I have nearly finished Spiritfarer. I love it. Some similarities are recipe collecting, tasks from characters, building and improving structures. There is also a goodly amount of jumping. It’s a platformer essentially. None of it too stressful except for some interactions with a character named Daria which require patience and perseverance and web searches (lol), but I managed to do it. I took about a month to play through, but that was staying up waaaaay too late every night, I think maybe a normal person should take a couple of months to play it. I got it on sale so look out for a good price.

Cozy Grove is a good one.

Have you played Stardew Valley?

Do you have a switch? Because you can buy it early access!! It’s cheap enough too! I’m addicted and I swear I’m enjoying it more than ACNH! It should be in the store on there❤️

Stardew Valley was HARD in the beginning and not at all relaxing. However once I googled some hints for getting started and could actually get through a day accomplishing things instead of just trying not to pass out it did get fun.

Try Ooblets, it’s my second favourite game after Animal Crossing! Takes a little bit to get into but it’s so cute and fun.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is amazing!!!!

Obligatory Stardew Valley. NPCs to grow relationships with and a relaxing small town atmosphere with a touch of fantasy(magic and spirits).

Fantasy life for the 3ds

My Time at Portia

A Short Hike on PC!

Garden Paws

My Time at Portia and Stardew Valley are both games I have 100+ hours in and have personally scratched that Animal Crossing itch for me (Switch AC can't come soon enough...!).

Portia's big focus is crafting, but it also has fishing, gathering materials in the wild (from trees, herbs, etc.), and really interesting characters that live in the town. You get to see the area develop and more people appear as the story progresses, and all the aforementioned things really reminded me of Animal Crossing in a good way. It's my personal goodfeel game, haha.

Stardew Valley is more focused on farming, but it's similarly comfy and has a lively town you get to see develop and lovely characters to interact and raise your relationship with. Like I said, both games have content for AGES, I still haven't done everything possible in either despite hundreds of hours in, haha.

Now this one I haven't played myself so take this with a grain of salt, but Garden Paws is currently in early access and looks pretty promising. It has animal characters instead of humans like AC, too! You expand your home, develop your town, sell things, farm, gather, interact with villagers, etc.. Yonder also looks like it has the same comfy feel going for it, though it's apparently not as extensive as the aforementioned examples. Also, it's not out yet, but you might want to keep an eye out for Ooblets? It looks like it has that same comfy vibe, and I'm definitely looking forward to it, myself.

Hope that helped at least a bit, from one Animal Crossing fan to another, haha. :-)

Stardew Valley is kinda like Animal Crossing.

You have your own house and farm as well as other town residents and their houses that you can enter. You have activities you can do to make money like farming, fishing, and cave delving. You can improve relationships with residents by giving gifts and do tasks for them like in Animal Crossing. There are holidays in-game too.

As others have said, Stardew Valley and My Time At Portia are both really great games. I also own Staxel but haven't played it yet.

Stardew Valley. The answer is always Stardew Valley.

Wait for Littlewood it's going to be released this month. You can also check out Forager.

Littlewood might check some of those boxes: villagers want to move in and request specific goals and house placements, you have to decorate each home a certain way to improve their relationships, it does have farming but it's a very simplified approach and not the primary focus. It's mostly gathering materials and fulfilling NPC requests.

Ah what a shame that Critter Cove is not on switch as it seems like it could be what you’re looking for. It seems they do plan to release on switch eventually but nothing firm yet, maybe keep an eye out for the future?

If you don’t mind a certain amount of gameplay being limited by irl time and that the villagers you invite aren’t random, maybe also consider Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Inviting villagers to the island and decorating their houses is kinda a big part of the gameplay, but they are predetermined characters that are part of the storyline.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 has the finding villagers aspect if I remember correctly. And you can decorate your village.

Definitely give Dinkum a try! It's based in the Australian outback and feels very much like Animal Crossing :)

I think part of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is decorating cabins to convince characters to move to the island.

