Ushi No Tane Forum

What would make you want to continue playing a game for ten game years? (Or insert number of your choice here.)

My number one criteria for how I rank how much I loved a bokumono game is: how many game years did I play? That's my marker because if I played 5 game years in one game but only managed 3 in another, it means I was having fun for that much longer. It means I still had things I wanted to do. It means it took me longer to get bored.

My experience with bokumono so far blah-blah: So, even though the games are actually becoming more fun-packed, I think...I am getting bored with them faster. Perhaps this will be shaken up with Bokumono Switch since more than usual is bound to get a stir with the shift to a new console, but this topic is still my number one concern for this series. What would make you WANT to play ten game years?

I think making achievements worth more would be a big help. And by that, I mean that if the game sets you a goal of catching 3000 bugs, then I don't want the ONLY recognition of when I do that to be a few words of text appearing on the screen for 3 seconds. I want a big beetle statue to get unlocked as a blueprint...or even have the finished item given to me by one of the characters in recognition of my MC becoming a bug-catching champion. (Or fish, or...etc.) And I'd like hitting that achievement to unlock a few more lines of possible dialogue from villagers, of them acknowledging that they KNOW you've caught a million bugs! It's so unsatisfying to have all of my MCs back-breaking achievements be a secret known only to her, not acknowledged even by her spouse or child. They're just a blip of text. That is SO unsatisfying for me, I can't get myself to care about the achievements at all.

I have a few other ideas but I don't want to drag this post out even longer so...on to you guys! What do you think would make the game fun for a longer period of time? Of course, not everyone would even care. Maybe some already manage to play for a really long time, or maybe some are content with just playing two game years and feel like they've gotten all they want out of it and are satisfied to quit, then. But I want to enjoy my game longer because I do love my digital farm life and feel kind of sad when I start to get bored with it, when the world feels like I've already mined it of every last drop of fun. So I'm curious if any of you have thought of cool things they could add to draw the fun out more.

For me personally, the longest year I’ve played was to year 6or 7 in MFoMT. I kept going back to that game and married everyone. On my final play through (years ago now) I was curious about the Kappa. I continued from an old file where I was in year 3 and kept on playing until I did all the known requirements to marry the Kappa....Unfortunately it didn’t work out (I believe I told the story a few times as to why I couldn’t marry him). But anyway I haven’t played that game since. I really should get back into it and try for the Kappa again just for fun

In my opinion, I like a game for its storyline. No storyline/really bad one; I won’t like it. I’m the first SoS I didn’t get passed year 1 because I got bored and there was no storyline at all.

In Trio of towns, I played a little longer but still got bored after I beat Mr. D and there wasn’t much else left to do.

I’m not good at setting self goals and completing them. Unless the game has a clear cut task(s) for me to do, I loose interest :/

I loved AP/Tree of Tranquility because it gave me goals. A good storyline that I could follow to unlock new areas/animals/plants/etc. However after the storyline was over and I was married, I easily got bored of it and never got to the point of having children.

I especially loved RF4 because after the main storyline, it had another one. It mildly annoyed me that it was RGN but the fact that it kept adding more to the story, I played it much longer. I don’t remember though what year I made it to...knowing me probably year 3 or 4. If I really like a HM/SoS game, I usually make it to year three. If I don’t, then I don’t get passed year 1 or 2.
Yes you could argue that MFoMT didn’t really have a storyline either but I was a child back then and things were more simple and relaxing

I know what I would have loved in Trio. The customization in that game was the pits when it came to your farm. This would help offset that as well, I think.

I would love if your achievements unlocked changes in the landscape. Like, if one of the goals is 'play for 5 game years' then upon reaching that achievement, perhaps the gateway to your farm could suddenly become more beautiful/impressive. Say grow vines up it and add larger trees flanking it, maybe little statues...etc. And if you hit the final fishing achievement, perhaps unlock a pretty new pond in one of the un-editable sections of your farm where you can magically catch ALL fish regardless of region or season/etc. And if you get the top achievement for greeting people, spiff up the swing set area to the left of your farmhouse. That sort of thing. (Even better if you could set an overall 'style' to your farm like you can to your house, so that the improvements would match your theme: Westown, Lulukoko or Tsuyukusa. But that would just be icing, for me.) It would be really neat to SEE the results of your hard work in evidence everywhere, rather than that little bar of text that pops up for a few seconds when you hit an achievement and then is gone forever with nothing about the game changing at all.

I liked maple trees and mushroom logs in Trio, too, where your quality was locked to how many times you had harvested that item...those were achievements I actually wanted to work on, because of that. I like useful achievements.

I think it would also help if your child was more interesting and useful, and if they grew up to more than just (presumably) preschool age, and had a few more events of their own that coincide with their growth.

