The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Which Harvest Moon?
SaraLuna
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I haven't played a HM game since the snes original but recently got the urge to see how the farm sim business is going.
There are so many sequels now that I don't know where to start though.
I'd probably want to play it on my DS, but would be open to a wii/cube version.
Is there a definitive version that is considered to be the best of the bunch, or are they roughly equal quality with different pros/cons?
There are so many sequels now that I don't know where to start though.
I'd probably want to play it on my DS, but would be open to a wii/cube version.
Is there a definitive version that is considered to be the best of the bunch, or are they roughly equal quality with different pros/cons?
SaraLuna on
0
Posts
BRAWL CODE: 3866-7685-8500
My favorite of the newer ones is the DS one.
nice, portable, and still lots of fun.
GO NOW.
edit: wiki says 4 on DS, with another coming
Something something Mineral Town. This will basically always be the answer.
DS version could theoretically compete, but it's buggy.
Magical Melody is kind've polarizing. Hell, basically all of them are polarizing aside from the original, and the N64/PSX versions taken as a whole.
---
There's Harvest Moon DS, which is basically an update of the most traditional gameplay mechanics. Then there's cute, which is DS with a female protagonist.
And Rune Factory, which is pretty light in dungeon crawling/monster killing, farming, and socializing. The three come together to make a fairly sub-par game. Pretty much disappointment in how much better they could've done.
do the games still have a 3 year (or whatever) hard limit for playing?
I seem to recall the original making you start from scratch after the designated timeframe was up.
They've basically all had unlimited timeframes since the original, except for the PS2 one and one of the Gamecube ones.
I'm getting behind.
GO NOW.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
the gba ones look to be just what i need though, being 1. relatively cheap, and 2. something to carry in the gba slot of my ds case. I've had final fantasy 6 in there for like a year despite being completely done with it.
MP likes DS after the first print run, I on the other hand still find it a bit unmanagable.
This is my personal order of the games.
HM 64
HM:Friends of Mineral Town (GBA)
Harvest Moon (SNES)
Harvest Moon:Magical Melody (GCN, Wii in Europe)
HM:Back to Nature (PSX)
HM: DS
HM:A Wonderful Life (GCN, PS2)
Harvest Moon 3 GBC
Harvest Moon 2 GBC
HM:Save the Homland (PS2)
HM: DS is honestly the cutoff point. A Wonderful Life actually tries to do some compelling things, and has a touching ending, but at its core it really just isn't a HM game. The GBC games are completely owned by the newer portable games. Save the Homeland is the worst in the series, avoid at all cost. There are quite a few new HM games that should come out this year.
On the spinoff front the only game I can really recommend is Rune Factory and Rune Factory 2 when it comes out. HM+Gauntlet. Only real problem with it is that unlike the two games it draws influence from it is too damn easy!
Guess I'll wait another x number of years till we finally get the new wii version that's coming out, 3 years after the rest of the world or something.
Why, I'm right here! Work banned the site tho so I'm only here about 5 minutes a month now..
If you get the more recent version, Harvest Moon DS is your best bet. Get Cute if you want better translations but limited marriage options (they removed the Best Friends system from the game for the US so no more uber-hard wives to shoot for).
I like HMDS because there's just a royal shitton of things to do. Some people find that unmanageable and it can be if you try to do everything. The nice thing is you never really need to, especially with DS Cute.
The Mineral Town games run a close second. Steer toward the More Friends version as the Friends version was published with very poor batteries which regularly come unsoldered from the game, deleting yout sva eand making it impossible to ever save again. If you have a Wii or GC, Magical Melody is great fun as well if not far too easy. Rune Factory is really fun as well but, again, way way too easy.
Everything else is secondary. I never found anything special about HM:64 unlike most others. It was very boring and simple and the Minera; Town games improved every aspevt of the 64 game.
Boo! That sucks.
I downloaded the SNES Harvest Moon and now am really looking forward to Natsume bringing the 64 version out. It will be my first 64 game.
If you're reading this post, go download HM SNES right now. I know it's pretty simplistic and there are only 4 crop types, but the simplicity is very enjoyable.
Virtual Console.
But I stand corrected. Being poor, I have no wii and thus little knowledge of what games are out for the VC.
And, hey, his post makes more sense now.
