Best Handheld Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) Yet?

Explore Lulukoko, Tsukuyusa, and Westown in this multi-cultural farming game for Nintendo 3DS. [ Game Guide ] JP release = Jun 2016. NA release = Feb 2017. EU release = Oct 2017.
ALonkToTheFuture16
Anonymous Fish

Post  Posted:

Hello!

For anyone currently playing the Japanese version of Trio of Towns, do you think that this is the best handheld Harvest Moon to ever be released yet? Or the best Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) yet?

It seems to be full of great content!

If you made a list of your favorite Harvest Moon (or Story of Seasons) games, where would you rank this game on your list?

(Feel free to make comparisons to past games to show all the great improvements that have been made!)

Also, I know Rune Factory 4 is still very popular and well liked, for anyone that might be a hardcore RF fan, did this Story of Seasons game impress you?

Thanks very much for your time everyone. :lala:
ALonkToTheFuture16
Anonymous Fish

Post  Posted:

Oh! And also, how would you compare the marriage candidates and characters in this game to past ones? Are they better or worse in your opinion?

Thanks again!
User avatar
Shan O 123
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 7942
Joined: May 04, 2013 11:01 am

Post  Posted:

Waiting for English version but from I've seen, the game has improved a bit.
User avatar
Terra575
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 2037
Joined: Mar 17, 2006 6:01 pm
Contact:

Post  Posted:

I've only seen positive reviews so far, and everyone I've asked about it has said it's better than the previous game.
B7N
Growing Garden Gnome
Growing Garden Gnome
Posts: 94
Joined: Jan 13, 2014 11:53 pm

Post  Posted:

First aspect that I would personally address is the staggering amount of events, which, for many, is something they've been requesting and wanting to be implemented since a while back, so rejoice because in this game, literally every character has one or two events associated to them, and given the somewhat scarce distribution of characters between maps (meaning too many characters per map) you are more than likely to find almost, if not all of these events by the first credit roll of the game.

I've had times I forgot why the hell I even went to any map at any given moment because I stumbled upon an event and trust me, there's a lot of reading to do in each of these (Japanese beginner here, but I have the feeling there's a lot of dialogue compared to other games in the series)

Second there's the difficulty, which goes hand in hand with the pacing, not sure if there's much of a difference between the two modes, but having chosen the veteran on my game I can tell the difficulty has escalated since the last game I played (ANB), this game is probably a lot more like "Story of Seasons" in that regard, there are goals you need to fulfill to advance through ranks and also the main story in the new "commurank" system and with the part-time jobs, every day in the game is filled with tasks that require a minimum amount of planning, so this isn't one of those HMs where you can win by doing one a single thing, the game makes sure you try your hand at everything there is before you get to unlock more content.

Gotta mention that with the added difficulty there's also the possibility to select a character attribute which is like a way to relieve players from the strain of particular repeatitive tasks, if only a little bit, I felt this was a smart way to ease the tedium in a way, though don't get me wrong I still wouldn't place this game in the "beginner friendly" section.

Third, the waifus, meaning romantic interests because that's all we care about, you need to see at least three of the heart events for one character before you are given the ability to move onto the actual relationship stage, I have the feeling the affection level caps at the fourth level (gray-purple-blue-green, not sure but I've been stuck on Siluka's green for over a year) so you can't see anymore beyond that unless you want to (can't wait for red to decide on the one), so you have to give them a pendant (assume it's the same for the ladies, you put a necklace on the guy) but expect new dialogues, because each "flower" level has different dialogues, and I feel that they go from "acquaintance" to "borderline romantic" within the first four, so I don't know how much closer it can get from there.

Kuudere Twin > Girl with natural pink hair > Feminist Japanese teacher with mad Keigo skills > Kanbaru with Kansai accent > Flower girl > Furry androgynous deity > Tsundere Twin

Not much to say here, but 7 candidates is a fairly good number and there's variety, I don't complain.

The main story itself well, not spoiling it, but the ending becomes fairly predictable, your typical Harvest Moon experience and not as bad as I expected it to be, the random visits from loli imouto in the first year were an unexpected suprise to me, oh and of course that loli imouto and Marina have events that will take place when they come to visit, they really help to get you accustomed to that notion of family, as opposed to other games where you are completely alone in the middle of nowheresville, there's that nice transition to adulthood undertone and "chasing your pastoral dreams no matter what" message that goes with every other HM game out there, also there's a bit of that multiculturalism and diversity as you'd expect from a game about 3 separate towns with different social/ethnic backgrounds, some cultural exchanges that yes, have their own events too.

Expect lots of festivals, with interactive mini games that include collecting random objects as in the old HMs and others that are specific to each village, these will have specific activities like making tea in Tsuyukusa or juice in Lulucoco, got to say though, the amount of closeness you get from these events isn't that great as you'd expect, you still need to give gifts unless your attribute is "popular" because the FP boost is nowhere near the one from ANB, but there's some kind of catch definitely, haven't figured it out just yet but there's some more complex things about how you gain closeness with people aside from the common ones.

Side Notes:

Mining system: same as ANB
- Save scumming: feasible for most places where it's needed.
- Multiplayer: Go multiculturalism, but keep the region lock.
Oh and there's also the surechigai mode, not sure because I haven't tried but it's got something to do with pets so that's different I guess.
- Glad to see the Border Collie added to the game as a pet, best shepherd dogs represent.
- That Super Mario outfit and the Hamtaro thing came out of the left field.

All in all, I wouldn't personally place it on a pedestal, but it's a nice HM game (old gen ain't know nothing of that Story of Seasons), and can be challenging if you want it to be, but definitely not a walk in the park either way, takes some commitment, as it should be, because in this game you're not moving to the countryside looking for a peaceful existence, this game is about a quest for your own place in the world.
User avatar
Pachi
Carrots... yum
Carrots... yum
Posts: 529
Joined: Jan 01, 2016 7:41 pm
Contact:

Post  Posted:

@B7N Thanks so much for that review! I'm now more excited to get the game in English next year :lala:
kristaok
Banned: Trolling
Posts: 218
Joined: Jul 24, 2015 9:56 pm

Post  Posted:

I can't wait for the game to come out myself, I used to not like SoS I couldn't grasp what all it threw at me but now I like it.
Post Reply