Harvest Moon - talk about crops, cattle and divorces here

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Harvest Moon - talk about crops, cattle and divorces here

Corridor: Oct 19, 2006

I dunno if it was actually midnight or if it's a specific day, but you have to be good buds with him and it has to be after dark in the town square (and playing as Kyle obviously). He's just hanging out there with his cocoa. Kyle asks him what up, and Max gives you an informative lecture about his "hot milk drink" that his family invented or something. And it tastes bad but when you mix it with milk "a wonderful chemistry takes place" and it tastes really great and he drinks it every night and "Kyle! :mad:

Don't you think our friendship is JUST like the chemistry that occurs in my hot milk drink?"
kyle: :sweatdrop:

I think he then lets you have some so you can drink to the chemistry of your amazing friendship.

fake e: I found a page with a coupla Max quotes.

"I really really hate WEEDS. They're so persistent! And they get everywhere! And they're so... so... ugly! Ugh, i find them deeply disturbing."

"FLUFFY SCARF is so enchanting the way it�s so fluffy. I just love this. Well, just a little background knowledge you should remember."

Max: I really like PROOF OF WARRIOR. I can�t really say why aloud. If you want to know, lend me your ear.
Kyle: Okay, go ahead. <I can�t wait to hear>
Max: *whisper* The reason I like it is�
*whisper* a secret.

Who remembers, "Now give me 20 tomatoes and you can marry my sister"?

# ? Jul 22, 2011 19:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 4, 2024 17:00

Strenuous Manflurry: Sep 5, 2006; THE END

Max's pecularities are even better than some of the stuff Pia says in RF3.

# ? Jul 22, 2011 20:51

Emalde: May 3, 2007; Just a cage of bones, there's nothing inside.

This has probably been tossed around several times in the thread, but I can't actually recommend Frontier to anyone in good faith and urge you to instead just buy Rune Factory 3. As much as I love HM and have been playing for many years of my life, Frontier makes it really hard to enjoy the game with micromanaging Runeys being so important. Rune Factory 3 is definitely the way to go, and I am on the edge of my seat for ~~Oceans~~Tides of Destiny. My only gripe with RF3 is that nearly all of the marriage options have really awful personality quirks.

Though in Frontier, if you were to grow your bouquet as early as possible before your Runeys start to cannibalize themselves and force your crops into decay, I guess you could ignore farming entirely and it would be a complete non-issue. Then it just becomes a monster raising sim instead of a farming sim. :v:

# ? Jul 23, 2011 02:07

Mountaineer: Aug 29, 2008; Imagine a rod breaking on a robot face - forever

Emalde posted:

Though in Frontier, if you were to grow your bouquet as early as possible before your Runeys start to cannibalize themselves and force your crops into decay, I guess you could ignore farming entirely and it would be a complete non-issue. Then it just becomes a monster raising sim instead of a farming sim.

This is exactly what I did. gently caress Runeys.

# ? Jul 23, 2011 13:22

Apocadall: Mar 25, 2010; Aren't you the guitarist for the feed dogs?

Decided to get Rune Factory 3 based on your guys recommendations and it's probably the first Harvest Moon where I've cared enough to want to get to know all the villagers. They're all so insane I love it. Haven't been doing much farming though because I've been having more fun killing stuff in the forest haha.

# ? Jul 24, 2011 10:15

Mediant: Dec 23, 2010; In Brightest Day...
In Dankest Night...

Years ago I enjoyed playing some Harvest Moon game. I have no idea which one it was. I'm about to start this Sunshine Islands one now. Is it any good?
What's the acclaimed/popular game of the series?

# ? Aug 3, 2011 04:23

Wandering Knitter: Feb 5, 2006; Meow

Mountaineer posted:

This is exactly what I did. gently caress Runeys.

The only way I'd ever play that game again is if I get the Wii homebrew channel just so I can cheat and max out the drat runies. God I hope they never come back.

