Harvest Moon/ Rune Factory

CLOTHES CLOTHES CLOTHES OH GOD I WISH I DIDN'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK STUPID BUDGET SO I CAN BUY IT

...ahem. Joe's cool and all, he's tempting, but I probably will go for James. The Dandy types always get to me.

I went for Owen in To T, though I never got far enough to get to marriage in either of my playthroughs. Looking at the page though, I might go for the Wizard.

Still enjoying Tides of Destiny, but the lack of farming has me itching to swap to one WITH farming to ease that.

So Tides of Destiny is...mostly a Dating Sim with dungeons?

I want my economy!

Joe's not my kind of hot. As I alluded to, I'm more into the nerdy Adorkable types.

You always do, Freeze. I remember in the other HM thread how you were gushing over cute boys with glasses.

We all gotta have our recognizable quirks! What else will our fanfic writers flanderize?

Strangely, though, when I play as a guy, my options tend to be more all-over than usual. In my guy-file of Animal Parade, I went for Candace, in A Wonderful Life I went for Nami... Solidarity! I have none! I make the world's worst straight man.

I always guy for the stereotypical sexy boy.

i.e. Joe.

Seriously. JOE WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL OF MY LIFE?

I won't lie, I never grew out of my bishonen phase.

Though when I play a dude, I just go for the girl I think has the most interesting storyline to follow. Bar that, whoever I think would be the most fun to interact with. Occasionally, I decide to pick the hardest girl in the game to date and vow to date her.

*enters thread*

Place me in the bishie line, thanks.

*leaves thread*

I imagined your post in Rainbow Dash's voice and that made it better

"Bishie" is not a word.

(Am I the only dude here? Where are all the people who go crazy over the "waifus"?)

Still wondering how a Rune Factory game manages to not have FARMING.

Fine. Bishonen, if you must.

But nope, you're not the only dude! Me and tendo are dudes! You're just the only straight guy here, I guess.

There IS farming, it's just on a much smaller scale.

Basically, you don't buy seeds or plots. You discover and depetrify fertile islands. On those islands are designated plant plots that respond to a spirit wand. You use the wand to make plants grow (instead of tilling, planting, and then watering), then you recruit monsters to tend to the plants. What kind of monsters you assign will determine the array of crops you earn, though it's always going to be from a certain group of crops which you can learn by checking the monster's stats.

So basically, farming is delegated to a management task...which frees you up for more dungeon crawling and socializing. You still want to brush your monsters to get their loyalty up, but feeding is still done automatically. Also, there's still livestock monsters that don't tend crops, so you care for them the same way you always have.

Okay, so, uh...

If I were to play a Harvest Moon game...where would I start? I don't think I've ever touched this series before.

I read the thread, but didn't see a reason to post yet since it's been so long since I played HM. I like to play again, but it's always such a bitch to start up a new game.

Oh, and I'm straight male. But the times that I felt like starting a girl file, I usually went for some bishie. Like Chase.

edited 9th Oct '11 2:27:46 PM by Kayeka

If you want to play Harvest Moon but don't know where to start, I recommend Animal Parade for the Wii, unless you want dungeon diving, then Rune Factory Tides of Destiny, because the Runey System in Frontier makes me regret getting the game.

For DS, I recommend NOT Sunshine Islands or Island of Happiness. I have yet to play Two Towns, but Grand Bazaar is such a slow and relaxing game with a simple play style that makes me really enjoy it. Though for Rune Factory for DS I recommend Rune Factory 3. I do not recommend the games with "DS" in the title because they will kill your touch screen.

There are two Harvest Moons for PSP, only one lets you play a girl and thus you can you marry a boy (even if the game ends when you do.) The other, called Hero of Leaf Valley, while you can only play a boy, I think is pretty enjoyable. Even if I am a straight girl. There are lots of major story lines you can follow on how to save the region.

PS 2, um... I dunno, Save The Homeland is kinda the only one I know much about as I own it, but Hero of Leaf Valley is the remake.

GBA Has the two Mineral Towns, one for boy and one for girl.

Game Cube has a (Another) Wonderful Life and Magical Melody. Personally, I dislike both, as one plays completely differently and you age, while the other has you try and earn and keep villagers which can be a challenge.

So, really, if you have a Wii, get Animal Parade, but if not, get the game for the system you have.

Don't worry, I see the appeal in Joe.

I'm hardly a newbie to the series. I've been playing since Friends of Mineral Town.

It's just that every new game file requires several hours of not-fun work before the good fun starts. That's sort of discouraging when I can just get some instant internet entertainment instead.

Um, are you talking to me? Because my post was to Deathonabun.

Ninjas, ninjas everywhere, performing the art of conversation confusion.

My favorite in the series is still Harvest Moon 64. I've played a bunch of the games (let's see... 64, Save the Homeland, A Wonderful Life, Magical Melody, Innocent Life, the original Rune Factory, Tree of Tranquility... plus Back to Nature, DS, and Friends of Mineral Town which I picked up when I came across them but haven't actually played much of), and the only one I actually disliked was A Wonderful Life, but whenever I need a Harvest Moon fix I always end up going back to 64 rather than running through any of the newer games. (I will finish that full album run eventually! Really!)

Anyway, I wanted to point out that Harvest Moon needs more Wiki Magic. The only games with individual articles are Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life (though bizarrely, Tree of Tranquility and Island of Happiness have character pages but no main pages). I don't really expect all of them to have their own, but surely we can at least get some of the more recent/popular ones like Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade going?

edited 9th Oct '11 3:54:44 PM by NativeJovian

I love how people assume I'm a girl..lmao

I even have a boy icon..:T

IMO the best place to start is....well...Animal Parade. >_>

It's just so perfect and the series is only going up from there...really unless you want to see how far the series has come....you need to start with Animal Parade.

My icons tend to be rather female, thanks to the whole Friendship Is Magic is 90% female thing.

So Animal Parade, huh? Sounds good to me, I'll check it out.

...I think I'll also pick up one of the Rune Factory games. I've heard good things about those.

NO

NO BUNNY DO NOT PICK UP RUNE FACTORY: FRONTIER

...That is NOT a series for newbies. Not because it's hard, but because it's so fucking huge(Do not make a dirty joke or so help me God) and there's so much to do that it will go right over your head.

...

...Okay?

Play an HM game.

Then move on to Rune Factory when you're ready. Also when you have a fuck ton of time to spend.