Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town for Switch

[Getaris]

It's honestly kinda unhealthy how some players obsses over these things.

But I guess it comes with the main demographic.

[Kikki]

I don't think anyone is obsessing unhealthily. (And I'm not sure what you mean about it coming with the main demographic.) This is a forum for the very purpose of discussing these games. It's a major point of being here, to talk about what you do/don't like about the games, and what changes you'd like to see. People might express some very strong opinions some times, but I doubt it's impeding their mental health in real life. I'd find it hard to believe that hating their in-game rival, or wishing that rival marriages were still a thing, is impacting anyone's real life at all. The only time I think people have gone too far is when they start frothing at the mouth, throwing around insults (even towards other actual people) and cursing and so on, and then yeah, I really think they need to take a step back. But that doesn't happen that often. (Sadly, it does happen SOMEtimes.) But so far I haven't seen anything like that this time around.

I personally don't really care about rivals either way. I can take 'em or leave 'em. But even if what we like/dislike is moot, I don't see anything wrong with that. EVERYTHING we talk about is moot, cuz it has no effect on the devs. It's just fans sharing thoughts and opinions, imo.

[Getaris]

The main demographic is tweens (and around), you know, loud walking hormones.

[NinjaOfPallet]

I don't mind having rivals in game, but if we have I would like them to get married in the end. Including rival events and no wedding at all looks kinda silly in my oppinion. I think Grand Bazaar had something like that too, we got rival events but they never end up as a couple. I really like the rival system in Island Of Happiness and Animal Parade, where they marry AND have kids as well.

[Kikki]

Yeah, I think having rival events but no rival marriages is really stupid, too. People who feel jealous or resentful (or reluctant) of the rival relationships of the original system still have reason to be, and people who LIKED the rival pairings don't actually get them. Nobody's happy. Good job, Marv...lol. Eh. Maybe they're just trying to drum up a response? I can't think of any good reason for them to have done it this way but maybe they're aiming for something. This is basically a 'test' game, so...I don't really know what to think of it.

ARE tweens the main demographic? I thought the largest bunch of players was in the "women 18-24" category. Though I always mix Animal Crossing stats up with Bokumono stats, but I know at least ONE of them have a clear majority in that age group.

[RopeMaidenKirie]

People worrying about not getting to their chosen candidate in time seems to be the least of the worries over rivals, though. It's always been pretty easy to win your candidate against your rival. The problem is that people were opting to pair rivals up rather than marry anyone themselves (which isn't how the devs wanted their game to be and seems to be the primary reason they discontinued rivals), and the secondary problem of some people being resentful that their chosen candidate showed any interest in anyone else.

If anything I'd say it's been shown to be the complete opposite over the years. The resentment and the hate I've seen towards the bachelorettes in particular has been....something. Poor Sabrina, in particular. Vaughn fangirls were really vicious

Ushi is very tame nowadays as there's so few people around (and they are seemingly older in age), but back the day when the forums were filled with people and the games had rivals, there was quite a bit of hate and....colorful language towards rivals. It definitely wasn't a secondary problem. People just plain didn't like the thought of their favorite character having the potential to end up with someone other than the MC. Didn't matter if it took 4 years, or what, they were just super possessive and jealous. It was pretty nasty to see.

[Kikki]

Yeah, it's always disgusting to see. I was severely turned off just to see Iris being called terrible things because she's friends with Klaus, and someone also came along and started speaking in hostile and ugly terms about Carrie (who is SO sweet) because she's married to Brad and that person happened to think Brad would have been the best possible candidate and blamed her for him not being available. But I was pretty sure the reason the devs stated for discontinuing rivals was that people were opting not to marry in order to get rivals together instead, which isn't what they wanted. I suppose the balance of reaction in Japan might have been a little different than here; I don't really know.

[RopeMaidenKirie]

https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?c=287&print=

The ratio of male-to-female players (in Japan) has shifted a bit. In the past it used to be mostly female, but the number of male players have increased. Hashimoto hopes that some day it will be 50/50. The average age for the male audience are those in their 20s and 30s.

Hashimoto explains the boy players say they stop playing because the love rival took the girl they like, while the girl players feel the rivals are a better match to the marriage candidates than they are. At the moment that's why they don't add rival events to the series, but he said he'd like to add them back in sometime.

Whether we see rivals again some day as DLC or whatnot, who knows at this point.

[Crystal Power]

It's sad but I have seen effects of what it can be like from English fans as well. I was a bit disgusted with the hate for Selena just because she was paired with the "Popular Luke", like first of all, it's not even hard to avoid the rival marriages to trigger it's in your control so why hate the rival characters so much? Just really nasty behavior it provoked in some players.

I like the thought of having the other characters marrying each other and becoming happy, and I had always had my own fix I wished I could tell the development team about the "remaining candidate" was to have the opposite protagonist come in game and marry to remaining person (The protagonist were even marriageable in a few game or was it only Sunshine Islands?). Anyway that would fix that problem, cannot really make people be more chill about a rival candidate being appointed as the person of their "sweetheart" other than expressing that it's up to YOU if they take your potential spouse so why get angry over it...

About the other protagonist marrying the rival of your spouse- that's what I always wanted too! That way you wouldn't have to feel bad for breaking up a couple, you would actually be helping to create a new one.

Yes. Also to the notion of how the added protagonist will live, if they want to cut on development the secondary protagonist doesn't need a farm but can live with the remaining candidate. Giving them personality shouldn't be to difficult hence to why I mentioned the protagonist being candidates in past games, it can be done to incorporate them in the game if they put in the effort. Overall this will all add more content in the game and more reasons to play if they did.

