Now that all of the major updates are done...

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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Probably everyone noticed that 1.0.7 (and 1.0.8, too, which is just a couple of bug fixes) are out now, and that the final piece of DLC will be out before September...so the game is basically totally complete, now.

After you get a good look at the increased emotions during conversation, and after previous improvements and all...does anyone still have major complaints about the game? Anything deal-breaking, for you, that still remains? I do wish they'd have a better storage system and a bottomless shipping bin, and I'm still disappointed that there are no farming festivals. :( But I'm not sure if they're deal-breakers.

Did Olive Town become anybody's favourite installment of Bokumono? Does it have anyone's favourite-ever candidate in it? Best 'this' or 'that'?

I guess I'm just looking for overall opinions now that we have the whoooooole game, DLC and all, and spiffed up according to feedback. This is probably it, now...nothing more to be updated except maybe a few more bug fixes, as they pop up. What's your final opinion based on the game now, and is it much different than on release, or has not much changed, for you? Or did changes come too late and you can't get your interest back to return to the game and try it again?

EDIT: Since I brought up 1.0.7, I just wanted to drop a little PSA. Don't forget that the 'chat camera' feature is NOT turned on when you update your game, or hasn't been for anyone I've seen so far, so you'll have to go into your settings and opt to turn it on.
Last edited by Kikki on Aug 23, 2021 5:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
MADHATTER
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it was a fun experience as a traditional hm/sos game once 1.05 came out. i'm still kind of sad they decided to move on from character portraits in dialogue but if they're going to do the camera thing + expressions going forward that's an adequate tradeoff. i loved the child delivery/genetics system.

my major complaints are now basically limited to the fact that you can't at least put those « Snuggly Bunny » makers indoors and how spare the house customization options were and that there are so few festivals worth going to, but i'm sure japanese fans have put them through the ringer for that already.

i've sure as hell played it more than the fomt remake lmao
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Mikodesu
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I'm very happy for those who got the game and seem to be enjoying it. From the time I've spent reading on the PoOT forum and poking around elsewhere that does seem to be the majority! Which is awesome. The game sold a lot, and seems to be making the majority of the people who bought it happy. I just...don't think it's for me.

I've gotten incredibly picky about how I spend my game time, and for farming sims it's going to be pretty difficult to please me. Either I need something mechanically new/different or I need top tier writing to carry an otherwise bog standard game.

PoOT doesn't seem like a bad game. It's just not different enough to interest me. In English when comparing to Natsume's One World, I think it comes down to if you prefer more polished writing, or more unusual mechanics. The mechanics won out for me. (Especially seeing how the games came out around the same time.)

There's always a chance to play PoOT later, when we're in a farming sim drought and I'm looking for something different. Just not now.
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Even after the updates, I still find that I'm really pushing myself to enjoy this game. Trio of Towns feels like 'more' in every aspect except for the graphics and it really leaves me saddened. Everything just kind of felt half way with this one.

The characters here were interesting, but I don't feel that they were fleshed out enough. The fact that even after getting married, you could get the same line of dialogue that you got from them from the first day of meeting them just feels really off. I also feel that they did minimal work when it came to incorporating the dlc characters into this game (and by that I mean they didn't really incorporate them at all).

I liked the way you tamed the farm animals and slowly unlocked them as the seasons changed.

The no farming festivals really felt like a deal-breaker for me. There wasn't much reason to improve your crops or animals besides the cooking challenges. This is probably the biggest disappointment of the game for me.

The outfits and hairstyles were nice, but I really wish there had been more hairstyles to unlock in game.

The map itself still feels small. Maybe we've been spoiled by trio of towns and all of the areas it had, but pretty much just having a farm and a town left me wanting more.

I really liked having the mine(s) back and the fishing minigame was fun!

