ThatStupidLion
Member
spice this damn series up please!!! i'd like to enjoy one since n64
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (3DS) announced for North America
- Thread starter electroplankton
- Start date
Colonel Mustard
Banned
Looking at what many in this thread are saying, they did just this with the new game.
Have you tried any of the Rune Factory games by chance?
MetalGuardian
Banned
Yeah. What I got from the IGN review was essentially, "If you push through the tedious and awful first couple of hours, you are rewarded with one of the best Harvest Moon games ever made."
And I would almost prefer they overdo the tutorial as opposed to throwing you in with no direction whatsoever like in Magical Melody. The learning curve for that one was a bit too steep
But how are the basic farming principles!? I fucking LOVED N64 and PS1 versions of the game (And the SNES as well) so tell me something about:
The seeds, selling crops, having livestock, chickens, grass, that kind of stuff.
The last one I had was the NGC version, and that version felt so odd. It was very silent, like it was missing music, lacked real polish and it was just not really fun.
The seeds, selling crops, having livestock, chickens, grass, that kind of stuff.
The last one I had was the NGC version, and that version felt so odd. It was very silent, like it was missing music, lacked real polish and it was just not really fun.
I feel you there. One of the reasons I've stopped using them, personally.
Although I was in there today helping my family Christmas shop and it was definitely on the shelf. Maybe it hasn't gotten to your province yet? Either way, hope they didn't fuck with your item.
It all worked out...they keep thinking shit is street dated and never call me -_- I called and they were all "oh we have them but pretty sure I can't sell it to you for two more weeks!" Lol, okay.
I only really use them for HM games to get the plushies lol. But I used them for preordering some things recently just cause I felt like preordering haha.
But I got my game and my yak so life is good. Just gotta finish VLR before diving into this.
Seriously. Magical Melody, Animal Crossing and My Life as a King are three of my favorite games.
IntelliHeath
As in "Heathcliff"
I know that i posted in very old thread but I forget the answers that I have received.
I am used to be hardcore harvest moon fan but lately I haven't been motivated for the series. My favorite HM games were Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon Back to Nature. I actually enjoyed Harvest Moon 3 GBC too.
I have been wondering that did they ever make good harvest moon games that potentially are better than first few original games?
I am used to be hardcore harvest moon fan but lately I haven't been motivated for the series. My favorite HM games were Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon Back to Nature. I actually enjoyed Harvest Moon 3 GBC too.
I have been wondering that did they ever make good harvest moon games that potentially are better than first few original games?
The best "hardcore" Harvest Moon, IMO, is Friends from Mineral Town. So I guess yeah.
I haven't played any other game in the series since the first Harvest Moon DS, though, which was kind of lackluster.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
I honestly can't STAND the art for the wii games. So I can't recommend them in good faith.
I just wish they would stop releasing Harvest Moon games in the middle of AAA fall season. I never have time to play them because that means setting aside Assassin's Creed or Gears or something like that. Why can't they release one in the middle of summer?
Anyway, is there anything indicating that we might ever get Rune Factory 4? Or are they waiting on the performance of this game?
Anyway, is there anything indicating that we might ever get Rune Factory 4? Or are they waiting on the performance of this game?
the chances of RF4 not coming here are extremely small. it's essentially guaranteed.
Half of them are total d-bags.
I went with Cliff in Mineral Town (although not really, since the game bugged out and never let me marry, which made me stop playing)--is there anybody similar to that, or am I going to have to play a male character? Soseki is the only one I'm interested in; the game's art is a bit unfortunate.
MetalGuardian
Banned
So who is a bad enough dude to go and pick this up tomorrow?
I hate how little play the Harvest Moon series gets with the gaming press. I still need more impressions before I can be comfortable in making a decision!
I hate how little play the Harvest Moon series gets with the gaming press. I still need more impressions before I can be comfortable in making a decision!
I went with Cliff in Mineral Town (although not really, since the game bugged out and never let me marry, which made me stop playing)--is there anybody similar to that, or am I going to have to play a male character? Soseki is the only one I'm interested in; the game's art is a bit unfortunate.
