What Is A Life Sim?
Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar came out in 2008 which is the time that I was in my 'everything must be anime themed' phase. I remember my mom letting me get one game at GameStop and although I was initially going to get a Pokémon game, something stopped when I saw the colorful box filled with cutesy anime characters on it. I ended up getting it and my life changed. I opened the inside and saw that you could not only get married, but also have a child all while farming your way into a happy go lucky little life. I was enchanted by the simplistic concept and through the manual there was one character in particular that I had an affinity to: Ivan. He was simply adorable. The crooked tie. The purple ensemble. The little smile and the fact he was a school teacher. Instantly I knew he was going to be the one I married so I picked the female character and got down to business. I've been a fan of the series ever since, having picked up every title since.
Harvest Moon wasn't my first introduction into the world of life simulations though. My very first taste was Animal Crossing: Population Growing for the Gamecube. A friend of mine had it and I would go to her house to play it. I begged my parents for it and for Christmas I finally got it. My own town to wander around in, building friendships, furnishing my house the way I want to, dressing up my character and I even would take my memory card to my friends house so we could go to each others towns. I felt like I was living a genuine life that I could escape to every day after school. My siblings and I created a game where we would personally fuck around with Resetti and reset the game multiple times to make him mad and when we did it enough times and he turned the game off, saying he would erase the game I genuinely screamed and panicked, thinking that my game was gone, until he game back on screen. I learned my lesson real quick...for about a day until Messin' With Resstti became our favorite game again.
I ended up playing every single Animal Crossing after that. Every Harvest Moon which eventually became Story of Seasons after the split between Natsume and Marvelous (always go with Story of Seasons now, they are the true Harvest Moon). Later other life sims came out of the wood work for me to play with. Rune Factory, Poptropica, Persona, Sims, Stardew Valley, Cat Tails Wild Woods Story, Natsu-mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale, Pokémon, Fantasy Life, Tomodachi Life, Dating Sims, etc. These are just some of the type of life sims I have played, however I do need to say this: most of these games I wouldn't even count as life sims. They are considered RPG's, not life sims. Just like how I feel a lot of people have lost the definition of what a "cozy game" is supposed to be. People are always hyping up the idea of cozy games as something you can curl up on the couch with and play at your own pace, yet technically you can do that with all video games and also a lot of so called "cozy games" have some dark themes that wouldn't exactly be considered "cozy". I think that term has become too loose, but I am getting off topic. How would I define a life simulator game, because I feel this could be different for everyone? Life Simulator (my definition): a game in which you control a character's life that never ends and every choice doesn't necessarily always have to have a consequence since the world is "open" to the player as well as the fact that there does not need to be a definitive story or tasks the player must take on to advance an overarching storyline that is detremential to a grand plot.
According to my defintion, this knocks out a good chunk of my games. The Sims is of course the textbook definition because it's the literal Sims. I remember I got so addicted to Sims 4 on my computer that I don't think I slept for weeks. My first Sims game was actually Sims 2 for the DS where you manage a hotel and honestly that feels like a fever dream and I definitely don’t remember it that well. Anyway in Sims 4, I got married, had a mansion and had like eight children. The Harvest Moon games I would consider a life sim game because despite needing to advance the story a little bit here and there to get to the end of the game, you were going to naturally accomplish the goals set out for you in the story anyway. Planting certain crops, winning cooking competitions, helping townsfolks, selling a certain amount of products, etc. You also aren't obligated to get married or have a child. Stardew Valley works the same way, just with more things to do, but both games can go on forever. The same goes with the Sims.
Now I'll talk about two games that I feel need a lot of attention that were definitely slept on. One does technically have an ending, but I would still consider this a life sim because after it is completed you get access to a New Game Plus where you can continue playing. Natsu-mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. This game needs much more love and attention than it has and I would dedicate an entire blog to it honestly. This game is a remake/remaster of the 2000 Japanese only game Boku no Natsuyasumi that has finally made its way to the West. It has a very minimal plot that feels like it takes a back seat most of the time and when you do it, it's so minimal that you will barely feel like you're doing it at all. The game itself is a lot like Animal Crossing where you play as a child in the countryside who catches bugs, fishes, explores an island (DLC), swims, talks to people, does little side quests for the villagers in town, collects things, etc. I would even go as far as to say it is a genuine cozy game. Cattails: Wild Wood Story is another game that needs far more attention. It's listed as a cozy life simulator game and I 100% agree with that. I think that Cattails is the type of game you can pick up and and it doesn't end. You go around and build up a colony of cats (as you are the leader and yes you're a cat), make friends, get married, go out and hunt for bugs and fish for you and the colony, have a liter of kittens, etc. What's nice is that once you have kittens you can choose to quit playing as your character and choose to play as one of your kittens as a New Game Plus so the game genuinely never ends. It's a real nice touch.
Now that I got the game that I consider life sims out of the way...let's talk about the games I consider NOT life sims. I'm sure people will get mad, but this is my PERSONAL opinion. Pokémon. I adore it to pieces and have played almost all of them, but it's not a life sim. It's an RPG where there are stakes and battling and lots of things to do. It's not something you can just casually pick up and play peacefully and expect to wander around and do whatever. Pokémon has actual core mechanics that must be followed and a real story that impacts the game. This is not a life sim. It may adhere to it's own rules in it's own world, but you do not control the world around it. The same goes for Rune Factory which might be controversial and it's another one of my top games. Rune Factory is very closely tied to Harvest Moon, however it is not the same because unlike Harvest Moon, Rune Factory is always about saving the world. There is always something going on in which your player needs to be the one to save the people and the townspeople from certain doom. You cannot advance the story without doing certain tasks and saving people. You cannot get married and you cannot havea child without doing these things either. Therefore, Rune Factory does not fall under the category of a life sim. It's not casual enough and is not the type of game where it revolves around you in the sense that you can just do whatever you wish.