As someone who's been playing the games since GBC era, I've always been fully supportive and understanding of the concept of the next game gaining some features and losing some features.
However, I heard someone saying this game felt more like a simplified mobile game of story of seasons rather than a full new console game and I simply haven't been able to get that out of my head yet. I may return to this game in a few months or a year or so once my feelings for it have settled. I really really wish I could have liked this one more
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Ronin19
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Even with all the updates to the game, Pioneers of Olive Town is just above the cusp of my list of, "Never really want to play again," but it's in the list of, "I might get the urge to play again." Some games among that list are Save the Homeland, Island of Happiness, and Magical Melody.

I didn't think the characters were anything special; I've forgotten almost all of the heart events except for one of Jack's that made me realize he's the best guy in the game. The NPCs just felt like they're there, especially your kid. Getting your kid, imo, was suppose to give you a new NPC to talk to and see their personality and events. The kid doesn't really have events, heck, the kid doesn't have a profile on the villager page since they can just disappear if you divorce your spouse. It's also saddening to know that the DLC candidates don't interact with the Olive Town residents, but I'm glad they give people other options if they didn't like Olive Town's marriage candidates.

I will praise the farming though; that felt on par with past titles we've seen lately (minus all the makers that we've made along the way.) Upgrading tools felt just as rewarding in this game as it does in 3oT. I've never done beekeeping or mushroom growing before in any past titles, but those two made me quite a profit. Fruit trees feel great to have and harvest and I'm really glad to have the greenhouse. I'm still not a fan of how they're treating animals now. Breeding being a requirement to get better quality items from animals is not my thing as it takes a lot of time (I think I'd rather go back to giving them treats).

Overall, even with all the updates, I don't think this is a great Bokujou Monogatari game, but I also know I didn't waste my money on this entry as I did enjoy my time in Olive Town and I plan on going through it again with all the updates.
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hanajimaismycat
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Erith wrote:Even after the updates, I still find that I'm really pushing myself to enjoy this game. Trio of Towns feels like 'more' in every aspect except for the graphics and it really leaves me saddened. Everything just kind of felt half way with this one.

The characters here were interesting, but I don't feel that they were fleshed out enough. The fact that even after getting married, you could get the same line of dialogue that you got from them from the first day of meeting them just feels really off. I also feel that they did minimal work when it came to incorporating the dlc characters into this game (and by that I mean they didn't really incorporate them at all).

I liked the way you tamed the farm animals and slowly unlocked them as the seasons changed.

The no farming festivals really felt like a deal-breaker for me. There wasn't much reason to improve your crops or animals besides the cooking challenges. This is probably the biggest disappointment of the game for me.

The outfits and hairstyles were nice, but I really wish there had been more hairstyles to unlock in game.

The map itself still feels small. Maybe we've been spoiled by trio of towns and all of the areas it had, but pretty much just having a farm and a town left me wanting more.

I really liked having the mine(s) back and the fishing minigame was fun!

As someone who's been playing the games since GBC era, I've always been fully supportive and understanding of the concept of the next game gaining some features and losing some features.
However, I heard someone saying this game felt more like a simplified mobile game of story of seasons rather than a full new console game and I simply haven't been able to get that out of my head yet. I may return to this game in a few months or a year or so once my feelings for it have settled. I really really wish I could have liked this one more

This exactly for me. I tried so hard but it was just boring to me after Trio of Towns. If Trio of Towns could have had the mines in PooT, it would have been perfection.
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XxWizardxMollyxX14
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I've slacked off since the 1.0.4 update and haven't really played since. Lately I've been getting an itch to start the game from scratch and see if I enjoy it a bit better with all the new updates. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with the game overall.
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Shan O 123
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I’m still playing, I just haven’t been playing the last few weeks because I was watching Once upon a time lol

Anyway, the game is still fun the tiny fixes or not. Though I have to admit the face closeups are nice
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Ronin19
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So I did try starting a new file over, but I couldn't. I honestly thought because I put so much work into my first file that I can't see myself starting a new one. I just continued my first file and am playing it with all the DLC. I'll admit, the DLC candidates, at least some of them, have improved over their initial appearance imo.

Ludus, Lisette, and Iris have improved since I last met them while I feel that Felicia and Raeger are about the same. I'm surprised that I think Neil's heart events in this iteration hinder his personality to me and I married him in A New Beginning. With that being said, I think Ludus and Raeger are the only guys that might make me consider being married to Jack.

