How was Story of Seasons 1? I've never played any game like Harvest Moon or something like that but for some reason Story of Seasons was the one I'm the most interested in.
It was pretty good, but I feel like this game improves on almost everything from that game. There's some pretty big annoyances in the last SoS (grinding for the last two trade vendors takes foreverrrrr), lots of content being locked behind how many years you've played in-game, RNG when it comes to certain things like recipes, etc.
If you're going to dive into the series I'd definitely suggest picking up this one.
~~
One of my favorite inclusions in this game, is that if you're busy and don't feel like talking to people, you can press L as you run by them and it counts as talking to them for the affection increase. With having 3 towns and a crazy amount of people to talk to/do jobs for, it's an incredibly welcome feature.
Some other various improvements from the last game:
~Although you still live outside of the towns, the map is compact so it takes you no time at all to the various towns. I hated the run from your farm to town in SoS
~Characters hint more about their likes and dislikes so you don't have to rely on a guide so much
~No more limited inventory in shops, you can buy as much as you'd like. Shops are open longer hours (though Lulukoko's hours are pretty different since they have a siesta midday) and shops that sell essentials like fodder are open daily
~Veteran mode has a pretty good difficulty for those who are used to the series. Makes money and stamina management a lot more important
~The town expansions requirements aren't nearly as crazy as the town vendor ones were in SoS
~No more blueprints you have to handle yourself (I hated these personally) Ludus takes care of all the building and home improvements
~You have an actual full family in this game, and they come visit you from time to time!
~Around 30 villager events that flesh out the villager cast, and you can see 5 events per each bachelor or bachelorette before you go steady with them, and you can actually see friendship events with the same gender candidates that you can't marry, so a good 70+ events you can see in the game. Lots of content!
~No crazy requirements for reverse proposals/confessions
~If you start dating someone and find you don't like them, instead of having to give them hated gifts over and over to make them break up with you, if you befriend Witchie she can lower affection for you instead
~A small new game plus feature
Just off the top of my head