Ushi No Tane Forum

I saw a thread on the 'all other Harvest Moon' board about bachelors in an older game, mentioning that one of them was super desperate for companionship and would gain hearts with you way faster than anyone else.

I don't like that clingy kind of person in real life, but...I find that a very interesting feature. What everyone likes to find realistic in a game is different, but...it IS realistic for people to grow to like you at a different pace. I've become instant friends with some people, and then there are others I've been around for years and never gotten any closer to, so I don't find that weird, but rather, realistic in an appealing way. (Though it's probably too complicated to use that sort of feature very much.)

And then I realized that I don't actually like how uniformly nice and normal all of the Trio bachelors are. None of them have any serious personality flaws, as far as I see it. Oh, Hinata's a little too possessive for some, maybe...but that's probably always going to be in the game since some people LIKE the idea of their S/O being possessive, as far as I can tell.

I went and looked the bachelor in question up (Rock from AWL, I believe) and saw that he was a lazy aimless guy who wants someone, anyone, to hang out with him, and found that really interesting. For me it's not a likable trait, but it was enlivening to see the differences in personality. I find I'm missing that a bit in Trio. It's a collection of well-adjusted nice guys, as far as I can tell. (I'm not sure about the bachelorettes, they seem to have slightly more personality variance with rude tsundere Iluka and Kasumi with her specific issues.)

There was a little more variety even in the last SoS, and imo A New Beginning was a bit of a circus, with arrogant Allen, delinquent (tsundere) Neil, nice-guy Rod, reserved Sanjay, oh-I'm-so-old-and-you're-so-young Soseki and ... well I never got a good bead on Amir's personality, actually. The earnest young pretty-boy prince, maybe?

But I LIKE all these freaks. It's the very weirdness and individuality of them that makes certain ones really pop for me. People who are just nice and normal are a bit boring. Certainly in a game, anyway. (It's probably good to have lots of them around IRL, lol.)

I'm not saying I don't like the Trio bachelors, because I do. I like ALL of them. I just haven't been able to fall for one clear-and-away above the others. I haven't tried Ford or Wayne as spouses yet, though...maybe they'll be more quirky than reliable, capable good-guy Ludus or sweet-and-poetic Yuzuki. But even with Wayne being a compulsive (though not skeezy, to me) flirt and Ford being part robot, I don't feel like any of them are overly unique.

Does anyone else feel this way, or have you found Trio to supply the perfect variety of bachelors (and bachelorettes)? I kind of miss outright disliking a few of the candidates, lol, and I definitely miss the way I went gonzo over Sanjay because he was so perfect in all of that craziness. (All in all, I'm sure it's for the best, I just...miss that uniqueness.)

Wow I'm actually glad someone else noticed we have a very well-adjusted batch of boys in this game, the way some people talk about them makes them sound like serial cheaters, crazy stalkers or rapists (though I did predict that the fewer flaws a cast has overall, the more insane and unfounded fan opinions are going to get lol)

I'm of mixed opinion on this-- I like having characters that are actually likable, but they don't necessarily have to be someone I'd want to partner with IRL to be that. The first SoS had characters with some interesting flaws but they were all really boring (no thanks to some really lackluster or downright dog « Kai's Bandana » quality events), in Trio the characters are likable but the flaws are really meh, if you can even call any of them actual flaws. They're more like quirks, maybe.

ANB was interesting (at least in the bachelor and villager department, bachelorettes other than Michelle were standard imo) because a good portion of the characters were so extreme that my reactions were stronger overall. The game was actually better for it, having characters I couldn't stand and others I genuinely enjoyed. I loved hating on Allen and Soseki (all in good fun) and am still very very fond of Neil and want him back in another game, haha

I dont think it'll ever go back to AWL/DS levels.

In DSc we have an almost-old man who is a bit shy because of it, some middle aged man who is a bit loopy, a sickly farmer guy that looks like Elvis, the same creep you mentioned, a new age retro hippy with a huge nose, a pretty boy thief with hormonal super powers, a street food salesman that travels the world in search for summer, a workaholic doctor, a quiet blacksmith, a weirdo that sells animals and a guy with emotional issues who may or may not be a hobo.

