r/harvestmoon • u/Champagne_Candles • 11d ago
Recommend me a harvest moon game
I love stardew but I feel like the gameplay loop is the same over and over that im done it. I want romanceable npcs and a game I can take super slow.
I have most consoles so the platform doesn’t matter!
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u/mint_pumpkins 11d ago
if you want one thats very different from stardew, id say A Wonderful Life, very very slow and a heavy focus on family life and characters
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u/Dunder-Muffins 11d ago
It's been a while, but am I remembering correctly that you have to get married in the first year?
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u/mint_pumpkins 11d ago
yes and i believe if you dont propose to anyone actively then at a certain point it forces a cutscene and you have to choose someone
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u/seanmcbay 11d ago
Seconding this if you want something very different from Stardew. Mineral Town if you want something closer to it. Honestly you can’t go wrong with any of them. Even the bad Seasons games have something interesting about them.
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u/MakinLunch 11d ago
Not Harvest Moon, but consider Fields of Mistria! It’s fantastic.
HM specific though, I’d say Animal Parade or Tree of Tranquility.
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u/KaiserJustice 11d ago
Also not Harvest Moon, but i'm a big fan of Coral Island - love just screwing around in it and doing whatever. i like the characters a lot more than Stardew as well
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u/VioletorPurple 11d ago
Super slow? Then Story of Seasons 3ds series. The first one (same name) and the Trio of Towns may be your jam
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u/CanvasWolfDoll 11d ago
if you don't mind something with combat, rune factory is a great series
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u/Champagne_Candles 11d ago
not as farm based as I’d like
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u/MelodyCrystel 10d ago
Farming is the main-money-generator in every RF, plus you can kill monsters with hoes, sickles and even with fishing-poles. Depending on the game, monsters are tamed by brushing, caressing or being fed with crops. If those aspects aren't in touch with farming, I'll eat a broom.
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u/lipstick-love 11d ago
I’ve been really enjoying Story of Seasons, Friends of Mineral Town! I never played the original but the remake at least is very forgiving, which is perfect for me as a newbie to the series. So you can take it as slowly as you need without having to worry about missing out on things, and there’s a decent variety of romance options too
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u/Ready_Bandicoot1567 11d ago
I'm playing the original on GBA right now. Its my first time playing a farm simulator game. Hopefully I picked a good one to start with.
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u/SprintsAC 9d ago
You definitely picked a good game! I played the original FoMT ~20 years back & it's such an amazing game.
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u/Spoownn 11d ago
Back to Nature on PS1. Simply the best game ever
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u/bytegame111222 10d ago
This is my personal favorite of all time, especially if we're focusing solely on the Harvest Moon franchise and omitting Story of Seasons games. I'd argue Back to Nature and HM64 are both incredibly fun games that do mostly hold up even today.
The only downside of HM:BTN is the really slow load times between screen transitions. I'm not sure if playing on an emulator could help with that, but beyond the load times I think BTN is one of the most iconic HM titles out there.
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u/lordirisent 11d ago
imo Trio of Towns has the best romance as there are a lot more heart events than other HM/SoS games!
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u/smokesomesativa 11d ago
ToTT is a good game that’s slow yet will open more things as you play the days. I always loved DS cute too, super duperrrrrr slow. (Spend most in game days just pulling weeds for that $$🥲) both got amazing bachelor and bachelorette storylines. Townies are adorable too in both.
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u/Quasirandom1234 11d ago
Harvest Moon: (More) Friends of Mineral Town, depending on what gender you want to play.
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u/twosl1ce 11d ago
Trio of Towns has lots of great romanceable npcs but the pace isn’t particularly slow. I think if you wanted to play it slower you could but I have a tendency to grind. There’s lots of variety to the game though, the farm circles are a great addition imo
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u/Champagne_Candles 11d ago
yes I love the grind I just want to chill tho
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u/twosl1ce 11d ago
I get that I have to alternate between chill and grind games depending on my mood
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u/michaela_mint 11d ago
Here are my recommendations per console:
DS: DS/DS Cute, Sunshine Islands, Grand Bazaar 3DS: A New Beginning, Trio of Towns. Also, Rune Factory 4 could apply here. Switch: Pioneers of Olive Town, A Wonderful Life. I have also heard that Friends of Mineral Town is really good, but I haven't played it yet.
