Does not being able to marry Olivia pissed you off?

[Guest]

Why are the developers even allowed to do this kind of teasing? Olivia is definitely one of the most beautiful characters in this game only behind the Witch Princess and Felicity. What was Marvelous thinking? Do they realize this kind of stunt can piss off potential buyers especially otakus who has a reputation of boycotting games especially with the whole Olivia is already taken BS and even if she is why aren't we allowed to NTR her from her non-existent fiance? They did the same thing with Alisa in IoH/SI and the only thing it does is piss off more fans. I remember they tried to pull the same « Puppy Doodoo » in Hometown Story by not allowing to marry characters like Sue, Midori, Lily, Yumi, Clarissa, Helena, and most especially the beautiful Lamisa and the result is that game flopped as a lot of people won't buy a game where they can't marry the characters they planned to marry. The developers needs to understand that a huge portion who buys Harvest Moon/Rune Factory/Hometown Story games are not just for the gameplay but also for the ability to date and get married, why do you think Save the Homeland and Innocent Life flopped so hard? It's because they didn't have marriage and they want marriage so that they could marry the characters they like or feel attracted to. Honestly, if ANB didn't have Witch Princess or Felicity I wouldn't buy this game. It's really sad that tease characters like Olivia and Alisa had to exist in order to give people false hopes.

[B7N]

Yes, I think this rant illustrates the reason why Harvest Moon isn't Harvest Moon anymore, and how the name change could be better explained as a symbolic transition than something to do with intellectual property.

These days you see people (largely female players) anticipating who to marry on the next HM installment, and that's starting to become a top priority for the fandom to the point it fills entire sections of comments, this amongst other things which are more or less out of the main context of the game, I mean fashion parades? are you serious? it's not a lie to say that the Bokumono games are now a full fledged family sim, a little digital rendition of kids playing house, and hey, I'm not saying this is a bad thing per se, but I can tell you that this sort of rabid marital fanaticism wasn't part of the HM fanbase a while back.

This has been happening just recently, and I really think it shows the fact that the concept of farming and countryside goodness of the early titles has really failed to appeal the new generation of players, they're literally claiming that the games should be turned upside down to please their views of the world rather than taking them for what they are.

Ironically, the snob for the new tendencies can weight on a game that is essentially about traditional stereotypes and pre-modern era nostalgia.

[Mabbie]

Geez, calm down Fishie. I wish I could marry Mary's father in BTN, people want to marry Pierre, Eileen and Ayame in ToT and so on. Sadly, we have to choose amongst the possible options~

[Frstsg]

Is it really an issue? Just because she's a woman and she's attractive, doesn't mean she should be automatically available for you to marry. She could already be married, be gay, be a widow and still grieving... there are any number of scenarios in which she wouldn't want to date someone, it isn't like she has a massively developed back story that we know of.

[CinnamonToast]

Olivia mentions in the game itself that she has a fiancé.

Perhaps this is a great real world message that just because you want someone doesn't mean they are available.

[Meriberry]

Learn to live with disappointment, fishie, that happens in real life all the time. This is what makes guides like Cher's so useful, they TELL you who you can marry, and who you can't, so there's no extra mental fuss about it. Is it sad, sure. But it can be gotten over. And there's no harm in pining for what you can't have, just.... realize that it's not entirely a healthy attitude to cultivate. Not every person is there for you to date.

To address the other point, society has changed MASSIVELY from when teh first Harvest Moon games were released, and there's also the fact that the original creator no longer works on them, so they are turning into fairly generic, grinding games. But this does not make them terrible. Some people have more fun with certain things simplified.

Me, I like complicated, but I don't like grindy. But that doesn't mean I don't still love the series. As fans we are allowed to be critical, and still love that which we are critical of. And maybe if we're critical enough, our voices get heard, and they'll take that opinion into account. Or they won't. But we can only wait and see.

Very zen, very zen.

[Frstsg]

Olivia mentions in the game itself that she has a fiancé.

Perhaps this is a great real world message that just because you want someone doesn't mean they are available.

There we go, she has a good reason for being unavailable, and that's actually what I was getting at with the real world message part of your post. It's like this whole friend zone rubbish, just because you're nice to someone, it doesn't mean that they are in any way obligated to have romantic feelings towards you, whether because she is already taken, or because she just doesn't want that for whatever reason.

To address the other point, society has changed MASSIVELY from when teh first Harvest Moon games were released, and there's also the fact that the original creator no longer works on them, so they are turning into fairly generic, grinding games. But this does not make them terrible. Some people have more fun with certain things simplified.

Me, I like complicated, but I don't like grindy. But that doesn't mean I don't still love the series. As fans we are allowed to be critical, and still love that which we are critical of. And maybe if we're critical enough, our voices get heard, and they'll take that opinion into account. Or they won't. But we can only wait and see.

Very zen, very zen.

I completely agree, the games have become very grindy, I love the series but spend far too long grinding for achievements, like having all my crops being 5 star, or increasing animal productivity, I'm not saying take it out completely, but make it more interesting and worthwhile, and less tedious. This is definitely something that has got worse in Harvest Moon over the years.

[Jahzara]

To address the other point, society has changed MASSIVELY from when teh first Harvest Moon games were released, and there's also the fact that the original creator no longer works on them, so they are turning into fairly generic, grinding games. But this does not make them terrible. Some people have more fun with certain things simplified.

Me, I like complicated, but I don't like grindy. But that doesn't mean I don't still love the series. As fans we are allowed to be critical, and still love that which we are critical of. And maybe if we're critical enough, our voices get heard, and they'll take that opinion into account. Or they won't. But we can only wait and see.

I completely agree, the games have become very grindy, I love the series but spend far too long grinding for achievements, like having all my crops being 5 star, or increasing animal productivity, I'm not saying take it out completely, but make it more interesting and worthwhile, and less tedious. This is definitely something that has got worse in Harvest Moon over the years.

I dunno... I still remember the only way to level up your cows in HM DS (my first HM game) being to birth a calf of a cow that had won the cow contest, rinse and repeat... which meant it would have required an entire lifetime to actually max out an animal's level. And WP wanted you to kill 50 of your animals before seeing her second heart event? Jeez!

[Kelocena]

Olivia mentions in the game itself that she has a fiancé.

Perhaps this is a great real world message that just because you want someone doesn't mean they are available.

There we go, she has a good reason for being unavailable, and that's actually what I was getting at with the real world message part of your post. It's like this whole friend zone rubbish, just because you're nice to someone, it doesn't mean that they are in any way obligated to have romantic feelings towards you, whether because she is already taken, or because she just doesn't want that for whatever reason.

I agree that Olivia is beautiful and I would have loved to choose her, but this x1000. She doesn't have to be available if she doesn't want to be.

[astro-demon]

This topic pisses me off. The game devs don't need to bow down to otakus or any « Duck Quackers » who feel entitled to anything with boobs on the screen. Go play a dating sim if thats what you want. These are farming games that honestly have gotten anything but simplified. I played the real old ones and they weren't great. Water crops. Milk cows. Give flower to girl. Sleep. How the heck has that become the standard by which all future games are judged. You can do everything you could before but now there is a lot more to it. The characters are deeper too. Everything is deeper. The reason you see so many topics about marriage is because its easier for people to discuss and relate about that stuff than talk about turnips. The board isn't all romance stuff and even if it is, its what they like, they will discuss it. If you can't stand the new games or how the fans enjoy them keep playing the old ones. They aren't getting any better.