YMMV / Hometown Story

• Angst? What Angst?: Different event chains can run concurrently, which can lead to odd results.
  • During the ill wind arc, it's possible to trigger events from another chain between the moment the pandemic starts and the moment it gets actually taken care of. The events that basically consist of some villagers doing silly things can hence create quite the Mood Whiplash.
  • The normal dialogue of the more cheerful characters can come off as this during the days following Harvey's funeral.
• Broken Base: To the Harvest Moon fandom. Some say they expected something more like classic HM titles, and the game is sourly disappointing and boring, while others say it's just slow in the beginning than picks up.
• Camera Screw: The camera can get outright disorienting on the store and waterfall maps and also has angles that are used only in front of house doors; the worse cases of the latter are Jacques and Shinji's houses, that cause an abrubt 180° angle switch, which can easily make the player do an involuntary u-turn.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Even those who like the game admit that the gameplay could have used more work. On the other hand, the game's redeeming qualities include the story and the characters.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Lamisa was found on the beach with just the clothes on her back. Where did she get the roll of fabric from her home country she gives away for Sunny's request?
  • The fact that the Player Character lived in the village as a child contradicts Pochica's claim near the end of the game of having actually waited for someone to take over the store for centuries.
• Ho Yay and Les Yay: The events centering on the marriage candidates that are not dates serve the double function of befriending the ones intended for players of the other sex and keeping the future couples from being Strangled by the Red String. The end result of this is Ship Tease moments fulfilling their purpose no matter what sex the player is.
  • Haruka: Her longest event chain consists of watching her train to become a good wife.
  • Mika: You get to see her in a wedding dress.
  • Anna: An event has the two of you eating a meal alone and Anna ask the player for an honest comment on her Brutal Honesty-heavy attitude towards people.
  • Steve: He insists on having you keep expired movie tickets he bought for a date he ended up not having.
  • Dexter: When he decides to leave town and you try to stop him, he implies you're the person he's going to miss the most.
• Player Punch: Harvey's death, which is necessary to continue the story past a certain point.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The fact that it's impossible to close the store to go out.
  • There is nothing in the game proper to keep track of requests of the different characters.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Some players that managed to stick to the game in the long term find the narrative rather enjoyable.
• Tear Jerker: Harvey's funeral, especially Peter and Sue's reactions. Not to mention the two options you have for the last event before his death, that can happen as early as the night following them: getting a brand new telescope or having a fight with Sue.
• That One Sidequest: The harvest seedling quest. You have to get stuff from at least five different people that you need to catch at the right time of day. On top of this, the fertilizer alone requires to pick up seven fruits that each have a low chance of spawning on a given morning in seven different areas. Even if you were lucky enough to run into some of them before they were requested and picked them up, the remaining ones can be quite painful to get if the Random Number God isn't on your side.
• The Woobie: Dexter, for getting a No Good Deed Goes Unpunished on top of an event that was traumatic on its own right. Even after things get cleared up concerning the aforementioned events and he moves into the village, fate seems to not leave him alone during the ill wind arc but eventually turns around.