The animal trader guy is basically a bad boy version of Cliff.
MetalGuardian
Banned
I'm hoping some more reviews crop up today!
Har har har
Har har har
I was a bad enough dude to buy it yesterday. I don't really care for it too much to be honest, which is really disappointing. I haven't played any of the Harvest Moon games outside of Friends of Mineral Town, and I'm starting to think that this is a series that's better in 2D. The game's fun enough, and I've only put six hours in, which in Harvest Moon land is minuscule, but I'm kind of regretting my purchase at forty dollars.
Please edit this post away.
Incredible joke.
MetalGuardian
Banned
Damn, sad to hear this. What season and year are you in? Have you already slogged through the apparently tedious and lengthy beginning part where the town is an abomination before the lord that offers few activities to participate in, or have you played in far enough to where things have opened up?
I would assume at 6 hours, you probably have access to a lot of the good stuff.
This is disappointing :/
MetalGuardian
Banned
How in the unholy hell have there only been FIVE REPLIES SO FAR (six counting this one) on US LAUNCH DAY of this game?
I may be drunk, but gatdom.... GAF needs to show this franchise a little more love
I may be drunk, but gatdom.... GAF needs to show this franchise a little more love
Because launch day was awhile ago. Nov 6 is its old street date before Natsume did an early release last month.
lunch said:
If you are still in your first Spring, things won't pick up until the 25th when Rebecca and Toni show up. On Summer 2, Dunhill will start you on the main plot of the story. From then on, your job is to collect the right quest-parts, do the things you've been assigned, and complete the plans. Each plan is more involved than the previous one.
The dating system is a little different. You do the standard gifts and raise heart colors, but you need to give the person a ring and become boyfriend/girlfriend before you can see the rest of the heart events. You will be dedicated to that person until you hand over the blue feather. Other villagers will comment on your relationship and the dialog will change to more lovie-dovie with your sweetheart. You can break up with the person but it takes effort. You can't see all of the heart events for every marriage candidate like in past versions.
Crops are grown in fields that are 2x8 and 2 bags of seeds will cover all 8 spots. There are different field types that allow for faster crop growth. The big and giant crops that have been on pre-release screen shots are special and sell for more money. They also increase your chances of winning the seasonal crop festivals.
There are a variety of festivals - contests (crops, fishing), gatherings (fireworks, snow), and sweetheart (harmony days). You will win construction blueprints for building things for your town, crop seeds, and cooking recipes. You need to know the cooking recipe before you can cook the dish - recipes are found from festivals, rewards from villagers, caught when fishing, or found when mining. There is even a gardening show in this game that lets you design you own garden space and once per season, be judged on your design eye.
A big part of the game is the customization features, whether it is your character or the town itself. You can change your hair style and color at the salon, change your clothes at the tailors, or even change your skin color and face at the witch princess' shop. This allows you to make yourself look either male or female if you want, but your actual gender does not change; just your outward appearance.
Each person who plays will have a different layout of the town. Roads, lamp posts, decorations, houses, and so on, will be placed by the game player into any layout he or she prefers. Unfortunately there isn't an easy way to show off your town layout to other people. There are over 350 blueprints you can find in the game. Some are just basic decorations, but then there's the farmhouse wallpaper, flooring, and furniture designs you can create.
New animals are the Llama and Yak. You'll get a free cow on Spring 9 from Neil and after that you buy the rest of your animals: cows, jersey cows, sheep, suffolk sheep, alpaca, brown alpaca, llama, and yak. You need to build the chicken coop before you can buy a chicken, but then you can just hatch the rest of them. Some players use the wifi Nintendo network system to collect a silkie chicken egg from another player, which lets you get the better silkie chickens before they're naturally unlocked in-game. For the livestock, you can give treats to increase the productivity levels and it is much easier to do than in Tale of Two Towns. When a livestock animal can produce 5 products and spends 50 hours in Animal Land (which is another feature at Neil's animal shop), the livestock animal will enlarge in size.
