If you're looking for your next cozy farming sim after Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, I've found one for you to try during this year's Steam Next Fest.
A New Leaf: Memories will have you moving to an island as you attempt to regain your lost memories and make a new life for yourself. What's interesting about this one is that it seems to combine a lot of features from everyone's favorite life sims, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons, and more - both in terms of visuals and gameplay.
As you can see from the trailer below, A New Leaf: Memories looks a lot like Story of Seasons with its 3D characters and very cute and round cows. It also has similar farming mechanics which remind me a lot of Stardew Valley - which isn't a surprise considering the OG farming sim (Harvest Moon) influenced both of the games I just mentioned.
- The Stardew Valley stan in me is more excited than ever to play this cozy farming sim for real next month, after its Steam Next Fest demo blew me away
- I got tricked into trying this roguelike dungeon crawler after its Steam Next Fest demo used cozy farm sim features as bait to draw me in, but now I'm converted
Like all of the games I've mentioned so far, in A New Leaf: Memories you'll need to plant seeds, tend to crops, care for your animals, customize your home, cook meals, and more. I tried this one out during Steam Next Fest and was surprised at just how straightforward it was to get stuck into it.
The first thing you need to do in the A New Leaf: Memories demo is customise your character. Similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you're able to select your character's hair, eyes, skin color, and outfit and customize each of them using a color wheel, giving you infinite possibilities with how your character looks.
After this, I started working on my farm and planted some seeds, chopped some wood, found resources, and made my own furniture. I often get overwhelmed when I start playing these kinds of games but in A New Leaf, it was easy to follow the step-by-step tutorial to hit the ground running.
There's still so much I need to experience in this game, including mining, fishing, meeting the locals, completing quests, and raising my own animals but A New Leaf: Memories already feels like a worthy rival to the likes of Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons. We don't even have to wait too long for its full release as A New Leaf: Memories is set to launch in Q4 2023.
If you want to try this one out for yourself, head on over to the game's Steam page and try out the demo before Steam Next Fest ends on October 16, 2023.
Want to know what else is worth a try? Take a look at our best Steam Next Fest demos list.
