swirlyglasses
Member
I've never played a Harvest Moon game, and after playing New Leaf for 100 hours, I'd like to look into other life sims. What game should I start with and why?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
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Best Harvest Moon game?
- Thread starter swirlyglasses
- Start date
GeneralManager
Member
Super Nintendo one. I've heard 64 is good as well but haven't played it.
The_Joker1721
Member
My vote goes to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. A lot of time spent on that game when I was younger. So relaxing.
Its hard to rank the best Harvest Moon games, a lot of players will just default to their first one since they will feel the most nostalgic for that release.
The best games are
Harvest Moon (SNES)
Harvest Moon 64
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning
The best games are
Harvest Moon (SNES)
Harvest Moon 64
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning
FoMT which is basically the GBA version of BtN is pretty good. HM64 is also great since it's scope is small but there is a lot to do and the pacing is solid. If you have a 3DS the new one that just came out is also pretty fantastic.
I also liked the SNES version because it was my first HM.
I also liked the SNES version because it was my first HM.
64 was the best, if you ask me. It's pretty pricy though. Hopefully the Wii U's N64 emulator is good enough to warrant a release because I remember hearing rumblings that the reason it never came to the Wii's VC was due to it not running so hot on it.
Castef
Banned
I'd go with Back To Nature on PSOne, which has been succesfully re-implemented (and expanded) in Friends of Mineral Town (GBA).
To expand upon my previous post, FomT has a ton of stuff to do with frequent events, lots of townspeople to please and get to know better, a great assortment of girls to marry (or guys if you're playing the girl version), and interesting crops to grow. It's arguablly the easiest imo just because of how nothing goes wrong and you have a ton of time to do whatever you want and when you want.
HM64 is like FomT but the scope is much smaller and time goes by relatively faster. There is a ton of stuff to do still but the areas are much smaller and the way the game is paced is much better. Time management is more important and farming I find much more enjoyable because of how the game looks compared to FomT.
SNES is a hardsell sort of. It's sort of dated compared to all the new stuff added in HM games but it still has that classic charm of pimping out a badass farm. Pretty fun regardless.
HM64 is like FomT but the scope is much smaller and time goes by relatively faster. There is a ton of stuff to do still but the areas are much smaller and the way the game is paced is much better. Time management is more important and farming I find much more enjoyable because of how the game looks compared to FomT.
SNES is a hardsell sort of. It's sort of dated compared to all the new stuff added in HM games but it still has that classic charm of pimping out a badass farm. Pretty fun regardless.
KojiKnight
Member
SNES was okay, N64 suffered horribly from "You have to press start to go into the menu to change your items" syndrome, to the point it drove me insane. Can't remember if PSX version was as bad.
Friends of Mineral Town is still my personal favorite, but it's very much a routine game. You get in a routine, and you'll pretty much be doing the same thing every single day... timed to the in-game minute (to the point where if you dawdle at all, it can throw off the rest of your day).
The latest 3DS one is objectively the best. Lots of features, good graphics, varied "targets" to chase, Male and Female versions in the same game (many of the older ones are male or female only).
Just so long as you avoid the futuristic one and save the homeland... those were terrible. Arguably, Wonderful life is pretty bad too... dialogue repeats often, days go by too slow... and if you know how to abuse the game, you'll be so rich by the end of the second segment of the game, you'll never have to farm again. Oh, and it's buggy... F'ing goat.
That said... the best "harvest moon" is definitely the Rune Factory series... what started out as a one off side series is completely stand alone now and by far the better of the two.
Friends of Mineral Town is still my personal favorite, but it's very much a routine game. You get in a routine, and you'll pretty much be doing the same thing every single day... timed to the in-game minute (to the point where if you dawdle at all, it can throw off the rest of your day).
The latest 3DS one is objectively the best. Lots of features, good graphics, varied "targets" to chase, Male and Female versions in the same game (many of the older ones are male or female only).
Just so long as you avoid the futuristic one and save the homeland... those were terrible. Arguably, Wonderful life is pretty bad too... dialogue repeats often, days go by too slow... and if you know how to abuse the game, you'll be so rich by the end of the second segment of the game, you'll never have to farm again. Oh, and it's buggy... F'ing goat.
That said... the best "harvest moon" is definitely the Rune Factory series... what started out as a one off side series is completely stand alone now and by far the better of the two.
Zuhzuhzombie!!
Member
64.
I played the DS one after that and none since. The DS one was pretty damn clunky.
I played the DS one after that and none since. The DS one was pretty damn clunky.
nckillthegrimace
Member
The game's code is apparently a complete mess. I'm sure Natume would release it digitally if they could.
I have to agree with you. Rune Factory 3 is just so good. my favorite life sim kind of thing ever.
SloaneRisette
Member
To me, 64 is the best, it just generally feels so solid, but at least in my opinion. That was the first Harvest Moon game I ever played and my favorite, and I feel like there's just something special about it that hasn't really been captured in the series since.
But, Friends of Mineral Town would be a close second, without a doubt. If you can play either of those two, do so.
But, Friends of Mineral Town would be a close second, without a doubt. If you can play either of those two, do so.
swirlyglasses
Member
Interesting. From the replies so far it looks like most people have been stating the game they are most nostalgic for. I'll take a look at the 3ds version.
