Ushi No Tane Forum

Arcy, thanks for your thoroughness! I think you’re right about Laura. And that purple eyed dude hasn’t been revealed. I wonder if the last two will be magical/secret?

Yo I am so excited about this game. Even without 2D portraits, I'm still over the moon. I loved ToT and I hope that this game is somewhat similar in the way that the characters had personality, the events were fun, and the environments were lively. I'll be interested to see what they have learned/taken away from games like SDV and maybe even the Rune Factory series.

I don't mind the bubbly cows and the chibi animals, honestly. I also don't mind chibi, colorful crops. My main concern is how deep the events will be with the villagers/marriage candidates. That's what I've always felt like Rune Factory has done better, and especially what Stardew did better. I'll sacrifice a lot for depth of character.

And of course I'm excited for the SS marriage...the bachelorettes are so cute...!

seachel wrote:After watching the trailer many times, have warmed up a little to it. Still not fully on board but I think it could be a decent game.

I agree. I think it's important to note this game is sort of the experimental one. Games like; Island of Happiness, Tree of Tranquility, and A New Beginning, were all experimental to see what fans like and don't like. After those games we got Sunshine Islands, Animal Parade, and SoS/Trio. <-- All games to which fixes bugs and changed tedious mechanics from their predecessor.

The bokujou creators don't listen to fans request during the games promotion but they do implement most of the feedback onto their next one. For those who don't like this game due to various reasons will sadly just have to be more patient for a future title that will interest them.

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk about it. I'm just saying that's how it is.

I don’t have my 3DS on me but I know I’ve spent many hours on the first SoS and Trio. If this game can give me that many hours I’ll be satisfied. It doesn’t matter how it looks.

I'm finding it hard to be excited about this game. I haven't played a Bokumono game since the first Story of Seasons, which I enjoyed but just lost interest, and so far nothing has pulled me back in. Art direction is really important for me and I just feel like the 3D games don't do a very good job of it (also, possibly unpopular opinion: I think it's time for them to get a new character designer). Olive Town especially looks like a cheap mobile game (the lack of portraits doesn't help)...and every time I look at a screenshot of Doraemon SoS I can't help but wonder why the regular games can't look that beautiful? Why would they put that much effort into outsourcing a company to do amazing art for a spinoff but not the main series? It's decisions like that as well as others that have caused me to lose a lot of faith in the Bokumono team at Marvelous over the years. Especially since RF exists, and although if I'm being frank I think RF5 looks pretty ugly too in the graphics department at least I know it's generally going to have a lot of other stuff to make up for it if RF4 is any indication.

Sorry, didn't mean for this to turn into a rant. I hope everyone who gets this game enjoys it, I just don't know if it's for me. I'd probably find some enjoyment from it if I gave it a try, but the older I get the less time I have to spare for games that are just "okay."

Katze wrote: ...and every time I look at a screenshot of Doraemon SoS I can't help but wonder why the regular games can't look that beautiful? Why would they put that much effort into outsourcing a company to do amazing art for a spinoff but not the main series?

Much agreed. The Doraemon crossover is one of the best-looking HM/SoS games ever, and I even think the FoMT remake looks much better. Of course, the game play is the thing, but I kind of need the charm to draw me in, and I just don't see that. I didn't play the Doraemon or FoMT games because my time was limited and I wanted to be ready when this one appeared, but now I'm thinking I may just play one of those instead. I'm not trashing the new game; just saying I'm a little disappointed.

Yeah, it's crazy how much more natural and pretty Doraemon looks. It's ridiculous.

Saw this on the bokumono Twitter. He reminds me a lot of someone, maybe Neil? Also, no 2D portraits in the cutscene as expected.

Here is Bridget's since Seachel posted Damon's!
I...actually love the models, and her little jig at the end is SO cute, oml.

RopeMaidenKirie wrote:
I...actually love the models, and her little jig at the end is SO cute, oml.

Oh, I didn’t see them put that up. That little jig is really cute and I like her short hair. It’s refreshing to see a bachelorette that looks different from previous bachelorettes.

Her face looks unnaturally short to me.

I'm still so torn! I do like the size of the models, but I want them to emote more. (I probably just need to see more of the game.) Bridget is adorable though. I like her in game model better than her character art, actually.

I may be alone in this, but I do think the art style for the game strikes a pretty good balance. Simple, but very...Bokumono. (Imo it's a noticeably different art style from Natsume's. Save for the cow.) Models on the handhelds just weren't big enough to carry things, I think.

Either way, seeing more clips is nice! :D Thanks for posting, both of you!

My brain: You shouldn't get too attached to Bridget yet. Not all the marriage candidates have been revealed and If you fall in love with someone else because they're hotter your gonna feel bad for not choosing Bridget.
Bridget: Does that little dance at the end
My brain: We can have a little attachment to bridget before release... as a treat.

Also a hundred percent we aren't getting portraits in this title. The cutscenes are way too zoomed in. If there was an option to turn them on at least one person in the scene would be covered up because of how big those portraits usually are.

I'd really like to see more emotion on their faces, too. They're using buckets of body language, which is much better than not using it, for sure, but...for me it has to be in the facial expression. It's not that there is none. Their mouths become curved lines and their eyes become curved lines as well, when they smile, but...when it comes to facial expression, I just don't feel anything from them. They just look too artificial and doll-like, to me. I always find it impossible to convey exactly what I mean by that, though, because everyone has their own mental images evoked by all the potential adjectives I could use, which may not be at all the same as mine.

I do think it looks like Bokumono, though, if we're looking across the series...this certainly fits in. It's just that this entry, character-wise, is drawing from all the aspects of Bokumono that I never quite liked. It's like...spaghetti sauce. Most versions of it are pretty tasty and in general I love it, and all versions tend to use the same ingredients, with only variations in how much they use of each. This is like a sauce that's heavy on the meat and light on the onions and celery, and so much basil that the flavour is leaning towards that licorice/coriander/fennel/anise flavour that makes my tastebuds cringe. It's still spaghetti sauce! And some people think it's the best version ever...the perfect representation of spaghetti sauce. But it's not my spaghetti sauce, because I like a heavy hand with the veggies, mushrooms and garlic, and for the herbs to lean away from basil, toward oregano.

It definitely represents Bokumono quite well. Just not the parts of it that I like, visually speaking.

However, the gameplay/mechanics so far seem absolutely perfect for me. Olive Town is giving me huge amounts of conflicting feelings. I get very excited thinking about all of that farming, and the cool new map areas to unlock, and all the things to build and make, and then I feel dampened when I think of the character interactions. I'm going to be buying it no matter what, so hopefully once I have the complete game in my hands, it'll turn out to be something I can get emotionally invested in, one way or another.

Zero_Major wrote:My brain: You shouldn't get too attached to Bridget yet. Not all the marriage candidates have been revealed and If you fall in love with someone else because they're hotter your gonna feel bad for not choosing Bridget.
Bridget: Does that little dance at the end
My brain: We can have a little attachment to bridget before release... as a treat.

I had a pretty similar reaction. Except my brain is telling me not to get too attached to Bridget because we might be able to marry Laura. Well just in case Laura is not eligible or her events or personality suck, we can have a little attachment to Bridget...