It’s an enchanting genre that I don’t see come up as often as it should. I would say my preference is towards exocolonist as it’s more forgiving, and the subsystem breaks up what might otherwise become monotonous.
A few of the things I like about the genre is the tangible growth and the impact your skills have on the story at large. Like the skill dialogues in fallout, but with more impact.
I also like the romance options and slow burn in exocolonist
Funny, I was just thinking about this today as I was going through my Steam wishlist. I don’t even know what to call the genre but I want more of it. Haven’t heard of exocolonist before, so I’ll check that out. The only other one I can think of right now is Growing Up (Steam link), but that one is kind of shallow and not great for replayability.