I'm sure two that will be suprising are Tomodachi Life and Fantasy Life, but I have my reasons for this. Tomodachi Life gives you the ability to be God, a simple observer in a world where little Mii's are walking around and having their own realtionships and having their own lives. Yes you can influence things around them subtely, but other than that, you aren't actively participating. In essence, Tomodachi Life is more so a more advance tamagotchi which I know sounds harsh but this is coming from someone who loves Tomodachi Life and is eagerly awaiting the Switch release. You are not walking around yourself and while you can intereact with your Mii's, you are doing so as an outside perspective and the Mii's openly acknowledge that to the player that you are not a Mii like they are. To them, you are almost like a person who cares for them so therefore it is not a life simulation because you are not an active player in the game. Moving onto Fantasy Life it's more so that the plot is it's set back. You are having to save the world like in Rune Factory and although you can switch between different lives freely in order to boost stats and help people with tasks, you are still needed for an overarching plot. Your character in Fantasy Life is someone who has to be actively participating in the world and the game cannot physically continue without you progressing the story. I understand that every game needs some sort of story progression, but if the game needs you to actively go around and accompish certain tasks while reminding you that you are needed for the overall story then thats when it ceases to be a casual life sim where you can do whatever you want.
Next I'll talk about another game that has been slept on that I adore but is sadly not a life sim either (I wouldn't count it): Attack of the Friday Night Monsters! A Tokyo Tale. This game is just great. I think I honestly put it up here more so to bring attention to it because how good it is. I love this little game and it's not really a game per se as much as it is just a little story that doesn't take too long to complete but what I like is that the characters are all very interesting, the plot is curious and whimsical and it has that child like wonder that makes me feel like I'm a kid again (Natsu-Mon does that even more so and if you haven't PLEASE check that one out I'm begging you, it's so good). But also there are events that happen that have nothing to do with the plot as well and yet the plot itself is so weird and zany that you can't help but love this game. However, despite how much I love it, I cannot in good confidence call it a life sim because it's too simple and too one dimensional. It's a one and done storyline. There isn't much to do once the plot is done (the game isn't long) and once all the collectibles are found the game is completely done. That's it. You don't need to play anymore honestly. There also isn't any replayability so it's not a game that can go on forever.
Since we are talking about childhood let's step backwards to when I was a kid and I was obsessed with Poptropica if anyone knows what that is. Exploring islands, saving each island and the world from certain doom while my little character ducked, tumbled flew, and talked their way to victory. I saved each island in various ways: time traveling, god like powers, superhero, a spy, even a prison break. This is also exactly why this isn't a life sim, because the game had you complete various islands which were to save the world so that wasn't open ended. Once the island was complete it was done. You didn't need to go back even though you made your own little person you were kind of done after that. So Poptropica is definitely out.
Something I want to touch on briefly is Persona and Dating sims. Persona is classified as a mix between RPG and life sim with a tiny bit of a dating sim considering you can date. With that being said it's more so RPG in my mind since to advance the plot you need to dungeon crawl at night and even though during the day you're going to school and hanging out with your friends, the central focus is actually on the fighting mechanic so that's why I wouldn't call this a life simulator that is by my definition where it's open ended and is more casual and you can determine what you do everyday without consequences. There are lots of stakes in the Persona series. The same can be said about dating sims. I am a huge sucker for dating sims and even with the word simulation in it, I know for a fact that it's a loose term. Dating simulations have consequences and the same goes for visual novels with choice mechanics. You are an active participant, but do not have an avatar. Your character is a CG usually seen for events with the other characters. You get limited choices that are usually two to three that dictate how the story will branch off. That is it. You are not in control of much else. You play as a pre-established character with their own backstory and personality and you step into their world and their role, but you are not getting to make your own person. Your choices are also very linear to the plot despite branching into different outcomes, they will all come together to stick to the same story. You are locked in.
I could go deeper into this and also talk about the Metaverse as well, but I'm trying to strictly stick with video games. Yes, a Meta Quest for example does have games, but I'm not sure I want to go down that rabbit hole right now. I guess if I were to do a quick conclusion if that would classify as a life simulator then yes. You are connecting with other people which is very different than the other video games since in those they were NPC's, but I never said they had to be real or the computer. In the Metaverse there is no plot since it's not truly a video game. Yes you can play various video games in it with other players, but it's your choice on what you do. You can run around different hubs. You can go to a central area and talk to people. You can design your avatar and do something more lowkey and hang out with friends or simply explore. Even go to a concert or attend special events. You can essentially do anything you want. The possibilities are genuinely endless. I know this one might not be in the realm of video games like the other ones, but yes, I would count something like this as a life sim because you are literally playing as yourself, doing what you want and the expereince never ends.
As always, if you read this thanks for making it to the bottom of the lake. I know this went off topic several times and honestly, maybe it was just an excuse to gush about some underrated video games that I believe are gems that you should definitely check out, but overall I hope you liked reading this. Thanks!