I check my activity log and use that as a reference for which game i liked most since it tells you how many hours you logged in each game. my top played game on 3ds is rune factory 4 at 345 hours, followed by a new beginning at 263. for comparison trio of towns has only 190, but that doesnt mean i didnt enjoy trio. i actually liked it a lot, and i even played until i had a fully grown child but it does feel like you run out of meaningful things to do in trio fairly quick after finishing the story.

As for what i like a game to have to keep playing it, i enjoy things to collect, or something big to save up money and work towards like the vacation houses. a big problem i have is i get to the point where i have millions of dollars with nothing to spend it on, and then i start to feel like whats the point in growing crops if the money is just there and has no purpose.

Kikki wrote:I know what I would have loved in Trio. The customization in that game was the pits when it came to your farm. This would help offset that as well, I think.

I would love if your achievements unlocked changes in the landscape. Like, if one of the goals is 'play for 5 game years' then upon reaching that achievement, perhaps the gateway to your farm could suddenly become more beautiful/impressive. Say grow vines up it and add larger trees flanking it, maybe little statues...etc. And if you hit the final fishing achievement, perhaps unlock a pretty new pond in one of the un-editable sections of your farm where you can magically catch ALL fish regardless of region or season/etc. And if you get the top achievement for greeting people, spiff up the swing set area to the left of your farmhouse. That sort of thing. (Even better if you could set an overall 'style' to your farm like you can to your house, so that the improvements would match your theme: Westown, Lulukoko or Tsuyukusa. But that would just be icing, for me.) It would be really neat to SEE the results of your hard work in evidence everywhere, rather than that little bar of text that pops up for a few seconds when you hit an achievement and then is gone forever with nothing about the game changing at all.

I liked maple trees and mushroom logs in Trio, too, where your quality was locked to how many times you had harvested that item...those were achievements I actually wanted to work on, because of that. I like useful achievements.

I think it would also help if your child was more interesting and useful, and if they grew up to more than just (presumably) preschool age, and had a few more events of their own that coincide with their growth.

Omg you are a genius! I would’ve definitely played the game 10 times longer if this would’ve happened. I hope they implement something like this in the future.
Also they have got to stop making the kids mindless robots. Having one or two events with them a year isn’t enough to make me play long enough to have em.
I still love the game but it could’ve had some extra flavor to it. Yeah we had the DLC but eh. Even though I bought the DLC, I still haven’t gotten back into it >< doesnt help that I lost my 3DS for a while and by the time I found it, I’ve been distracted with a bunch of other games.

With me it's hard, simply because I can obsess about something and then not play it for a while just to come back to it. A big thing is just feeling like playing it, being in the right mindset to enjoy the playstyle and other things the game has to offer. I feel like it's harder for me to play something just to be playing, but at the same time that's because of some deeper personal issues which I will not post. Suffice to say, when I'm not anxious about it I enjoy just playing the games goals or no.

Which actually goes into the next point, the newer games are fun with their goals but the other side of that is they almost make it feel like you have to be productive and achieving things all the time. I still enjoy them, and some of the newer aspects are nice, but truth be told they aren't quite as relaxing for me a lot of the time.

Call me weird but I love the weird goals but aimlessness DS/Cute had for the most part. The sprites were hell, don't get me wrong, but that was mostly because of the large # of them I think. They were at least useful too. The crop system there though I think really encouraged natural play. It had the laid back feel of FoMT/MFoMT with a little more substance. To me, it wasn't a bad mix.

I mean I've been known to indulge in GBC3 so take all this with a grain of salt though.

The thing about Trio is that it's so packed with things I at least personally feel like I've played longer than I have. I don't know how to explain it fully.

Furthermore, I think days were shorter in the older games. Things were shorter and more 'streamlined' in a lot of ways, so sitting down and playing stress free seasons/a full in game year was much easier to do. They went quicker and smoother, so it was easier to fall into a comfortable flow with them. Newer games have their ups, but running all over the place certainly takes me out of the flow a bit more.

I like being able to break things into smaller bite-sized goals personally as well. But that's something that's probably more on me.

Kross lover/fan wrote:

Kikki wrote: I would love if your achievements unlocked changes in the landscape. Like, if one of the goals is 'play for 5 game years' then upon reaching that achievement, perhaps the gateway to your farm could suddenly become more beautiful/impressive. Say grow vines up it and add larger trees flanking it, maybe little statues...etc.

Omg you are a genius! I would’ve definitely played the game 10 times longer if this would’ve happened

I can already see people complaining that they shouldn't lock vines and statues behind a wait-wall or something like that (I like the idea though)

Anyway something that still blows my mind is that Harvest Moon 64 had new events happening 10 years in. Like, what game does that now.

