It seems like Nintendo fans have all the luck. They get portly plumbers with deceptive athleticism, tight-lipped elf playboys, and enormous gods that toy with the helpless masses trembling at their feet. Yes, that is a Doshin the Giant reference. Get over it.
But that doesn’t mean Sony stans are left wanting, with little more than Kratos sneering at them in unpleasant disapproval — there are plenty of titles with similarities to the big N’s best available right there on your PlayStation, and we’ve got the dirt on what you need to know. That dirt is full of weeds, because we’re breaking down the top eight games like Animal Crossing for PS4. Yee-haw.
Games Like Animal Crossing for PlayStation 4
Castaway Paradise
If you have a hankering for some tasty animals on the PS4, then boy howdy are you in luck, because Castaway Paradise possesses exactly what you’re after.
It’s basically Animal Crossing lite, and it casts you (away) as the only human resident in a magical village of talking animals. So brazen is their forgery, the official website outright touts, “Castaway Paradise – It’s like Animal Crossing!” If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Nintendo ought to feel downright pacified.
But hey, peel away that veneer and dispense of your judgment trousers, and you’ll find a charming little life sim with amusing characters and no shortage of things to do. Besides, Gustave the moose alone is probably worth the price of admission.
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: you’ve arrived at a strange new land under the thumb of a mysterious cult, and using your powers of construction, you will right the evils of society and leverage justice for all. No, I’m not talking about Animal Crossing or that one time I visited a furry convention. I’m referring to Dragon Quest Builders 2!
With a blocky motif that evokes the fondest memories of Minecraft, this title lets you channel your creative side to tinker and assemble some massive projects. It’s a little grander than Animal Crossing in its scale, but it you’ll feel a similar sense of pride once you see your most ambitious projects take shape. Try not to make that shape phallic, though; those Children of Hargon are quite the prudish lot.
Stardew Valley
If you were to throw accusations that the team at Twinfinite is more than a little addicted to Stardew Valley, you might have a point. We deny it no more than the claims that we are wonderfully quirky or excessively attractive.
But there are reasons, you see; chiefly, it is the golden standard for indie games. Reverential to the titles that inspired it while also confidently making its own stamp on the genre, it is absolutely jam packed with content.
If you want to get your nose to the grindstone and fix up your dilapidated farm, you can go right ahead and set about doing that. But if you’d prefer a more leisurely approach, ala Animal Crossing, then that’s an option, too. Sometimes, you’d rather just stumble around at 1am in search of a wizard who may or may not exist. We’ve all been there.
Stardew Valley keeps popping back up in these recommendations because of its versatility and accessibility. There simply aren’t enough positive adjectives in the English language to describe the bliss it creates. So we’ll just settle with ‘sapid’ and call it a day.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Ever wonder what Animal Crossing would be like if it had a plot? That is, a plot beyond ‘welcome to town, here are some animals, now you live in a shanty you filthy bastard.‘
Perhaps it would resemble the tale told in Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. This open-world adventure game takes place on an island where you must collect creatures in an effort to dispel a sinister poisonous cloud that is enveloping the planet.
Sound a tad bit too stressful? Don’t worry, because not only is the game completely devoid of combat, but you’ll also be able to kick up your feet and invest some time in your favorite leisure activities like fishing, farming and crafting.
Sure, it sounds incredibly selfish to postpone your quest to save the entire world just so you can cast your reel and snag a few fulgur fish, but even messiahs need to take in some R&R once in a while.
Shin-Chan: Me and the Professor On Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey
If you’re a fan of Animal Crossing’s whimsical sense of discovery and excessively long titles, then you might like to consider taking a look at Shin-Chan: Me and the Professor On Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey. Shorthand, you could just call it Shin-Chan Summer Vacation, or perhaps SCMatPOSVTESDJ? …Perhaps not.
Set in tranquil Kumamoto, you’ll have your chance to explore the town and find out what the locals get up to in their day-to-day activity. You can join in their morning exercises, go out bug catching, or just generally be an annoying kid pestering innocent people as they desperately try to ignore your presence.
Like most summer vacations, you’ll even get to travel through time. Oh Shin-Chan, can you really be trusted with the responsibility of shaping history itself? You’re like, five, or something.
Grow: Song of the Evertree
From the same team that brought you Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles comes another open-ended adventure title with a moral at its heart. Whereas the chief concern in Animal Crossing is capitalism, Grow: Song of the Evertree preaches the values of conserving nature.
With enough time and care, you can nurture the ailing Evertree back to its previous state of glory, dotting the landscape with stunning flora and reinvigorating a society on the brink of collapse. Then, pull your axe out and chop it all down while everyone watches on in horror! Haha, take that, nature!!
Alright, so you can’t exactly do that last part, but you can at least play Elric on the side by tinkering with alchemy to unearth fantastic new biomes. Not a single homunculi in sight, however.
Job Simulator
This suggestion may seem a little out of left field, but bear with us and we think you’ll be pleased with the parallels we manage to come up with.
Or you’ll flay us alive before trotting back and forth on the roof and stretching our bloodied skin out to dry in the sun. Either is just as likely.
In much the same way that Animal Crossing finds the fun in mundane activities such as paying bills and retrieving handkerchieves for arrogant condors, Job Simulator takes the miserable grind of employment and turns it into something new. Something weird. Something BLEEP.
This eccentric VR game takes place in a future where robots have taken over the world, rendering the average 9-to-5 obsolete. Fortunately, they have set up a museum that allows you to see just what it was like to ‘job’. Each task becomes more bizarre and obtuse than the last, and eventually you’ll be rolling on the floor with what humans used to deem as ‘laughter’.
You might not get to hang out with Tom Nook, but that CRT monitor with a tie who claims to be your boss is sure to be just as much fun.
The Sims 4
If maintaining an entire village worth of animals sounds like too much pressure, you may be better served just focussing your efforts on a single household, such as in The Sims 4.
You’ll soon find that it’s actually more chaotic, as they battle poverty and depression, while constantly finding new ways to catch fire and die. Seriously, dude, stop trying to cook — it’s not working!
The Sims series is a tried and true staple of the life simulator genre, and its latest iteration gives you the tightest and cleanest experience yet. Watch as your Sims grow older and wiser (yet remain just as flammable as ever), get a job, have kids, and just try to get by in this crazy thing called life.
Its many expansions add more variety into the mix, from pets to changing seasons and everything in between. It’s up to you whether you’ll invest in this supplementary content, but we recommend at least considering the Get Together pack, allowing you to take your Sims out clubbing.
Yeah, dance, you crazy Sims! Dance, dance, dance… ahh dammit, they caught fire again.
And that was the long and short (mostly long, I felt) on games like Animal Crossing for you PS4 fans out there. We’ve also covered games like Animal Crossing for Xbox One, games like Animal Crossing for PC, and games like Animal Crossing without a platform to restrict our ambition.
About the author
