@Kikki: How much money are you willing to bet that Neil would have been in Westown?
About the Natsume HM games...
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Celestrian
- Ultimate Farming Fanatic
- Posts: 1250
- Joined: Oct 01, 2012 1:43 pm
Goodness, that grumpy little boy is Amir? It's not that it doesn't look like him, but at the same time, he came across rather differently in ANB.
If the characters went through a revamp each time they reappeared, as they seem to do in bokumono (though I can't judge directly), I might not mind (some of) them reappearing. But in the Ntasume games they look the same and act the same when they come back, as far as I've noticed, so it's too boring for me.
I also don't yet understand if mutations are still a thing in Light of Hope or not, but clearly the landscape manipulation is gone. The farming was the best thing about TLV, for me.
If the characters went through a revamp each time they reappeared, as they seem to do in bokumono (though I can't judge directly), I might not mind (some of) them reappearing. But in the Ntasume games they look the same and act the same when they come back, as far as I've noticed, so it's too boring for me.
I also don't yet understand if mutations are still a thing in Light of Hope or not, but clearly the landscape manipulation is gone. The farming was the best thing about TLV, for me.
I did buy Seeds of Memories, but I really didn't enjoy it so I barely got any of the way in and if it's going to be mostly like SoM, I'm not sure what to expect. Hopefully it's more interesting and has more to do, but I just don't think it's going to be for me, based on previous games' progress.
For me, the games go this way: TLV...interesting differences with the terraforming and mutations...loved the farming. Was really bored by the characters and the whole social scene and events, but the farming was enough to complete the game on, and I even got my character married, just because I could. STV: Farming was still fun but I had already done it once so it wasn't new any more, and the social aspect was even MORE boring because half the characters were the same and I already didn't like them, so a game I would have liked more than the previous one, I ended up liking less, though the smaller head proportion and having a town were small improvements. Seeds of Memories then got rid of half of the only part of the game I liked and added nothing that I noticed to make up for it.
So, hopefully that sums up why I haven't been enjoying Natsume's games and why I'm not looking favourably upon purchasing Light of Hope at this point. I think this may end up being more of a children's game, though my impression of LoH is not strong either way, yet. I really feel like they've been trying hard, I just feel like they've been making all the wrong choices, at least as far as making a game *I* enjoy, anyway. I just don't have any hope left, is all.
For me, the games go this way: TLV...interesting differences with the terraforming and mutations...loved the farming. Was really bored by the characters and the whole social scene and events, but the farming was enough to complete the game on, and I even got my character married, just because I could. STV: Farming was still fun but I had already done it once so it wasn't new any more, and the social aspect was even MORE boring because half the characters were the same and I already didn't like them, so a game I would have liked more than the previous one, I ended up liking less, though the smaller head proportion and having a town were small improvements. Seeds of Memories then got rid of half of the only part of the game I liked and added nothing that I noticed to make up for it.
So, hopefully that sums up why I haven't been enjoying Natsume's games and why I'm not looking favourably upon purchasing Light of Hope at this point. I think this may end up being more of a children's game, though my impression of LoH is not strong either way, yet. I really feel like they've been trying hard, I just feel like they've been making all the wrong choices, at least as far as making a game *I* enjoy, anyway. I just don't have any hope left, is all.
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SakuraMota
- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
- Posts: 2785
- Joined: Jul 31, 2006 10:58 am
Lately I've found I enjoy the Natsume HM titles more than SoS. It's not that I dislike SoS, but the gameplay is too...frantic? There's just so many features that it kind of gets overwhelming, and it's easy to make the game frustrating in the pursuit of everything. The dating system is definitely more robust, but tbh that's always been the thing I care about least in farm games. I play farm sims to farm; the repetition of tasks really soothes my ADD and anxiety. I'm a lady in my 30s who is married, so I don't really care about pixel boyfriends that much. 
