YMMV / Harvest Moon: Light of Hope

• Accidental Innuendo: Jeanne's confession is supposed to be chaste, but it sounds a bit too much like she's coming onto you:
  Jeanne: I've been very sick.
  But this sickness can't be cured with any of my medical plants.
  [Name]... Only you can cure it...
• Adorkable: Gabriel, a young man who is extremely kind and good with animals, but very shy and awkward around other people.
• Critical Dissonance: There's a dissonance between the Story of Seasons fandom's stance on the title and the mainstream gaming community's stance on it. Story of Seasons fans are much more forgiving of its flaws and are more likely to praise the game. In contrast, the reception outside of the fanbase has been very negative both in comparison to its rival Stardew Valley and the previous Story of Seasons titles (especially the then-recent Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns). Most reviewers hated the game and it has appeared on more than one "Worst Switch Titles" list.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Long-Haired Pretty Boy wizard Edmond is the most popular NPC in the game.
• Game-Breaker: The mines. Ores and gems can be sold for a lot of money and the game allows you to skip to certain levels at will after you unlock them.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: A lot of ths fans for the game come from Indonesia.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: A complaint is that the game is too easy. Animals can get to maximum affection within a season, making friends with the villagers is easy, and mining gives you a lot of money for little trouble. As a result, the game can be beat quickly.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The game has received complaints for being too similar to the previous Natsume games.
• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • The game has the unfortunate circumstance of being the first Harvest Moon game on consoles in almost a decade. This caused many pre-split fans (and gaming websites) who don't follow the 3DS games to confuse it with Marvelous' titles. As a result, many gamers started complaining that the series has undergone a downgrade, not realizing it's essentially a different series.
  • Special Edition introduced a new bachelor/ette named Soleil. Natsume revealed this by saying "Soleil is also a new marriageable character once he is full grown!". This bad wording squicked out a lot of fans. Not only is Soleil young looking, but they outright resemble a toddler at best. Much of the discussion about the game ended up revolving around Soleil (and not for good reasons).
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The lack of terraforming was seen as a step backwards for some critics. The terraforming was seen as one way Natsume's games distinguished themselves from Marvelous'.