What do you miss?

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.
RodCopper Fishin
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Post  Posted:

So, I see more and more people on the forum saying they miss the way the games used to be, it’s not the same anymore, they wish they could go back, etc. It seems to me that PoOT was the final straw for a lot of fans. I know I myself am extremely disheartened by this newest entry in a lot of ways. I want to hear specific things that you miss about the old games, and how it’s different in the newer entries. I’m hoping to nail down exactly what’s on people’s minds. I miss:

1. Interesting, mysterious, and fleshed out candidates. Mysterious like Keira or Skye for example. Interesting and fleshed out like the 64, BtN, and FoMT crowd. They were so cool because they were all extremely different from each other. They also didn’t fit into tropes like cookie cutters. I feel like now we have the tsundere, the bookworm, the foodie, the animal lover, and so on. But it wasn’t like that at first.

2. The general vibe of not everything being vanilla rainbows and smiles. I think Forget Me Not Valley captures this the best, but there used to be almost a melancholy at times. Even in the not melancholy times, it wasn’t so forcefully happy that it felt juvenile. I first sensed some of this creeping in when ANB was released.

3. The simplicity of no crafting. Just gathering wood and making money. Not having to make everything yourself. I get overwhelmed.

Anyway, just my thoughts. I’d love to hear what you think.
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Anna_Lynn
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Post  Posted:

Rival marriage. Here's a way to make both sides happy: put a toggle in the options for yes/no to trigger the rival events.

I'd say special marriage candidates, but technically they're still a thing, albeit hid behind a paywall, like Stephanie and Woofio or literally any of PoOT's DLC. But I would love to see more challenging candidates made to woo, similar to Inari, the Harvest « Harvest Goddess » & Goddess, Kappa, Gourmet, Keira, Leia, Witch Princess, etc. Or even having a normal candidate who requires ridiculously expensive things like Lily from SI.

I particularly agree with the crafting. I don't mind the hoarding part, but forcing the player to craft everything from barns to machines to tools...what's the point in even having a blacksmith and carpenter at that point?

I miss when there weren't so many animals. I started to notice with ToTT, but ANB is when it really got out of hand. Nothing was ever as wild as SoS though; 3 types of cows, 3 chickens, technically 7 types of "sheep", and 2 rabbit colors.

I miss iconic town places like the church and library. Or rather, I don't specifically miss them, but noticed their lack of appearance in newer games. Sometimes even a doctor and the clinic is missing too!

Too words. Hot springs.

Harvest/Nature sprites. Especially if they have personality like in SoS, then combine that with the usefulness of their magical abilities and they'd be perfect.

Cooking...but good. And free. I hate collecting recipes at a high price. I think IoH and SI handled recipe collecting really well. When the newer games force you to know a recipe to cook a meal, but sometimes they're locked behind a random festival prize, that's what bothers me. Paying ridiculous prices for recipes also bothers me.
Chelle-fish
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Post  Posted:

I miss feeling like the villages belong to that world. In BTN, everyone intermingled in some way and they knew each other. It felt like a real community you were getting to know. Everything these days just feels un-thought out and just added without meaning.
anony
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Post  Posted:

Ditto on the crafting. All the makers make me frustrated and not want to continue because then it feels like Micromanaging: The Game. I also miss the dinginess of the older games :(
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Bluie
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Post  Posted:

Hero of Leaf Valley fishing and mining.
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FarmingForDaysMan
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Post  Posted:

I miss rival marriages and rival children. There’s something lonely about the fact that you’re the only person in your community that’s making big life changes such as getting married and expanding your family. To be frank, I miss Animal Parade and Tree of Tranquility 😂
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Mabbie
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Post  Posted:

Rival children... that brings back such nostalgia from Animal Parade, which was my favorite HM of all times. Rival marriage, special lines when you showed people your kids or pets.

Bachelorettes themes, my heart would burst everytime I got caught on a heart event that I wasn't expecting on BTN.

Back then everything was new, new features, new bachelors and bachelorettes, long and meaningful heart events and random events... everything now is so bland. Bland lines, short and shallow heart events. I'm not even thrilled about the new Harvest Moon, maybe a little about the new Story of Seasons, but still.....
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Chaos_44
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Post  Posted:

1. As mentioned by basically everyone: rival marriages. Namely from 64 and ESPECIALLY Animal Parade, with the latter being great for more grown-up rival kids and "forcing" you to play the game for longer to befriend the rivals to get married. M/FOMT did a good job with that point too; I always wanted to play until at least year 4 to get to see all the rival marriages.

2. High-quality festivals. I always point to 64 for this one because the more romantic or townspeople-centric events were always so good (Flower Festival with the Goddess voting and dancing, Spirit Festival with the potential to play with a friend or play with your friends, etc.) and the interactive ones events like the Egg Festival were fun every year. Animal Parade is actually a good instance of a newer game that had great festivals too.

3. High-quality heart events. It was exciting that POOT gave us one event per heart level (with some being specific to being in a relationship), but... they were pretty bland. Even though 64's followed a formula of "sick event, dream event, broken ankle event, etc" they were all SOOOOOO sweet to see. The M/FOMT heart events are pretty iconic, and I recall even really enjoying the heart events from a game as recent as SOS. So I know they have it in them... but we need them back.