I haven't played it yet, since I don't own a 3DS, but people have been saying that its the best in the series since HM64/Friends of Mineral Town.
dr3upmushroom
Banned
Pretty much. A condensed 2D version of the 64/PS1 versions. Magical Melody for the GCN is in the same mold, and had more goals to accomplish, I had a lot of fun with it just never got into as much as I wanted to. I didn't enjoy the more story driven ones for the PS2 and GC, they were trying to change up the formula I guess and there's still definitely potential to tell the story of a farmer.
Edit: Now that I remember Magical Melody, it never seems to get as much love as BtN,FoMT or 64 even though it's a more open version of those.
swirlyglasses
Member
A New Beginning isn't released in Europe yet haha. I'll be playing New Leaf for as long as possible and hopefully Harvest Moon will be out when I'm done.
KojiKnight
Member
Having played every harvest moon (and Rune Factory) aside from GB2, it's definitely my favorite of the classic harvest moon games. (A New Beginning that is)
That said, I can't reiterate enough how much better I (personally) think Rune Factory is. All of the day to day elements that make Harvest Moon great are all there, and there is a strong (if relatively simple) action RPG hybrid combat and monster system that just integrates so well and helps break up the days of "just" farming. Any of the Rune Factory games are great to just jump into as well, aside from maybe Tides, which was an attempt to forego a lot of the harvest moon elements and make it more of an action series (it was a bad move, don't think it sold well either so we likely won't be getting another like it).
RF4 is upcoming for 3DS and looks to be great. If you want to get into them now, Rune Factory 2 or 3 for DS are great entries (2 even features two generations, meaning you get to marry and have a child, then play as the child). Rune Factory Frontier for Wii is a semi-sequel to the first Rune Factory on DS, but can be played without any previous knowledge (at the beginning of the game, you get to choose whether you know Mist, if you choose you don't know her, the game acts like you've never met any of the characters, if you choose you do know her, it assumes you played the first game and the characters will "remember" you)
That said, I can't reiterate enough how much better I (personally) think Rune Factory is. All of the day to day elements that make Harvest Moon great are all there, and there is a strong (if relatively simple) action RPG hybrid combat and monster system that just integrates so well and helps break up the days of "just" farming. Any of the Rune Factory games are great to just jump into as well, aside from maybe Tides, which was an attempt to forego a lot of the harvest moon elements and make it more of an action series (it was a bad move, don't think it sold well either so we likely won't be getting another like it).
RF4 is upcoming for 3DS and looks to be great. If you want to get into them now, Rune Factory 2 or 3 for DS are great entries (2 even features two generations, meaning you get to marry and have a child, then play as the child). Rune Factory Frontier for Wii is a semi-sequel to the first Rune Factory on DS, but can be played without any previous knowledge (at the beginning of the game, you get to choose whether you know Mist, if you choose you don't know her, the game acts like you've never met any of the characters, if you choose you do know her, it assumes you played the first game and the characters will "remember" you)
i don't think nostalgia has a whole lot to do with it. it's been 14 years since the older ones came out. if it was only nostalgia, people would probably be mentioned the GC/PS2 games just as much. the games just lost direction after awhile and i don't think they realized what people really liked about the games to begin with. i think that the series that took the harvest moon feel to the best since the n64/psx games was rune factory 3, although i haven't played the new 3ds one yet
-Pyromaniac-
Member
Probably BTN/FoMT, they're basically the same game.
HM64 does have some uniqueness to it that hasn't been replicated since though, I just don't list it because it hasn't aged as well as those 2. But it has retained a lot of the charm imo.
A new beginning for 3DS is probably the best content wise. Usually in other games you lose a lot of motivation to keep playing at the 1.5-2 year point.
HM64 does have some uniqueness to it that hasn't been replicated since though, I just don't list it because it hasn't aged as well as those 2. But it has retained a lot of the charm imo.
A new beginning for 3DS is probably the best content wise. Usually in other games you lose a lot of motivation to keep playing at the 1.5-2 year point.
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (3DS)
The old games feel a bit rough now, because the user interface in ANB is much smoother. There's plenty of content and features in ANB to keep you busy, and it's well balanced to fit whatever your style is. It's an all-around amazing package.
I would especially recommend ANB to Harvest Moon newbies, because it does a good job of introducing every mechanic one at a time. For Harvest Moon veterans, this can be annoying because it takes awhile for the game to open up.
Edit: just noticed it's not out in Europe yet ... too bad
The old games feel a bit rough now, because the user interface in ANB is much smoother. There's plenty of content and features in ANB to keep you busy, and it's well balanced to fit whatever your style is. It's an all-around amazing package.
I would especially recommend ANB to Harvest Moon newbies, because it does a good job of introducing every mechanic one at a time. For Harvest Moon veterans, this can be annoying because it takes awhile for the game to open up.
Edit: just noticed it's not out in Europe yet ... too bad
Not if A Tale of Two Towns on 3DS was your 1st game...
Since you already have a 3DS, I'd recommend A New Beginning. It's the best one to come out in some time and also involves building a town, though it's way more involved and the game is really (really) slow to get going.
chertipros
Member
A wonderful life. But that might be nostalgia since its been a while since I've played it. I can definitely recommend tree of tranquility though
The only problem A New Beginning has is the extremely extremely slow beginning. However, once it does ramp us it's easily one of the best if not THE best HM I've played. It's super accessible. There's a lot of customization and things you can do at a given time. Lots of goals to work towards making things not very routine. The game also gives you a lot of samples such as free animals, farming, and such so you are enticed to try out different aspects of the HM life. It's a wonderful game that has excellent game design. Save the intro.
How slow we talking here? 2-3 hours? 5?