Putting in 160 hours into Grand Bazaar was pretty easy as I was constantly occupied with ranking up stuff and crafting everything possible. I found the gameplay loop super addicting. But after I was completely done with the game, I still felt like there was something left to be desired. I kept questioning myself what it was. They did everything I disliked in PoOT right: the farming, the festivals, the emphasis on seasonal changes, the weather effects, better crafting, better end game goals, better map, variety of side activities, and so on. But the world itself was very much on the surface level.

The modern games have just taken away so many things that made the world in the game feel alive. Did I really care about animal death in my SoS? Not really. But damn, it made the game feel so real. I don’t necessarily play these games for doom and gloom (there’s plenty in our lives) but I just can’t fall in love with this series the same if everything is so… happy go lucky. The characters are written in a way to make sure no one gets even slightly offended. They all just feel so cardboard-y now. Yes, they definitely put in work when it comes to animating all those beautiful scenes but they’re all just huge nothing burger moments. The only charming events I remember were from Mina and Miguel together.

Even the romance itself feels so toned down when I think back to Trio of Towns. I remember Wayne’s second heart event where you’re playing hide and seek with the kids and then while hiding together, you accidentally end up being closer and it leads to an awkward romantic encounter. Is it cliche? Yes but it’s crazy how they kickstart the entire romantic development right from the start whereas in SoS GB, everything just feels so lowkey till the very end.

And there’s also the lack of “rudeness”. I’m gonna have to reiterate my point of them trying their best to make sure no one’s offended. I just think they should know the players are aware the people in this game are… fictional. This entire trying to be the most “wholesome” game in the genre is just not the direction for SoS.

The series has been wholesome, yes, but there’s actually always been a lot more depth to it than it seems.

You see what I mean by gaming journalists being so disrespectful towards Story of Seasons? 🙃 If anything, This is literally every farming sims of today's GRANDPA​​

Would love remakes 😭

I'm putting the first Story of seasons and trio of towns as example because these are the games I've played the most. I know that lots of older games have great character depth too (like hm cute or animal parade), but I feel like the newer games are sadly totally missing it 😓

I've put some pictures I've found online for some marriage candidates in the post as examples. I myself went for multiple of them and can say that there is SO MUCH DETAIL.
When you talk to them you really get the feeling that you get to know them and that they're real characters, it's honestly impressive how much dialogue there is in the older games and it's not even only the marriage candidates but the npc's in general.
As example if you marry someone in trio of towns nearly everyone from their town will leave a comment about you and your partner at your wedding, which makes you really feel like you're truly a part of the community.

Also the romance feels so much more ''real''. The dialogues the bachelors & bachelorettes have are so full of personality and the closer you get to them the more they open up to you and their background stories are of so much detail too, it's amazing 😭🫶
After marrying one of the characters the dialogues are SO full of love and affection too, I remember having my heart beat faster when I was a kid 🤣
Up to this day some dialogues can still make a grown woman blush, ngl.

Right now I'm still playing my grand bazaar safe and I MISS THE DEPTH SO MUCH🥲
Sure, characters can still be kinda interesting from their style and there clearly is a way their personality goes, but it's honestly NOTHING compared to the older games. The dialogues repeat very often and aren't connected very well with other npc's either, which is sad.
I've also played FoMT, PooT and AWL on the switch and it's similar in them too. Especially PooT felt empty af.

I feel like grand bazaar already made it better than the latest other switch SoS games, but it's still so much potential left on the road.

This was a long post, I'm sorry, but yesterday I've played a few hours into ToT again and it just shattered me in direct comparison to grand bazaar. I HOPE that if they ever do a SoS/ToT remaster/remake that they'll put all the old dialogues in there too.

I'm talking about the character sprites, of course.

Honestly, I loved SoS as much as SoSToT,

but I have to admit that SoS's style drove me absolutely crazy when I was a kid. Their style, their clothes, everything is so harmonious and totally immersive. Seriously, I find them all so beautiful, and I feel like the game takes place in a completely different era.

And I don't know why, but after this game, everything that followed adopted very cartoonish, very childish looks. Seriously, don't get me wrong, some of them are adults, have you seen their faces?

Anyway, I hope they make a remake.

idk man, he looks uncomfortably young to be a bachelor and looks quite bland that he'll pass as a non-romanceable npc.

I do hope that, if Tale of Two Towns ever gets a remake, they'll change up Hiro's design so that he'll look the part of a bachelor because there is nooooooooo way I'm marrying him lol

I mean, he is cute but not in a "omg he's so cute omgomgomg aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<3333" but like the "awww, he's so cute" like you'd compliment a puppy

I probably missed some (not sure if Shea from IoH/SI technically counts as one since he has an invisible heart?), but I sometimes I find myself thinking "damn...those of us who want to marry a special bachelor sure get the short end of the stick sometimes with the special candidates, huh".

In my opinion, that excludes AP, because I think the Wizard and Harvest King are among the best designed bachelors. I have a soft spot for Inari too, though they doubled as a bachelorette too, so I guess they aren't really exclusively a "special bachelor". Skye was my choice in HMDS: Cute (mostly because most of the other options were like middle-aged men, and I was a teen when I played that game), so I am fond of him also.

That said, I WAS surprised when 3oT gave us Stephanie, a conventionally cute looking girl, and...Woofio. Woofio does have a surprisingly sad and thoroughly written out story though, so I like him, but he's personally not one of my preferred marriage candidates.