And for people looking for recommendations, I suggest hunting down Shepherd's Crossing 2 for the DS if you want to hate yourself and the concept of farming games for awhile :shepicide:

_{I've played that game so many loving times}

_{_{And have debated writing a FAQ for it}}

# ? Aug 3, 2011 04:44

Fur20: Nov 14, 2007; すご▞い！
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね！

Wandering Knitter posted:

And for people looking for recommendations, I suggest hunting down Shepherd's Crossing 2 for the DS if you want to hate yourself and the concept of farming games for awhile

What does this mean? Is it John Deere DS-bad, or Harvest Moon 64-addicting?

# ? Aug 3, 2011 06:22

Dr. Video Games 0031: Jul 17, 2004

The White Dragon posted:

What does this mean? Is it John Deere DS-bad, or Harvest Moon 64-addicting?

It's a very weird game and I don't like it too much. It's not overtly bad or anything, but mostly boring and devoid of charm. The villagers are boring, there's no real exploration to speak of, and the town is a static map where you select different houses. The farming mechanic is alright, and ranching can be a little fun, but it seems like they throw in too many unnecessary steps (thrashing wheat, for example). It also had its plus sides, but to be honest, I forgot most everything about that game, it's been over a year since I've played it.

edit: It also has a pretty different tone from HM. It seems more focused on survival, at least at the start. You have to prepare yourself for winter, and if you don't store enough food you could starve. You also need fire wood. Another example of the different tones is how you have to personally butcher your animals to prepare them for food.

# ? Aug 3, 2011 06:32

Julet Esqu: May 6, 2007

Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:

It's a very weird game and I don't like it too much. It's not overtly bad or anything, but mostly boring and devoid of charm. The villagers are boring, there's no real exploration to speak of, and the town is a static map where you select different houses. The farming mechanic is alright, and ranching can be a little fun, but it seems like they throw in too many unnecessary steps (thrashing wheat, for example). It also had its plus sides, but to be honest, I forgot most everything about that game, it's been over a year since I've played it.

edit: It also has a pretty different tone from HM. It seems more focused on survival, at least at the start. You have to prepare yourself for winter, and if you don't store enough food you could starve. You also need fire wood. Another example of the different tones is how you have to personally butcher your animals to prepare them for food.

That sounds like a really interesting concept for a game. All the stuff you mentioned in your edit sounds really cool. Too bad it sounds like they didn't try to give it much personality, though. A lot of the fun of HM is socializing with the townsfolk.

# ? Aug 3, 2011 07:01

naptalan: Feb 18, 2009

It's a bit more like a puzzle/time management game than HM. Time only progresses when you perform an action, and you have a limited amount of time each day, so you will end up spacing out your planting a bit to minimise wasted time.

There are marriage candidates for each gender, but you don't have to romance them. Instead, when you cook a meal you will have the option to take it to a villager and share a meal. They each will only accept certain dishes, and will only accept them once, and there isn't really any other way to interact with them so you can go for several years without visiting someone.

There's no relationship system, you can probably marry someone without visiting them at all: you just go to the mayor and ask to get married, and he'll ask for a dowry based on how rich your prospective partner is. Playing as a male looks MUCH easier than playing as a female: I think as a male, you just have to have a herd of <x> sheep, but females have to shear sheep and make bedcovers, which takes a TON of wool. I've been playing my game for about 15 years and don't have enough wool to marry one of the somewhat rich bachelors, so I have no idea what happens after marriage.

I found it pretty enjoyable, I'll still pick it up every now and then and play a few seasons. The animal system is really neat, I think, but is somewhat flawed: if you milk your goats/cows at all, they tend to stop giving out milk entirely and their babies starve to death. Farming! :black101:

# ? Aug 3, 2011 07:09

Dr. Video Games 0031: Jul 17, 2004

Julet Esqu posted:

That sounds like a really interesting concept for a game. All the stuff you mentioned in your edit sounds really cool. Too bad it sounds like they didn't try to give it much personality, though. A lot of the fun of HM is socializing with the townsfolk.

