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.
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PaleSunflower
Custodian of Corn
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Post  Posted:

I really miss being able to buy things outright. Using supplies to make a building or outfit instead of paying full price is fine. Being forced to hoard materials and build everything from scratch, especially when it doesn't make much sense, isn't fun for me at all. To give an example, what kind of tailor shop never has any clothing or fabrics in stock and exclusively sells patterns? Is it even a proper tailor shop at that point? I feel the same towards the carpenter's never having any lumber to use for construction projects and demanding that the buyer supply everything. I can understand those shops having a limit on what can be made on the spot, but they should be able to order any missing materials to build at at later date instead. Sometimes, the player character directly participates in the construction and still has to pay top dollar plus providing supplies! I get that there's only one shop of its kind in the local area, and therefore each one has a monopoly going on whatever it sells, but still!

(Not to mention, these shops never having any supplies to make anything raises questions on how they got anything done before the protagonist moved into town. Maybe that's part of why these towns usually are in decline before the protagonist's intervention. Bizarrely, the restaurants never seem to have these sort of supply problems; that is, there hasn't been a game to my knowledge where you have to provide the restaurant with ingredients or else they won't cook anything or have any food in stock.)

I guess I also miss not having to hoard everything in great quantities. I'm a video-game-packrat anyway, but I don't like how some of the newer games require hoarding random sticks, stones, and garbage (cans and boots) in order to get something. Sometimes, the games require multiple stacks of these things to get things built, and it makes me paranoid to sell anything without referencing a guide.

There is also the issue of one of the newer animal systems, where you have to breed generations of and sell animals (or watch them die) in order to win some contests. I can't remember whether SoS:PoOT used this system, but it's part of what turned me off from trying SoS:FoMT. I grow a bit too attached to my animals to get rid of them like that, and I generally don't play long enough to watch multiple generations of animals die just to win some contest. I liked the animals being good enough to win the hardest contest from the get-go as long as you took good enough care of them.

I think it was SoS:PoOT that changed cooking so it would take forever and no longer be profitable, but I preferred when it didn't. Being able to improvise recipes like in HM:AWL was also nice.
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Mabbie
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Post  Posted:

PaleSunflower wrote: Apr 19, 2023 1:07 amBeing able to improvise recipes like in HM:AWL was also nice.
I miss this. Trying new and experimental things in the kitchen! Not just "here, use this recipe" -_-'

About the animal breeding... I'm on year 5 in FoMT and haven't won a single moomoo or sheep festival yet... I've done simply everything I could have done on the game and still have to play for months on end to win one single freaking festival in order to get my trophy. That's just ridiculous.
Last edited by Mabbie on Apr 19, 2023 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Mabbie
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Sorry for the double post!
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PaleSunflower
Custodian of Corn
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Mabbie wrote: Apr 19, 2023 7:51 amAbout the animal breeding... I'm on year 5 in FoMT and haven't won a single moomoo or sheep festival yet... I've done simply everything I could have done on the game and still have to play for months on end to win one single freaking festival in order to get my trophy. That's just ridiculous.
Cher's guide mentions it. The full line there is "You can obtain animals that have more than 5 hearts of friendship via animal breeding." Animals will struggle to win contests, because they apparently are incapable of liking the protagonists enough, no matter what the protagonist does. On top of that, the heart increase is 1 per generation. so you need to breed at least 5 generations of animals to get to 10 hearts, which all animals were capable of in previous games without the animal breeding mechanic at all. It feels a lot like unnecessary padding.

Also, looking around to make sure that I wasn't wrong about the system means I found out that messed up something. Animals apparently cannot die or get sick in SoS:FoMT, so you have to sell them off in order to have the room in the barn to be able to breed to 10 hearts. Again, since I tend to get attached to my animals, I hate this system.

I hope you're able to win one of those contests one day. It is ridiculous that you've played 5 years of those contents with no victories.
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JustABeautifulGuy
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Post  Posted:

This is rather slightly off topic but I honestly miss them reinventing the wheel with each new title.

I've been a huge fan of the Story of Seasons series and I’ve been always looking forward to the next installment. However, after the FoMT remake, I feel as if my excitement is fading away. I know it's an exaggeration but this series always felt like it was evolving. But during the Switch cycle, I feel as if the things have remained rather stagnant. With competitors adding so many new fun things to this genre, Marvelous is sort of stuck in this phase where they're trying to figure out what works.

Since Natsume is still carrying on with the story aspect for their games, I guess apart from that I really miss these features:

1. Rival marriages. Very obvious but I seriously liked the fact that characters other than me had romantic dynamics as well. Rival kids were a nice addition too back when there were very few kids around to hang around with my children.

2. A town that feels like a community. PoOT had so many villager events which I really liked but outside that, they seriously felt like strangers to me. They would barely talk about others, share their secrets, etc.

3. An exploration area between the farm and the town. I seriously hate how our farm was connected to the town with a loading screen in PoOT. I want to walk to the town by myself.

4. Good festivals like the ones in 64 and BTN.

5. 3OT's endless dialogue. I know more = good isn't always good but seriously they pulled this aspect off very well. I feel like dialogues is one thing that does benefit from added content given that quality is kept in check.

