r/harvestmoon

What do you think is the best and most enjoyable Harvest Moon and/or Rune Factory game for consoles up to the DS? I'm talking N64, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS, etc.

I have a retro handheld and am trying to decide which game I should give a go as I've only played Story of Seasons games on the 3DS or newer.

Just wondering if any of you got a favorite bachelor/bachelorette across all games, and if so, why is it them?

And is there perhaps even one that you dislike the most?

Many people ignore this Game ( and indeed it sucks that the Game ends if the Player gets married ) but there are some Nice Events and Characterizations here that are not found in any other Games in the Series...

It almost reminds me of P3P in how different the Characters can be when playing as a Girl...

What sucks the most about this Version is that apparently the Rivals CAN get married but the Player can't without ending the Game...

Another thing that makes no sense is that Claire needs to fully Upgrade the House before she can get married much like Pete yet in most of the Cases she ends up moving with her Husband after Marriage... Sometimes to another City even like in the Case of the Doctor and Kai...

In the Case of Rick she seems to move with his Family in the Poultry Farm and in the Case of Cliff it is a bit Ambiguous but it is implied that she moved in with him at the Aja Winery...

Which makes no sense at all since he only moved in there because he has no Home in Mineral Town and his Money was running out so he could not stay at the Inn for much longer so Manna and Duke gave him a place to stay at their House working with them...

Alas I believe he moves in with Ann back at the Inn if he marries her so therefore Claire moving in at the Winery with him makes even less sense...

Gray is the only one who seems to move in with her at the Farm yet even so the Game still ends if she marries him... :/

Oh yes Gray is the only Boy whose Rival does not appear in the Event where Claire rejects him... He is also the only one that does not tell her that he was the one who saved her Life...

Some fairly Sexist Stuff overall but then again this Game came out in the Early 2000s and in the Male Version of the Game the Wives will stop working after Marriage and pretty much never leave the House except for Mary which still goes to the Library once in a while to give the Player access to the Library...

I suppose the Developers may have simply not know how to handle things like Pregnancy and Stuff like that in the Girl Version of the Game...

Little would the Developers from back then know that eventually Pregnancies would be replaced by Magical Babies in the Modern Story of Seasons Games haha... XD

Anyway still sucks and it would be awesome if someone found a way to make a Mod for Back to Nature For Girls that allowed us to keep playing after Marriage since Back to Nature is still one of my Favorites up to this Day and my Main Complaint about it is not being able to continue the Game after Marriage and More Friends of Mineral Town and the Friends of Mineral Town Remake just do not have the same Charm that Back to Nature had... :/

Taking a break here doesn't mean stopping because you're done playing for the day to sleep, eat, etc. It's more about that moment where you feel like, "I need to stop playing for a while." Maybe because of burnout or something else. And if that's happened to you, how long did it take before you finally came back and picked it up again?

I'll go first: I stopped playing Magical Melody for a bit because, for some reason, walking around the town started making me feel dizzy. (The map is still confusing for me). Still plan to continue it but idk when.

Note: Just curious and for fun, guys! I am a lil bit bored

Where does Selena actually sleep once she starts working at the Brass Bar? At first, I thought she was sleeping at inn, but now I don't think so. Before she arrived, I always assumed the room with two beds in the Brass Bar was actually Hayden's and the single room was Kathy's—which was funny, because I always wondered why Kathy had a picture of herself pinned to her room's wall. But thinking about it again, since the Brass Bar only has two rooms, are Kathy and Selena roommates then? And is that single room actually Hayden's?

The Brass Bar doesn't open until evening, so I never see Selena in any room besides the bar.

You can choose your child's gender, but you can also let the game decide for you. Let's say you can only have one child—is there ever a moment where you actually choose your child's gender for a specific reason, rather than letting the game decide for you?

For example, I used to always pick a boy if I played as a male character and a girl if I played as a female character. It was honestly because I wanted a 'mini-me' version of myself. But now I'm thinking, should I just choose the gender based on my spouse? I mean, maybe some characters just naturally fit being a "boy mom" or a "girl dad"? What do you think? How do you guys decide on your child's gender?

I miss having a Fancy Bedroom like in Back to Nature in these Games so much! I think some of the Rune Factory Games had it like Frontier but that's it... In Rune Factory 5 there is no Bedroom... :/

Alas the Recent Rune Factory Games seem to be missing giving the Player a Proper Cozy House at all since Rune Factory 4 at the very least...

