Are any of you fans of the older Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games?

I played and enjoyed the original Harvest Moon for SNES. I really enjoyed it. It was really good for the time. Perhaps the only simulation that I could really get into.

But the problems I had with the succeeding games were that they were either too simelar to the original, or different in ways that I found very annoying. They also had one fatal flaw: they were not being played in emulators with a fast forward key to soften the annoying repetitive animation cycles. Worse, I grew up. And I realized that I was gay. Which meant that romances, one of the big appeals of the game, basically became an anti-feature because they were only straight.

Stardew Valley in theory fixes all of my problems but I found the art style and large scope to be rather unappealing, personally. But more than anything it just came about too late. I lost patience for that kind of gameplay probably a decade before it came out.

I wish I liked it. I tried out the N64 and GCN entries, but didn’t really get into them. I then tried Friends of Mineral Town on the GBA and got into it some more, but there are two things that I hate about it (both fixed by Stardew Valley, which I played a ton):

1. The game doesn’t “explain” itself at all, so you just go about learning how to do things on your own, never sure if you’re doing them the right way, and you end up missing a lot of critical elements, especially with regards to the story. Some of those are permanently lost. In SV, the years are almost entirely a repeating cycle, and there is almost nothing that you can miss out in perpetuity. If you missed something in one year, you can always prepare for it in the next (and the game has an excellent Wiki).
2. A day lasts like 15 minutes. Somehow, you can never get anything done. I don’t know how, but SV valley is designed in a way that makes it feel like you’re accomplishing more on a daily basis. And since there isn’t any rush to get anything done before a certain date, you kind of just prioritize whatever part of the game you’re focusing on at the moment. It makes it more enjoyable. FoMT made me anxious. There are a lot of interesting parts to the game, but I always felt that I couldn’t relax.

Eric Barone, a.k.a. ConcernedApe, the developer of Stardew Valley created Stardew Valley because he was unsatisfied with the Harvest Moon series:

When I asked Barone about his inspiration for the game, he cited Harvest Moon as a game he played growing up, mentioning that the “unique gameplay and immersive atmosphere left a lasting impression” on him. However, he also felt the numbing dissatisfaction that many gamers, such as myself, faced after each subsequent Harvest Moon title was released. "I felt like the series had gotten progressively worse after Harvest Moon: Back to Nature," Barone said. "I searched all over the Internet for a fan-made alternative but never found anything satisfying. So when I set out to make a game of my own, I decided to make the Harvest Moon-esque game I had always longed for."

(Source: The Cornell Daily Sun)

I adore Stardew Valley. It's one of my favourite games of all time. But I found it challenging and lonely at first. I found it hard to persist playing. Playing it multiplayer with my brother unlocked the fun for me.

I tried playing Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town on the Switch (I guess it's a re-make of a Game Boy Advance game?) because I love Stardew Valley and because I'd heard people express love for the Harvest Moon games. It really disappointed me and I regretted buying it. I could really see how the Harvest Moon games were a blueprint for Stardew Valley that ConcernedApe followed closely, and I could see how ConcernedApe improved so much on Friends of Mineral Town in so many different ways.

I would love to try a game or two that is similar enough to Stardew Valley that it captures some of what makes Stardew Valley fun but that is different enough that it doesn't just feel like a rehashing or imitation of Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon. I've played a bunch of different survivalcraft games, "cozy" games, farming sims, business sims, etc. and Stardew Valley still stands out as a unique, special game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons also shines bright, but what it's missing for me that it is so gentle and kid-friendly that it lacks the punishing grind that I crave from Stardew Valley.

Ooh, me! My first one was Another Wonderful Life for GameCube, and I fell in love with the series. I gradually stopped playing though as the series changed. They feel like they're going for more specific aesthetics (even outside of games built around it like Trio of Towns or Twin Villages) rather than a random, ordinary rural town. Like, the first game to get the "Stories of Seasons" title felt like it was going for an almost Victorian aesthetic...?

I haven't touched the most recent titles. It feels like most of them have lost their charm. I did buy the remakes of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life though. I didn't play Mineral Town much, but one thing that struck me was how out of place the new marriage candidate Jennifer felt. It just reminded me of how much the franchise has diverged from its original tone. (Also, why did they give her Karen's iconic bangs and then totally change Karen's hair to have that boring fringe?)

I do like the remake of A Wonderful Life though. Might be the nostalgia glasses, but it feels chill and laid back. I think they kept close to the original designs (more than Mineral Town) and don't mind the heavier redesigns for the bachelors since... Well honestly, the selection was always awful. I also never unlocked Tartan in the original, so it's fun to finally grow hybrids and see how wild the plants are!!

Outside of that, I do try a bunch of indie games but none have quite captured the charm of the earlier games. For me, the main appeal has always been the NPCs and community, and it feels like not many games seem to put that level of care into the characters these days. They create big and interesting casts, but they feel just a bit lacking and sort of... There. Stardew is so far the closest.

