It Isn’t Full-On Farming Simulator-Style Realism
Within the farming sim genre, there exists a variety of games that have you “farming” but don’t all play similarly to each other. Stardew Valley very much falls into the old-school camp of top-down, grid-based farming sims that were popularized by Harvest Moon and then taken to a new level in recent years by Stardew Valley itself. Lightyear Frontier doesn’t fall into that camp exactly but isn’t trying to be something radically different either.
An interview that was released by IGN alongside the announcement of Lightyear Frontier shed a lot of light on what developers Frame Break and Amplifier Game Invest are looking to accomplish with their game.
Lightyear Frontier won’t be grid-based like Stardew Valley and, very obviously, features more realistic-looking visuals. That said, it’s not trying to be something tied to real-life farming like Farming Simulator. According to the developers, they are trying to go for something in between the old-school top-down farming games and the hardcore sims.
So if you’re a fan of games like Stardew Valley, don’t stress that Lightyear Frontier doesn’t look like what you’re used to.
