Ushi No Tane - Harvest Moon

Does anyone else feel that we're missing some of the great character development from previous games and what would you have liked to see remain in the game or be added? I saw an interview from the creator of the series on reddit and he was talking about having "done" everything that could be possibly done; do you agree?

There's a few things that were great features of the previous games that have been ruled out, but really good features and really interesting for gameplay. It's kind of been a pet peeve of mine that throughout the HM series the variety of characters have been shrinking and some a blatant rip-off from characters in other games/ARE characters from past games. In the GBA version, Friends of Mineral Town there was a network of characters in a town that were all different and all connected in different ways. I kind of liked that mentality and the introduction of realistic family structures into the game. For example, how Duke and Manna's daughter had left the Winery because of their fighting and how there's an allusion to it throughout the game. Also, how you can determine the evolution of the story by choosing whether or not to get Cliff the job (at the Winery). It feels more similar to a town community that you can get to understand and helps you when choosing your Bachelorette by getting to know her family and what the other villagers have to say. In the girl version (More Friends of Mineral Town) the character would collect rings and various gifts from her suitor. I ended up marrying Cliff and I got a "crown" of flowers he weaved for me and rings that he gave me would show up on my character stats page. Although these things are really useless to game play they were little things that made me really enjoy getting to know the Bachelors.
I also feel like there's been a disconnect between Natsume and character development; perhaps to make the games more child friendly (feel free to disagree). It would add another element to the game to pay more attention to the different character relationships. In TToTT I feel like there were a lot of different family dynamics but none that really stood up to the standard set in FoMT. I feel like there's some 'lazy' (for lack of a better word) parrellels between the characters.
For example:
FoMT : Lillian + Rod = Rick and Popuri. The story of this family is actually pretty indepth (for HM) Lillian is really ill so her husband, Rod leaves the family in search of a special flower to cure her (this happens before the game starts). Rick ends up feeling like he needs to take care of the entire family in the absence of his father and tries very hard to help his mother with the farm (they sell you chickens if I remember correctly).
TToTT : Jessica = Ash + Cheryl. It's the same kind of family structure; a single mother who has to take care of their families Ranch and two kids. Her son ends up taking on a lot of the responsibility for the Ranch and ends up being very protective towards his little sister (sound familiar?). Except there is no mention of there father at all and Jessica is so boring it (personally) HURTS to talk to her.
I know there's a lot of other examples and there is a ton of characters that FoMT has 'borrowed' from the other games, but my point is it seems to be that Natsume hasn't really valued there character development as much. There's shocking parallells to both the games characters. I feel that this is something that could have been easily added to the game, it takes only a change of dialoge and if we're lucky maybe a cutscene. There's some brilliant things that they've introduced into the HM series techincal wise that I couldn't live without now, but storywise I feel like it's getting more watered down for a younger audience.
Another thing that has frequently bothered me about HM games after WL and AWL is taking away the 'bonus' features of having a child. I feel like getting married is almost the end of the game because the dialogue between your spouce/child is very redundant. I understand that there is only so much different dialogue you can put into the game but I think that I would be satisfied with 7 different dialogues (one for every day of the week). I know a lot of people don't really care about the child option and are more into the farming/planting aspects of the game, which I completely understand. For the first couple in game years I could care less who the villagers are or their stories or my child, but there isn't an element to keep me playing after I've finished all of that. In WL and AWL the people you associated yourself with would influence the childs hobbies. You could buy toys for him and when he was a toddler you could take him around the town and introduce him to different people. I found it really endearing. That small 'bonus' kept me playing until my child was fully grown just because it was so interesting.
It just seems to me personally that adding these things to the game wouldn't hurt it, but actually push it into being a really memorable game. I love some of the new features in the games that make it so much more enjoyable (having more then three rucksack slots, am I right?) but that shouldn't come at the sacrifice of the things that made you fall in love with the series. I'm not sure if there's some space issues or technical reasons why they've choosen to keep the character development low, but if there is I'd like a little bit of compromise. That's only my opinion though.
Feel free to discuss.

Even though i love ToTT i think it would be nice if the Villagers had a little more interest, like more of a "story" like Mfomt.

I kinda wish my Child would grow up past the "kid" stage, and sometimes leave the farm or play with the other kids. but then i think its a DS game so maybe they don't want it as complex as a Wii game :b

So i do wish they would have made it a little more interesting when you befriend people, like for example remember Ellen in Fomt and Mfomt? the old lady? if you befriended her she would make you a Christmas stocking thing and also i remember you would have to find a flower for her or she would die D:

But regardless i LOVE ToTT it would be nice to make it more interesting but i guess they cant because its for DS and usually they don't have it as complex :b

While I agree with most everything, Natsume isn't at fault. They only localize the game in North America, they don't develop the game. Marvelous is the company in Japan who develops the series.

But you're right, the character depth and interaction have gone downhill game after game. Hm64 is still my favorite for the characters, with BtN and the mineral town games coming in close seconds. After that the characters seem to get shallower and the interactions with them almost perfunctory.

I'd love to see them create a new hm that incorporated all the great new features of some of the new games with the character depth the old games had. I think we'd see a truly great game if they did that.