I was a huge fan of the series at one point. A friend sent me a rom for the original SNES version and I was immediately hooked. After that I played HM64, Friends of Mineral Town, and A Wonderful Life.

I was so into it that I started writing Harvest Moon FAQs for GameFAQs. I spent countless hours of my teen years writing guides for FoMT and HM64. My FoMT guide is still apparently the top guide for the game, which is wild since I know it has a few factual mistakes in it and a ton of typos, cringey jokes, and is clearly written by an awkward teenager. And I just checked and my first version of the guide is over 20 years old at this point, which is absolutely wild. Insert gif of Matt Damon turning into an old man here.

But yeah, sadly once Stardew Valley came out I basically lost all interest in the series. I sometimes get the itch to play FoMT again, but I don't know what the point would be. Stardew basically perfected the formula and with the QoL features it has that FoMT lacks, I don't really see a need to return to HM.

My first was "Harvest Moon GB" on my Game Boy Pocket. That's also the only one I "beat." I remember going hard on that game, especially during family vacations. These were often several hours long car rides, so I spent a lot of time staring at that tiny screen, trying to efficiently water my crops and harvest everything and sell it all.

The only other one I tried was "Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley" on the PSP. But I couldn't get into it. I wanted to, but just wasn't happening. Haven't tried another HM since.

I have played a bit of Stardew Valley, but that was several years ago now. But only like 6hrs. I do want to go back at some point, but I haven't had that itch to do so. And judging from my history with these farming games, probably gonna be awhile longer. I know some people play Stardew leisurely and stress-free, but that's not how I play. I tend to go for efficiency and figuring out the right "schedule," which can get tedious. So HM- and SV-type games aren't necessarily relaxing games for me.

I played tons of Harvest Moon on the SNES and jumped right into Stardew Valley when it released and loved it. I haven't played as much after all the updates and am starting to find it a bit confusing now late game but I still have fun with it multiplayer now and then.

I recently played Roots of Pacha and while it follows the same game loop it's slightly more linear and easier to follow. Fishing is far more relaxing, and the cave exploration is just mazes and puzzles instead of frustrating button mashing. Overall a slightly more casual game but still tons of fun to progress in.

I played the GBA game, More Freinds of Mineral Town and the DS one Two Towns.
I really liked them as a teenager, and like everyone else I struggled to find something that fit the gap as I got older.
But I dunno, I must get something different out the genre than most people because I hate Stardew. And I mean I went into that game at least 3 or 4 times with good intentions to try and play it, first vanilla then with mods to try and make it more appealing but I can't stand it.
Everything about it feels wrong. The art style, the GUI, the pacing, the progression, the scale, the combat in the mines. I know I'm the only one, I wish I liked it! I've watched playthoughs of it instead lol.

Closed I found to this kinds cosy game was something like cities skylines or animal crossing, but even then it's not the same itch at the farming life sim.

My friends and I used to play Souce engine mods. Both Source 1 and 2. We're talking Sven Coop and Obsidian Conflict and if anyone here played them I would be shocked.
They were standalone mods for Souce that were originally made to let you play through the main games coop together, but quickly got a decent map maker scene for custom maps.
The reason I brought it up is, we used to play on a series of maps called harvest, paysan, mushroom that kinda thing that was pretty much the farming and mining from the Harvest Moon games but in 3d and with your friends. And it slapped. The only problem was you lost your progress every time you stopped playing lol. So we'd play from scratch, every single time and try to optimise how to make money to try to "win" the map.
It was a lot of fun! But there's nothing like it, those maps on those mods are like a relic of the past.

My first Harvest Moon was Friends of Mineral Town for the GBA, and it was introduced to me by a friend in elementary school. I remember a LOT of savescumming for fishing, marrying Karen because I thought she was the prettiest (no idea what her personality was like or what she did for a living; I was a simple child), and really liking the music. The Switch remake is interesting because I can't believe how much I remember from 2004, and how dated the game's original mechanics are.

I didn't put as much time into A Wonderful Life, because sneaking some time into a GBA game as a kid was easier than turning on the PS2. I was distraught when I got to winter of the first year and learned that grass doesn't grow in winter, and also your cow stops giving milk around that time and needs to be impregnated to be a cash source again. No money to impregnate the cow, and no money to buy feed since I didn't have a stockpile from earlier in the year... yep, it was a cruel restart. I sort of miss that unforgiving nature from newer SoS titles though.

I don't think I've really loved any SoS title as much (even Trio of Towns and that one gets a lot of praise). I've played all of them though, from anywhere between 20 hours to 100+. They can be a fun time sink but I haven't really been in love with the villagers since A Wonderful Life... though as I type this I realize my real favorite "Harvest Moon" game is actually Rune Factory 4...

I was vaguely aware of it and bought it for my gameboy color right before a long family vacation with a lot of driving.

The Gameboy version isn't a bad game or anything, but it's pretty cut down from the N64 or even the SNES version. So I ended up being pretty confused when I was trying to find all the cool stuff I heard was supposed to be in it.