Then there's the fishing, the new fish trap fishing, the music sheet tunes, and so on. The game has a lot of content to it IF you can struggle to get past the first season
chertipros
Member
Game is looking good. Don't like that art style though. To be honest I don't really like the artstyles of 1/2 the harvest moon games with Save the Homeland, A wonderful life, and Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade being the exceptions but the other games are still good fun. I fear that there might be fuck ups in the localization though. Harvest Moon doesn't really have a great track record when it comes to getting translated into english properly (atleast not in the games i played)
What's the overall tempo of the game? Do you generally have to race around to get everything in during the day (Magical Melody) or is there a shitload of time to spare (Animal Parade)? Or somewhere in the middle?
In the same vein, how spread out is everything? Animal Parade drove me INSANE because everything was so spread out, there was no fast travel system until mid-game, and your character moved so slowly.
In the same vein, how spread out is everything? Animal Parade drove me INSANE because everything was so spread out, there was no fast travel system until mid-game, and your character moved so slowly.
Picked it up earlier today. Finished some of the first tutorials. Don't have axe and hammer yet though.
I can't say much about it so far. It looks nice, it mostly runs nice as well.
I like how you start off with a lot of stuff off the bat, like the kitchen, and how you can make some early recipes with stuff you find lying around.
I can't say much about it so far. It looks nice, it mostly runs nice as well.
I like how you start off with a lot of stuff off the bat, like the kitchen, and how you can make some early recipes with stuff you find lying around.
WiiredShawn
Member
The game's tempo seems much improved. 1 IRL second equals 1 in-game minute, so time moves faster than it did in Animal Parade, but you never seem too rushed. Plus, being able to customize the location of all buildings in town means that you eliminate any unnecessary traveling - if you want everyone right outside your doorstep, just move them there. Also, your character moves a little faster, so running around town isn't as tedious, and you can buy a horse or construct a vehicle (eventually) to move about even more quickly.
Performing everyday actions such as watering/planting crops, chopping trees and smashing rocks is also more enjoyable because the animations are faster. For instance: Unlike in Animal Parade, where you had to swing the ax at the tree multiple times, trees in ANB fall down in one swing. Likewise, when you upgrade the watering can or other farm tools, the "charge" moves from 1 square to its maximum number of squares almost immediately, rather than having to wait like in Animal Parade. After Town Renovation Plan 3, you also gain access to "tiered farm land," which is a huge private area where you can plant tons of crops and then have the spring water everything at once. Another interesting detail is that you can "stack" items like rocks and then smash them all simultaneously. Lastly, jumping is a small, but very welcome mobility addition.
Acquiring new outfits is a little more strenuous because you have to essentially grow/harvest the materials for making the clothes, but on the whole, my fiancee and I are pretty impressed by this iteration. It streamlines a lot of smaller details that eliminate the unnecessary monotony of previous games while preserving a relaxing pace. Coupled with the customization options, cute art style, clean graphics, and amazingly quick loading, we'd say it's shaping up to be one of the best Harvest Moon games to date.
The localization is pretty good - we saw a few typos, such as Rod (hilariously) asking, "You have go?", but it's definitely serviceable.
WiiredShawn
Member
I'm afraid that time still moves while indoors, but we haven't had much problem with time, still, again thanks to how streamlined a lot of the actions have become. Because most actions are less time-consuming now, you don't have to worry about micro-managing your minutes too much.
I'm on Summer 8 of my first year. I'm through the tutorials and introductory setup and have now moved onto the plot of the game, but the town is still practically empty and there's little to do outside of watering, checking on my cow, catching bugs, and then going to bed and repeating that until I finally get enough materials and money to push the plot forward. I know this is Harvest Moon, but it just feels really passive.
Yeah, it's picked up a bit now that I have an actual task. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of the actual restoration plan (five ball topiaries is kind of...much) and I'm more interested in hopefully opening up other areas. I really miss the television and mining from More Friends of Mineral Town. I realize that the town is going to expand, but the surrounding area also feels a bit dull.
A bit worrying. I really wanted to try it before buying! Can you explain what you by the streamlined actions?
WiiredShawn
Member
Here's some examples of streamlined actions:
Your character actually runs rather than "lightly jogs" like in Animal Parade, which means you move around faster; plus, you can buy a horse or construct a vehicle (albeit later in the game) to move around even faster. Also, with the power to jump, you're no longer bound to going around fences; just jump over them.
