Thoughts on hard to unlock/marry marriage candidates?

[Panda Parfait]

I really like the idea of more difficult marriage candidates but I also don't like that most of them end up having downsides to them. Like, no matter how interested I am in a candidate I wouldn't want to go through all the effort to marry them only to have them not live with me. Special candidates that mostly function as a normal spouse (with some quirks) once you get through all their weird requirements would be nice, but there hasn't been many of them throughout the series so I usually end up ignoring them.

[FoolishGhoul]

I really like that they always have that option for people, but I usually don't wind up going for whomever it is anyways. Never been a huge fan of the HG or WP so never went for them; Alisa didn't appeal to me in ToTT (I think?) and I would have gone for the Oracle, but I played as a girl my first time through and never went back. the only one who I did go for was Amir in GrB, but he wasn't so much harder to get as much as a 'secret' candidate. So like I just did the same thing with him as I would with a regular candidate, he just didn't have a heart thing.

I personally am rather impatient, so having those extra steps you need to take to marry someone I really like it kind of nice since it makes me slow down, but it's also a bit irritating lol. It's just that those characters don't typically appeal to me so I never go for them.

[AmazingFarmer]

Really the only time I married special characters was in DS and Cute Skye and Leia were awesome. The hardest ones for me were the Guy who judges the cooking in MFOMT and the harvest goddess and WP. I really didn't want to kill my animals to get WP and I had the version where you can't and for HG there was no chance on me finishing the shipping list. For me I think it would be worth it to marry a special character if they live with you and if you get a kid.

[copernicusmaximus]

Sanjay so far from HM ANB has been my favorite spouse and while he's not a "special" bachelor he sure did take forever to unlock, and that's AFTER I expedited the matter by getting Sweet Potato seeds in the first year. In a playthrough without multiplayer I'd be well in the 2nd year before I could have POSSIBLY unlocked him.

I understand it to a good degree. Like the Goddess/Kappa in (M)FoMT: it's a huge devotion. For some people that's fun! It's just unfortunate when there's no baby to be had afterwards or a family life.

And idk...I think you should at least MEET your future spouse by the first year. Make it hard to marry them, sure, but at least meet them before you end up courting someone else.

[Guest]

[quote="KonekoChan"]it's not like you're taking your axe and murdering them on sight. the fact is the only way animals die in harvest moon games is to "neglect" them, and you can SPEED the process up by stressing them out and using tools on them, but either way it's still a passive way of killing them. im not sure the term "slaughter" is appropriate here lol. because of it's passive nature, i doubt too many parents would get THAT up in arms about it.[/quote]

Uh??? What a horrible thing to say! Slowly torturing your animals thus killing them??? « What The Eggplant » never own a pet lol

[Ponyxskye]

To answer the question...it's nice to have the option.I never go for the special candidates because they just don't interest me.It is very nice for those who like the challenge though.But it really sucks that most of them can't even live with you.That's the main reason why I m not interested in them usually.

[KonekoChan]

i mean ive always known i was pretty horrible but being told it over the internet from an anonymous user just.... really drives it home, you know? oh man..... oh boy...... i'll really have to go and rethink some things....

Actually, that's not the only way to kill animals in DS. You build barns and coops with weak materials like fodder and then let them get crushed when the barn collapses. ...Lovely game.
Also, did anyone even use the word "slaughter"? Maybe I missed something. I only saw "animal sacrifices" said after I said it. And that still fits what's going on pretty well if you ask me.

i'm not going to lie i didn't know that one! it's probably the easiest way to kill animals for the WP so... that fits the definition of slaughter more lmao.

anyway my point wasn't that it's not still AWFUL, just that i didn't agree with the notion of it not being able to fly past the radar these days haha.

on topic: i think my least favorite hard-to-get bachelor/ettes are the ones that are just locked behind so many in-game seasons (or tied to plot points that can't be finished until much later). i specifically remember in ToT Julius took (what seemed like) FOREVER to come and waiting for him sucked lol.

[Guest]

[quote="KonekoChan"]i mean ive always known i was pretty horrible but being told it over the internet from an anonymous user just.... really drives it home, you know? oh man..... oh boy...... i'll really have to go and rethink some things....[/quote]

I'm you!

......What you posted afterwards sounded a lot better. I apologize for being rude. Animals and children hurting just rill me up. =/

[Sanne]

The challenge is nice and I could definitely seeing myself doing my best to unlock them if I were interested in one of them. ( if they at least lived with the mc ;; )

[encas]

In many of my play throughs, I actually go for the harder to marry candidates. I appreciate the extra challenge in wooing most of them, especially if there is a plot related reason as to why they are so hard to romance.

For example, in HoLV I married Alice, and I went for Elise in SoS. In both of those cases, the bachelorettes undergo some character development before being clearly eligible. In HM64, I tend to gravitate towards Maria in part due to her only having one item gift she likes, but that actually originated from the fact that she weeds your crops after marriage, which happens to be my least favorite farm chore.

My most extreme example? I married Alisa in ToTT. At the moment, I can't dig up my copy of the game, but I think it took me until late Spring of Year 6 until she accepted my proposal. Keep in mind that by the time I unlocked her, I had already cleared the tunnel and was able to gift her Ice Cream most days, so getting our friendship to grow was easy. Her 100 date requirement was what gave me the most trouble, especially since the player can't go on dates on Cooking Festival days. But even as someone who gets tunnel vision when I am fixated upon a goal, I had almost settled for proposing to Georgia by the time Alisa accepted.

[serpentine]

As long as they're worth it, I'm fine with it!

That's why the Kappa in MFoMT annoyed me so much. I love the idea of being able to marry a lake monster, because I'm a weirdo. But the requirements you need to fulfill to marry him (without cheating) are absolutely insane. I did it once and it took me eight in-game years to do so... and the reward is super underwhelming. He treats you like dirt (he calls you annoying and tells you to go away all the time, and basically only marries you in order to get more cucumbers...), has hardly any dialogue, doesn't kiss you at your wedding, and doesn't even live with you. Yet somehow he does manage to get you pregnant... and then leaves you a single mom. Lovely.

[bara_no_uta]

I don't mind them being hard to marry as I sometimes kind of like the challenge, but I'm not a fan of them being hard to unlock, like WP in ANB. As someone else said, I'm not a fan of having completed the majority of the game before even meeting them. I like to build up the relationship over time.