The reason they are so varied and different, is mostly because many of them were originally created to be normal npcs, and became bachelors later. So in other words, they were created as regular people instead of, uh, attractive romantic archetypes.

With them making games with both boy and girl options from the start, I doubt that will ever happen again, because now they make the bachelors to be bachelors.

I'd have been happy to get a tsundere in Trio. A male one, I mean. (Some think Ford is a tsundere, I believe, but I disagree...Ford is socially awkward, but quite free with his devotion once you earn it, not at all reticent to love you to bits...just a little unpractised at how to show it gracefully.) I don't like every type of tsundere...the arrogant tsunderes annoy me, but...I love the too-embarrassed-to-be-honest type, they make me laugh over and over. Nadi had some of the cutest lines in the first SoS, in my opinion.

I guess I just like a lot of variety in personality, not vanilla pudding as far as the eye can see. I like vanilla pudding, it's sweet and pleasant and comforting...but it gets old fast if there are no swirls of chocolate or rum caramel in there to break up the uniformity and give your tastebuds something to think about.

I like these sweet vanilla pudding Trio boys, but it's been easier for me to get tired of them than it was in ANB, or even in the first SoS.

But I wouldn't want to give up the amount or the quality of the events in Trio to go back, so it's kind of hard to figure. I'd like to have both at once...a big variety of looks and personality, AND loads of great events.

I'm glad I'm not by myself in feeling this way, I don't want to be a big whiner. Trio is lovely, and I think it is probably the least objectionable of any bokumono I've played. But I kind of like objectionable parts. The bits that stick out are the ones that make me create a whole world inside my head, to fill out what the game itself doesn't cover.

This reminds me of what someone else said on these forums about all the guys just being different shades of nice, and, yeah, I can see that. From what I've seen of them (keep in mind that I have only married Hinata,) none of them seem to even be capable of being mean (at least, not on purpose,) or have any serious flaws, IMO. Even Ford, who is, I guess, supposed to come off as blunt and cold, is still obviously a nice guy (the other villagers will even repeatedly tell you how nice a guy he is.)
For me personally, this isn't a problem as I usually just go for the nice guys, anyway. Trio has even made a couple of character types that I normally dislike and don't go for likeable for me: the charmer, Wayne, and the serious doctor, Ford. Wayne is the first charmer I've liked in a HM/SoS game, I think it's because he isn't actually a flirt. You can even get a piece of dialogue from him that has him appear uncomfortable with the notion that his actions can be seen as flirty (which, to me, is really adorable .) I don't know why I found myself liking Ford so much, maybe because, IMO, he can be pretty funny sometimes.
That said, I think it would be nice to have some guys who are less "nice" and who would probably not sit right with some people next time around, as I value having characters of all sorts even if I find myself not liking them. For example, I did not like Allen, but I respect and like the fact that they made a character like him because he was something new and gave people who were tired of the same old, same old or who like that type of character someone to go for and enjoy.

Edit: (put in a spoiler tag due to off topic-ness)

Raegar was never a playboy type, the game specifically went out of its way several times to point that out-- he's just good-looking and popular with girls. He's had girlfriends before and while it's rare for any HM/bokumono marriage candidate to have relationship experience that doesn't mean he's a little hussy or whatever

The bachelorettes have long suffered from waifu syndrome (where they have incredible and deep character flaws like being clumsy, not being able to cook, speaking their mind, looking young, looking over 25, getting shy around sexy farmer boyzzz, being 2 pounds overweight maybe etc lol). It would suck if bachelors fell into the same trap but 3oT is just one game in a long running series. I'm hoping they try something a little more experimental character/writing-wise in the next game.

Raegar was never a playboy type, the game specifically went out of its way several times to point that out-- he's just good-looking and popular with girls. He's had girlfriends before and while it's rare for any HM/bokumono marriage candidate to have relationship experience that doesn't mean he's a little hussy or whatever

Yeah I married Raeger and he's definitely not a "playboy" type, just really good looking......sighs dreamily.