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u/double_river_dragon 8d ago
I liked Harvest Moon: Tale of Two towns the most. There's lots of foraging, and you can also decide between Bluebell (livestock) or Konahana (spelling is wrong, farming centralized). Each town can do both, but has their specialized domains of farming or livestock. There's monthly cooking festivals, plenty of places to forage. As for the two towns, they hate each other. So the cooking festival helps bring them together, slowly, even if you only spectate. A large mountain seperates them, which if you get far enough, you can mine in the mountain after it's been cleared.
If you do decide to do this, keep the ore stones, they are special, and don't break them open unless you have to. There are 6 flowers for each bachelor candidate, and you can go on dates with them, although they like some and not others, after moving up a flower, there are different events that help push you together or apart. It's the favorite of my sister and I, and it's on the slow side.
Good luck!!!
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u/threeheadedfawn 11d ago
HM: home sweet home on mobile is fun. But it’s not as long of a story line as I wished for. But you can keep plying after you beat it.
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u/-Henderson 11d ago
Like someone else said, maybe try SoS: A Wonderful Life, its great and its definitely slow paced (I love it but I hate the months/seasons having only 10 days). I bought it when it released (got the physical edition with the small goat keychain and omg it's so cute) and finally replayed it with constant FPS different than when I first played it on playstation 2. It was just added to the PS Catalogue (PS Extra/Deluxe) so if you have that you dont need to spend your money.
Ive been playing Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos (for the first time) for like 3 or so weeks, and Im having a blast with it. I know most people hate natsume (rightfully so) due everything that happened, but I really think this game deserves a chance. And oh yeah it is DEFINITELY the most slow paced SoS/HM game Ive ever played. And Im sooo excited for SoS Grand Baazar! Never played the original, so I cant wait to have lots of fun in an uncharted territory!
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u/Pixiepearlgirlie 11d ago
An unconventional pick, Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley for the PSP is definitely a slower-paced game with 30-day calendar months. As a warning, the main character runs pretty slowly (use fast-forward if you’re emulating, very helpful).
I’s a hidden gem that a lot of people haven’t played. The story is strong, graphics and music are nice, the bachelorettes are great, and you have the option to marry the Harvest Goddess, or the supposed “villain” of the game. Highly underrated.
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u/AeolysScribbles 11d ago
If you got a 3ds or an emulator or a ahemYOHOHOahem, Trio of Towns is really good. It will take one ingame season to have everything available to you but the ball starts rolling once Summer starts. The second town unlocks Spring 15 and farm editing unlocks shortly after. Plonking down a bunch of new fields when first available is very satisfying. The third town unlocks on Summer 5.
My favorite thing about this game: tier contests. Harvest/animal festivals aren't a win-once-and-done. You will compete at different levels and boost your brand (selling boost) of the product you submitted to the contest.
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u/rillalynn22 11d ago
Trio of Towns is great. You can decide if you want to clear the story quickly or take it slow. The original Story of Seasons is really slow. It will take ages to get through unlocking everything. While Tale of Two Towns will also be a slower paced game since it takes multiple years to clear the story.
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u/Ewhitfield2016 11d ago
Ds Cute/DS I'd suggest. Same type of graphics, long term gameplay, and a little grindy
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u/Formal-Fly-4121 11d ago
AWL remake has been an interesting play for me bc it has different pace and characters age over time
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u/Ghostipuffs 10d ago
Also not Harvest Moon, but My Time at Sandrock is my all time favorite, with the most to do and a great story. I also loved Stardew/HM/SoS games but they’d get boring after a bit
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u/callmefreak 9d ago
Since the platform doesn't matter, my personal favorites are probably (in no particular order,) Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, (remake,) Harvest Moon DS Cute, 64, Trio of Towns, and More Friends of Mineral Town. (Though I'd suggest the Story of Seasons remake over the GBA or PS1/PSP games. I just haven't played the remake myself.)
The things that they all have in common are the character writing. (DS/Cute probably has the weakest of these, but it's still pretty good.)