Yeah, I think there would be complaints, too. But people who really want to lengthen their playtime are probably always going to be odds with those who want access to everything right away. Not everybody even wants to play for longer...lots of people say they only play these games for a game year or two. For me, I don't like when useful things are locked to so late in the game that they no longer serve a purpose. Like certain blueprints for combos that, by the time you can get them all, provide a bonus you no longer need (like gaining extra friendship at a point in the game where you've already maxed out your friendship with everyone just by attending all the festivals.)

That kind of time lock is really irritating, because, well...it renders the item useless and not worth having. But if it's just a visual perk...a bonus statue or an extra sparkly entrance or etc, that's not needed to make the game play more efficiently in any way, so I don't mind that being locked to an achievement, even if that achievement can only be unlocked by time. (Unless it's an amount of time that approaches insanity like in SoS where it was impossible to 100% the game without completing...what was it, 30 years? Or was it 50?)

I'd like a few events that are tied to the passage of time, too. Just a little more incentive to keep playing, to keep the world from feeling like it has become empty of content (which is how I feel when I've already completed all the goals and maxed things and gotten married and had the kid, etc.)

Yeah, but when do people NOT complain?
No game is perfect. It’s up to the developers to decide what they think the majority would like.
As weird as it sounds; even if a “perfect” game did exist, people would still find ways to complan.

You know, I loved HM64 and I have it for the WiiU as well as the original but I don’t remember getting past year 3. If it still had new stuff/events, I wonder why I never played longer :/ guess my little kid brain didn’t have the patience/attention span

I recently tried playing HM3 again for mere nostalgia sake. I missed the old school stuff but then I got distracted by newer and shinier things I say that the best game for me would be something to keep my mind from wondering to the next thing XD An impossibility indeed but it’d be nice if a game added new elements once in a while, to bring people back to it.

The new Animal Crossing game for mobile comes close. I’ll play it for a while, get bored, then suddenly it has a new thing to collect/new animals to befriend or a limited time event. That usually reclaims my attention again for a bit before I loose interest again. then again I can’t stand super repetitive games like Tomodachi Life or Style Savvy. So I guess AC is a fine line. I hated AC: Happy Home Designer, got rid of that game within a day, but I like the rest...idk.

Honestly... if the game doesn't have good farm customization and it's too easy to make money I find myself bored pretty quickly. Trio had farm customization but... they looked so ugly to me. -.- And I hated how I couldn't control exactly where fencing is.

I would say more areas to explore. Probably why I miss AP. It had a mine and a forest to wander through.

I have to disagree with having achievements. It's probably just me though since I prefer making my own goals. I wouldn't mind if they were removed all together.

Yeah, being able to make money by the hundreds of thousands does take a lot of challenge out of the game, and I'm not the type who can ignore an efficient way to make money when I need to buy things. (So basically, I need that way not to be there, cuz I can't resist on my own.) It might be useful to me if the easier ways to make money were inaccessible until later in the game.

Off topic, but yeah...Farm customization really was the pits in Trio. I also tried decorating, but the placement was so awkward that no matter what I placed or where I placed it, it looked awkward and unnatural. I hope they go back to a smaller grid size in the next time to make things more customizable...and preferably don't leave all that artificial space around the edges of things that keeps them from blending in. (I also preferred placing my own fences as opposed to having them built onto the barn/coop, since then I could choose their yard size and even put fodder plots and feeders within them. ANB's customization set-up was pretty satisfying, imo.)

Somewhat ON topic...if town/farm/house customization is really good, I do end up logging more hours. (Not more game days, maybe, but more real life playtime.) I spend a lot of time tweaking things when I have a lot of room to place things differently. Getting the perfect set-up is fun.

Making my own goals doesn't work for me, unfortunately. But having achievements in the game doesn't stop you from making your own goals. (Unless it does?) Though I don't go for achievements as they are in the games right now anyway, because they have no reward and that leaves me uninterested. (Which is why I wish, since they're there anyway, that they were more worth pursuing.) The only goals I cared about in Trio were the ones that had an effect, like the cooking, pearl-harvesting, maple trees, etc.

Yeah I can't ignore easy ways to make money either... I think next time I play a game like this I'm just not going to look up info. x.x But even then if I accidentally find out, or figure it out, I'm doomed.

Grand Bazaar and Rune Factory 1 had my longest in-game liives I guess? I think my one GB file had like 8 years before I restarted and I had over 10 years in Rune Factory before I restarted it too. I personally love restarting my Bokumono/RF games, except for ANB, I've done way too much trading to want to restart that material hunting hell again. I'm not exactly sure what it is that kept me playing GB and RF for so long before restarting though. Maybe because they were so relaxing to me? it may sound odd but games where I can zone out and be half-playing and half-thinking about other things, like my OCs, are nice.

I guess just give me a clean and simple game that's interesting enough to keep me going when I want to be actually paying attention and playing the game, but also lets me zone out and just play without thinking much at the end of a long week.

I would play longer if your child grew up or something.