If anything I'd say it's been shown to be the complete opposite over the years. The resentment and the hate I've seen towards the bachelorettes in particular has been....something. Poor Sabrina, in particular. Vaughn fangirls were really vicious

Ushi is very tame nowadays as there's so few people around (and they are seemingly older in age), but back the day when the forums were filled with people and the games had rivals, there was quite a bit of hate and....colorful language towards rivals. It definitely wasn't a secondary problem. People just plain didn't like the thought of their favorite character having the potential to end up with someone other than the MC. Didn't matter if it took 4 years, or what, they were just super possessive and jealous. It was pretty nasty to see.

The scenario with Sabrina sounds like what I witnessed for Selena. The behavior people have is even more upsetting because if they feel this way over fictional characters (that they actually have control over the events in-game but it's just possessive mentality) then I can imagine that they behave/feel certain ways for people in real life over similar situations. Ugh...

[Kikki]

Thanks Kirie. So I was remember it half right, then.

The scenario with Sabrina sounds like what I witnessed for Selena. The behavior people have is even more upsetting because if they feel this way over fictional characters (that they actually have control over the events in-game but it's just possessive mentality) then I can imagine that they behave/feel certain ways for people in real life over similar situations. Ugh...

I'm betting it's the other way around, in a sense. Ime, people react really strongly to entertainment...books, music, games, etc...because of their real life experiences. Maybe this is giving people too much credit, but I figure the reason a lot of people react so strongly to their favourite candidate having another love interest is because that's something they've dealt with IRL and probably had little to no recourse against...it was something they just had to suck up and deal with like a reasonable person, at least outwardly. Then when it comes time to play a wish-fulfilment type of game (which any life-sim is, at least in part, imo) they do NOT want any hint of it in there. That's not fulfilling their wishes/fantasy, cuz they want to be the One True Love, sort of a thing, and a game is probably the only place you're gonna get that. So I think it's that they react that way to the fictional characters because of their real-life situations.

I think the way people react is horrible. Very ugly. But it's not that I don't understand it at all, even if I personally don't care about rivals either way. I can sympathize with people wanting that, even if I can't condone how awful some of the responses are.

[Autumn_Song]

I've been on these forums since 2008, and I have seen a lot of hate in my time for rivals, back when things were more active. It was mostly towards the bachelorettes over whatever bachelor the forum was most into at the time. It's tamed down a lot now and I can't say I wasn't part of it back when I was a dumbass teen myself, but it was a big problem. I don't know. I like rivals now more that I'm an adult player than when I was a child and teen playing these games. So while I'm kinda disappointed it's been removed I just remember all the stuff I witnessed on these forums and other forums against rivals and I can understand why.

[Slowpoke]

The main demographic is tweens (and around), you know, loud walking hormones.

tweens definitely are not the main demographic. lol
at least not anymore

[Crystal Power]

Thanks Kirie. So I was remember it half right, then.

The scenario with Sabrina sounds like what I witnessed for Selena. The behavior people have is even more upsetting because if they feel this way over fictional characters (that they actually have control over the events in-game but it's just possessive mentality) then I can imagine that they behave/feel certain ways for people in real life over similar situations. Ugh...

I'm betting it's the other way around, in a sense. Ime, people react really strongly to entertainment...books, music, games, etc...because of their real life experiences. Maybe this is giving people too much credit, but I figure the reason a lot of people react so strongly to their favourite candidate having another love interest is because that's something they've dealt with IRL and probably had little to no recourse against...it was something they just had to suck up and deal with like a reasonable person, at least outwardly. Then when it comes time to play a wish-fulfilment type of game (which any life-sim is, at least in part, imo) they do NOT want any hint of it in there. That's not fulfilling their wishes/fantasy, cuz they want to be the One True Love, sort of a thing, and a game is probably the only place you're gonna get that. So I think it's that they react that way to the fictional characters because of their real-life situations.

I think the way people react is horrible. Very ugly. But it's not that I don't understand it at all, even if I personally don't care about rivals either way.

I actually agree that many times the theory you laid out is correct as well. It's impossible to determine what every individual is going through but in a sense the way you put it makes me feel a bit more sympathy for them but I will not condone bad behavior overall. One might even say I'm in that situation you put forward but I won't go around causing discomfort to others because of it as if I'm entitled.

I personally can 'live' with or without rival marriages but it is more upsetting that the insecurities, anger, self-loathing of others can get in the way of people who actually did enjoy the feature. Even if it's not about the people that make nasty remarks but like the quote Kirie posted, in that that perspective it's more saddening that people have to feel such ways about themselves and unfortunate now that the developers cannot add more content even if their intentions were only good willed..

[Getaris]

The main demographic is tweens (and around), you know, loud walking hormones.

tweens definitely are not the main demographic. lol
at least not anymore

Denial is the first stage!

[Guest]

Another option for rival marriage could be to have it be something the player has to work to make happen, instead of just having the events trigger when you walk through the door. Like, have there be no romantic interaction between characters and leave it up to the player when, how, and if the rival couples get together. That way it would feel less like "these two people would've ended up together if it wasn't for my interference" and more like "these two people would NEVER have ended up together if I hadn't played matchmaker."

Also, if they're going to be removing rival marriages from their future remakes then I hope they don't touch Animal Parade with a 10-foot pole.