u/storyofseasonslover

I’m not a massive rail shooter fan but god this game has been a huge visual delight for me. I’m in love with the environments and how well done the cutscenes are. This truly feels like the next gen game I wanted from the Switch 2 era.

I grew up on Pokemon Brick Bronze which was a fan project on Roblox. Everything about it was like Pokemon but it was treated like a live service game. The game first launched with just the first gym and many mons. Then with each update, the story progressed and a new gym was added alongside other features such as trading center, battle arena, you name it.

It was genuinely one of my favorite Pokemon experiences despite not being official because of how the community for that game felt like. Being able to chat and bargain during the trades just elevated the experience so much. Every update was so fun to look forward to. And it felt like each update was a necessary one rather than dragging the game for money. There was obviously pay to win stuff like the shiny charm, ability charm, oval charm, and so on. Obviously it helped you a lot but none of it felt necessary to buy.

I hope Aniimo follows the same structure. Obviously it doesn’t make sense cost wise to not drag out the updates but I would love to see a story being featured with a proper conclusion. One thing they could do is have multiple stories and so on.

I’m very excited for this game and I feel like even if the devs don’t know about Pokemon Brick Bronze, they can study its model because despite being a Roblox game, it was fairly successful. Too successful for its own good (Nintendo had to get it down).

Playing SoS GrB made me realize how much more fun my experience with FoMT and AWL would be if they did so much more with the remakes. I understand keeping things faithful is the easy and safest way to make the fanbase happy but to me I think elevating the original game to something more modern and replayable is just much better.

Here’s how I think they should’ve done the FoMT remake first:

Graphics wise, I’d 100% would’ve loved what they did for SoS GrB. Vibrant and distinct seasonal colors, semi-chibi proportions, and beautifully detailed environments with nice amount of details to the atmosphere. Moreover, I would definitely love the heart events to be 3D animated. Portraits would be there too, just like in SoS GrB.

Gameplay wise, however, I’d mostly keep the original mechanics the same rather than changing them. I’d instead add more modern mechanics on top of the foundation so the original game’s identity isn’t lost. Things like beekeeping, mushroom logging, animal variants, and so on. 100% would keep rival marriage. Would just make it a toggle in the settings like modern farm sims do.

I’m torn on this but I think adding around 4 marriage candidates each gender and additional characters would be a nice addition for those who are really tired of the original and would love some fresh faces. The FoMT remake didn’t integrate the new characters as well as SoS GrB did.

Now for AWL, I’d 100% make this game a little more busier. Not too much to ruin the game’s cozy vibe but enough to not make it feel too boring.

Visually, I’d definitely would want this to look and feel mature. I would definitely opt for more “realistic” character proportions. Think HM ANB or SoS1 character portraits. I think it’d work well because the main audience for this at the end was just the original fans who had grown up a lot since they originally played this game. I’d personally simply push the rating to E10+ or T and add upon the more mature themes the original had.

I’d make the dating pool identical to DS/Cute’s. The revamped look of the original candidates would stay the same but I’d keep the original looks for rest of the candidates. I’d definitely combine the DS/Cute’s events with this game’s so it always have something going on. I’d also lean heavy on chapter to chapter changes. Things like adding circus from DS, more characters passing away and moving in, some of the other characters getting married and having children (not necessarily with rivals), and so on.

Gameplay wise, I’d definitely add proper festivals, huge emphasis on the hybrid plants for the quests, proper house decoration and clothing system just to keep the players motivated to earn money.

I know Wii U was a commercial failure but Marvelous always made a SoS game for a Nintendo console as fast as they could. DS launched in 2004, we get HMDS in 2005. Wii launched in 2006, we get ToT in 2007. 3DS launched in 2012, we get ANB in 2012. Wii U launches… but there was no new game on it at all?

I just think it would be so much better for this series if they didn’t just randomly ditch console games for this series during the Wii U era. We wouldn’t have to suffer through the growing pains that was Pioneers of Olive Town.

Both RF GoA and SoS GB were return to form for both the beloved Marvelous IPs. I enjoyed both of them thoroughly. They were both 10/10 games for me. But I feel one lacks what the other has and vice versa.

Overall: RF GoA is on the ambitious side whereas SoS GB tries to go for the more traditional and grounded route. It works really well but I wish RF still had hints of classic RF and SoS GB took some more risks.

Characters: There’s a lot more variety in GoA and I would say the character and cutscenes writing was much more interesting and fleshed out. Events in GB felt much shorter and on the surface level in comparison. But the town and character dynamics in GB were much much better. Everyone in GoA was too independent.

Social system: GoA definitely did this better. It was a very Sims-like approach rather than the simple talk n gift approach. I love simple things more but I like how the social system in RF didn’t feel hectic or as if it took too much time. Loved being able to actually interact with the villagers right from the start and unlocking actions like hugging and kissing.

Gameplay loop: Grand Bazaar takes the cake here for me. While GoA characters pulled me in deep, for GB it was the gameplay that made me super hooked. The game gives you so much to do and wanting to complete these tasks just made me keep playing this game nonstop. Something about the village building and town management in GoA wasn’t as incentivizing despite them setting clear goals and rewards. I feel like everything in GB is much more interconnected so it always kept you motivated to do something.

Story: GoA wins easily here for me. But I understand Grand Bazaar not having a complex story with world building because it wouldn’t fit what the game was going for it. Still, I was there was somehow more depth.

Graphics: Can I just say Grand Bazaar is the most gorgeous game Marvelous has put out since RF Frontiers? GoA was too bland comparatively. Only thing GoA has an edge on is the animations as they are much better in that game.