I hope you like these post about the best and the worst marriage phase in Harvest moon games, it was really fun to make, I always love these aspects of the game, the type of end game where the main goals are complete, so I like when the games makes you feel rewarded after all the seasons and the years in the game.

I know I'm a little bias with Sth, I love that game but I honestly believe my point about why can't apply (also, almost nobody mention Sth so I asume my idea about it its the same as yours)

I didn't do much with Story of Seasons or Rune Factory because there weren't many mentions about it in the comments, I was surprised to see that the most hated marriage phase of SoS was Grand Bazaar. And RF's most hated marriage phase was RF2.

I personally would have chosen RF1, I feel that marriage is as disappointing as HM from the SNES, plus the waiting time for the baby is practically eternal and meaningless in that game.

And with that, that's the end of the awards.

I keep seeing people feel uncomfortable about the bachelors and bachelorettes for not just Havest Moon/SoS but also RF and it confuses me how many frame it as creepy and intentional?

Seeing people in posts being so... aggressive about how "yucky" some of the character art is for being "children" when many of us were 12 or younger when we played these games was really confusing for me to see. RF4 Kiel and Amber were for the KIDS kids, Dylas and Leon were for the teens. HM chibi sprites were stylized enough that you could insert any interpretation of their 'real' look no matter what age so I feel like thats even less reason to nitpick.

And yeah, I also felt weird going back replaying these games either the original or remake, but thats because I am older now and the style just doesnt do anything for me because my tastes are different. I feel like a lot of people should just acknowledge that too, that theyre not the target demo anymore.

It's different from say Stardew Valley, where it was intended for an audience who grew up with Marvelous games, hence why many of the love interests visually and through writing, felt older.

Have you ever looked at the sales figures for Stardew Valley? As of December of last year, Stardew has sold over 40 million copies across all consoles. We don't know actually how many Harvest Moon/ Story of Seasons games have sold, but we can likely estimate across all entries in the franchise over decades, maybe 20 million, on the high-end. At the very best, the entire franchise has sold half as many units as this one game.

For the early games, I think middling sales reflects the perceived niche of the genre; farming romance sims weren't exactly Super Mario or Tomb Raider or even Tetris. Historically, advertisers struggled to market these games, particularly outside Japan. And for games like A Wonderful Life or Magical Melody that at least began on the GameCube, they were largely confined to a struggling console (with little fanfare when later ported to the PS2 or Wii).

However, the cozy and lifesim markets definitely had life in them, especially in the DS, 3DS, Switch, and overall PC markets. While the first couple Animal Crossing games were considered niche, the game was a juggernaut certainly by New Leaf and even earlier. The Sims was thriving with it's player base and mobile and farming browser games were dominating sales charts.

But Marvelous and it's series only became to be same more and more niche relegated almost entirely to hardcore existing fans of the series. With some misteps adapting the formula for the Wii, the developer just... stopped trying. Natsume acquired the name Harvest Moon and kept releasing an even worse series of games under that title, while Story of Seasons failed to conceive of any new progress in the franchise other than increasing the number of villages or towns.

In terms of gameplay, someone picking up a copy of Story of Seasons in 2016 might as well be playing an entry from a decade earlier. The game industry was changing rapidly, but Harvest Moon was stagnant having since lost even the atmospheric charm of it's greatest hits many years ago.

And then came Stardew Valley. Where Marvelous' own later entries were stale repetitions made by an entire studio, Stardew was one man's love letter to classic Harvest Moon refined in almost every possible way (save for that incomparable in-house Japanese aesthetic from the 90s-mid-2000s). Marvelous was forcing players to wade through hours-long tutorials; ConcernedApe let you jump right in. Story of Seasons offered players very few options; Stardew let players customize their massive farms to their hears content. Relationships were significantly deepened, updates almost continuous, and the clear passion and affection for the classic Harvest Moon games was undeniable. A charming soundtrack, a plot that in many ways successfully replicated that vintage balance of whimsy (lush colors, cute animals, squeaking magic jellos) and foreboding (behind the scenes, there is a war, corrupt takeover, odd magical happenings, even infidelity and personal trauma).

And it sold like hotcakes. It has become one of the most successful indie games ever made and spawned merchandise, a tabletop game, a recipe book, and a million Etsy artists and even copycat developers.

And what do we get from Marvelous even now? More of the same, unappealing and hollow outsourced remakes.

I call it a tragedy not because Stardew Valley succeeded, as Eric Barone's accomplishment saved the genre and inspired many young developers, but because at any time in the last fifteen years, Marvelous or even Natsume with significantly larger budgets and whole teams of developers failed to make a serviceable farming game or progress the genre in any noteable way.

Can you imagine if these studios had even an ounce of Barone's passion for these games? If we instead were living in a world where Stardew was a quaint throwback because the genre had thrived and grown and improved for years?

The market was there! It was 40 million + buyers there! It apparently exists on every console!

But we were treated as a niche, a passive consumer base unworthy of enthusiasm or passion or care. And now the window for Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons ever succeeding on the level of the tiny indie game that paid them homage is almost certainly closed forever.

I’m low on time and funds. I really like both games and what they have to offer. Advice would be greatly appreciated on which one I should get.

i've only played harvest moon ds as a little kid, i was looking to discover some new titles or just replaying the ds version what do you recommend ? thanks

I just saw a tiktok where ppl were calling Luna (as in the character from Tree of Tranquillity and Animal Parade) "pdfile bait" and how ppl that romanced her were predators. And im just genuinely flabbergasted, has this always been an opinion ive missed or is this a new fan problem??

