Hey guys 🙂 I started playing games on the switch back in 2022 when my fiancée bought one for me. I fell in love with it and have played ever since. I really love stardew valley (which is so typical I know) and I wanted to play more diverse games so I decided to get a steamdeck. When I got it though I feel like I can’t find the right games, most of them seem to be more geared towards men. I wonder what you guys are playing, or think I would like?
I included a tier list I made of the games I played. I made the pictures on a level basis so that’s why some are halfway lol
I can give you a few of my favorites:
* Spiritfarer: Sad Stardew on a Boat. You play the role of a caretaker of souls on their way to the afterlife. It’s part management sim, part exploration, and mostly telling the stories of all of these wonderful characters. You will love them, you’ll probably cry a lot. It’s a game that has legitimately shaped the way I think about death, and something I’d recommend everyone play at least once. (There’s also a cat. His name is Daffodil, and you can hug him at any time.)
* Monster Sanctuary is Pokemon mixed with a Metroidvania, where your monsters play the role of the platforming abilities that gate your exploration. It has a surprisingly deep and challenging turn-based combat system, which is incredibly satisfying to master. It’s the best “Pokemon” game I’ve tried.
* Anything from Supergiant, honestly, but the most relevant one is Hades. A great roguelite with amazing art, amazing music, amazing controls… Supergiant don’t miss, but Hades is on another level. Transistor is also incredible, though more on the experimental side.
Rune Factory 4, it’s considered the best out of all the RF games although I’ve been playing as the male character since I’m not a fan of the female character’s sprite.
Have you tried Nexomon or Nexomon: Extinction? Worth checking out as a Pokemon fan. I had a lot of fun with both of them, the story in the first one is particularly good.
– Cassette Beasts
– Balatro
You might like Potion Permit.
Terraria is always fun. While it’s frequently been called a 2D Minecraft clone in the past, it’s really more of a 2D block based game that’s more focused on combat elements instead of survival. It’s really approachable and easy to pick up but with a fairly high skill ceiling once you get good at it.
No Man’s Sky is also a huge favourite of mine. Just being able to explore to vast universe is always amazing, and I keep coming back to the game since it’s still getting regular updates after seven years. Each new update has refined or added new elements of gameplay, and it’s so fun to keep coming back to.
[Roots of Pacha](https://rootsofpacha.com/) is like a prehistoric Stardew
I feel like you might like Planet Zoo? A lot of the gameplay is built around building very in depth animal enclosures for your zoo, it’s an amazing base builder, but it takes some work to understand how everything works
Also No Man’s Sky or Astroneer could be worth looking into!!
Seconding the Supergiant recommendation. If you like Cult of the Lamb, there’s a non-zero chance you’ll enjoy *Hades* (and everything else they’ve made) too!
PC gaming as a whole has been defined mostly by men, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some more feminine focused, cozy or simply really cool games.
I would absolutely recommend *Strange Horticulture*, found it much more engaging that other potion seller sims (even if you’re mostly finding and identifying plants in a manner akin to solving puzzles). Very moody, perfect to play with a cup of tea.
I still hold the two Sonic Adventure games close to my heart because of the *Chao Garden*, and while those have been ported to PC, if you’re interested in exploring old console libraries, the Emudeck is going to be your friend.
*Loddlenaut* is a cute game about cleaning the depths of the sea and raising cute axolotl like creatures called Loddles. Depending on what you feed them, they evolve in all sorts of stuff!
I don’t know your opinion on Pokémon Snap, but there’s *Penko Park*, which is basically the same concept with the serial numbers filled off and some welcomed quality of life updates. And if you happen to also enjoy photography focused games, you can’t go wrong with *Toem*.
Also, as far as my understanding goes, you _can_ mod Stardew Valley on Switch, but the process seems to be cumbersome and involves jailbreaking the console, right? (citation needed?) But modding SV on Steam Deck is super easy, if you’re interested in re experiencing the game that way.
Some tags that might help you find games on Steam are ‘casual’, ‘farming sim’, ‘cozy’.
Other games that I believe are hella amazing are *The Case of the Golden Idol* if you’re in the mood for a head breaking mystery, *The Magister* if you’d like to solve a murder mystery by way of card based encounters, *Spookware* for the Warioware lovers out there aaaaand *Isle of Jura* just to mention something short and sweet. It’s a fishing game, but it’s very relaxing and has a nice pace.
Some of these recs might seem all over the place but I’m going to fully commit to the vibes ✨ of a cozy gamer that has played on PC for most of her life.