Does anyone else here miss having things like proper Houses and Bedrooms in these Games?

The Lack of a Nice Proper Fancy Bedroom is one of the Reasons why I prefer Back to Nature over (More ) Friends of Mineral Town...

I have a 3ds that also plays DS games (obviously), I’m somewhat familiar with the series but never finished a game to the end and I’d like to know which of the games playable on 3DS is best.

There are a couple of HM/SoS/RF games that aren't actually that hard, but some of them are, and sometimes that causes burnout (atleast to me).

I'm currently playing HM: AP and RF: ToD, switching back and forth depending on my mood. I can say the gameplay is fun, and I played almost every day when I first started. But,

(Spoiler)

In AP, I've reached the point where I just need to get the final bell, which is quite difficult. And also because the game is so slow-paced, it gets a bit "sickening" (tedious). I'm kind of burned out from it.

As for RF: ToD, the games is not slow-paced but the monsters keep getting harder to fight. I've already spent days leveling up and crafting strong weapons, but I'm still not strong enough, so yeah, that triggered burnout as well. Both of games is actually fun, I think it's just because I've reached a pretty hard part.

I will still finish them—no way I'm abandoning them after coming this far. I also really dislike leaving games unfinished, so I'll definitely get back to them. But for now, I think I'll put them on hold.

Now, maybe this isn't strictly HM-related, but I just bought Persona 5. Yep, another story-driven game that obviously takes a lot of time to beat. I kind of want to try it as a fresh start, hoping I can enjoy it, but I searched online and found out it can take 100+ hours to finish. That's really long, and suddenly I'm scared I might get burned out on this one too, which would just add to my backlog—and I really hate having a backlog.

HM/SoS/RF can be hard sometimes and what do you do when you feel burned out playing a game series? Do you need some time off before continuing, or how do you handle it? If yes, how long does it usually take—days, weeks, or months?

Growing up, I always thought Pete/Jack as Harvest Moon's answer to "Mario" or "Link" and truthfully - I can't think of him as anything but the default protagonist. To me, he is just as recognizable as the bubble cow. Sans the FOMT remake, I don't think he's been a playable character for quite a long time now (A decade+) and I haven't seen any merchandise. So what is his role now? What format do you think he'll return? NPC? Playable? Or do you think he'll be doomed to throwback custom outfits and anniversary artwork? I understand the customization issue but damn, I miss this little guy.

https://preview.redd.it/ikmry5fqfsjh1.jpg?width=392&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=48af71acd136d922b6734e3c4f534a09729f98ba

Which Bokujo Monogatari/Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons Game do you want to see a Remake for Next?

They showed us with the Remake of Grand Bazaar that they are willing to Remake the Games outside of the Order of Release so pretty much any Game is fair Game for receiving a Remake Next...

They already did (More) Friends of Mineral Town, A(nother) Wonderful Life and now Grand Bazaar...

I think Harvest Moon 64, Magical Melody and Animal Parade would make for Awesome Remakes...

The very First Harvest Moon on the SNES, Back to Nature and the First Harvest Moon on the DS and DS Cute would be Great too but let us be Honest here the chances are not very High for them to be remade...

( More ) Friends of Mineral Town is already a Remake of Back to Nature of sorts and Harvest Moon DS and DS Cute have a similar thing going on with sharing a Setting with A Wonderful Life so it is unlikely that they will get Remakes...

And the very First Harvest Moon on the SNES seems to be more or less forgotten by now so... Yeah...  But some of the Characters from Harvest Moon SNES appeared in Magical Melody so remaking Magical Melody could be a Good way to remember them and bring them back I suppose...

Even Harvest Moon 64 seems unlikely to receive a Remake due to sharing many Characters with Mineral Town... The Characters had different Roles from their Roles in Mineral Town but still... Well I suppose they could give them different Designs and different Names to make them more distinct Characters from the Characters from Mineral Town if they wanted to Remake Harvest Moon 64 I suppose...

What do you think? Which Games do you want a Remake for and which ones do you think are more likely and less likely to receive Remakes?   

Magical Melody and Animal Parade seem like Strong Candidates for a Remake in my Opinion all things considered... They have a lot of things to do in the Games and they are different enough from the Games they have remade recently...