1) Harvest Moon 64.
The game that introduced me to the series is still the one I have the fondest memories of. Not that impressive technologically (though I like its art style), but IMO the characters, dialogues and events are the best and most varied of the series.
2) Magical Melody (Gamecube/Wii [PAL only]).
I'm playing it at the moment, and I like it a lot. At its core I feel it's probably a better game than HM64, but it's at its weakest where HM64 was the strongest. The Wii port which I'm playing isn't that great, the Wiimote controls are superfluous and too easy to activate by accident, plus the female main character's been cut, so unless you have no other option or don't mind the problems that much, go for the Cube version.
3) Friends of Mineral Town (GBA).
Basically it's a downscaled HM64 with some of the character roles swapped around. Personally I feel the new roles don't work as well as the old ones. What really hurt this game IMO were the GBA controls, though.
4) Harvest Moon (SNES/VC).
Maybe it's because I first played this after HM64, but the first game really didn't impress me. All the basics are there, but the other games do everything so much better. The three-year time limit you're stuck with is stupid.
5) HM: A Wonderful Life (Gamecube).
This was probably the game with the most potential, but it's just too restricting and different from the rest of the series for me. Not without it's charms, but it has too many flaws to recommend.
In my 3DS: Super Smash Bros, AC New Leaf
Last game completed: Steamworld Dig
The more of you who buy HM SNES, the higher the chance that we will get HM 64 soon, or so my theory goes.
If you're a hardcore gamer, you're buying shit like this and Legend of the Mystical Ninja, instead of Super Metroid and Zelda LTTP.
No you play both
I loved HM and HM64. I wish they would take a turn back towards the originals as opposed to this Rune Factory crap.
It appears wikipedia an article about a game called Harvest Moon Onlilne.
Here is what IGN has to say
I'd say this a bit out of date.
I'm not made of money and thus need such justifications to remain financially solvent!
Aside from that, a lot of people think the cast is generally weaker. The only girls of the bunch I liked at all in DS were Celia and Lumina, and I can't even remember any of the males. I think it had most of the characters from A Wonderful Life, so that would explain why I've repressed my memories of most of the cast.
I also thought the sprite collection was more tedious than anything. Some of the requirements are just annoying as hell to get. And the enemies in the mine weren't something I'd really consider a plus.
It does have the most fluid farm helper system, I guess. But I think it was pretty lacking in Festivals (I might be mixing it up with Rune Factory here...or they might both suck at festivals).
That and the DS controls were a little shoddy at times. Only giving you the option to click or tap, when there's no real reason not to let you do either. And the inventory management could become a bit of a hassle.
In fact lack of festivals is a huge problem in most of the newer HM games.
Basically every game besides the original and the line that starts with HM64 (HM64, BtN, FoMT, MFoMT) doesn't have enough festivals.
Magical Melody is really guilty of this. For a game so otherwise chock filled with content it really messed up that part.
But seriously, that game has glorious sunsets. Just taking a ride down by the beach during a sunset.
Also unlockable music from the best games in the series doesn't hurt.
Tomato throwing contest, hell yeah.
that would be like ubercrack for me
I also played Save the Homeland (just awful), A Wonderful Life (very pretty but its gameplay is just bad), and Harvest Moon DS (which I got about halfway through the first year before the bug hit and wiped my game
I was going to go bargain hunting some tomorrow anyway, I'll keep an eye open for you
Bah, only major complaint with Friends is the non-grid based movement. Oh, what's that? You were standing a centimeter left of the basket? Haha, you wasted the item!
I think you just sold a copy of DS Cute. ;C
I'm trying to translate, but not getting anywhere; I can't find the kanjis used on either mahou or wiki, and simply grouping the hiragana is ... well, let's just say I understand how we got so much wonderful engrish.
crab spin exhibition roof.
The romanji I'm working off of:
ke tsu ko u .. .. ga ni a tsu te n ji ya ne e ka?
ko re de mo, ho me te n da (?)~.
The first double dot is a kanji I can't find -
勹 文 is basically what it looks like, only with a vertical line through the first and them meshed together.
The second is remarkably similiar to
場, only without the extra bit on the bottom of the 't'
The question mark is either 'se', 'ze', or a kanji that looks the same.