I also loved the extra story DLC and the maker updates a lot. I'm also gonna try and get all the outfits I've got 9 million gold with nothing to really use it on, so I might as well make all the outfits available (even if the white fox DLC outfit is my favorite).
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HM Grammy
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To me there was nothing deal breaking until the credits rolled.
Spoiler:
Why in the world would you make a full day skip? I'm sorry but it makes no sense. I am tempted to go back before I turned in the final town development request and just not fill it. As for the DLC stuff, there was really nothing in there that made it worth it. I would have much rather had Clemens, Lars, and Jacopo as additional bachelors over three bachelors from other games that are located in areas where there is absolutely nothing to do. The fact that the only storage in your house was the refrigerator. . . I got to say, even though I have been buying the SOS games despite not liking any of them this one is has seriously turned me off of buying more. IMO the only thing they did right was not make the game so time dependent. This has been the only one since the SOS series started that I have actually finished the story line but I still doubt I will play it again.
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Now, after all the major updates, this game is finally close to what it should have been at launch. That is kinda sad, imo.
The DLC is pretty much unneeded "fluff". While nice for those who didn't play the earlier games that contained the DLC characters, it's just plain weird to see them in totally different settings for me.

No animal or crop festivals. No harvesting more than one crop at a time. "Murder moles" in the mines, especially the third one.
Three of the nope, no like, for me.

I do like the new Chat Camera and the new event with Mikey and Cindy is very cute :)

To sum it up: is this a good game? Yes. Is it a great one? Not even close.
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Bluie
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As someone who waited for all the updates to be out before even trying to play the game; it's soulless to it's very core. If I wanted to mobile gameplay loop grind, I'd just play a gacha. It feels very much like the devs looked at Stardew Valley and went "Write that down, WRITE THAT DOWN!" and then missed the entire point. What makes Stardew's gameplay loop so fun compared to this is you're not forced sacrifice anything to get what you need/want, but in PoOT, if you want to progress past even the smallest of hurdles, be prepared to wave giant wads of cash around or watch your makers for literal days as they spit out the material you need. I should be able to get what I need WHEN I need it, not get the material and force myself to waste my time to progress.

And then the character events and interactions are just so... flat? I can't even remember a handful of the villagers outside of the marriable ones. There's no point in befriending them unless you want even more flat events. Even in the pacing of said events, it's so odd, like you're not even able to take a breath as one scene leads to the other.

The best thing I can say is that the mining is good, though it's completely bogged down by the fact that when you find a rare jewel, you need to refine it before it's worth « Cow Poopoo ». I don't WANT to have to rely on my makers for EVERYTHING, GOOD LORD. The devs took seamless gameplay from previous entries and bogged them down with worthless « Male Cow Poopoo ». So disappointing.

I'll play the Mineral Town remake a thousand more times before I'd even think of touching this entry again.
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Anna_Lynn
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I've been a fan of the franchise since 2005 and can openly admit that Pioneers of Olive Town is hands down, without a doubt, my least favorite entry in the series. I wish I was joking, but I'm not. :(
Spoiler:
All of the useless grinding to pad out gameplay for the nonexistent story bores me so much! Is there even a story? I remember "beating" the game Summer of year one for crying out loud! Trio of Towns handled this much better with you competing in festivals and raising town ranks to win your Dad's trust; it was a storyline that would take you at least a year to achieve. Even ANB, which has a very similar story concept to PoOT; building up the town from literally nothing, had a wayyyy better handle on its storyline!

There's almost too much freedom in this "farming" game that made me not want to do the one thing you're supposed to do...farm!!! Why own animals, if there is no animal festival. Why grow crops, if there is no crop festival. Why buy clothes, if there is no fashion contest. Why buy furniture if you can't even fully decorate your house with it. Why cook food, if it's going to waste 30 minutes! Characters are all so stale as well. Granted, I haven't played this game since Spring so I'm not entirely sure how much new dialogue was added, but let me just say this; you know it's bad when characters from Magical Melody and Grand Bazaar have more intriguing dialogue, because those characters were blaaaaand.

