Harvest Moon

[BlueCandles]

Harvest Moon DS was a buggy piece of shit that loved to soft lock you, bug out npcs, and make stuff on your farm disappear. You could also make like one bazillion gold in an instant if you sent a sprite to fish for you at winter for some reason, those jap programmers must of been hitting the sake hard during development.

Then again it was possible in that game to marry a mermaid, a goddess, a witch, and a weird cave-dwelling priestess. You can also spent like a million gold to buy a piece of golden lumber, and if you place it on your farm every morning you have to stand at your door as every single npc lines up to say how much they hate you.

 

[Ser Prize]

Harvest Moon DS was a buggy piece of shit that loved to soft lock you, bug out npcs, and make stuff on your farm disappear. You could also make like one bazillion gold in an instant if you sent a sprite to fish for you at winter for some reason, those jap programmers must of been hitting the sake hard during development.

Then again it was possible in that game to marry a mermaid, a goddess, a witch, and a weird cave-dwelling priestess. You can also spent like a million gold to buy a piece of golden lumber, and if you place it on your farm every morning you have to stand at your door as every single npc lines up to say how much they hate you.

DS is crazy. It had dungeon crawling and turn based combat mini games as secrets.

I've only messed with Rune Factory 4 but it was definitely more RPG with farming stuff than farming with RPG if that makes sense. It's got some story going on, you run around and explore mostly simple dungeons with bosses and level ups. You actually have to domesticate the various animal monsters because that's how you get your cow, chicken, sheep, etc for produce products unless you're planning to only work with random drops from killing enemies or trying to buy them. It does help that at least some of them can do farm stuff for you. I've heard you can tame some bosses and stuff but can't confirm, I think it was extra stuff you can do after beating the game/story. Completely forget if there's any kind of mounting mechanic, I do know you could bring a monster along as a party member when leaving town. You could also bring along another town member after gaining some friendship with them.
Otherwise it's got the usual cooking, fishing, marriage things. Not sure if the whole series followed suit, but 4 had you able to make your own equipment and tools which also had stats and levels etc.

There was mounting, yeah. And any animal you tamed either provided a resource or could be assigned to do farm work for you.

It was one of the best games on the 3DS and I'm hoping the new spin off is one tenth as good.

 

[Psyduck]

Ill probably give Stardew another try sometime down the line, but the three times ive tried it, i just couldnt get into it.

Harvest Moon though? I love the series. Hate all the modernization done for the newer Story of Seasons titles though. Hate that i can't talk to the bachelors anymore cause a greeting is taken as a romantic gesture.

Currently going through SoS A Wonderful Life. Slow start, but once you unlock the Hybrid Crops and start putting more facilities in, pace picks up.

Wasn't Lumina a child in the original game? They made her a bachellorete this time around. Married Nami but i kinda regret it, it was between Molly and her but i'd already given the flower to Molly back in the original title...

Rune Factory is my shit. I think i like RF even more than HM nowadays. Played the shit out of all the titles available to me (even 5. Didn't think it was THAT bad!) and im looking forward to Guardians of Azuma.

 

[Ser Prize]

Ill probably give Stardew another try sometime down the line, but the three times ive tried it, i just couldnt get into it.

Harvest Moon though? I love the series. Hate all the modernization done for the newer Story of Seasons titles though. Hate that i can't talk to the bachelors anymore cause a greeting is taken as a romantic gesture.

Currently going through SoS A Wonderful Life. Slow start, but once you unlock the Hybrid Crops and start putting more facilities in, pace picks up.

Wasn't Lumina a child in the original game? They made her a bachellorete this time around. Married Nami but i kinda regret it, it was between Molly and her but i'd already given the flower to Molly back in the original title...

Rune Factory is my shit. I think i like RF even more than HM nowadays. Played the shit out of all the titles available to me (even 5. Didn't think it was THAT bad!) and im looking forward to Guardians of Azuma.

Yeah, them making everyone pansexual means you can't get to know dudes anymore. It's fucking weird and I wish you could just pick a sexuality at character creation.

 

[Psyduck]

Yeah, them making everyone pansexual means you can't get to know dudes anymore. It's fucking weird and I wish you could just pick a sexuality at character creation.

Even weirder is how... Non-romantic the writing feels at times. Can't have 'husband', 'wife', not even something gender neutral like 'lover' or 'beloved'. It's always something like 'partner'.

Got married to Karen in SoS Friends of Mineral Town, and having Carter proclaim you "Officially Wedded Partners" or some shit like that at the ceremony left such a crap taste in my mouth. Hope that shit goes away soon.

 

[lichen]

DS Cute fixed most of the gamebreaking bugs with the original. I think there's a European revision that fixes most of them as well.