I wouldn't call Rae a playboy, for sure. If it's 'charmer', then... a little. But not the deliberate kind, just the kind who is charming because he's good-looking, he's polite (except to Fritz), and he's practiced with customer service. (Raeger always strikes me as an introvert who has learned to be social rather than someone who came naturally to it.)

Yeah, I don't want the bachelors to turn dull and always be all simple nice guys. It's nice once in a while, as I think that'll please the largest audience in one go, but whatever Bokumono Switch has, I hope it contains some romanceable oddballs. (I suppose Woofio is an oddball, but that's not really his personality so much as his circumstances, and he's a DLC candidate so I only sort of feel like he counts, since I haven't even met him as a character in the game, yet.)

@ Nurse Fin, Shan, and Kikki. So he isn't one? That's good to hear, actually. Raeger never gave me the impression that he was one, but when I remembered him I also remembered that some people compared Wayne to him, and I thought, since I never dated or married him (did befriend him, though,) that I may be missing something (like him acting really different after you start dating him, or something like that.)

I actually never thought about it until you brought it up, but looking at all of the bachelors I see exactly what you mean. No matter who you choose, you're getting a nice guy. This really makes me think back to my favourite bachelor that I've ever married; Chase from ToT and AP. He was rude, and not rude in a tsundere kind of way, he was just outright a rude person. I think the reason I was even drawn to him in the first place was simply because he was different from your typical nice/good guys. And not only that, but even after marriage he didn't magically become a good person either, he kept his rude personality. He was nice to you, but he still talked smack about everyone in town.

I really think future sos games can benefit from marriage candidates who actually have different personalities. Rather than being the same kind of person with their own quirks, they need to be individuals. I would also enjoy more backstories from the marriage candidates, although they definitely had more backstories in this game than the last.

Who knows, maybe whatever comes out on the switch will give us what we want. To be honest, I have really high expectations for the sos switch game. I've always found the console games to be really enjoyable and with the switch being a hybrid it gives me hope. I probably shouldn't though, because if it turns out to be nothing special then I'll probably be really disappointed.

Yup, the Trio bachelors are a big pack of mentally healthy, socially acceptable sweeties. (Ford has a little trouble interacting socially without being awkward, but it's been done in such a sympathetic way that to me it doesn't look like a flaw, it just makes him more interesting, to think about what he really means and what is behind his peculiar responses to some things.)

Each character has a tiny quirk in him somewhere...Yuzuki is passive-aggressively sulky if you don't greet him before night, Wayne grew up thinking that to be a good man you had to be almost excessively kind to women and it made him the type to lay the charm on thick...Hinata is young and a little insecure of his position and so can become possessive, though he'll apologize for it right away if you get upset and will probably grow out of it in a few more years anyway...Ford grew up with neglect and so puts sharp emphasis on a few things that were missing from his life AND did not really learn how to express his thoughts/feelings in a socially ideal way...and Ludus...erm...is anything at all wrong with Ludus? I mean, he grew up with two bratty 'sisters' who treat him a little bit like a slave, so he developed a small tilt in his way of looking at women, too, but as soon as he likes you, that all falls away anyway. (And I don't know about Inari. Inari just flat out looks like a total doll who isn't human and so seems like a bit of an ingenue about everything. And I haven't met Woofio yet but he seems super nice, too.)

But they are all nice, good guys. These 'flaws' are so tiny that to me, only folks who've had specific life experiences that make them very sensitive to those issues (like if someone had a bad experience with an overly-possessive lover, or with a flirt, or etc...if they're sensitized to the issue, it's different) could see them as anything but total dollies. These are guys who would all run to your house with great concern and do every last thing they could to help if you ever needed it, and that even if they had NOT fallen for you yet, because they're just super decent, well-above-average human beings.

...

This should NOT be a complaint. That's definitely the type of people I want to be surrounded by IRL! But in a game, it's different. Uniformly good-guy characters who each only have tiny flaws or personality quirks that all have good reasons behind them just leave me a bit bored. I want something a little more complicated and less straight-forward, I guess, at least as an option. This is why I got so excited when Yuzuki's line about how he'd thought he was more important to you (if you don't greet him at all until night time) was brought up...it made me think that maybe he had a hidden streak of something less standard. But he doesn't.