The Natsume HMs, on the other hand, have a farm system that's complex but not overwhelmingly so. Hunting mutations is just plain fun, imo. And terraforming. I. Love. Terraforming. It's so fun to move the landscape around, create areas to my liking. It could use a little more finessing (there needs to be an option to move water, stone tiles should be a thing so you can recreate mountains after you break them down, and you should have better control over soil quality), but overall it's just really enjoyable for me. I'm currently playing Skytree Village again, blazing through Year 4, still unmarried, and still with lots to do. I have about 4-5 mutations left per season and just overall love playing it. I grow and do a lot every day, but it doesn't feel hectic in any way.
I will totally agree the characters need work, though. Many of them come off more as caricatures than characters. This has always been a problem, though; fishing people talk about fish, animal people about animals, etc. Their attempts at accents are especially egregious, though. Like, I applaud the attempt at diversity, I guess, but it misses the mark.
Two things I wish both series would do: better ethnic diversity and same « Chicken Hugging » marriage. Something that bugged me in Trio was you had these Polynesian-esque characters with dark skin on their models, but the way the character art is shaded, they look pretty much white. It was really off-putting and rubbed me the wrong way. Skytree has Gabriel who is I'm thinking supposed to be Latino and the DLC character Nova, whose ethnicity isn't really clear, but she is darker skinned. Everyone else was white, though, which is kind of sad. I'd like to see a more diverse cast of candidates in both games. As for same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage, it is just beyond time. Stardew Valley did it with no trouble, and it should just be standard by this point. I honestly peg Natsume as more likely to do it first, if only because they're in America and seem to be listening to the Western fanbase, which has been crying for it for years. Then again, they do seem to aim younger, so they might run into trouble there. *shrug* BokuMono, meanwhile, comes from Japan, where same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage is still gaining ground, so I'm not sure when it'll happen there. They've dabbled in it in the past, so who knows?
The Natsume HMs, on the other hand, have a farm system that's complex but not overwhelmingly so. Hunting mutations is just plain fun, imo. And terraforming. I. Love. Terraforming. It's so fun to move the landscape around, create areas to my liking. It could use a little more finessing (there needs to be an option to move water, stone tiles should be a thing so you can recreate mountains after you break them down, and you should have better control over soil quality), but overall it's just really enjoyable for me. I'm currently playing Skytree Village again, blazing through Year 4, still unmarried, and still with lots to do. I have about 4-5 mutations left per season and just overall love playing it. I grow and do a lot every day, but it doesn't feel hectic in any way.
I will totally agree the characters need work, though. Many of them come off more as caricatures than characters. This has always been a problem, though; fishing people talk about fish, animal people about animals, etc. Their attempts at accents are especially egregious, though. Like, I applaud the attempt at diversity, I guess, but it misses the mark.
Two things I wish both series would do: better ethnic diversity and same « Chicken Hugging » marriage. Something that bugged me in Trio was you had these Polynesian-esque characters with dark skin on their models, but the way the character art is shaded, they look pretty much white. It was really off-putting and rubbed me the wrong way. Skytree has Gabriel who is I'm thinking supposed to be Latino and the DLC character Nova, whose ethnicity isn't really clear, but she is darker skinned. Everyone else was white, though, which is kind of sad. I'd like to see a more diverse cast of candidates in both games. As for same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage, it is just beyond time. Stardew Valley did it with no trouble, and it should just be standard by this point. I honestly peg Natsume as more likely to do it first, if only because they're in America and seem to be listening to the Western fanbase, which has been crying for it for years. Then again, they do seem to aim younger, so they might run into trouble there. *shrug* BokuMono, meanwhile, comes from Japan, where same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage is still gaining ground, so I'm not sure when it'll happen there. They've dabbled in it in the past, so who knows?
If you love the terraforming, how do you feel about Light of Hope, which won't have any terraforming in it? (Unless they invented a new type of terraforming, which does not seem to be the case. There was none in SoM, anyway.)
I am 39, myself, so I don't think it's age that determines whether you'll care about pixel boyfriends or not. I think it's because I am so completely uninterested in flesh-and-blood boyfriends that pixel ones are so entertaining for me. But its not just the candidates that weren't interesting, in my books. It was every single character. I don't recall becoming interested in even one of them while playing, except a twinkle of interest in the rivalry between Tabitha and Gareth, mostly in Skytree iirc, which was a little bit funny on Tabitha's side.
