Current Events > Looking for a relaxing or low stress game, got a suggestion?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm looking for a game that has progression of some kind, not a puzzle or pure exploration game.

Been a bit stressed out and looking for something to blow some time with that won't further raise my blood pressure.

I've played the crap out of terraria, stardew valley, and minecraft.

Got a PS4 and half decent laptop, looking for anything really.

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Flower. That was the most relaxing game I ever played. I just looked, wikipedia lists it on PS4, so get that!

They aren't for everyone, but I usually put on a Dynasty Warriors game to destress. Easy to clear a map of peons with an overpowered officer.

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Spider-Man PS4 on easy mode is fairly relaxing though even on easy mode the bosses might be a bit frustrating.
You could always try Oblivion or Skyrim with the difficulty lowered same with Fallout 3 or New Vegas or 4
Shadow of War is pretty relaxing on easy things die fast you can recruit more Orcs and if you get into trouble you can always just run the fuck away

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Mario Kart 8 on 200cc

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Tropico 4 or 5
any Harvest Moon game

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The Witness is very low stress, good puzzle.

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TwoBit_Samurai posted...

They aren't for everyone, but I usually put on a Dynasty Warriors game to destress. Easy to clear a map of peons with an overpowered officer.

Not a bad idea, and my idea of relaxing is probably a bit strange as well. I found farcry new dawn relaxing, upgrading my town, getting resources for my guns... fishing, hunting. I also find turn based RPGs relaxing.

Mostly stuff I can do at my own pace I guess.

Spyro reignited is also something to look at. I never played those back in the day.

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Grab a turnbased RPG and just griiiiiind away the hours.

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Master_Happosai posted...

Flower. That was the most relaxing game I ever played. I just looked, wikipedia lists it on PS4, so get that!

This looks interesting, but I'm not too hot on motion controls honestly.

The artistry is pretty cool though, I'll keep it in mind.

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Dawg, check out Factorio on Steam. You can run it on a cardboard box and with your track record you'll lose days to that game like it's nothing.

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Kirby?
Also what about VNs like Ace Attorney?
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Starbound: Frackin Universe with RPG Growth mod

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Godnorgosh posted...

Dragon Quest V on DS and Dragon Quest VIII on 3DS

I have 7 I believe for 3ds, but not 8.

That does remind me I have 11 for PS4 that I never finished... I just got to the horse racing town.

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persona 5 royal just came out today. the game lets you do things at your own pace and has some really nice music.

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Ving_Rhames posted...

Starbound: Frackin Universe with RPG Growth mod

This looks right up my alley right now, what does that mod do exactly?

Looking this up also brought my attention to rim world, which I have seen people talking about.

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DocDelicious posted...

Dawg, check out Factorio on Steam. You can run it on a cardboard box and with your track record you'll lose days to that game like it's nothing.

This looks interesting, info says it's still in early access though, with a release date of sept 2020.

You would say it's worth playing now in this state instead of waiting?

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Factorio will be in early access until the developers considered it complete
They've admitted this and consider it part of their marketing strategy
It's been perfectly playable and has an overall goal for nearly 5 years
it's just adding more things now
Expect a few hundred hours. It has a demo too so please try the demo since not everyone will enjoy this type of game

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Animal Crossing mellows me out something fierce.

Civilization 6

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CreepySmile posted...

Factorio will be in early access until the developers considered it complete
They've admitted this and consider it part of their marketing strategy
It's been perfectly playable and has an overall goal for nearly 5 years
it's just adding more things now
Expect a few hundred hours. It has a demo too so please try the demo since not everyone will enjoy this type of game

I used to play command and conquer, age of empires, and warhammer 40k for hundreds of hours vs ai, primarily on base building.

More recently I enjoyed that Jurassic Park park building game. Pretty sure I would like it if it were solid.

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joe40001 posted...

The Witness is very low stress, good puzzle.

2nd this

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CapnMuffin posted...

2nd this

Fairly certain I got this free on PS4 a while ago, generally not huge on puzzle games though.

I like seeing things get built, or watching my little numbers go up in some fashion... or having my abilities to do things expand, ex: Zelda.

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cant think of a more relaxing game than the new Animal Cross on Switch rn.

Hollow Knight is very relaxing

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ZevLoveDOOM posted...

cant think of a more relaxing game than the new Animal Cross on Switch rn.

I was thinking of getting a switch lite before all this bs went down.

Really regretting not doing it.

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Steep is a good chillout game, but it's best for that purpose when you've opened up all the drop zones, which takes a while.
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Frogles posted...

persona 5 royal just came out today. the game lets you do things at your own pace and has some really nice music.

