love Tales of Seikyu.
Set in the magical village of Seikyu, an island sanctuary for yokai, you play as a newcomer who’s inherited a run-down homestead and is tasked with restoring it.
Using your Fox Clan heritage, you’ll be able to shapeshift into magical yokai forms to help you along your journey, like turning into a crow to soar above the island, or turning into a boar to help till the fields.
This game has a ton of content to explore besides farming, but its farming mechanics are a pretty big bonus. You’ll have to till and prepare the soil, grow various crops across the seasons, raise farm animals (including some delightfully unusual ones), and upgrade and customize your farm to match your personal style.
You’ll also be able to use the ingredients you harvested to cook amazing meals and craft a variety of items that’ll help you along your homesteading journey.
It’s the kind of game that rewards slow, thoughtful, and methodical play, perfect for anyone who wants a little magic mixed in with their morning chores.
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