How is Olive Town's staying-power?

Poot Poot Poot! A mainline Bokumono game set in a resort town that wants to be more resort-y. Available for Nintendo Switch, Steam/PC, and Ps4/5. [ Game Guide ] JP release = Feb 2021. NA = Mar 2021. EU = Mar 2021.
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Kikki
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Just want to say first that this topic isn't about liking or disliking the game. We have an abundance of threads that focus on that already. No, this is because I was thinking about ANB, SoS1 and Trio. My record for longest-single-playthrough is actually in SoS1, even though it's my least favourite of the three. It takes so long to max out your animals via the safari (which I wrote 'salami' just now, I must need to go back to sleep for a bit! Pretty sure you can't advance your animals via salami.) and to unlock the last two vendors, with their insane requirements. Plus I played until late Year 4 just to get everything unlocked, too, like the final animals and the ferris wheel and so on, and with all the stuff there was to do, it probably takes the record for my longest playthrough, if only by a little bit over my Sanjay play of ANB. It's quite a lot longer than any playthrough I did of Trio, whose goals are comparatively quick and easy to accomplish.

I tend to stop playing once I have no goals left to shoot for, I think. I just lose interest in continuing.

How's Olive Town for longevity? How long are you playing it, IRL, comparatively speaking? Do you usually play a new game for two weeks and then you're done? Is Olive Town following that trend? Or is it stuffed with some kind of content that makes you keep going back to it, even idly?
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SakuraMota
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There is jack-all to do once you finish the story and get the final house upgrade. I'm kind of wandering around aimlessly, almost at 2mil with nothing to buy and working toward all the achievements as something to do. And yet, I keep going back because I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess. xD

I have a sneaking suspicion DLC will add at least something to help with this, or at least I hope.
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dr4g0nh34d
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I already stopped at autumn of year 2. Once I got the final house, I kind of lost interest since there's no more storyline. At most, I think I only spent 2 weeks on it before I moved on to another game. I already explore all the gimmicks of the game except the clothing/décor (do not like to dress up/decorate my house). Unless the DLC content gives another storyline where there are goals needed for completion, it may be a long while before I return.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the game, but once storyline content was completed, I lost interest. There's no festivals/contests to improve your skills so there's no reason to continue to improve in those department. I might just wait for the DLC, then come back with things to do as well as DLC.

I think the most gameplay I put into this series was the Grand Bazaar with ToTT, and ToT following pretty close by.
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eggegg
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I'm taking it pretty slow because I know how addicted I get to the gameplay loop, but I think this might have a longer staying-power for me than SOS. I kept getting annoyed that the things I wanted were time-gated by year 3 or 4, when I wanted to be working towards those things. There's no issue with that in the game currently, since everything is tied to a specific season or a skill unlock. As long as I keep doing stuff like petting my animals and harvesting, I'll get enough sprites or experience to get what I want. It's not locked behind something arbitrary.

There's also a lot of features I haven't touched much, such as fishing or Lovett's questline or the sprite minigames. I've been working on unlocking stuff and getting my farmland to look nice. I still don't have the second house upgrade, but I've been working on that for a while. I might finally be able to get it after another session of play.

Oh I guess I should answer a few of the end questions... I play generally anywhere from 2-8 hours, depending how much free time I have. I don't actually _have_ a lot of free time, so sometimes I will drop a game for nearly two weeks before picking it up again, unless another game comes out that I want to play more. This is why I never played SoS:ToT, because I knew that was going to be a huge time-sink and I believe a bunch of other games I wanted to play came out around the same time. SOS and HM games are also pretty addictive for me, so I'll generally only want to play them when I have plenty of free time, and then I'll play them nonstop for a good couple of months.

This time I bought the game digitally so I don't have to worry about switching out cartridges. I'm also playing it on my TV, which is rare for me, I almost always prefer handheld mode. I'm only switching between PoOT and Collar x Malice which I swear I'm going to finally beat after a year.
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CatBlueCamp
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Most games that I play casually and put down, my gameplay hours hover around 65-80.

Games that I find myself getting sucked into more (and play on a regular basis) are around 120-200 hours.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2, my current record for gameplay hours, has 400+ hours invested in it.


Right now, Poot is at 90 hours gameplay.
I've completed the main plot line and I'm in Fall Year 2, but I'm still working on:

~Trying to figure out who I want to marry :/
~Getting the final level of the house
~Finishing the hydro plant
~Getting all my skills maxed out
~Completing the museum
~Actually doing some fishing
~Waiting for DLC

I've been distracted from ALL of the above stuff because I noticed that no one's posted an exhaustive gift-guide for PoOT in the forum yet, so I've been considering posting one myself. I've been doing A LOT more playing to write down dialogue and test what's posted online and it's already added several hours to my playtime.


All in all, I expect PoOT to fit solidly between 150-200 hours before I put it down, which is a lot more time than I put into any of the other SoS titles, save for maybe ANB, but that game took FOREVER to do anything.
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CatBlueCamp wrote:save for maybe ANB, but that game took FOREVER to do anything.
« Harvest Goddess », the month-long "tutorial" phase before you could really do anything took me out of the franchise for years
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CatBlueCamp
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MADHATTER wrote:
CatBlueCamp wrote:save for maybe ANB, but that game took FOREVER to do anything.
« Harvest Goddess », the month-long "tutorial" phase before you could really do anything took me out of the franchise for years
When I saw that the outfits in this game didn't require collecting colored downs, I wanted to cry with happiness. xD
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Shan O 123
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Girl file:

I’m about enter year three. I married Damon, and main plot completed. I’m working on the final house upgrade and I haven’t touched the cooking requests.

