How much fantasy do you like in the series?

SNES, HM64, BTN, STH, A Wonderful Life, Another Wonderful Life, AWL:SE, Magical Melody, Puzzle de HM, Tree of Tranquility, Animal Parade, Frantic Farming, Hero of Leaf Valley, My Little Shop, Seeds of Memories, Lil' Farmers, Light of Hope, Popolocrois: SoS, and Doraemon: SoS.
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Anonymous Fish

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I've seen it mentioned that the series has upped the fantasy since the beginning. I think DS was the turning point? Ever since WP, more elements have popped up. We have lots of witches/wizards, the sprites and goddesses are more important to the story, etc.

Personally, I like the magic to be background filler like in the first few games. There's weirdness like little sprites in the mountain and random fairies, but it's not a big deal and you can avoid those characters if you want.
CallieCat
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I honestly don’t care, even if there are more fantasy aspects it is not detrimental to the series. Besides a lot of indie farming sims are starting to lean towards fantasy and magic elements. It just seems like the current trend for this genre these days and it isn’t exclusive to this series.

Even Stardew Valley, which is often praised as a return to the “good old days” of Harvest Moon has just as many of those elements the newer games have. You have a wizard and a witch, with the latter giving you fantasy chickens and the option to use magic for things like erasing your ex spouse’s memory and turning your kids into doves. The little Junimo nature sprites play a big role in the community center plot. You have shadow people and a mine filled with monsters to slay with swords and various other weapons.

As I said before it doesn’t bother me as long as it isn’t intrusive or immersion breaking.
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Kikki
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I'm ambivalent. It would depend on the game. Fantasy is super necessary to the Rune Factory games, for example. To me it is, anyway. But too much of it can make a bokumono game feel a bit weird and off-kilter. It would depend on the setting and story they gave. If the setting made sense for lots of magical or fantasy elements, great! But at that point I think it'd start feeling more like RF than mainline Bokumono. I like them equally, but differently.
CallieCat
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Kikki wrote:I'm ambivalent. It would depend on the game. Fantasy is super necessary to the Rune Factory games, for example. To me it is, anyway. But too much of it can make a bokumono game feel a bit weird and off-kilter. It would depend on the setting and story they gave. If the setting made sense for lots of magical or fantasy elements, great! But at that point I think it'd start feeling more like RF than mainline Bokumono. I like them equally, but differently.
My feelings exactly. I prefer to judge a game by its individual merit instead of what "era" it came from. Theme is a big importance. If a game's premise is to be more serious and grounded then adding fantasy and magic would definitely be detrimental. However, if a game is supposed to be more light hearted and whimsical then it would be more acceptable.

However in general as long as it doesn't go too far, like sacrificing the farming aspects to make the fantasy aspects front and center or ditching the rural modern day setting, then it's fine.
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bara_no_uta
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I've seen people say that too, but I'm not sure whether I agree. There are definitely some games where that is the case, like MM and AP come to mind (not including Return to Popolocrois), but for the most part I think it's about the same. Even back in HM64, there was the HG (not a big role), Kappa (needed for the blue power berry), sprites (needed for a power berry and to restore the vineyard), and the Keifu fairies (restoring the vineyard). BtN less so, but then (M)FoMT has the sprites which can help on your farm, HG who is marriageable, and Kappa who is marriageable. In fact, in HMGB, the second installment, there are a handful of things that can't be obtained without befriending the sprites who live behind/under your tool shed. I think most of the games have a handful of magical elements/characters, like HG (or Dessie) or Inari, but I don't see it as playing a particularly big role.

Anyway. Personally I really like the fantasy elements and tend to look for them sometimes. I don't really like having monsters to fight like the mines in DS or in RF, or having "moomoos" or whatever instead of regular cows. But I do find myself usually leaning toward the magical bachelorettes a lot of the time (e.g. WP, Marina, Oracle), and I like having the magical elements in the storyline (e.g., MM, DS). So maybe that's part of me having the above perspective, too.
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copernicusmaximus
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I actually really like the religious motifs that go with the magic, it justifies a lot of the magical elements and characters. Thematically it's really nice that the "blessed" character is the one with the most respect for the land, too, since you're always implied to be a good farmer, and you're usually the only one who can see and hear the magical beings.

I wish there was more discussion about the rituals of reverence tbh. Like in Trio you know each deity that goes to each town and you know that the townsfolk respect them but they could've added more specifics to each town's "religion" (and they could've added places of worship too). I would've also appreciated a little bit more backstory on Gale and Vivi in AP and how witches and wizards relate to gods and goddesses (like we're sure Gale and Vivi have extended lifespans but why and to what degree? Are they as strong as the Goddess? Or the Harvest « Harvest Goddess »?) but that's also cuz I love them a lot lol.

I think I like the magic more when it isn't divorced from the religious side honestly, since that gives it a more rustic feel vs just a straight up fantasy being that is disconnected from the town culture.
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Mikodesu
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As somebody who grew up in the HM64 era...I need a little fantasy in my Bokumono.

How you classify fantasy is definitely important though. The older games displayed something more classic to Japan - deities watching over the land, 'monsters' like Kappa, etc. The new has gone more obviously Western.