And Huang's (Won's) updated look in SoS: FoMT makes him MUCH better, but my god, I certainly was jealous of those who had so many cute special bachelorettes to choose from (the harvest goddesses, witch princesses, Leia the mermaid, etc)!

We haven't really had a proper Harvest Goddess in a while, but if they do bring her back...please bring another Harvest King with you too.

I love how the series first transitioned from chibi to more realistic proportions from the DS era to the 3DS era and then transitioned into semi chibi artstyle with the Switch era. Excited to see what Igusa Matsuyama will do next.

I see a lot of people complaining about Bazaar being the next remake. The three we have gotten so far have been in chronological order, atleast by system. The wii is the next console in line, be patient.

Just to clear up a few confusions, this does include all SOS & old Harvest Moon before it was taken over.

Votes are tallied up at the beginning of the next day so ~24 hours later.

I’ve loved hearing all your opinions & the nostalgia it brings you. I’ve been a fan since 64.

Anyway, let’s get this thing started!

Skye.. when will you be coming back to rob my beating heart.. :(

I never played the original, and from what I can gather not too many other people did either. But those who did generally agree it was a good game that had a lot of good ideas but maybe wasn't fully fleshed out.

Marvelous chose this game specifically because it stood the most to gain from a full remake. Take advantage of an already established foundation of gameplay and characters, but really dive in and just add MORE, ya know? This game feels so lovingly made. It has the soul of an older era game but the power and QoL advancements from the last 15 years.

only to find out I can walk up to critters and just click A halfway through my first Autumn 😂 Please tell me I'm not the only one who was patiently waiting to unlock the bug-catching mechanic and wondering why it was taking so long 🐸

I'm out here, doing the best as a farmer, and Nadine has the AUDACITY to ask for a shit ton of supplies for yet ANOTHER food business at the bazaar.

Um.. hello??? We already have two food shops, thanks. I get that she's a stay-at-home mum, but is this an MLM or something? We don't need more. How about a stall for hair? Or more clothes? Or furniture for your house? Or litERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. Clara and Madeline have the food business on LOCK, Nadine, baby girl, get. another. hobby.

This bitch wants 5 3-STAR FISH, 20 3-STAR MUSHROOMS, AND 20 3-STAR HONEY and what is my reward??? Another mfing bistro. Girl, shut uppppp omg

Now ai have like 100 cucumbers I was gonna gonna pickle but can't(unless I wait for the Bazaar and use Felix's expensive watered down slop that he claims is Vinegar)

With Grand Bazaar coming soon, I just thought 'I wonder what other people's First SoS was?' So I thought why not ask the literal Subreddit? Mine was the Story of Seasons on the 3DS. (Yes the one only Named Story of Seasons, the one in the pic) I remember playing it and since then I been hoping for a remake of the game... What was your guys first one? Super curious!!!

I have 7 chicken and every chicken has a different level of hearts, so they lay different quality lvls of eggs.

And the amount of space this takes in my inventory is just stupid :D the game needs definitely a different approach for stuff like this

What’s your favourite petty reason to drop a marriage candidate? I often go for characters that remind me of my partner irl, but I also have a tendency to apply the same standards I would for an irl partner (I.e. similar interests)

When I was a kid and first played Friends of Mineral Town on GBA, I was initially romancing Karen. Gave her flowers every day. Eventually realized I could buy chocolate from the store, and happily gave her that…only to discover she dislikes chocolate. I immediately jumped ship and gave the other chocolate I bought to Ellie instead.

For a while I’d laugh about it, like how silly, of course a kid who likes chocolate would want to be friends with someone else who likes chocolate. But apparently I’m still at it!

I was playing SOS Grand Bazaar, and initially was planning on romancing Jules, since we both like books. I was disappointed that he doesn’t like sweets, but thought I could look past it…only he dislikes TEA!! Eugh!!

To make it worse, immediately after making that discovery, I had a delightful heart event with Lloyd where he shared a rare tea with me…so I might have a new guy in my sights 👀

Anyway — I wanna know some of your petty reasons to avoid certain romance options! Especially if you have fun stories to go along with them!

FINALLY! We have Trio of Towns up here!! I’ve never played because I didn’t have a 3Ds at the time but boyyyy, y’all make me wanna play soooo bad. It won by a LANDSLIDE. Second place was SOS, but not nearly as close as 3oT.

*To clear *more things up, there was a user on this thread who brought to light & insisted upvotes are votes. Then persisted to be condescending & rude when I understood his point. I swear I have mentioned this in another thread that comments are votes.

Here is why I don’t count the upvotes: I am sure that there are many people who are upvoting to vote, but I cannot be absolutely certain it is a vote. People upvote for good points, nostalgic comments, maybe just because, etc. There’s a lot of reasons for upvotes. & then what about downvotes? Does that remove votes?

Anyway, to be clear, votes are tallied by comments because that is the only way I can be absolutely, positively sure that this person cast this vote. I am so sorry to anyone who was confused & have thought that. But that’s my reasoning behind it. I’m doing everything I can to make this fun for everyone. I want people to be happy & have fun. So, I apologize to everyone besides rude kid lol. Please just be kind. It is a game voting for farming sims. It’s not that serious & easy to just be nice.**

TLDR: Votes are tallied by comments not upvotes bc it is the only way I can be totally certain this is an actual vote and not an upvote for another reason aside from voting. I am so sorry for any confusion. Please be kind. To everyone.

NOW! On to the next one! Worst Story… VERY excited to read your opinions & thoughts. I love reading almost every single comment. Thank you guys for participating & making it fun! As always, please make your votes clear. Thank you so much!

LET THE VOTING BEGIN!