Boy file:

I just started in spring year 1.






IMO I think it depends on the person. Like, at least on my end it took me about two years to complete the main story and I’m still not done with the game. Cuz even after the main story you still have other things such as those cooking challenges and getting your farm where you want it.
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Nikooru-sama
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Whenever I played old Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games I always get sucked in. Every waking moment is spent playing the games when they just get released, and every spare time I had is just playing the game constantly. I just kept playing and playing and playing. Granted that I have never ever finished a HM/SoS game properly (like 100% completion of things), or that once I get the kid in Year 3 or 4 - I'm done with the game. But many many hours of real time get poured into the games, and I love and cherish each one I got to experience. When I still had my 3DS's I would go back to playing Sunshine Islands and Grand Bazaar, because I immensely enjoyed them.

My first ever HM game was Magical Melody many years back, but Island of Happiness was when I really got into the franchise so buying the games in order progressed from there, so I can't really give input for the games before MM and IoH but I bet they were good.

For PoOT I do enjoy it, and I think I'll be playing more of it once I get the time to. When I was younger I would have so much free time, but now as an actual adult and a proper job (sad days) I hardly have any spare time anymore. I think PoOT does have the potential to last, but at this stage (one update for a bit of bug fixing and all DLCs still need to come) its not quite there yet lol

But I'm looking forward to everything that's yet to come!
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This is the first Harvest Moon (I know, technically SoS) game that has captured my attention in ten years -- the last one was Animal Parade. I think I like the balance of obtainable items that in older games were much harder to get (e.g., fishing pole, horse, bathroom in house, bottom of the first mine, etc.) mixed with the need to work towards other items. The makers are probably skewing my perception though, since they bottleneck the game. However, personally I like the slower gamer play, so I only have two ingot makers and four lumber makers chugging along. It's allowing me to enjoy the rest of the game without feeling overwhelmed every day.

I'm in Autumn Year 1 and am now working towards the last house upgrade. I'm glad to had read this thread first because now I'm going to slow down and not try to rush to the house -- I TOTALLY lose interest in a game once there are no more goals. That being said, I also like 100%ing games and am working towards cooking, fishing, and populating the entire museum right now, which I expect will continue to take up a lot of my time -- and I am happy with that! I also like maxing out the hearts of each villager. It's fun to dedicate time to each and every person.

I guess I'm really surprised at how quickly this game has captured my attention. I work full time and never thought I would dive headfirst into another video game again, but I am managing to play I'd say between 2 and 5 hours a day. I am hoping I'll continue my file for at least several more months.
Saffy
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Personally, I'd say its not great, but not bad either, depending on the person.
I am always pretty good at creating goals for myself post credit roll/ story completion... and being that I tend to kind of like.. seperate what I do with each passing year, that alone extends the game's lifespan for me. I hate trying to do everything in one single year, I'd much rather pace myself, dedicate a year to say, fishing and fossils, then another year to farming and orchards. I binged the game when it first released, but once I got to a comfortable place, I slowed down and began my pacing. I'm nearing year 3 and I still feel like I have a few personal goals left to complete, (such as decoration on my farm) And I didn't even fix up the plant nor obtian the final house upgrade. But for the most part... everything is super easy to obtain and fast paced, so I imagine this game losing it's luster real fast for many.
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Kikki
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I was wondering if, beyond the storyline/basic plot, there's anything that compels people to keep playing. Some Bokumono games do that really well, and others somehow fall flat as soon as you're through the main story. Like I was wondering if filling out the museum takes longer and feels like a rewarding thing to do, or...I dunno. Maxing all your crops, or anything that just makes you feel like you want to keep playing. In ANB I wanted EVERY blueprint and recipe and played to Year 5, looooong after I'd finished the main story AND gotten married AND had my kid grow up, to boot. For me, what content was in there was really interesting to just keep going with.

That game's fabulous record-keeping may have contributed to that, though (along with their being so many recipes and blueprints go get through so many means. Buying, fishing, trapping, mining, friendships, by building other items to unlock new versions, etc.) I loved record-keeping in ANB. It told you a total of every fish you'd ever caught as well as breaking it down into how many of every individual type. It was like that for everything. I looooove that, it felt so good to have those numbers kept track of for me, clearly and cleanly available to browse with a couple of taps of a button.
Saffy
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Ah! Well in that case, I say this one kind of falls short compared to other games. Like I mentioned before, things are pretty easily obtained even if you aren't on seedling mode. (But take that with a grain of salt, as I am someone with a fair amount of free time so I at present, have the luxury that is time to binge things)

But anyway! Given that they took out a lot of farming related festivals and animal festivals, there isn't much merit to having super high quality produce, aside from these cooking requests from Lovett that I keep seeing people grieve about lol. Money builds up fast once you've settled yourself in. There isn't even much to buy once you've gotten tools, and your house upgrades unless you plan on spending all your money buying jewelry for the entire town each day.

I haven't even gave much care to the museum. Feels kind of off... they directly "borrowed" that concept from Animal crossing, but did it so poorly. It doesn't look very impressive and you're made to place everything yourself rather than everything already have a well thought out place. The Aquarium bothers me the most. Its so lackluster... the fish all look the same... :roll: So... the game is definitely in dire need of these DLC~!
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