DS could have been a top entry of the series if it hadn't had a handful of goals that were ridiculous time sinks. The sprite unlocks for shipping goods, massaging animals etc were outrageous grinds, and there was that girl hidden in level 255 of a mine that you needed to go through several heart events to marry. Friends of Mineral Town has similar issues with locking content behind absurd requirements (100m gold for a new house), but the Sprite hunt was DS's main gameplay gimmick and finishing it just wasn't an option.

Generally speaking, I think Stardew Valley has long since outshined its inspiration. As cozy as they are, Harvest Moon/SOS games tend to hit the "OK, now what" point usually hits sometime around mid year 2. There's plenty you can do but the rewards are usually pretty minimal, and generally don't expand the game much. There's no equivalent to unlocking the Skull Cavern or the Island; the mines are generally not that interesting. Just going for completing everything can be a fine goal if you're into the gameplay loop, but there's always something that gets gated behind an obnoxious grind.

Maybe the above isn't really accurate. I mostly checked out on the series after DS.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I one time made a car shake while petting cows in Harvest Moon DS.

 

[Psyduck]

Was Grand Bazaar good? Didn't have a 3DS so i missed out on that one. I was hoping for that new title they teased about "Creating Memories".

About to finish SoS A Wonderful Life and i really regret not marrying Muffy again... Watching her have crisis after crisis when realizing she's getting older and no one wants to settle down with her is sad.

 

[Carnavoyeur]

Was Grand Bazaar good? Didn't have a 3DS so i missed out on that one. I was hoping for that new title they teased about "Creating Memories".

It was okay but I think it's a poor choice for a remake. The whole bazaar thing was honestly annoying (you can only make decent money during the bazaar which is once a week) and I remember the relationships being too difficult to progress and pretty boring. It's just the standard one-dimensional HM with a "new twist" that ends up being frustrating in the long run like most of them are now.

I think Magical Melody is more deserving of a remake.

 

[Dr. Arinsu]

I'm trying to play the re release of AWL and it's confusing, I'm more mad they retarded down the game because the OG segregated women and men games and DS had a far more darker implications. Anyways I'm going after this hippie.



Some lulz were had when someone was banned for black washing a character that was whitewashed for a mod.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

One of my earliest gaming memories was playing harvest moon, but I can only remember this cave and how you could farm mushrooms. I think there was a hotspring too... it had to have been on the GameBoy color, pretty sure. Then when I got older I put too much time into Rune Factory 1.

 

[SnowBall]

Trio of Towns is peak and not to mention better than Stardew Valley in almost every aspect. The insane amount of dialogue you can trigger and characters that actually felt alive, depth to heart events, the amount of stuff you could make and do, etc. A shame Pioneers of Olive Town was such a barren stripped down game and felt so lifeless. You get a magic baby out of nowhere regardless of who you marry, the marriage candidates are so shallow, the maker system and inventory management is horrible, and the love interests don’t even act like spouses when you get married. Also the town barely reacts to when you get married or get a kid- I married the daughter of the animal shop owner once and when we had a kid her mother and brother did not acknowledge that she was a part of the family. They just did the generic “congrats on the baby!” Even Japanese fans were very disappointed by the game and tore the developers a new one on Twitter and social media to the point where the director apologized and added more events and dialogue. Even then it barely improved anything.

 

[Psyduck]

Trio of Towns is peak and not to mention better than Stardew Valley in almost every aspect. The insane amount of dialogue you can trigger and characters that actually felt alive, depth to heart events, the amount of stuff you could make and do, etc. A shame Pioneers of Olive Town was such a barren stripped down game and felt so lifeless. You get a magic baby out of nowhere regardless of who you marry, the marriage candidates are so shallow, the maker system and inventory management is horrible, and the love interests don’t even act like spouses when you get married. Also the town barely reacts to when you get married or get a kid- I married the daughter of the animal shop owner once and when we had a kid her mother and brother did not acknowledge that she was a part of the family. They just did the generic “congrats on the baby!” Even Japanese fans were very disappointed by the game and tore the developers a new one on Twitter and social media to the point where the director apologized and added more events and dialogue. Even then it barely improved anything.

Ah, dammit... I'm just starting that one out and got somewhat excited because i saw it had like expansions and shit. Must be tons of content, i thought!

So far it hasnt "grabbed" me yet, but im pushing on thinking it'll pick up as it goes. This is kinda disappointing to hear.

On the other hand, never tried Trio of Towns before and now i'm interested.

 

[The Fair Lady]

I never did get around to buying Olive Town, so I appreciate the warning. Shame though.

And yeah Trio of Towns is a good one.

