Pokémon Pokopia has taught gamers how utterly fantastic a game about building and farming can be when set in the Pokémon universe.
While there is a story to follow, you’re mostly left to your own devices, making it a cosy competitor for the likes of Stardew Valley.
This free expansion for Stardew Valley might just beat it, though as it brings a wide-variety of Pokémon to your farm.
People And Pokémon Work Together In This Adorable Expansion
When you start your first Stardew Valley playthrough, you might be tricked into thinking it’s nothing more than a simple farming game.
It’s so much more than that, though with exciting endgame content and plenty of updates expanding the gameplay.
Pokémon Ranch clears all of them, though as adds a bunch of Pokémon, plus some evolutions, as hatchable critters to keep on your farm.
You’ve got your classic starters like Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur as well as other ‘mon like Mimikyu, Eevee and its Eeveelutions, Miltank, Wooloo and many more.
The line-up is pretty fantastic and of course, the mod has to include some of the ‘mon inspired by farm animals.
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Of course, Pokémon wouldn’t be complete without the shinies. These swapped colour-palette variants have never been our cup of tea but we can at least see the appeal of wanting to catch ‘em all.
In many ways, that’s what sets Pokémon Ranch apart from the actual Pokémon games. You don’t have to catch any of these pocket monsters, as they can be purchased like any other farm animal instead.
Once they’ve reached maturity, they’ll be able to lay eggs, so if you want more than a couple of Piplup, go nuts. No one’s going to stop you.
The Pokémon Ranch mod is a literal game-changer for Stardew Valley and while you won’t be forming teams and taking on Gym Leaders, you’ll at least have something new to collect if you’ve ticked off every other box in the game. They’ll also make for great company back at your farm should you want any.
For a similar experience, we’d recommend checking out the Dino Expanded mod too. As it says in the title, it expands the range of dinosaurs you’ll be able to acquire so if you want to turn your farm into Jurassic Park, this is the way to do it.
The creativity of Stardew Valley players clearly has no limits and while support for the game is pretty much finished aside from the occasional update, it’s nice to see so much new content still out there if you know where to look.
We’re sure it won’t be long before there are just as many mods for ConcernedApe’s next game, Haunted Chocolatier, which is looking excellent so far.
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