I agree, I really with the characters had more depth and storylines, more cutscenes and such so we could learn about them more. ._. I miss HM64!

In responce to this, I personally think that the DS games have been way more complex then the GC and Wii games, they feel sort of watered down to me. And as for HM:64 I completely agree, I just wanted to make a more relatable example seeing as that game's getting pretty old now (there goes my childhood).

Oh <<Harvest Goddess>> don't get me started!
Compared to IoH (which wasn't even all that in-depth with characters, but is my fav.) ToTT, really?

1. No rivals. At all. Which (in my opinion anyway) adds character depth to the people you don't marry.
2. Little interaction between characters. Georgia only mentions Kana, her horsey rival, once and thats only[i][/i] if you see a flower event.
3. In IoH, starry night meant something.Like in Natalie's, which was really cute. In ToTT you all ...have tea or something. AND IT"S THE SAME EXACT THING FOR EACH BLOODY CANDIDATE!
4. Dialogue in Frantic Farming was pretty funny ("Mark: And then we'll hook up... I mean meet up later! Natalie: 0_0) And it was a puzzle game!(And by funny, I mean that the dialogue in ToTT could have rivaled that)
5. You know how Nami's gonna leave in AWL, but then you make her wanna stay? Couldn't we have done that with Laney, since she wants to go to the city? Or something similar?
6. I want to possibly kill Cam! Not good.

And that's why!

I don't know what it is exactly about this game that made it so disapointing, but characters were certainly a big part of it.

One character flaw was that they almost NEVER leave their home/work place. For example, Cam is almost always in his room or at his flower stand, and then there is that twice a week time he goes by the river. Three spots to interact with him. Greetings and one or two lines of dialogue for each spot, only changing with a flower color change. So basically you get to hear them say the same three bland as hell lines for a season, just to change to new boring lines the next. I remember in DS and Cute the characters go all over the town and have something new to say at each spot, and I find it cute and endearing. In TToTT I almost don't even want to talk to anyone ever.

Festivals I think are a big let down. Character interaction, especially with bachelors/bachelorettes, is terrible. Honestly, the festivals aren't any more fun than a regular day, and thats just really a let down. I remember old games where festivals were fun and exciting.

And then of course I agree that the characters just don't seem very developed. You don't know anyone's story or really who they are.

I guess my expectations for characters has drastically changed since playing RF3, where every character has a load of dialogue and unique things about them. The characters in that game all have something interesting about them, and even the ones I didn't love were still amusing to talk to. I know HM games might never be like that, but I still have high hopes that get let down. And theres just something about this game in general that bores me. I can play HMDS for hours and have so much fun with everything and love it, and I've owned it since it came out however many years ago in the US, 5 or 6 I think. And yet I've had TToTT for several months, never got past Summer year 1, and can't play for even an hour with getting bored and wanting to do something else. It's really disapointing.

It's not sad, in between each hm released, I always go back to my favs: BtN and Hm64

I would agree to this sentiment in general, although I do really like ToTT and hope to play it for a long time. I feel like the heart events don't go into much depth, and that none of the characters have real problems. I know that they want to keep the game family friendly, but sometimes I think there's more depth to Disney movies than this game. I agree that there's a lack of anticipation for festivals and events as well. And I don't necessarily think that the DS isn't able to handle more complex games-- I guess I would look at a game like Animal Crossing as an example; it would have been cool for this HM to acquire more of that adaptability.

You have to understand that ToTT is like a sequel to Grand Bazaar with the simplified growth of the farms and animal care. Both games' main goal is to make a truckload of money. Everything else is secondary.

These two games are not in the traditional HM play style - like SI/IoH or HMDS/Cute or FoMT, where you start with nothing and have to struggle to build even a barn. You can't compare ToTT to those old games.

But hopefully future games would be a combination of them. Real mining, greenhouse, harder friendship leveling yet easier controls. I dunno, whatever they make, I'll buy and play. =P

ps. I enjoy ToTT and the reason why I've played it longer than GrB is the intentional gating of the expansions that forces you to keep playing. It's a pretty easy in-between game and it's very well made for what it is. I don't miss keeping multiple spreadsheets to track crop growth in SI, that's for sure.

I kinda agree. I've only played FoMT and BTN and expansion wise, once you get to expand everything thing on the farm, you start to get bored... One thing good about ToTT is, if you're obsessed in somehow "completing" the game in terms of expansion, you need to connect the tunnels, have 2 farms to expand. Plus only able to make ONE expansion per season makes thing go at an even slower pace. Note that I'm no HM freak. In the previous games I hardly hit 3rd year since everything could be done very fast (save the cursed tool or blessed tool etc. and so forth).

In HM you earn money and spend and expand until you can no longer self enrich your home and life. So for a guy like me, I think ToTT may finally get me going pass 3 years of in game time. I love HM, but not crazily until I would play a monotonous farm life over and over just to earn money and have no means to spend it...

Well just my 2 cents worth of opinions.

This is a really good feature of the game, but I don't even feel like expanding because there's nothing more but redundant farming. It's lost the human element that gave me a reason to talk to the villagers everyday and there's only so much you can do whilst waiting for an expansion.