There's a pretty good moment early on where a girl gives you a goose to raise then comes by a day or two later and beheads it in front of you and serves you it for dinner. And then she becomes the most boring character, saying the same line every time you visit her. I only got a few years in (time passes more quickly in it than HM) but you never have any meaningful interactions with her or any of the other villagers. Maybe you can marry someone later on, but that wasn't apparent at first.

edit: Hey look at that, thankfully someone who knows more about the game chimed in.

# ? Aug 3, 2011 07:11

Zenzirouj: Jun 10, 2004; What about you, thread?
You got any tricks?

Mediant posted:

Years ago I enjoyed playing some Harvest Moon game. I have no idea which one it was. I'm about to start this Sunshine Islands one now. Is it any good?

That's the one which is an updated version of an earlier game, but is still considered pretty annoying as a result of the way watering and light works on crops. Basically, if they get too much or too little of either, the crop will fail. And you have to jump through a lot of hoops to open up portions of the map or something. Basically I heard goons talk about needing a spreadsheet to keep track of their crop growth and I steered clear.

quote:

What's the acclaimed/popular game of the series?

Probably Rune Factory 3. It seems to have the most consistent praise, though it's different from the traditional format.

naptalan posted:

if you milk your goats/cows at all, they tend to stop giving out milk entirely and their babies starve to death. Farming!

What..? You mean like they won't have enough milk left for their offspring or milking actually makes them stop producing over time? Because if the latter, uhhh....

Zenzirouj fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Aug 3, 2011

# ? Aug 3, 2011 07:39

Strenuous Manflurry: Sep 5, 2006; THE END

Mediant posted:

Years ago I enjoyed playing some Harvest Moon game. I have no idea which one it was. I'm about to start this Sunshine Islands one now. Is it any good?
What's the acclaimed/popular game of the series?

Answer:

Zenzirouj posted:

Probably Rune Factory 3. It seems to have the most consistent praise, though it's different from the traditional format.

RF3 is a wonderful game. The villagers are endearingly insane, the combat is tight, farming is straight forward and fun. It's the most fun I've had playing a Harvest Moon game to date.

But if you want to restrict it to the core series, check out Harvest Moon 64 or Back to Nature. Even though they're older, I prefer these to the more cutesy direction Harvest Moon has gone in recent iterations.

Let me know how you like SI, because I loving hated that game

# ? Aug 3, 2011 14:37

Mediant: Dec 23, 2010; In Brightest Day...
In Dankest Night...

Strenuous Manflurry posted:

Answer:

RF3 is a wonderful game. The villagers are endearingly insane, the combat is tight, farming is straight forward and fun. It's the most fun I've had playing a Harvest Moon game to date.

But if you want to restrict it to the core series, check out Harvest Moon 64 or Back to Nature. Even though they're older, I prefer these to the more cutesy direction Harvest Moon has gone in recent iterations.

Let me know how you like SI, because I loving hated that game

I guess I'll try RF3. I played SI for like half and hour and got super bored. And if it's something I'll need spreadsheets for then forget that. I'll try to go track down Back to Nature and RF3.

# ? Aug 3, 2011 16:15

Shirec: Jul 29, 2009; How to cock it up, Fig. I

Mediant posted:

I guess I'll try RF3. I played SI for like half and hour and got super bored. And if it's something I'll need spreadsheets for then forget that. I'll try to go track down Back to Nature and RF3.

The problem with SI is that aforementioned spreadsheet issue with sun/water (and you can't reset to change the weather, it's set a week in advance) and to unlock certain parts of the town, you have to ship certain numbers of items. 30 spring fish to unlock this guy, so forth and so on. Also, you have to talk to everyone, even the no-name people at least once every month or they leave and you have to earn them back. The hunger system is in the game, but because it takes so long to unlock anything that sells food, you basically have to try and eat grasses, crops you grow, or just let yourself starve. There were some good parts, but in got lost in all the crappy gameplay.

# ? Aug 3, 2011 16:42

Office Thug: Jan 17, 2008; Luke Cage just shut you down!