As for the crazy amount of things to do in bokumono versus the Natsume games, I agree...that is going to be one of the different drawing points. People who want to concentrate on farming and not be drawn away from it by fishing, trapping, crafting, foraging and socializing, or the myriad of festivals, should definitely go with Natsume. But for myself, I need the big variety of things to do to stay interested. It's managing all of those things at once that forms the challenge of the game, for me. And I like that if I get bored with one thing, I can put it on the back burner and concentrate on something else. Or concentrate on farming while enjoying the game's storyline, then shift focus to fishing after that part is over. If I have to focus entirely on one thing, I start to find it tedious too soon.
And for me, the aesthetics are really important, and I have not been able to enjoy Natsume's art style in any of the games so far. I can't go backwards and play old HMs, either, as I also find them ugly (I've tried several but gave up in despair at just how much I was not enjoying myself). Seriously, the series only became of interest to me with ANB, which was just barely nice enough to look at and also had loads to do...so I'm definitely a fan of the new bokumono games only. I'm hoping that the Switch bokumono game will be more attractive in style again. I'd actually have a lot of the same complaints about the old ones that I do about Natsume's. If Natsume is aiming to be more like old HM games then maybe they're doing a good job? Or if they wanted to simplify.
I think it's natural that people who love the current bokumono games are largely not going to like Natsume games, and that people who have grown discontent with the newer bokumonos would actually prefer Natsume.
I do think it's too bad that some people condemn the Natsume games without trying them first, though. If they can't afford to take a chance, that's a valid reason not to try a game you think you won't like, but if that's the case, why say bad things about a game that you've no first-hand experience with? I liked TLV a LOT more than I would have expected, though each game since has let me down a bit further, unfortunately. (I would have liked Skytree more than TLV if I had played it first, but because I played it second, I found it harder to stay interested in things that were no longer new to me.)
I am 39, myself, so I don't think it's age that determines whether you'll care about pixel boyfriends or not. I think it's because I am so completely uninterested in flesh-and-blood boyfriends that pixel ones are so entertaining for me. But its not just the candidates that weren't interesting, in my books. It was every single character. I don't recall becoming interested in even one of them while playing, except a twinkle of interest in the rivalry between Tabitha and Gareth, mostly in Skytree iirc, which was a little bit funny on Tabitha's side.
As for the crazy amount of things to do in bokumono versus the Natsume games, I agree...that is going to be one of the different drawing points. People who want to concentrate on farming and not be drawn away from it by fishing, trapping, crafting, foraging and socializing, or the myriad of festivals, should definitely go with Natsume. But for myself, I need the big variety of things to do to stay interested. It's managing all of those things at once that forms the challenge of the game, for me. And I like that if I get bored with one thing, I can put it on the back burner and concentrate on something else. Or concentrate on farming while enjoying the game's storyline, then shift focus to fishing after that part is over. If I have to focus entirely on one thing, I start to find it tedious too soon.
And for me, the aesthetics are really important, and I have not been able to enjoy Natsume's art style in any of the games so far. I can't go backwards and play old HMs, either, as I also find them ugly (I've tried several but gave up in despair at just how much I was not enjoying myself). Seriously, the series only became of interest to me with ANB, which was just barely nice enough to look at and also had loads to do...so I'm definitely a fan of the new bokumono games only. I'm hoping that the Switch bokumono game will be more attractive in style again. I'd actually have a lot of the same complaints about the old ones that I do about Natsume's. If Natsume is aiming to be more like old HM games then maybe they're doing a good job? Or if they wanted to simplify.
I think it's natural that people who love the current bokumono games are largely not going to like Natsume games, and that people who have grown discontent with the newer bokumonos would actually prefer Natsume.