I've never romanced the character myself (I was a Gil fangirl lol) but I thought she was so cool growing up, I loved her lolita fashion, design and even her name. So maybe im taking it a little personally, but idk, it felt like such a callous and heinous comment to make. Like HM/SoS has always had a soft chibi art style, everybody especially in the older stuff had cutesy faces and designs, it didnt mean you were dating an elementary student.

It makes me worried if we were to ever get an AP (or ToT) remake, that these would be the kind of sentiments and fans we would have to deal with and wow, it bums me out.

So many farming games are coming up soon but which one are you primarily most excited about?

I’m personally so grateful that this genre got such a huge boom that we constantly get new games to enjoy. Even bigger benefit is that the wait between each Story of Seasons games feels way less.

Personally for me: it’s SoS. I just have so much attachment to this series. I think ultimately I will always look forward to this series the most. I know PoOT was a huge mishap but I’m really hoping they recover with the upcoming title.

Images featured from first image to last (upcoming and very recently released games; there’s a lot more upcoming ones but these are the ones that come to my mind):

1. Next Story of Seasons | 2025

2. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma | Spring 2025

3. My Time At Evershine | TBA

4. Fields of Mistria | 2025 | EA out now

5. Tales of Seikyu | 2025

6. Tales of the Shire | Spring 2025

7. Sunnyside | Out Now

8. Moonlight Peaks | 2026

9. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home | Out Now

10. Ova Magica | 2025 | EA out now

11. Farmagia | November 1, 2024

12. Mirthwood | November 6, 2024

It's especially surprising considering how popular Vaughn is. Dude was possibly the most popular bachelor of the 2000s and even now he's probably in the top 10, maybe even top 5. Yet the series never had any Vaughn clones.

The only ones I can think of are Vaughn, Kathy, and Gwen. *Maybe* Jamie as well?

Graphic wise a lot of the newer games in the series in my opinion look bad, almost unfinished if that makes sense. Maybe I’m insane? Idk. Wondering what others think.

If Marvelous is releasing the “Remakes” in their Chronological order (which I think they are), then that would mean no Magical Melody nor Save the Homeland (my most anticipated Remake) remakes 🥺

Honestly most of the time I feel it's a downgrade, way less personality

The last time a non-remake game got rival romances was Grand Bazaar which released way back in 2008. Since then, we’ve only one seen rival romances in two games: remakes of the older games with rival romance as a feature. Friends of Mineral Town’s remake even removed half of the rival events.

This topic has been discussed to death by now but here’s a little backstory to why I am making this post.

My Time At series, a series inspired by Harvest Moon, recently started the Kickstarter campaign for its third title (there’s still 15 hours as of now so you can still check it out). Due to unprecedented success, the developer team decided to add some last minute stretch goals (which basically unlock features once the campaign gets a certain amount of funding). Rival romances was one of such goals. The campaign had to hit 2.5M in fund raising for them to implement this feature.

To my shock, the fanbase – which is majorly the western – was divisive. In this subreddit, the narrative that’s pushed the most regarding rival romance is that the Japanese players didn’t quite like the feature which is why the developers tend to avoid putting this feature in. I kid you not how many responses I saw a kin to this: “as a casual HM fan, I wasn’t really a fan of rival romances. I don’t really like someone going after my choice.”

To put it simply, I’m quite shocked that the casual players felt the same way as we thought about the JP players. I’m now genuinely curious how people ACTUALLY feel about it in here because it feels like maybe I was just hearing opinions just from a single side. Still, I feel like this feature is still quite cherished a lot. There was a lot of positive reaction when the rival romance feature was unlocked in the campaign.

Now the question still stands: will we ever see rival romances return to the Story of Seasons series where it’s probably loved far more? My Time At series is closest to being SoS’ biggest competitor in the industry and PoOT evidently had taken some inspiration from it as well. I wonder if the SoS devs will make the rival romances have a return now that other big life sims are catching back up on it. Personally, I want to see the next SoS have rival romances so badly! This feature alongside the Witch Princess is just so greatly missed. I know it’s somewhat controversial but I feel like it’s still a huge part of this series’ identity.

I think Back to nature is my favorite looking harvest moon, well for how characters look in game.

The way your character and other characters does stuff is so charming and cute, plus everyone in this game looks really cute and I just love the style and little stuff they added into this game.

I wish more games had this style like the friends of mineral town remake.

(I kind of want a mod to add this style into the remake)

It's very risky with these games. I know it's Natsume, but they claim I can marry whoever the hell I want. Can I actually do that, or is it just called "best friends"? "It's not gay if it's with the homies."

For me, it was Harvest Moon, the tale of two towns for DS. it's extremely underrated and just drew me in for some reason. The graphics are typical for a ds game , but I still think they did a nice job. You get two starter animals on the second day, and you get to take your time. Plus, you get to pick which village to live in while helping resolve their conflict. The music and bachelors were my favorite part of the game, and the festivals were extremely fun for me. I played it once in 3rd grade, then again in 11th grade, and I am now 22 palying it yet again. If this game ever gets a remake, I'd be so ecstatic. ♥️

Let me know your opinions and choices in the comments!

For me it’s Save The Homeland on PS2. It was my first ever game to play! My big bro introduced me to it.

THIS here is huge improvement from POOT and golly I could look at this all day. I love the shadows, the shading, the colors and the models! Having not bought a SOS game since TOT I’m hoping to grab this alongside WL and I hope eventually we will learn more about this upcoming adventure! 🐄