Alright, I think I am buying this. Put about 20 hours into the first release and didn't have time to give it proper attention.

Downloading starbound on steam, and trying to beat the idea of going to bestbuy and buying a switch out of my head.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone.

• in case I get weak, how do I tell the new version of the full switch with increased battery life from older versions?

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Alteres posted...

This looks right up my alley right now, what does that mod do exactly?

Looking this up also brought my attention to rim world, which I have seen people talking about.

Frackin Universe is basically a shit ton of content/systems/new mechanics on top of the base game, which is very plain on its own.
RPG Growth basically makes combat interesting, and adds a relaxing time sink in the form of the XP grind/Profession leveling.

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Visual Novels. Telltale games

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Alteres posted...

Fairly certain I got this free on PS4 a while ago, generally not huge on puzzle games though.

I like seeing things get built, or watching my little numbers go up in some fashion... or having my abilities to do things expand, ex: Zelda.

I just played this a couple weeks ago and I can confirm that it has good, relaxing progression

you explore an island in whichever order you please solving puzzles as you find them. The game does track your progress in a meaningful way although I dont want to spoil it

i think youd find it very refreshing

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Life is Strange - very beautiful soundtrack, wonderful art style, it's not a fast paced game (there are maybe one or two sequences in the whole thing where you have to be kind of fast but otherwise it's more of a Choose Your Own Adventure title). Subject matter itself is mature and in that respect can be stressful, but I found the writing to be really engaging and it really sucked me in.

Kerbal Space Program - no story here, just managing your own space program with whatever modifiers you want. You can go for the hardcore experience of fulfilling contracts for money and conducting experiments to get research points to unlock new parts, or you can just go full-on sandbox and screw around and build to your heart's content. There are mods that make it easier to get into, but even without the mods I had fun screwing around and struggling to get into orbit consistently >_>

If you like the Jurassic Park game, you should know that Frontier also makes Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster, which are way more developed than the Jurassic Park game imo. Planet Coaster has a ton of shit now - you can build hotels and restaurants and add all sorts of cool effects to your rides.

On the other end of the tycoon spectrum, Two Point Hospital is fun, quirky and laid back. It's a really accessible game, not too difficult, you can be as creative or functional as you want to be.


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Oh and Runescape can be really fun. There is a ton of quirky humor and puns in there, each quest is individually hand crafted (no "kill 5 sheep and bring me their wool!" BS), and there is just a ton of content to participate in, *most* of which you do at your own pace. There is a free-to-play version which gives you access to many of the skills, many quests and a portion of the world, and it's possible to generate money to pay for Bonds to pay for Membership with. But I think for a free player just starting out there is a lot to explore without paying.

Oh and there's the puzzle game Paint It Back - I don't remember the name of this style of puzzle, but there's a grid with numbers at the top of each column and numbers at the side of each row, and these indicate how you have to fill in the blocks in those columns/rows. Starts out really easy but gets really challenging after a while.

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Animal Crossing New Horizons.

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banished

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Forager might be right up your alley, the whole game is just resource accumulation to get to the next tier of stuff that is better at accumulating resources. It's crazy relaxing to just zone out and play that game.

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The creative mode in Subnautica might be fun for you. You dont have to worry about hunger and thirst or resources. Just explore and build underwater bases. Some people find underwater either relaxing or stressful lol

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Fire Emblem can be really chill if you're into number crunching and strategy games. As long as you can see an enemy unit, you'll always have exactly as much information as you need to figure out if a move is safe or too risky to make. It can be really satisfying when your strategy works out exactly as planned.
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Animal Crossing has also been therapeutic for many during this time

The music is always relaxing and you do everything at your own pace

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dolomedes posted...

katamari is therapy :D

Oh these are good choices too. Music tracks are chill too.

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The Hunter:Call of the Wild

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MC_BatCommander posted...

Forager might be right up your alley, the whole game is just resource accumulation to get to the next tier of stuff that is better at accumulating resources. It's crazy relaxing to just zone out and play that game.

Checking this out now, says it's available for PS4, which is cool. Have a much better tv than laptop monitor and a comfy recliner.

CapnMuffin posted...

The creative mode in Subnautica might be fun for you. You dont have to worry about hunger and thirst or resources. Just explore and build underwater bases. Some people find underwater either relaxing or stressful lol

Almost pulled the trigger on buying this so many times, swore I had once when it
was on sale for $15 and had just left it in the cart. Don't know if I can bring myself to pay full price for it now.


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