6. Animal Parade's artstyle. I think it was the perfect balance between a simplistic and detailed look.
fizzly
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JustABeautifulGuy wrote: May 05, 2023 4:08 pm This is rather slightly off topic but I honestly miss them reinventing the wheel with each new title.

I've been a huge fan of the Story of Seasons series and I’ve been always looking forward to the next installment. However, after the FoMT remake, I feel as if my excitement is fading away. I know it's an exaggeration but this series always felt like it was evolving. But during the Switch cycle, I feel as if the things have remained rather stagnant. With competitors adding so many new fun things to this genre, Marvelous is sort of stuck in this phase where they're trying to figure out what works.

Since Natsume is still carrying on with the story aspect for their games, I guess apart from that I really miss these features:

1. Rival marriages. Very obvious but I seriously liked the fact that characters other than me had romantic dynamics as well. Rival kids were a nice addition too back when there were very few kids around to hang around with my children.

2. A town that feels like a community. PoOT had so many villager events which I really liked but outside that, they seriously felt like strangers to me. They would barely talk about others, share their secrets, etc.

3. An exploration area between the farm and the town. I seriously hate how our farm was connected to the town with a loading screen in PoOT. I want to walk to the town by myself.

4. Good festivals like the ones in 64 and BTN.

5. 3OT's endless dialogue. I know more = good isn't always good but seriously they pulled this aspect off very well. I feel like dialogues is one thing that does benefit from added content given that quality is kept in check.

6. Animal Parade's artstyle. I think it was the perfect balance between a simplistic and detailed look.
Absolutely agree with you in every single point!
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Burning Spear
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Post  Posted:

I would say I most miss the charm of the older games. They made me smile; made me happy. PoOT's dialogue was seemingly written by AI. Like, "Hey, ChatGPT, what should a mayor say to a farmer?" The characters, rather than quirky and lovable, now seem contrived and shallow.
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Tomokocchi
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As others have said, rival marriages and children. Would like to see the other villagers in the town start families of their own. Definitely a missed opportunity in the remake of A Wonderful Life.

Animals no longer being able to get sick/die. I hate that they basically removed any consequences for not taking care of your animals aside from getting some lower quality products. The series has always been more of a laid back casual experience but you were still supposed to be given some level of responsibility. My first game in the series was Harvest Moon 64 and my first animal was a chicken I had named Ginger. I was neglectful in taking care of her and, well, she died. Her grave remains in the cemetery as a stark reminder of my carelessness. But in her death I learned to take proper care of my animals to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
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Mabbie
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Tomokocchi wrote: Jul 09, 2023 9:23 am As others have said, rival marriages and children. Would like to see the other villagers in the town start families of their own. Definitely a missed opportunity in the remake of A Wonderful Life.

Animals no longer being able to get sick/die. I hate that they basically removed any consequences for not taking care of your animals aside from getting some lower quality products. The series has always been more of a laid back casual experience but you were still supposed to be given some level of responsibility. My first game in the series was Harvest Moon 64 and my first animal was a chicken I had named Ginger. I was neglectful in taking care of her and, well, she died. Her grave remains in the cemetery as a stark reminder of my carelessness. But in her death I learned to take proper care of my animals to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
I remember the very first time a chicken died in my farm. It was in BTN, she was in a dark color at the animals status, and I thought she was from a different breed LOL. Silly me.
RodCopper Fishin
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JustABeautifulGuy wrote: May 05, 2023 4:08 pm This is rather slightly off topic but I honestly miss them reinventing the wheel with each new title.

I've been a huge fan of the Story of Seasons series and I’ve been always looking forward to the next installment. However, after the FoMT remake, I feel as if my excitement is fading away. I know it's an exaggeration but this series always felt like it was evolving. But during the Switch cycle, I feel as if the things have remained rather stagnant. With competitors adding so many new fun things to this genre, Marvelous is sort of stuck in this phase where they're trying to figure out what works.

Since Natsume is still carrying on with the story aspect for their games, I guess apart from that I really miss these features:

1. Rival marriages. Very obvious but I seriously liked the fact that characters other than me had romantic dynamics as well. Rival kids were a nice addition too back when there were very few kids around to hang around with my children.

2. A town that feels like a community. PoOT had so many villager events which I really liked but outside that, they seriously felt like strangers to me. They would barely talk about others, share their secrets, etc.

3. An exploration area between the farm and the town. I seriously hate how our farm was connected to the town with a loading screen in PoOT. I want to walk to the town by myself.

4. Good festivals like the ones in 64 and BTN.

5. 3OT's endless dialogue. I know more = good isn't always good but seriously they pulled this aspect off very well. I feel like dialogues is one thing that does benefit from added content given that quality is kept in check.

6. Animal Parade's artstyle. I think it was the perfect balance between a simplistic and detailed look.
Agreeing with all of this, especially 5. 3oT dialogue is truly top tier. I particularly love the dialogues that continue over multiple days. Rune Factory 4 dialogue does similar things. It goes a long way in making the community feel alive.
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