Dinkum will be released for Switch in November if I'm not mistaken

Have you tried Fae Farm? Also Dinkum and maybe Grand Bazaar would hold interest?

Moonstone Island is a deckbuilder/creature collecting game. It DOES have some farming, but a lot of the crops are used for energy/powering up your spirits. It's mainly an exploration/dungeon crawling game with farming on the side as a means of energy or money.

Check out:

Ritual of raven - top suggestion

Potion permit - I can't remember if it has Dungeons or not

Wytchwood

Strange horticulture

Little wood

Moonstone island

None of these games are really farming Sims where the goal is to manufacture a huge numbers of things. I mean, doing so will get you a little bit of money, but progress ultimately comes from different areas in the game. So you can't really bring yourself out by having too big of a farm

Fantasy Life

Dinkum is the closest to Animal Crossing I've played.

I cannot recommend Cozy Grove enough!! It is absolutely cute and definitely has a lot of similarities with AC. It is very cheap and is on Steam but pretty sure is on PS as well. Please take a look at it.

Hokko Life if you're on PC

I have put a ton of time into Cozy Grove and it's amazing! Definitely recommend especially if you want to log in every day.

What system? On PC there's Cozy Grove and Garden Paws. They're both similar to animal crossing but indie.

My Time at Portia

Just get Stardew Valley, can’t go wrong with that

There's Story of Seasons that you might possibly liked. I wanted to get it but since I already dropped a pretty penny on accessories, games and new Lite, I'm holding back before buying similar games.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are interesting because the games are free: you can choose the path you take, whether its to challenge the gyms and be a champion ranked trainer, or to challenge the bosses of the newest group, Team Star, or uou can challenge Titans found in different areas of the region. Unlike most Pokemon games, the legendaries are available at the very start of the game. Your friends Nemona and Arven are there to support you in your journey along with the mysterious Cassandra. You unlock abilities for Miraidon/Koraidon as you defeat Titans (and feed them sandwiches homemade by your friend Arven) such as the ability to travel on water and much more!

I suppose you like fun games that you can play in short bursts with minimal story, tutorials etc. so I’d probably suggest MarioKart and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.

I hated super Mario Odyssey personally, it’s a good Mario game, but not everybody enjoys Mario games. They’re targeted towards kids, there is no story to speak of, no voice acting, gameplay is very simple, difficulty very low, I found it boring.

Ooblets

Dinkum actually made me go on PC for the first time in a long time

We seem to like the same style of games and my favorite after Animal Crossing is Littlewood. It has a lot of what you're looking for and it only costs $15 so not a lot of risk involved in trying it out.

Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island is pretty Animal Crossing looking.

It is different in that you mine stuff on the beach, have to craft items to use to buy decorations, grow crops needed to fulfill requests and to make other items needed to fulfill requests. You fulfill requests to earn money and level up. Leveling up unlocks more decor, dresses, buildings, and crops.

There is no day-night cycle, and things happen in real time. Like, most crops and buildings take 5min to produce. Longest I've seen so far is 10min, but that hasn't felt like an issue because I can go do other stuff while I wait.

It is cutesy, and pink, and "girly", but I think it's enjoyable.

Spiritfarer! Beautiful art style, great music, no combat, and really thoughtful dialogue with characters. It's an absolutely stunning game. ✨

Palia, it is super similar but more interactive with other players. It’s a little less cutesy and more magical, I played it first and love both!

Stardew valley !

Dreamlight Valley

Hello Kitty Island Adventure!

Its not the exact same but I do love Cozy Grove. You play as a spirit scout on an abandoned island, where you meet local spirits. Its more story driven through dialog and you learn about their lives and what happened to the island. It can be a little melancholy at times, but heart warming. There's critters, fishing, hair, clothes, decor items, crafting, material gathering, and decorating the island and interior of your tent.