Ooh, Kumquat...don't get me started on Bokumono Switch, lol. Thinking about the possibilities for something I'm looking forward to puts me straight into turbo mode and then I can't shut up. Whatever we get, it won't be all we might hope for, because no game ever is. But it goes without saying that there will be innovation. For one thing, there is no touch screen, and only ONE screen, so the menus and controls will have to work differently. For another, it will be seen on televisions at high resolution, so the art/graphic style will almost definitely change from the one developed for the DS or 3DS's tiny, low-res screens. I'm super excited to find out what the art is going to look like and I need to shut up right away or all my thoughts and ideas will go kerblooie all over everybody in a messy and totally off-topic kind of way.

I found them well rounded, but what I wouldn't give for a bachelor with a little bit more age on them. I get that most of the audience really doesn't have an 'ossan' thing, but I adored Griffin and Soseki (the latter a little less so because BLAHBLAHMAHAGE).

The pool of bachelors really tends to lean on more popular tropes so I really shouldn't be complaining when it's just not really in their cards to go out of their way to please a small group over a massive one.

I ended up marrying Hinata as he was easy to woo, but heck, if there had been an option to marry Hector, id've jumped on it. Speaking of, we've really never had an option of marrying a widower before, have we? I'd be pretty interested on how they'd handle it.

Bluie wrote:I found them well rounded, but what I wouldn't give for a bachelor with a little bit more age on them. I get that most of the audience really doesn't have an 'ossan' thing, but I adored Griffin and Soseki (the latter a little less so because BLAHBLAHMAHAGE).

Ford is stated to be a fair bit older in some of his dialogue and/or events (meaning not just a year or two older), but he doesn't make any big deal out of his age so a lot of people haven't pegged him as the 'older guy'. The worst I've heard is that he complains about his hips or back getting sore after he does the hula, lol. I like that, though. (Though I suppose him going on about his age might make him a more objectionable character to me, lol.) I like a candidate who seems older but doesn't go ON about it, because that's just tiresome. Especially when the person who endlessly prates about how ooooold they are is actually younger than *I* am. on Klaus. I say!

Maybe they toned it down in response to how irritated a lot of people got over how huge a deal Soseki and Klaus made their ages to be. Though I don't know if the same was true in Japan, because whatever noise we make over here is unlikely to be heard by the actual Japanese developers.

I haven't yet pmayed as a girl, but I think the bachelorettes are a nice variety this time around. SoS's bachelorettes were good too, but I prefer Trio's lineup to SoS's lineup. For example, in SoS I didn't have that much trouble choosing who I'd marry, and I was set on Agate pretty much from the beginning, but in Trio... whoo boy. The only bachelorette I gave absolutely no thoughts to marry was Komari, but because I saw her more as a friend than a spouse. The personalities are quite different too, and noone is the generic "nice girl" (Lisette might count, but even she had some amount of depth added). Actually, I'm pretty sure the twins and Ford are among my favorite candidates in the series. Sure, sometimes they were reduced to their quirks, but it was more subdued than, say, RF3, where the bachelorettes (except maybe Raven) were pretty much defined by one thing. I think the variety is just right, because it allows for a more individu growth while keeping in mind technical limitations and difficulties. AP for example, had a huge cast, but it allowed for more characterization for some bachelor/ettes (Selena, Witch, Wizard, and Chase come to mind) than others (Renee, Toby) and the Events were all in the same format. I'd prefer a fewer number, while allowing for deeper characterization.

Bluie wrote: Speaking of, we've really never had an option of marrying a widower before, have we? I'd be pretty interested on how they'd handle it.

I believe, though am not quite sure, I read somewhere Jin was depicted in ToT as a widower, and his wife's death fueled his interest in medicine. I am not quite sure about this though, so please don't quote me on it.

Yeah, I agree on that side...I felt like the bachelorettes had a better variety than the bachelors, since both Kasumi and Iluka, in my opinion, have something other than a simple 'nice girl' persona...and Siluka is floating somewhere off in outer space, with 'nice' not really applying to her one way or the other, as I see it. Unfortunately, I don't enjoy playing as the male MC, so variety in the bachelorettes doesn't benefit me much.