I do think it's too bad that some people condemn the Natsume games without trying them first, though. If they can't afford to take a chance, that's a valid reason not to try a game you think you won't like, but if that's the case, why say bad things about a game that you've no first-hand experience with? I liked TLV a LOT more than I would have expected, though each game since has let me down a bit further, unfortunately. (I would have liked Skytree more than TLV if I had played it first, but because I played it second, I found it harder to stay interested in things that were no longer new to me.)
Hehe that's interesting because I started to lose interest in the bokumono games after ANB (which as some people might remember is my least favorite game in the series), and I think the art style actually helped with that.
I do wonder what's it about that game and the style it spawned that doesn't sit well with me.
Although yeah, the nHM I enjoyed the most was TLV too. I should've liked SKV more, but by the time got it I was already burnt out from playing TLV too much and it wasn't different enough to hold my attention for too long.
It's too bad that LoH won't have terraforming, but I have high hopes for it. It will certainly cover a very specific niche that no other game in the farming world has yet (windows tablets), and I look forward to it.
I do wonder what's it about that game and the style it spawned that doesn't sit well with me.
Although yeah, the nHM I enjoyed the most was TLV too. I should've liked SKV more, but by the time got it I was already burnt out from playing TLV too much and it wasn't different enough to hold my attention for too long.
It's too bad that LoH won't have terraforming, but I have high hopes for it. It will certainly cover a very specific niche that no other game in the farming world has yet (windows tablets), and I look forward to it.
TLV was unplayable for me. I had difficulty with caring for crops. SKV fixed the problems so I enjoyed it more.
@SakuraMota, I LOVE terraforming too. Could spend a whole in game year on it. Something about building my farm from the ground up is strangely rewarding. Though I think it would be cool if they tied it to the stylus controls instead.
@SakuraMota, I LOVE terraforming too. Could spend a whole in game year on it. Something about building my farm from the ground up is strangely rewarding. Though I think it would be cool if they tied it to the stylus controls instead.
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RopeMaidenKirie
- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
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- Joined: Oct 09, 2011 1:09 pm
I'm also a fan of the terraforming, I thought I would hate it but was pleasantly surprised by it. Although STV was kind of a 1.5 TLV, there were a lot of improvements so I'll give them props for that. It's kind of a shame that I have no interest in LoH, but for some reason it just isn't doing anything for me.
I'm in the married and 30s group, but weigh the social interactions/additional features in the games over the farming personally, so I prefer the Bokumono line of games quite a bit more. Just farming over and over gets old to me after awhile, but the rest of it keeps me coming back to replay. Probably why I prefered Rune Factory over the mainline Bokumono games, actually.
But I feel like it's great there's now multiple series that cater to people's preferences, and it really sucks that there's fans out there that shame each other for liking one over the other. More choices for everybody is a great thing!
I'm in the married and 30s group, but weigh the social interactions/additional features in the games over the farming personally, so I prefer the Bokumono line of games quite a bit more. Just farming over and over gets old to me after awhile, but the rest of it keeps me coming back to replay. Probably why I prefered Rune Factory over the mainline Bokumono games, actually.
But I feel like it's great there's now multiple series that cater to people's preferences, and it really sucks that there's fans out there that shame each other for liking one over the other. More choices for everybody is a great thing!
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RopeMaidenKirie
- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
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- Joined: Oct 09, 2011 1:09 pm
I don't remember which RF it was, but there were dungeons/puzzles that required certain crops or growing certain crops in dungeons in order to proceed. I think it was both 1 and 2 that did it? I feel like if they added more of that it might be a bit more farming centric for people. RF4 felt like full on social simulator (so many EVENTS) while the post game (3rd story) dungeon was so brutal so many never even finished.RopeMaidenKirie wrote:Hmm, maybe it's because the farming takes a backseat to the story/fighting? That's at least what I've heard from others who can't seem to get into it.
I mean, I adore RF, one of my favourite game series of all time, but the farming really took a backseat in 3/4. Maaaybe having to maintain the Runies in RFF made them wary of over including it again.
Last edited by Bluie on Sep 01, 2017 9:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
