Poll of the Day > Best of the Harvest Moon series? (farmers rise up)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have a hard time thinking of a better experience than Friends of Mineral Town for gba. Thoughts?

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Back to Nature. I remember loving the festivals in that.

haven't played Friends of Mineral Town though

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Stardew Valley

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Was trying to look up how things compared and now I want to replay Back to Nature >_>

https://www.reddit.com/r/harvestmoon/comments/a2oibz/why_back_to_nature_is_better_than_fomt/

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Either the very first game or stardew valley.

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CinderLock posted...

Stardew Valley

Dude. I loved Friends of Mineral Town. Also, Animal Parade and Rune Factory 3.

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I've only ever played Friends of Mineral Town, but it was a blast to play.

I've been thinking about picking up something like Rune Factory for the switch tbh. Not sure if I should get 5 or just wait until the next one comes out

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trodi_911 posted...

I loved Friends of Mineral Town.

Same. I don't care much for the art style they went with in the remake.

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Ugh I bought Rune Factory 4 because some posters listed it in the best games of all time thread and I like harvest moon and stardew valley and haven't really played any rune factory so thought I'd give it a try

to be fair... I've barely played any of it. But, that's because it's so fucking cringey? The writing is baaaad. The whole premise about how you're forced to be a prince/princess (???) and have amnesia..all the dialogue..The main female character has nipple chain armor. I looked up brief summaries for bachelorettes to decide if I wanted to be male or female since that matters and two of the bachelorettes look kinda loli and all of them are meh (dull knight, sleepy butler??).

And this was listed in the best game ever topic?? Why..

Such cringe writing..

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no one plays rune factory 4 for the dialogue, it's just a mechanically solid game

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Yeah I can't get into games if the writing is that bad. Mechanics only / puzzle games sure. Very simple stories fine. But this writing is actively taking away from the experience for me.

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Bulbasaur posted...

no one plays rune factory 4 for the dialogue

Sure they do. It's one of the best examples in the genre for the sheer volume and variety of dialogue you get from characters. I literally went more than an in-game year without seeing any daily dialogue repeated, which just made for such an organic, enjoyable experience. Was any of it particularly amazing storytelling? Not particularly (though no less so than anything else in the genre). But talking to everyone every day and developing everyone's relationship levels felt worthwhile for the simple purpose of developing a relationship with them and seeing how they grew as characters, rather than something that's done for the sake of completion. So often, the "talk to everyone every day" thing ends up just being another chore done for the promise of some future reward, like watering crops, but I felt that RF4 subverted that.

Then, on top of that, it's mechanically very solid, with plenty of content and thoroughly enjoyable combat/farming/crafting systems. Really, its only flaw is that the third story arc (and, with it, access to the endgame content) is locked behind a random event that isn't weighted any more heavily than any of the more minor random events, so it can take a while to show up if you're unlucky. Save scumming is an option to remedy that if you get impatient, but it's still just not the most sensible design choice (it would have been pretty easy to adjust its weighting so it still felt as organic as the rest of the random events, while preventing players from ever waiting too long).

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CinderLock posted...

Stardew Valley

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Graveyard Keeper

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64, then stardew Valley

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adjl posted...

But talking to everyone every day and developing everyone's relationship levels felt worthwhile for the simple purpose of developing a relationship with them and seeing how they grew as characters, rather than something that's done for the sake of completion. So often, the "talk to everyone every day" thing ends up just being another chore done for the promise of some future reward, like watering crops, but I felt that RF4 subverted that.

Well I normally value your opinion. As I said, I'm not very far into it. Will keep playing. Might get better and the beginning just is very shoehorned..

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CinderLock posted...

Stardew Valley

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grimhilde00 posted...

Well I normally value your opinion. As I said, I'm not very far into it. Will keep playing. Might get better and the beginning just is very shoehorned..

It's also possible you just have less tolerance for generic anime tropes. I generally liked how everyone developed as I got to know them better. My dating strategy consisted of maxing out everyone's affection with the intent of seeing every scene everyone had to offer (which were all handled as random events after reaching a certain relationship level), but then I couldn't bring myself not to marry the one whose proposal cutscene (or at least, the cutscene that was a prerequisite for proposing, because I was a dude and that's just a limitation of the game) came up first because it was convincing enough that blowing it off just felt wrong. That said, I won't deny that the story and writing are very anime, and if that bugs you, I can understand being turned off of the game.

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adjl posted...

It's also possible you just have less tolerance for generic anime tropes.
..
That said, I won't deny that the story and writing are very anime, and if that bugs you, I can understand being turned off of the game.

ah..yeah..that might be it. I'll still give it a little bit longer though since I paid $40 for it lol

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I mean, if nothing else, the farming is also some of the best in the genre and it's a thoroughly enjoyable game even outside of the writing, so you can always skip dialogue as much as possible while enjoying the gameplay.

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Rune Factory 4.

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I haven't played many of them but I liked Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade.

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Woops, it's actually 5 that's coming out soon not 6. Goes to show what I know.

But yeah, 5 is coming out around May, so maybe I'll check it out

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I've played the SNES one, the PS1 one, and the N64 one. the SNES one is probably the best, the PS1 one was kind of good, and the N64 one was not that great IIRC.

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Sahuagin posted...

I've played the SNES one, the PS1 one, and the N64 one. the SNES one is probably the best, the PS1 one was kind of good, and the N64 one was not that great IIRC.

Man if the SNES one is best that is a bit weird, since from what I hear that entry lacks a ton of QOL features later titles would have.

Monopoman posted...

Man if the SNES one is best that is a bit weird, since from what I hear that entry lacks a ton of QOL features later titles would have.

I have no idea how it compares to newer ones, but yeah I mean that it's my favorite of those three more than it being objectively or mechanically superior.

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