Personally I prefer the old - I've been wondering why that is from reading everyone's posts... In part I think it fits better with my personal concept of small towns. When I was growing up one set of grandparents lived on a farm, the other in a very very small town. Small towns are weird. They have old, persistent rumors about buildings or ponds or parts of main street. I think part of it comes from the old addage of "write what you know". Maybe it's just me but the older games still feel like they come from a particular set of living memories.

That's not to say I dislike the new games. There's nothing wrong with a witch here or there. But any more than that and I'd rather they just make a new Rune Factory game instead... :shifty:
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Mikodesu wrote:As somebody who grew up in the HM64 era...I need a little fantasy in my Bokumono.

How you classify fantasy is definitely important though. The older games displayed something more classic to Japan - deities watching over the land, 'monsters' like Kappa, etc. The new has gone more obviously Western.

Personally I prefer the old - I've been wondering why that is from reading everyone's posts... In part I think it fits better with my personal concept of small towns. When I was growing up one set of grandparents lived on a farm, the other in a very very small town. Small towns are weird. They have old, persistent rumors about buildings or ponds or parts of main street. I think part of it comes from the old addage of "write what you know". Maybe it's just me but the older games still feel like they come from a particular set of living memories.

That's not to say I dislike the new games. There's nothing wrong with a witch here or there. But any more than that and I'd rather they just make a new Rune Factory game instead... :shifty:
I think a lot of people would like for them to make another Rune Factory game though tbh. :lol:
(RF5 being teased about being made in the future and dropped kinda has killed any hope I have for that at least though.)

I think part of what makes it feel more or less fantasy has to do with how much they tie it to religion/normal everyday, to an extent at least. The fact that Witch Princess was hardly shown doing much of any magic, and was allowed as a candidate, I think softened her supernatural/fantasy elements somewhat. Deities are worshiped and protectors, and not what people generally think of as full on fantasy elements. The fact that sprites were tied to them I think contributed to the softening of the fantasy aspects of them as well. This is all speculation though.

If they were to add more 'loud' fantasy elements (merfolk, phoenix, monsters, etc) I think it'd be more noticeable because they aren't already established in elements that are considered more 'normal everyday life'. There are definitely things I'd love to see (and have) in RF games that wouldn't mesh as well in the mainline games. Which makes the lack of RF games all the more unfortunate in some ways. I'd love to see some more 'fantastical' candidates, but honestly I must admit that they wouldn't work so well in a mainline game. As much as I'd love to see them.

Sometimes I'd prefer a more fantasy environment, but it wouldn't work for the mainline that they have established. I think so far they've managed to keep a good mix/balance. (Fae and deities are fairly common elements to the point you see them everywhere in media of less fantastical settings, so they aren't all that odd. They even make it to where most people can't see them, another point that makes everything seem a bit more normal I think.)
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Mikodesu
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Hm, true. It does at least help to tie things like witches or mermaids to science or religion. I think I just prefer folklore to religion. The line between the two IS pretty blurry from a Japanese Shinto perspective, though. :? Maybe it's the way the witches and such have been written or designed - they seem like they would be more at home in a fantasy setting than a modern "reality" based one. (At least to me.)

And yeah, I'm with you on Rune Factory. That was more of a...HINT HINT ehem ehem. I'd also agree there's no real sense getting our hopes up just yet. We can get excited again when the time comes.

I definitely wouldn't mind a combat free indie fantasy Harvest Moon, though. It doesn't fit the way the games have been, but it could still be a pretty fun game - and definitely something I'd love to see. :)
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Fantasy is fine, so long as it isn't the Harvest Sprites. I hate the really childish aspects of the series, so of course that would include those guys. They aren't interesting or cute or cool, and I'm not even sure that kids would like them. They're just there, existing to be lighthearted and weird.

Besides that, I'm fine with fantasy stuff. So long as it's executed well, it's good.
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SheyenneThunderstorm
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Anonymous Fish wrote:I've seen it mentioned that the series has upped the fantasy since the beginning. I think DS was the turning point? Ever since WP, more elements have popped up. We have lots of witches/wizards, the sprites and goddesses are more important to the story, etc.

Personally, I like the magic to be background filler like in the first few games. There's weirdness like little sprites in the mountain and random fairies, but it's not a big deal and you can avoid those characters if you want.
I’m going say this. It doesn’t bug me one bit.
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Robinstar
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As long as Bokumono doesn’t transform itself into Rune Factory, since I want to be getting both separately, then I’m fine with the fantasy elements. I need a little weird. I don’t think they’ve gone too far yet. It’s existed since the beginning, and while it has increased some, pretty much everything about the games has increased since the first couple. The only thing that’s stood out as odd so far was fighting the things in the mines in DS. Like, was there ever any explanation for why those things were even there?

Anyway, the magical candidates are always fascinating whether I want to marry them or not, which I often do, so I definitely want those to stay. Since the other human characters can’t usually see them, it’s not really too fantasy-ish. It’s not common in that world to socialize with gods and witches.

There’s something I really liked about how one of these character were handled in the old ones though. I liked how the Original Goddess took the role of the fairy in the story about the woodcutter. That story was told to me so many times as a tiny thing. I wouldn’t mind something else similar to that. I guess they’ve still sort of been doing that with the Kappa and Inari, who were both already things a Japanese person would be familiar with. I wonder if the Witch Princess is connected to something I don’t know about instead of just being a random witch?
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