MOONTRIPS
2005
great game. lots of fun. normal difficulty was kicking my ass, so I switched it to easy... and honestly it was too easy. still, anything to finally complete all the story stuff. I'll probably go back to it at some point for side stuff too. wish the fan translation had been completed, but it's enough for the game to be playable, so it's not worth complaining about.
2014
I have officially decided to drop this game because "completion" is a terrible, terrible grind I wouldn't wish on anyone. this game has a lot of cool stuff and offers some reasons to keep playing if you hate that games like this often feel like you're done with 'em once you've chosen someone to marry... but it's all so incredibly grindy and it takes multiple years in the game to unlock the different farm animals. there is a very large variety of stuff to grow... but annoyingly, you cannot grow it all on your own farm. everything grows faster on the special fields, this makes a difference with the stuff that takes more time, like wheat. and rice, lotus roots, and wasabi have to be grown in the paddy. sure you don't really need to grow them, but still! it's still goofy that you can't unless you get the special field to do it!
ultimately, if you don't mind procedural unlocks and like to play these games for a very long time, this one will be great for you.
it's not a bad game at all, but not easily recommended.
ultimately, if you don't mind procedural unlocks and like to play these games for a very long time, this one will be great for you.
it's not a bad game at all, but not easily recommended.
this shit was too fucking long!!! genuinely!!! I... mostly enjoyed my time. I personally found this duology to be really dark in all ways... sure it gets goofy sometimes, but I found myself feeling anxious quite often, especially through most of Resolve. I get that due to the theming, the music has a certain tone, and that really affected things for me. there is happy music, but there's not really any.. goofy tunes like the original trilogy and Apollo Justice have. I'm glad to finally have this finished after so long. overall there's a good immersive story, but I do feel it goes quite long, especially the final case of Resolve. the last trial bit took me about 2 hours, and I was so tired at the end.
2016
!!!spoilers for perfection at the very end of this review!!!
nice comfy farm game. recommended overall, though not entirely to Harvest Moon fans. while it's obviously inspired, and offers a deeper experience with both gameplay and characters, that's exactly why I couldn't entirely recommend it to Harvest Moon fans. it depends on what Harvest Moon game(s) they've played and what they like about Harvest Moon.
I finally finished my perfection playthrough. perfection is a stupid grind that I cannot recommend people take on because it's just a lot of work, genuinely. the game loses steam well before you complete perfection goals, unless you're min-maxing to the extreme. I hate min-maxing. the money grind in particular was hell. 14 million is actively required for perfection.
I've spent a lot of time with base SDV and as of completing my perfection run, I cannot see myself revisiting the game... at least not without one of those big expansion mods. I do like how there's enough different things that you can mostly play the game without animals, or lean heavily on animals if you like. and so on. flowers are a viable thing compared to their existence in Harvest Moon titles. mods can increase their profitability. the ability to have multiple barns and coops is very cool. Story of Seasons 3DS has that too, but I was not familiar with that game before I first played SDV. honestly, checking out SoS 3DS was interesting, because it has several things SDV has.
I am not the biggest fan of how Serious and Real World-y it is sometimes... it doesn't work very well in every case. the dialogue expansion mod I used made that aspect even worse, and so I removed it.
Ginger Island is an addition to the game I am permanently mixed on. for how much time the game wants you to spend there, there's honestly not enough to make you want to do so. the farm space it adds is nifty if you're playing vanilla. but if you play this game on PC, you can play with mods that make the farms have more tillable land, or make the greenhouse bigger. which, I did, so the island was largely useless in that way. the aspects of Ginger Island that could be considered problematic have been covered plenty by others so I won't be doing that here, but I do fully agree with what I've personally read.
Stardew Valley's magical and fantastical elements are so barely present outside of when they can't be(restoring the community center and all). it's a bit disappointing there's this whole wizard character but he's so shut off from you and the rest of the explorable valley... many Harvest Moon games have a really lively and fun Harvest Goddess character, a couple in which she's really active. while there are wizard and witch characters in several Harvest Moon games... usually just a witch character, really. there's a wizard in the Wii titles. maybe others, idk. anyway, the wizard in Stardew very clearly has a close association to magical beings of many sorts, and is therefore much more an analogue to the Harvest Goddess, imo. and it's a shame more isn't done with that.
Mr. Qi could also be considered an analogue to the Harvest Goddess, he's very otherworldly-looking. but nothing of interest is done with him, either. he appears at the end of the perfection cutscene with your grandpa, though, which is... something.
nice comfy farm game. recommended overall, though not entirely to Harvest Moon fans. while it's obviously inspired, and offers a deeper experience with both gameplay and characters, that's exactly why I couldn't entirely recommend it to Harvest Moon fans. it depends on what Harvest Moon game(s) they've played and what they like about Harvest Moon.
I finally finished my perfection playthrough. perfection is a stupid grind that I cannot recommend people take on because it's just a lot of work, genuinely. the game loses steam well before you complete perfection goals, unless you're min-maxing to the extreme. I hate min-maxing. the money grind in particular was hell. 14 million is actively required for perfection.
I've spent a lot of time with base SDV and as of completing my perfection run, I cannot see myself revisiting the game... at least not without one of those big expansion mods. I do like how there's enough different things that you can mostly play the game without animals, or lean heavily on animals if you like. and so on. flowers are a viable thing compared to their existence in Harvest Moon titles. mods can increase their profitability. the ability to have multiple barns and coops is very cool. Story of Seasons 3DS has that too, but I was not familiar with that game before I first played SDV. honestly, checking out SoS 3DS was interesting, because it has several things SDV has.
I am not the biggest fan of how Serious and Real World-y it is sometimes... it doesn't work very well in every case. the dialogue expansion mod I used made that aspect even worse, and so I removed it.
Ginger Island is an addition to the game I am permanently mixed on. for how much time the game wants you to spend there, there's honestly not enough to make you want to do so. the farm space it adds is nifty if you're playing vanilla. but if you play this game on PC, you can play with mods that make the farms have more tillable land, or make the greenhouse bigger. which, I did, so the island was largely useless in that way. the aspects of Ginger Island that could be considered problematic have been covered plenty by others so I won't be doing that here, but I do fully agree with what I've personally read.
Stardew Valley's magical and fantastical elements are so barely present outside of when they can't be(restoring the community center and all). it's a bit disappointing there's this whole wizard character but he's so shut off from you and the rest of the explorable valley... many Harvest Moon games have a really lively and fun Harvest Goddess character, a couple in which she's really active. while there are wizard and witch characters in several Harvest Moon games... usually just a witch character, really. there's a wizard in the Wii titles. maybe others, idk. anyway, the wizard in Stardew very clearly has a close association to magical beings of many sorts, and is therefore much more an analogue to the Harvest Goddess, imo. and it's a shame more isn't done with that.
Mr. Qi could also be considered an analogue to the Harvest Goddess, he's very otherworldly-looking. but nothing of interest is done with him, either. he appears at the end of the perfection cutscene with your grandpa, though, which is... something.
I played through and got all 100 notes, something I've wanted to do for years. the idea is appealing, completing the task is a grind. not really recommended, unless you love the game as much as I do. I've played it a number of times. it's my personal favorite Harvest Moon game. biggest flaw imo is a lack of item stacking.