 

[Psyduck]

Jesus Christ. I've been playing Trio of Towns thanks to @SnowBall's recommendation. It really feels like peak Harvest Moon so far. Characters, dialogue, the gameplay... Not to mention, this is before everything got modernized, so you can be an actual human being and not a body type. You can only marry bachelors of the opposite gender as well, so no more ignoring the male bachelors!

I was gonna say that this shouldve been the title they remade instead of Grand Bazaar, but after giving it some thought, nah... I'd rather have it stay just like this in my emulator. God knows all the shit a remake will bring.

Anyways, can we discuss Rune Factory in here? Not a fan of Asian aesthetics but i'm glad they're expanding on that "Eastern Continent" the games reference sometimes.

Rune Factory seems like a series where they just kinda make up the world as they go along lol

 

[Wild at Heart]

I went over to my friend's house around 2005 and watched him play Harvest Moon: Magical Melody. I absolutely loved the game and wanted to get a copy for myself, so I went to the local GameCrazy (RIP), and could not find Magical Melody, so I settled for Wonderful Life.

I was awful at it, and didn't understand profit vs expenses, I got married to the "bimbo" blonde girl and made absolutely zero money. My character had nightmares every night and we lived in squalor. My wife would complain, and our child was constantly hungry and crying. It was actually so sad and bleak that it got to me and I had to stop playing. One of the most unique gaming experiences of my life. I love Stardew, and I'm interested in these "remakes" of Harvest Moon they are making on the switch.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

fucking based lmao

Absolutely based. It's too bad the modern games include this faggotry now, it has ruined the series and probably the entire genre.

I wonder if there's a list of which HM & RF games without faggot marriage. I wanna play more of the series, especially RF.

I tried to get into Harvest Moon, i own the SNES and N64 versions and i just don't find all that interesting.

As much as I love Harvest Moon (SNES), it is a little archaic and pretty limited (but still good for what it is, a quaint and fun, short game). I never really played the N64 version, but I'd say A Wonderful Life for GameCube is more engaging. There's not just more to do but you're less rushed.

I like the Rune Factory series that spun off from HM.

I like it a lot too, though I only played the first one.

 

[Psyduck]

I wonder if there's a list of which HM & RF games without faggot marriage. I wanna play more of the series, especially RF.

Dont quote me on it, but i think for HM, i think it's until the more recent Story of Seasons titles where you cant avoid it. For RF, i believe everything is normal until you reach the remake for 4 and 5. I think the upcoming Guardians of Azuma will have faggotry in it, but iirc, (again, dont quote me on it) from one of the trailers i watched there's an option to speak in either a "friendly" or a "romantic" tone to other characters. Not sure if i'm explaining myself so i'll edit a screencap in.

Id suggest emulating OG 4. Not even sure what the remake brought to the table, but the game itself is really solid still.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

AWL was depressing imo. It was dark

 

[Shakira Flabbergasted]

For RF, i believe everything is normal until you reach the remake for 4 and 5.

This is correct, except that it's only 5 that has gay marriage. Rune Factory 4 Special doesn't, but it allows you to change your character's portrait and model (and voice, I think) to resemble the opposite sex protagonist. They will still be referred to as "he" and "prince" by other characters if you chose to play as Lest, and "she" and "princess" if you chose Frey. It's just a cosmetic option and the romance mechanic still works as normal, with Lest restricted to dating bachelorettes and Frey bachelors.

@SSj_Ness (Yiffed) I still recommend playing the original 3DS game if you can, because RF4 Special includes a lot of AI upscaling and it looks a bit weird. They also changed one of the characters' voices for the remake. He used to be voiced by Vic Mignogna, but then Vic got metoo'd so they hired some other dude to rerecord all of his lines for the Switch remaster. One other thing that's different is that Special includes new animated cutscenes for the romance options. You can always look them up on YouTube if you're curious, though imo they don't add much.

All the other Rune Factory games are straight marriage only. RF2 has a mechanic that I wish other games in the series had, called rival marriage. Basically there's a different male rival for each love interest, and if you don't reach a certain heart level with her and propose, each bachelorette will get married to her rival love interest on a predetermined date.

Spoiler

You also have the option to crash the wedding and steal the bride if you have 10 hearts and haven't completed her proposal request.

I've played all of them and they're all decently fun games. Extremely glitchy, poorly optimized, full of weird ass anime tropes and quirky overdesigned characters, but they're fun as fuck and they have a special vibe that no other series has. It's kinda shit, but it's my shit.

Spoiler: Here are my thoughts on the gay shit

I don't really get why players supposedly wanted gay marriage in the first place. I'm a straight female and never had any issue playing as the male character and dating women in the first three games. It's just a game, not real life. Of course, I picked Frey and dated guys in RF4 because it's my preference, but if I were a lesbian I'd have just picked Lest and dated women. I don't see why some people can't enjoy a game unless the player character resembles them demographic-wise.