The praise I have for this game also gets shot down by the predecessor entries in the series. Like for example, the character customization is good...but 3oT still did it better. The crafting/farm decorating is good...but ANB did it better. There's many pets to choose from...but once again, I still feel like 3oT had a more in-depth pet system. The one thing I liked was mining, and even then I didn't even like it that much! The only reason I liked mining, was because it was something new to do that wasn't mediocre at best!

Overall, I'm not happy with this entry one bit, which is actually surprising for me. I really do enjoy all of the HM/SoS games, even the notorious "bad ones" like HMDS, IoH, TLV, GrB, etc. I can look back at the old games and go "Yeah GrB was strange for utilizing a Bazaar mechanic, but it still felt like a SoS game. Yeah SI had weird weather point systems and forced you to unlock islands with sun stones, but it still felt like a SoS game. Yeah SoS had wonky shop systems with vendors and conquests against rival farmers for fields...but it still had that good ol' Marvelous farming genre charm to it! With this game, there just wasn't anything redeeming at all for me since I didn't like the characters, didn't like the dialogue, didn't like the music, didn't like the cooking, didn't like the festivals, there really was no "story," farming and animal mechanics felt like a step down from 3oT, etcetera etcetera.

I'm surprised at how many people do enjoy this game (not saying you can't, if you do love PoOT, that's great!) It's just that for a "new" SoS game (besides FoMT) to come out, it's been 5 years since Trio of Towns and this was the finished product??? Truly underwhelming imo. I just can't get over the fact that I payed $80 for this, full game and DLC pass. I don't even feel like I'm playing a good ol' Marvelous farming game anymore, but rather some random kickstarter farming sim that wouldn't be priced no more than $15 on Steam. :(
(I put my thoughts in a spoiler because I think I wrote too much) :lol:
I really, REALLY pray that future entries in the SoS series are better than PoOT because if this is the direction the franchise is going in after all these years...then big yikes imo.
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I haven't played PoOT in months, so I haven't experienced the updates yet. Whenever I get PoOT and OW back from my brother, I am planning on giving the game another try for the sake of the updates, but to be honest, it sounds much more appealing to to play OW again instead. I have listed a number of grievances I had with the game in prior threads, echoing the sentiments of previous posters here, but the biggest disappointments to me have not been addressed with the updates. There are no farming related competitions whatsoever, crop or animal, which takes away the point of the game for me. If I want a game I can putter around aimlessly in, Animal Crossing is more appealing. I mean, it's not a terrible game, it's ok, but not really like the previous games were. It's more like it's one of those copycat farming sims.

I do still intend to give the DLC a try at least since I wasted my money on it sight unseen. After that I will probably trade it toward getting the Pokemon Arceus game or something.
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Honestly, I stopped playing in May after finishing the main story and getting married, and I don't really have a strong opinion on the game. I don't think it's good, but it wasn't the worst thing I've played this year. (Though, to be fair, the worst game I played this year is One World and it'd be very hard to beat that. )

It's just sort of... there. It's bland, it's not very memorable. I don't remember many of the characters or much about the story. As someone who prefers the older games, I don't think there needs to be extensive dialogue or story for the game to be good, but the core of the game wasn't there either - there was no farming to distract from the lack of story and no story to distract from the lack of farming. Everything also felt really safe and sanitised with no sense of melancholy that older SoS towns used to carry. It's really obvious Olive Town was visually based off of Harmonica Town from Animal Parade, but the best thing about Animal Parade was watching the characters and town slowly come back to life as you restored them. I think one of the newer Olive Town updates lets you like... see the fancy new lampposts you install? I guess? But that's a very different experience.

I might play it again to see the updates, and there are definitely things I like about the game. The fact that it's the first mainline SoS game with same gender marriage is pretty important to me, and I actually think the art design decisions are going in the right direction after the FoMT remake (though I wish there was more texture and soft lighting... bring me back my muted AP colours... ) I just wish it had been more fun to play.
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