4. Simplified game mechanics. I've been tired of the "more = good" mentality games have had for many years now, and got really sick of it in this series starting with SOS. The unnecessary amount of things you need to get clothes, the 100s of options of farm animals, the 1000s of options of crops, etc. POOT seemed slightly on track to getting back with that with more simplified aspects but then they added ANNOYING mechanics like the makers instead, so that was fun. I don't quite need the "no ores, just use your tool a certain amount of times to upgrade it" super simple mechanics like 64, but these things for me don't make me want to keep playing for extra time even though it seems like that's the intent, since you wouldn't be able to get a certain piece of clothing until year 3 for example.

5. Atmosphere. Sometimes I love to just wander around in buildings I don't visit very often or parts of a town in these games when I have a day in the games like "well I don't really want to talk to villagers today after farm tasks idk what to do" and they can be really cute ways to feel connected with the in-game town. Finding a cute letter a villager wrote to someone in another town if you explore their house, finding an uncommon item you can forage in a deeper part of the woods, etc. I feel like most of the newer games take these away for more character-driven ways to make the town feel more like a home for the player... but the games should have both and have in the past had both!

6. Fun storylines. The "parent evaluation" of the farm after a few years, the saving the Goddess plots, the plot-specific driven games like StH, the random plots (like SOSTOT if I remember correctly) are all always super fun! POOT's plot was probably easily the worst in the series so I hope they stray away from that as much as possible.

Mind you there are a lot of things I like, even love, in the newer games like the wider customization options, same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage, etc. But it's fun to think about what specifically I miss from the older games!
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simside
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Post  Posted:

A few folks have mentioned:

- I dislike the makers and complicated crafting. :( Not a fan. I'd rather making/collecting something be time-consuming, rather than an inventory/resource puzzle.
- I miss some of the darker subplots and cutscenes.
- I also miss the overarching deadlines and goals you'd see in the very old games. I like the open-ended style we get now, but I loved having a goal to work toward story-wise. Doraemon SoS and HM will scratch this itch in modern times, but it's an itch I love scratching.
- I've been missing the rival marriage candidates more and more.

I like the new games plenty, but my heart always sort of wants the simplicity of Harvest Moon GB. I miss you, peanut crop!
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AloneInTheDark
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Post  Posted:

I agree with what other people have said already; rival marriages and children, some of the really fun and creative events, leitmotifs for every love interest, deadlines and "endgame" goals.

To highlight things I miss that are kind of unique to some entries; I miss the overall feeling of nostalgia present in HM64 and BTN, how you could bond with the bachelorettes over childhood memories and kind of "reconnect" with them that way, and reconnecting with nature too in a way. I miss the way villagers would grow older along with you in AWL, and the really ambitious system present with raising your kids, the way their interests would vary and their personalities varied depending on what you'd do and who you'd marry. Kind of miss collecting sprites in HMDS also! It made milestones feel important and special, and encouraged you to try many different things some players maybe wouldn't usually try. HMDS also had an abundance of really fun and interesting scenes between the villagers, made the valley feel more alive to see everyone having a dynamic that didn't involve the player character. I miss the overall style present in AP and ToT, I know those are the only entries in the series where a different artist was put in charge as far as I know, but I hope we get to see them make a comeback someday.

But most of all? I miss the tomato festival! I used to cross my fingers for it to make a comeback with every entry, but I've given up by now haha.
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Mabbie
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Post  Posted:

AloneInTheDark wrote: Apr 01, 2023 2:01 pm But most of all? I miss the tomato festival! I used to cross my fingers for it to make a comeback with every entry, but I've given up by now haha.
LOL, the tomato festival! hahaha I remember that

From all the festivals, the one I miss the most is the Harvest Goddess festival. It was so cute to see all the girls dressed as Goddess and dancing.
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FarmingForDaysMan
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Post  Posted:

I loved all of the festivals in Animal Parade (totally not my favorite game *cough*). There were so many things to do at the festivals—entering a contest of course, socializing, rooting for your pals in a race if you’re not competing, browsing through vendors, and taking pictures, of course! If I remember correctly (I gave my AP copy to my cousin before he moved to Indonesia *sob*), in a couple festivals there were fun cutouts. I think? Maybe it was just the animal festival but I also might just be delirious.

I just miss Animal Parade waHhHhHh
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Mabbie
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Post  Posted:

FarmingForDaysMan wrote: Apr 03, 2023 10:15 am I just miss Animal Parade waHhHhHh
Me too ;-; my favourite HM.
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Anonymous Fish

Post  Posted:

I know that other people have said this a lot but here goes:
Cooking: I want cook with/out recipe back!! The amount of recipes has been disappointing, and purchasing them is awful. Even doing tasks to get them is awful. Thee used to be unique recipes like vichyoisse (ik I spelled that wrong) and caprese salad... Even in DS(C) it took work and effort to make a decent dish
Harvest sprites: even in the Natsume games, all the Harvest Sprites do like nothing. Again, I'm an oldie, I loved the DS titles (except maybe IoH, but I'm getting adjusted) they had character
Uniqueness / character: Make the marriage candidates non-stereotypical. In each new SoS or Natsume game, they are "cookie cutter" type. And don't get me started on the nameless NPCs in OW. Muffy from DS had character, the M/FOMT candidates were great, the characters in GB and ToTT had individual stories.
And, no crafting. That's obnoxious.
I just wish DS games were still made. Anyone else feel this way?
Boogle
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Post  Posted:

^^(Posted by me, I forgot to log in)^^
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