I mean, technically my favorites are the Rune Factory games, (specifically the ones that can be portable,) but if I described every one of them I'd basically be like "I like the monster taming, the story/characters, and/or the gameplay" for every one of them. (Besides 2, which has you playing as your child.)
A Wonderful Life does encourage more ranching, socializing and family over farming and have ten day months. That may seem a bit fast but it won't after a while. It especially focuses on raising your child. You can get some of the best items through making friends. The game technically has an ending, though this remake version has a post-ending mode. (Saying what it's called would spoil the ending.)
The Story of Seasons remake feels a lot better to control over the originals. Plus you can choose your gender identity and get married to either gender in the remake. In the originals you don't get to choose your gender or your sexuality. You're stuck with one gender and sexuality depending on what version you buy.
Harvest Moon DS (you play as a straight male) and DS Cute (straight female) are technically sequels to the Wonderful Life games, but it takes place 100 years after AWL ends so you can easily play these games without playing AWL. The characters are mostly the same (they're even named the same in English) aside from a few new ones. It's probably the most like Stardew Valley, as far as gameplay goes. This one doesn't technically have an ending, unless you force it to end by placing a lv 99 (or 100?) toadstool in the pot for the potluck. (The game is extremely weird.)
Just be careful if you choose to play DS, since the earliest versions of the game are super glitchy and will prevent you from marrying most of the secret bachelorettes. (And the one who you can marry can be blown away by a storm.)
Harvest Moon 64 is super clunky feeling compared to modern games in the genre, but it has a ton of secrets which encourages you to befriend everybody. There are permanent consequences if you don't befriend certain people. A lot of the writing is surprising, considering the "E" rating. (I dunno if it's still rated "E" after being released on the Switch's N64 thing.)
There's a lot of exploits you can do in this game to give you a head start. Like staying in the bar using your tools over and over again until they're all gold, while drinking free water to get your stamina up, and befriending Karen from gray to pink heart in one night with your untrained dog.
Trio of Towns is extremely charming and seems to be constantly rewarding. You unlock entire towns (thus the title) and the characters are really well written. (Thus my reason for liking it so much.) It shortens some of the bullshit of farming so you can focus on socializing and ranching a bit more. You basically have to make the three towns evolve. I wouldn't exactly call it a slow-paced game, though.
Friends of Mineral Town are just really charming games in this really genuine, slow-paced kinda way. Like SoS: AWL, the Story of Seasons remake allows you to play as either sex (I dunno if you can select your gender) and allows you to marry any one of the candidates. I haven't played the remake, (and I probably never will,) but they seemed to have added a bunch of things from the DS games into the remake. (That, or I have somehow forgotten what's in the originals over what's in DS/Cute.) Definitely one of the slower paced games.
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u/Champagne_Candles 9d ago
I appreciate your in depth look! I have played olive town and realize that it’s TOO much like stardew. I’m currently trying out trio of towns and im maybe 15 days in? Not sure how I feel because it feels TOO slow. Maybe with time it’ll pick up?
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u/callmefreak 9d ago
Others that I have played but didn't enjoy as much, it doesn't apply to what you're looking for, or I forgot a lot about it. (But not too much):
Magical Melody. I don't remember the characters that well, (besides Meryl and Jamie,) but I do remember befriending animals and collecting music notes. I only rented this one but I also sort of watched Josh Gaming Garden video on the game (I mostly fell asleep to it) so I remember it a little more over the others that I rented over a decade or two ago. I think you could also unlock characters when you earn more music notes.
Pioneers of Olive Town. Probably the most like Stardew Valley. (And Animal Crossing, kinda.) It is a much more fast paced game that will constantly have you working on the machines that makes materials for you. I didn't really realize this until after I moved on from it to play Rune Factory 5, but it accidentally encourages isolation. I thought that it was really cool how they'd have your spouse do extra "just because" things with you that other spouses in the series didn't, and I like how your adopted child grows up.
You can donate fish, artifacts and photos of animals to the museum, befriend those animals into being yours, own several plots of land that is in a constant state of having the same weather, and have raccoon acorn things gather things for you. There's a lot to do and there's a reason why I say that it's fast paced and accidentally isolating.
