Games like Harvest Moon (Bokumono)

[Potato Soup]

Hey, everyone! I was wondering if there are any game series you played or that you got into that you feel have similarities to HM? (Aside from Rune Factory, Stardew Valley, Innocent Life, ect. and other games that I think many that like HM may already know about, haha.)

I personally have always enjoyed games that have characters with a lot of socializing depth. Or games that have a sort of real life feeling (like the ability to eat, sleep, decorate, etc.).

Games I've played that I think a HM player could like are:

(( The Sims franchise.

Has marriage.
Has eating/cooking.
Has plant growing.
You can have animals in some games.
Can dress up, build, create.

I've seen some players even create their own entire farm houses and many of the games have gardening/farm style things. (If you look up The Sims Farming on google images you can see examples of what I mean.) And the games have been released on many different systems from PC, to consoles, to handhelds, and they're also releasing The Sims 4 for PS4 and Xbox One in November.

(( The Animal Crossing franchise.

You can create multiple characters in the game and make them couples, haha.
Has eating.
Has flower growing.
Can dress up, can decorate house.
Has holidays.

It allows you to socialize, decorate, experience holidays, etc. like HM games. (I've played AC games since the first one was released, and I've always loved them, but I hope the series gets a big shake up in creativity/gameplay like Nintendo has done with Mario and Zelda.)

(( Zelda franchise.

Depending on the game,
You can eat.
You can socialize.
Twilight Princess let's you interact with animals (one of my favorite things, haha.)

The games below are more about character depth, haha:

(( Samurai Warriors/Dynasty Warriors franchise.

I've always felt the characters in these games are given a lot of depth (especially the Samurai Warriors franchise).

One of the game series that sticks out for me is Samurai Warriors Chronicles because it has this feature where there are 'Friendship Events' that lets you become closer to characters by talking to them and selecting responses (and that helps you to unlock things about that character). And it really makes you feel closer to them overtime.
And there is a Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 on the Nintendo eshop that lets you customize your character's skin color, hair, clothes, etc. (And there can be some--what I think is unintentional--hilarious dialogue. xD )

And there are a lot of characters in these games to choose from! You can see the most recent designs of the characters on the Samurai Warriors 4 website. And SW4 also has a Chronicle mode that has the character creation/friendship building aspect like the 3DS games. (And the most recent Dynasty Warriors game is DW9, and it'll be released in 2018. They're still doing character updates on their main website. ^_^ )

So, anyone that enjoys Bokumono games I think they could possibly enjoy these other series too like I have. I think you should check them out if you like. ^__^

Does anyone play or know of other games that have elements from HM that they think others might enjoy? =]

[Bluie]

You've made the spectrum of games here pretty broad and i'm gonna say you're kinda reaching when you get into Samurai Warriors Chronicles. While I do love that series for it's fun character interactions, I don't see a lot of people who enjoy Bokumono games being drawn to them just because of a slight similarity. A ton of games these days have character events and relationship building, but when people look for games like Bokumono, they're usually looking for a full package, or for the game to at least emulate what they're used to.

The reason why Sims, Animal Crossing, and Bokumono games go hand in hand is because they're focused on simulation and simulation alone. The relationships and world aren't tacked onto an action game, the games themselves are simulation games focused purely in being a simulation game.

Non simulation games usually have optional sidequests or an added relationship bar with the characters to further deepen the game play or add more replayability.

Anyways, as you seem really interested in games with customization and relationship building, maybe give the Atelier series a look. It's mainly a Sony system exclusive series, but the Mysterious trilogy (the last of which not yet released) are available on steam.

If you want to know more about the series, let me know. I'm kind've an Atelier nut.

[Getaris]

There's always Farming Simulator if you want to go to the extreme opposite.

[Kikki]

The choices are thin, but I would recommend Fantasy Life (3DS) to people who love bokumono games and need more to play that satisfies some of those sim urges. Also to keep an eye on the upcoming games Re: Legend and My Time At Portia. I'm also interested in Avalon Code but it's an old game for DS and not that easy to get hold of any more. It's leaning more toward the Rune Factory side than to the Bokumono side, but some of the same people were involved in that game's development.