In Animal Parade (and I presume ToT, though I never played it), when you upgraded your farming tools, you would hold the A button to "charge" them. You would have to hold for a certain number of seconds in order for the charge to reach its maximum size. In ANB, the charge happens in less than a second and it expands from one square to its maximum number of squares immediately. So farming takes overall less time, especially when you upgrade your tools. The same goes for chopping down trees: it only takes one swing and you're done, compared to the multiple swings of Animal Parade. At some point in the main story, you receive access to "tiered farmland," which is a massive space where you can plant lots of crops and then have the local spring water everything for you immediately. It's a beautiful sight.
Mining is completely overhauled to be more convenient. You simply have a large room with three mining 'spots' that you hit with your hammer, along with any randomized goodies laying on the ground. As you upgrade your hammer, you'll get access to more of the spots, and each time you hit the spot, you'll receive an item. Compare this to Animal Parade, in which you you were never certain if anything valuable would come out of a rock (and sometimes you received something annoying like poison gas) and even when you found ore, the "refining" process might give you crap in return. In ANB, there's none of this guesswork: you don't have to refine ore, you simply get the gem or material that comes out of the mining spot. And if you don't like what you receive, you can simply reload your save at that point and try again (thanks to the fast loading).
Lastly, town customization means that you can eliminate unnecessary running. In Animal Parade, you had to run all the way across town if you wanted to buy things or talk to people. Here, you can move your preferred people just outside your farm, within a few seconds of walking. Combined with the map on the lower screen that tells you everyone's current location, it's easier to reach people and thus build friendships - and it's generally easier to build friendships because the faster farming and plentiful natural materials gives you quicker access to gifts.
Those are some of the more important changes, I feel. Overall, my fiancee is enjoying the game a lot, and she's played quite a few Harvest Moon games before. If you have a GameStop nearby, you might consider picking up a used copy and seeing how you like it before committing yourself.
I still dislike the town customization (which isn't too big a deal as I don't have to do it), but the mining and farming sounds great, and I should dive into the game more as I haven't encountered the upgrades you're referring to. Thanks for the impressions WiiredShawn.
eudaemonic
Member
The first month is soooo slow. The dialog sessions are way to damn long for a portable game that has a shorter battery life than the other ones. *chuckles... but is serious*
Just hit Spring 25 though and got the blueprints so I'm taking your word for it that it kicks up more. Otherwise, I've also been playing Layton so I'm not focusing all my attention on the game all the time. Every other evening I spend a half hour or so with it. Probably why it feels like it's taking so long.
Please tell me there's still a bell for getting your cow in and out the damn barn. My cow goes out once a week cause most of the time I don't want to be bothered with pushing her fat ass outta the barn and back in.
Just hit Spring 25 though and got the blueprints so I'm taking your word for it that it kicks up more. Otherwise, I've also been playing Layton so I'm not focusing all my attention on the game all the time. Every other evening I spend a half hour or so with it. Probably why it feels like it's taking so long.
Please tell me there's still a bell for getting your cow in and out the damn barn. My cow goes out once a week cause most of the time I don't want to be bothered with pushing her fat ass outta the barn and back in.
Yeah, you can buy a blueprint for a bell.
MetalGuardian
Banned
I think WiiredShawn's impressions sold me on the game. It sounds phenomenal
How are the socializing aspects of the game, beyond dating? Are there rewards for building relationships with villagers? And how are the holidays?
Also there best be a bar with some funny milk for me to get sloshed on at the end of a hard day's work
How are the socializing aspects of the game, beyond dating? Are there rewards for building relationships with villagers? And how are the holidays?
Also there best be a bar with some funny milk for me to get sloshed on at the end of a hard day's work
I'm not too far in, but I gave a person a flower and received a blueprint in return, so there are definitely incentives to build non-romantic relationships.
MetalGuardian
Banned
Now that's interesting, thanks. I'll keep an eye of more impressions, then. My interest is rising but I have a tight budget this month.