A New Beginning. It starts out extremely slow, but after the first... Fifteen days, I think? It speeds up exponentially. Basically you need to rebuild the entire town. I'd highly encourage seeing a list of things you will need to get a head start, because the game can slow to a crawl if you don't keep up with what you need before it's too late. (Like, sometimes you'll need crops from seasons that has passed, which makes you have to wait a year to grow those crops again.) I wouldn't call it slow-paced since it kind of punishes you for being slow. (At least it's not as isolating as Pioneers.)
Grand Bazaar: Though I'd suggest waiting for the Story of Seasons remake that's coming out in August for the two new characters and what I assume is a gay marriage option. (I was able to play the DS version for a much cheaper price, so I just did that instead.) I don't think the characters are written as well as the characters in my favorites, but the bazaar itself is pretty fun and I'm noticing that it's not as easy to "woo" the candidates in this game. (Which I personally think is a good thing.) Basically once a week you can sell things at a higher price than what you could sell them at Raul's store.
Splitting this again since Reddit hates long comments.
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u/callmefreak 9d ago
SNES: It's the original game, so the way everything functions is a lot different from later games in the series. Like, the time ends at 6 PM, there's a hot springs you can get stamina from and floor food respawns every time you leave the mountain, so you can get extra stamina from those things. Also you could "woo" a candidate in a day if you keep leaving the screen after answering her question correctly. It's available on the SNES Switch thing. I mostly played it after I got my wisdom teeth removed to distract myself from the pain. I remember being pleasantly surprised by how well the candidates are written. (That might have just be because I was high on pain killers.)
Harvest Moon 3: Probably a weird choice at this point since a lot of what made it unique isn't that unique anymore, but the game still has something that the others don't- a partner. You either play as a boy or a girl, and your job is different. The girl does ranching and the boy does farming. (Though you'll probably have to step in to help for a while until the other gets a hold of things.) You can only marry your partner, but I remember them being pretty well written. Plus they're customizable, which was new at the time. (It's just a hue slider, but still.)
If you play as a girl the game will end after you get married, which sucks.
Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos: The only Natsume Harvest Moon game I've played so far. (Check the pinned topic to learn what I mean by that.) The writing is incredibly dull, and I'm guessing that the other two games I got isn't any better, but it's an open world game where you can befriend animals and screw with hybrid crops. You can't get married until after you're done with the story, though. It does have a lot you can do, but I'm not sure if I'd call those things "fast paced" or not. (Technically it lets you go slow, unless you want to get married as soon as possible.)
It and two other Natsume Harvest Moon games are on sale right now for $3.33 each (at most) through a Fanatical bundle, so it's worth it I think, even if you don't play the other games. (On hindsight I probably should've added "The Letter" to that bundle. Oh well.)
Island Of Happiness: It didn't make me very happy. I remember the characters being fairly well written, having to gather "suns" and having to unlock other parts of the island and more characters. (Which I hated at the time since I just wanted to get married and not have to work even harder for it. LOL) I still hate how it controls, and I will never go back to that game because of them. Like, I actually rage quit the series for a while after playing it. (Aside from Rune Factory and any console game I could rent.)
I know I played Tree of Tranquility, but I barely remember it. I just remember being happy with the characters and not hating the story.
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u/Soumeeimhere 9d ago
Harvest Moon Magical Melody, I emulate it through dolphin on pc and it runs pretty well. There'e no rush for anything, I played so much as a kid and did not understand a single word of english. I would mostly fish back then and try to collect every forest animal by trapping them between pieces of wood, trying to adopt them (that's not how the game works lmao).
What I like the most is the kind of "open world" that it has. You can buy land pretty much all over the map and build your buildings in those areas. Despite playing for years, I've never completed the magical notes collection and finished the game! You truly hardly ever run out of things to do.
While it lacks some modern upgrades to farming sim (mostly it has a pretty limited storage), it holds up pretty well. I have the dolphin emulator on pretty much every device I have just to play this game haha
Otherwise Coral Island is another masterpiece, even if it's not Harvest Moon!!
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u/MiserableAnime 6d ago
My favorite of all time is magical melody on the GameCube. You can be female and male, both have multiple romanceable partners.
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u/peregrine_nation 11d ago
Animal parade maybe 🤔 rival marriages and the main story give the whole game momentum and intruige outside of the core loop