I really don't think there ARE any games left that we don't know about. This community ravenously discusses everything that this under-supplied niche might be into. Anything 'sim' with a dating, growing or building mechanic included tends to come up here pretty frequently so I don't feel like I can add anything that people wouldn't already have thoroughly looked into.

Fire Emblem is a series that gets recommended to Bokumono fans a lot, for some reason. It's a really interesting game, of course, but personally I don't see the correlation, I don't think they're remotely alike except in the tenuous connection of both games letting you build relationships, though not at all in the same way, imo. When I'm craving Bokumono, I don't want a slight resemblance in one aspect. I want the whole shamoly...town building, farm building, plant growing/tending, crafting, relationship-building...all of it. Or at least most of it. Otherwise I'm just not satisfied and I just go back and replay an old favourite instead.

[SakuraMota]

I can't recommend World's Dawn enough. It's an RPG Maker game, and the farming isn't super in-depth, but the characters are nice and it has a pretty interesting plot. It's not as blow-you-away stellar as Stardew Valley, but it's still a cute game, and I really loved it.

[Kam]

i found an hm-inspired game called harvest master in the app store the other day. i've only played like one day of it, but it seems pretty solid, and is free

as for loose associations, there's dragon quest v, which i originally picked up because it has a marriage n kids element to it, and is now one of my favorite games

[venus14!]

Dynasty Warriors Empires lets you get Married and have Kids : https://welcometowonderland.me/2015/03/ ... marriages/ Also maybe this could be useful for you too... : http://www.englishotomegames.net/tagged/farming

[Samansu]

I can't recommend World's Dawn enough. It's an RPG Maker game, and the farming isn't super in-depth, but the characters are nice and it has a pretty interesting plot. It's not as blow-you-away stellar as Stardew Valley, but it's still a cute game, and I really loved it.

YAS!!! World's Dawn is GREAT! Very cute and fun! I love it! ^-^

I also think Re:Legend and My Time At Portia look great, but I am more interested in Re:Legend!

[Kikki]

Oh, I've JUST found a new game! I'm downloading it now, so I can't offer a first-hand opinion, yet, but the description of the game just made me HAVE to have it. It's Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. It's on Steam and PS4, and it's a no-combat game that seems best compared to Animal Crossing with a little bit of bokumono and some of the appearance of Wind Waker.

It has NO combat but does have farming in 8 different zones, plus crafting, fetch quests and story quests (you have to save the world/environment from Murk, I think) but the main story is, apparently, quite short if you focus on it without doing much side stuff. It is mostly praised for being very cute/pretty and calming, and for the exploration. I am customizing my avatar wright now and you can play as male or female. I don't think you can get married but you can interact with the villagers/inhabitants a lot.

I'll be trying it right now, but it definitely has a lot of overlap with the sort of activities you need to do in Bokumono.

[JayDucky03]

Yonder looks super cool! (I suck at combat, also, so it appeals to me even more.)

[Kikki]

Yonder is super cute, the graphics are not like anything I've ever played before. You can also tame/adopt animals you meet, like Groffles (some kind of bull/cow) and they become livestock on your farm.

[JayDucky03]

Sweet! It's on steam right?

Googled it, yes it is!

[Kikki]

Haha, my link went straight to Steam, lol. But Googling it is better anyway as you get more info that way, and images. Yes, Steam and PS4. I've got it for PS4, since I love playing with a controller but not so much with a keyboard (cumbersome) but Steam would have the continual updates for any bugs or etc that might still be in the game. I haven't encountered anything yet but on the Steam page the developer seems to be implementing little changes all the time, and I don't know if that happens on PS4 or not.

EDIT: just encountered a bug/error. Tried to hire a guy to work at my South farm in Grasslands, and when I succeeded, the game shut down on me. -__- I've put in 4-8 hours and that's my first error, but I do suggest saving frequently just in case you run into an unresolved one.